Taboo and Descent in the Articulation of Gender Relations: An Eastern Indonesian Case

In the Lio region of Flores Island patrilineal groups coexist with taboos on animals and plants inherited through females, a combination previously interpreted as reflecting a system of double unilineal descent. Drawing on ethnography from the Lio district of Mego, maternal taboos are shown to accompany similar prohibitions conceived as a property of patriclans, most of which, however, are incumbent not on male clansmen but on their wives. As is further demonstrated, both sorts of taboo reflect ideas about female bodies and blood, particularly as women and their children are transformed through marriage into members of patrilineal groups dominated by men. Also discussed is whether variability in the way taboos are currently inherited in Mego may reflect recent social change, and how matrilineally inherited Lio prohibitions can be seen as an instance of complementary female and male principles equally operative in the social life of other eastern Indonesian societies.     

Garibaldi and parliamentary democracy

Abstract

The extraordinary nature of Garibaldi's life is reflected in his involvement in parliamentary activities across a number of countries (Uruguay, Kingdom of Sardinia, Roman Republic, Kingdom of Italy, French Republic). After the national unification, Parliament became a kind of great sounding board in Garibaldi's strategy thanks in part to the fact that in the Chamber he could count on a group of followers who were always ready to support any issue vaguely to do with memories of the Risorgimento or irredentist aspirations. His failure to steer the new state in the desired direction through the legislative process certainly influenced Garibaldi's negative opinion of parliamentary work. Garibaldi could not however recognize as an expression of popular sovereignty a parliament in whose election only 2 per cent of the population were allowed to participate. His main political battle was the fight for universal suffrage which was intended to enfranchise all Italians, thus turning subjects into citizens and finally making parliamentary institutions nationally representative and democratically legitimate.     

Indonesian quarter-rudder mountings

Ten quarter-rudder arrangements found in Indonesia are described and illustrated with evidence for an 11th arrangement. Some types have been used on vessels of over 100 tons, while others occur on offshore fishing craft and outrigger canoes. The ethno-archaeological evidence gathered in the field is used as a basis for consideration of quarter-rudders used in the Classical and Medieval Mediterranean.     

Constitutional democracy and civic nationalism

ABSTRACT. This article seeks to bring to the fore the intrinsic link between constitutional democracy and the civic nation, relying on Jürgen Habermas's theory of democracy. This theoretical framework will serve as the basis for a communicative understanding of civic nationalism, underscoring the notable role played by language. Attention will be given to the normative dimension that allows for the legitimisation of national divisions of a civic space bound by universal rights. The prime motivation behind this article is thus political‐philosophical, although empirical examples, drawn particularly from the French revolutionary discourse, will be brought to bear. And since a civic nation construed in communicative terms has necessary linguistic implications, cases of multilingual and multinational states will be examined.     

Legitimacy and democracy in Fiji

Kenneth Bain. Treason at 10: Fiji at the Crossroads. Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989. xvi + 236 pp. $NZ34.95.

T.P. Bayliss‐Smith, Richard Bedford, Harold Brookfield and Marc Latham. Islands, Islanders and the World: the Colonial and Post‐colonial Experience of Eastern Fiji. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. xvii + 323 pp. $102.00.

Eddie Dean and Stan Ritova. Rabuka: No Other Way. Moorebank: Doubleday, 1988. 174 pp. $12.95.

Brij V. Lal. Power and Prejudice: The Making of the Fiji Coup. Wellington: New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1988. viii + 204 pp. $NZ10.00.

Satendra Prasad (ed.) Coup and Crisis: Fiji — A Year Later. North Carlton: Arena Publications, 1988. 119 pp. $9.95.

Robert T. Robertson and Akosita Tamanisau. Fiji: Shattered Coups. Leichardt: Pluto Press, 1988. xviii + 198 pp. $11.95

Deryck Scarr. Fiji: The Politics of illusions: The Military Coups in Fiji. Kensington: New South Wales University Press, 1988. xvii + 161 pp. No price given.     

Europe's democracy trilemma

A truly democratic European Union seems to have become the graal of European politics, the project's redemptive promise and unreachable horizon. Much has been written about the gap between promise and performance and about the obstacles to EU democratization. Here, we suggest that one way to apprehend the ‘democratic deficit’ debate as it has evolved in the wake of the euro crisis is to think of it as a ‘democratic trilemma’. We argue that European legitimacy requires responses in different realms: first, an acknowledgement of Europe's ‘transnational democratic interdependence’; second, an anchoring of the functionalist European superstructure in ‘national democratic legitimacy’; and third, a grounding of both European and national power in ‘local democratic legitimacy’. While the very notion of trilemma points to the tensions that arise in trying to satisfy these requisites simultaneously, we nevertheless need to look for ways of alleviating the trilemma rather than coming up with democratic magic bullets in a single one of these realms. While our main goal is to reframe and open up the debate around the key concepts of empowerment, mutual recognition and flexibility, we also provide examples of what this may mean.     

Athens: Citizenship and democracy

The Origins of Citizenship in Ancient Athens. By Philip Brook Manville (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), xiv + 265 pp., $17.95/£14.95 paper.

Fathers and Sons in Athens: Ideology and Society in the Era of the Peloponnesian War. By Barry S. Strauss (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), xv + 283 pp., $16.95/ £12.95 paper.