Sexual trafficking in Nepal: constructing citizenship and livelihoods

Sexual trafficking is a priority issue for many governments and has increasingly become a focus for debate within the academy. Despite this, many aspects of sexual trafficking remain poorly understood. In this article we focus on an area that has received scant attention in the literature: the situation of trafficked women when they return home and, specifically, the livelihood opportunities available to them as they experience differing notions of citizenship. In addition to the fact that there has been very little attempt to document poverty alleviation strategies post-trafficking, within the mainstream development literature little attention has also been given to questions of sexuality and how they relate to development and poverty reduction strategies. The aim of this article, therefore, is to seek to highlight a new research agenda and to develop an interdisciplinary framework to understand what we have termed ‘the sexual politics of poverty’. Bringing together distinct literatures on sexual citizenship and sustainable livelihoods we develop our analysis of these themes through a focus on the livelihood opportunities and strategies of returnee trafficked women in South Asia, drawing on policy analysis at national and regional levels and qualitative research carried out in Nepal. In particular, the Nepal case study highlights problems with skills training for returnee women and examines the relationship between marriage and sustainable livelihood opportunities.     

Women in parliaments in the Pacific region

The island states of the Pacific region are at the bottom of the international league table for the representation of women in parliament. Despite considerable efforts by international agencies and donor governments and by women of the region, progress on increasing representation is extraordinarily slow. Three major explanations for these low levels of representation can be identified. The most common explanation relates to cultural beliefs, while a second account locates the problem in women's socio-economic status. The third explanation argues that there are obstacles for women in the electoral and parliamentary institutions that warrant the introduction of legislated minimum representation of women. Each of these explanations contributes value to our understanding but each also has significant deficiencies, which are identified in the article.

就议会的妇女代表性而论,太平洋地区的岛屿国家可谓国际圆桌会议的垫底。尽管有国际机构和捐助国以及该地区女性的坚持不懈,提高妇女代表性的进展格外缓慢。对于这种低水平的代表性可以有三种解释。最常见的解释与文化观念有关,第二种强调妇女的社会经济地位。第三种解释认为,选举以及议会体制中存在一些障碍,使得妇女的代表性在立法上被最小化。三种解释都有助于我们对问题的理解,但它们又都存在着本文所指出的重要缺陷。     

Production Activities in the Household Economies of Plantation Slaves: Barbados and Martinique,Mid-1600s to Mid-1800s

Formerly British and French colonies, the eastern Caribbean islands of Barbados and Martinique were major players in the early development of European overseas empires dependent on African slave labor and the large-scale production of sugar. Utilizing documentary and archaeological data we discuss and compare the independent production activities or household economies of plantation slaves on these two islands. The household economy was one of the more prominent aspects of plantation slave life throughout the Caribbean, and in this paper we examine the multiple adaptive production strategies slaves employed to ameliorate the poverty of their material and economic lives.     

The informal diplomacy of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue

After 20 years, the Australian American Leadership Dialogue has acquired enviable access to political leaders in the foreign policy establishments of both countries. The influence of the Dialogue is at earlier consensus-building stages of decision making. Its importance has been in ‘relationship maintenance’ of the bilateral alliance which it has pursued through processes of informal diplomacy. The Dialogue now faces its own challenges of organisational renewal and relevance in the wider ‘interpretative community’ of Australian think tanks, university policy institutes and opinion-formers.     

The Meaning Of Pepe: God's Law and The Western Arrernte

Using both ethnography and textual material, this paper describes the way in which Western Arrernte people in central Australia interpreted the Christianity brought to them by Lutheran missionaries. The mission became an isolated domestic economy, a context that allowed the Arrernte to interpret its teachings in terms of a "law." This Christian law was often referred to as pepe, the Western Arrernte word for "paper." It involved a particular rendering of literacy and rested on a highly localized order. These conditions of mission Christianity would change with the coming of land rights and a cash economy.     

On the antiquity of leprosy in western Micronesia

The presence of leprosy in China is documented to 190 BC , and possibly earlier.; It is believed to have spread from China to Japan. Its presence in Oceania has heretofore been documented only since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries AD, and has been attributed to migration of people from China into the Pacific subsequent to western contact and trans-Pacific trade. In the osteological analysis of 700 skeletons from pre-Spanish archaeological contexts on the islands of Guam and Saipan in western Micronesia, at least six cases of leprosy have been discovered. Radiocarbon dating places two of these in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries AD, one in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, and one in the seventh to eleventh centuries. This clearly indicates that the introduction of leprosy pre-dates western contact and suggests possible contact with, or immigration from, China or Japan.     

Miniature shell and bone 'hilts' or 'pulleys' from Sharm

Thirteen unusual shell and bone objects of contentious function are amongst the small finds from tomb I at Sharm. An inventory of the objects is provided after a discussion of the potential use of the objects is presented.