Blog Archive

Αλέξανδρος Γ. Σφακιανάκης

Saturday, June 8, 2019

Dialectical Anthropology

Gender and memory in the Middle East: on transgenerational transmission and agency


Colonial incarceration: Palestinians on permanent lock down


Lullabies and the memory of pain: Armenian women's remembrance of the past in Turkey


May I be a sacrifice for my grandchildren—transgenerational transmission and women's narratives of the Yezidi ferman

Abstract

This paper addresses the (post)-memories of the generations of offspring of survivors of the genocidal processes in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. About 12,000 Yezidis managed to flee to Armenia and establish a diasporic community. Based on ethnographic fieldwork within this community, including interviews with members of subsequent generations, this article focuses on the narratives and experiences of women as well as gender-specific violence. The gathered empirical data makes it possible to elaborate on the hardly documented history, on its lasting effects, and on gender-specific differences in these narrations. Despite certain politics of silencing, memories of genocidal persecution were passed down from one generation to the next. The most recent case of genocidal persecution of Yezidis in Shingal (Iraq) 2014 affected the very foundations of the Yezidi community both in Armenia and the transnation—and at the same time revived their joint remembrance of the fate of their ancestors who had once sought refuge in Armenia.



Radical memories: an interview with John H. Moore and documents from a communist anthropologist's past

Abstract

Though American anthropologists have long engaged in radical political activities, there remains a poorly documented history of American Marxist anthropologists' engagements with national and global socialist and communist political parties. This article draws on an interview with American anthropologist John Moore, as well as material from Moore's FBI file, recently released under the Freedom of Information Act, with records from a 1960s Military Intelligence investigation of Moore to document and explore Moore's involvement in communist and socialist organizations from the 1960s to the 1990s. Moore's reflections on his political activities highlight a continuity.



35 years later, the Grenadian Revolution


A collective memory in production: gender politics of 1938 in Turkey


Assessing temporary foreign worker programs through the prism of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program: can they be reformed or should they be eliminated?

Abstract

This article assesses Temporary Foreign Worker Programs (TFWPs) through the prism of Canada's Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program (SAWP), often represented as a model because of the many rights granted workers and the multiple forms of protection put in place to protect those rights. A careful study of the extant anthropological and sociological literatures, including the author's work, reveal the immense power that growers wield over temporary foreign workers from Mexico and various English-speaking Caribbean nations. Two consequences of this power have been rises in productivity and the expansion of the SAWP, to the point that it dominates key sectors of Canadian agriculture. Workers are either prevented from joining unions or punished, via blacklisting in some cases, for forming local bargaining units. The author suggests that all such programs be dismantled. At the least, the question of the future of TFWPs merits open and frank discussion.



Migration or immigration? Commentary on Leigh Binford's article

Abstract

In this commentary of Leigh Binford's article, proposing the elimination of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), I will first offer a brief overview of why advanced capitalist countries like Canada must rely on migrant or immigrant workers to sustain economic growth. I will then sum up Binford's main arguments and analysis. Finally, I will address the question of elimination and replacement of the SAWP based on what is happening on the ground in Canada in 2019. Essentially, what migrant workers' support groups are demanding is not elimination but a radical reform of all temporary foreign worker programs (TFWP): Granting permanent residency upon arrival. No longer "migrant" workers but new "immigrants," they would be placed on a truly level playing field with the rest of the labor force.



Extreme wage labor

Abstract

This brief piece is a response to Lee Binford's work on the Canadian guestworker program.



Alexandros Sfakianakis
Anapafseos 5 . Agios Nikolaos
Crete.Greece.72100
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