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Speaking to power: Gender, politics, and discourse in the context of United States military priorities in Belau, western Micronesia
Abstract
The Micronesian island group of Belau, long-identified by the United States as an important strategic area, became part of a United Nations trusteeship administered by the U.S. immediately after World War II. Although the United States promised to promote self-government within the trusteeship, U.S. officials have consistently designed and implemented policies with the intention of maintaining permanent access to Belau's land, reefs, and waters far military purposes. Women have emerged as major actors in debates surrounding Belau's political status and as opponents of U.S. military proposals in national and international arenas. Drawing from nearly two years of field research, 1987-1989, that concentrated largely on the experiences of two women and their family history, extensive recorded conversations provide key texts for examining gender and politics at the intersection of historical patterns of ranked matrilineal clan relations, newly-instituted electoral politics, and consideration of U.S. military proposals. By focusing on the structure and negotiations of clan relations, on extensive exchange events among relatives, and on national political activities, I investigate how men and women have worked together in various political arenas and examine how categories of "women" and "politics" in Belau have been constructed in specific socio-cultural and historical contexts. Feminist and poststructural conceptions of power have been central in choices to emphasize specific dialogues and particular interactions in this interpretive, discourse-centered ethnography. I explore how power circulates in local arenas, emphasize the multiplicity of discourses and subjectivities operating at any given time, and contextualize the confrontations through which this ethnography has been produced. This ethnographic experiment, therefore, addresses relations of power not only in content but also in the process of the research and writing itself.
Subject Area
Cultural anthropology|Asian History|History
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Lynn Bernadine, "Speaking to power: Gender, politics, and discourse in the context of United States military priorities in Belau, western Micronesia" (1993). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9329682.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9329682