Véronique Mottier

Mots-clés: Sexuality ˇ Gender ˇ Race ˇ Power ˇ Feminism

This article proposes to treat sexuality as a cultural object, analysing the sexual meanings produced by specific discourses on sexuality and gender power. More precisely, it focuses on the ways in which sexual liberation theorists have theorised sexuality as a site of liberation from capitalist power relations and it explores feminist critiques of sexual liberation discourse, drawing out the ways in which feminist debates around sexuality have recast sexuality as a crucial site of gender power.

Arnaud Esquerre

Mots-clés: Pouvoir ˇ Psychisme ˇ Manipulation mentale ˇ Secte

When the psyche becomes the object of power
Since the 1970s a new war against cults has emerged in France, this time based on the notion of Ťmanipulation mentaleť and totalitarianism and not on religious grounds. When people are recruited by a cult, critics consider that their consent is obtained by Ťmanipulation mentaleť. After the year 2000, this fight, supported by associations for the defence of victims and by the government, led to the recognition of a new criminal offence: psychological subjection. another consequence of the introduction of the concept Ťmanipulation mentaleť was the struggle between professions within the field of psychology to regulate the use of the title Ťpsychotherapistť. The discussions linked to brainwashing, cults and psychotherapy led to new terminology to describe how power is exerted over someone: Ťpsycho-powerť, for which the target is the psyche of the human being, emerged as a new interpretive concept.

Florence Graezer Bideau

Mots-clés: Culture populaire ˇ Yangge ˇ Instrumentalisation ˇ Pouvoir ˇ Chine

Instrumentalising popular culture: The yangge dance and the Chinese authorities
This article analyses how Chinese authorities instrumentalise popular culture with the aim of constructing a policy for governing national cultural practices. This instrumentalisation will be illustrated by the yangge dance, a popular traditional practice among the Chinese masses that has attracted the interest of the ruling elites several times within twentieth century China, notably by serving as a cornerstone for the construction of Maoist cultural policy. A historical and contextualised interpretation of the yangge dance illustrated by case studies taken from fieldwork carried out in Beijing and Shaanxi will retrace the application of this political project and the instrumentalisation of culture as an intentional strategy. the paper demonstrates how a secular ritual is taken over and transformed into a tool of political propaganda, creating a national model of entertainment; it also shows, however, how dancers are reappropriating some aspects of this practice with the emergence of a civil society.

Sabrina Beeler Stücklin

Mots-clés: Niger-Delta in Mali ˇ Ressourcen Management ˇ Institutioneller Wandel ˇ Konflikt Management

Resource degradation and conflict. Power relations and institutional change in the interior Niger delta of Mali
A new trend among international organizations and NGOs is to claim credit for conferring central roles to traditional chiefs in development projects concerned with natural resource management. Oblivious to the complex power relations and internal dynamics at work on the local level, these organizations assume that the reinforcement of traditional systems is the solution to problems such as resource degradation and conflict. this current thinking can, however, result in a wide variety of problems. Similar issues may result from decentralization. Decentralization can also lead to new concentrations of power in a minority. This in turn may reinforce social and economic differences within communities and may create imbalances in the long-term and, therefore, new potential for conflict.

Yazid Ben Hounet

Mots-clés: Tribu ˇ Pouvoir ˇ Hiérarchie ˇ Shaykh ˇ Émir ˇ Algérie ˇ Monde arabe

Shaykh and emir. Power relationships and hierarchical relationships in tribal areas
The aim of this paper is to discuss the past and actual forms of Ťpowerť and Ťpower relationshipsť of the shaykh in comparison with those of the chief (emir). This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of Ťpower relationshipsť by showing how these differ from the hierarchical relationships described by Louis Dumont (1966). After having delimited the political attributes of the shaykh, I will discuss the dynamics of power relationships from the following perspectives: a) How does one pass from a hierarchical relationship to a Ťrealť power relationship? In other words, how does the power of the chief (emir) succeed the authority of the shaykh?; b) What are the dynamics of power relationships in tribal areas in the present day context? Or, more specifically, who is able to constrain or to subordinate who in the so called Ťtribal areasť nowadays?

Sabine Kradolfer

Mots-clés: Mapuche (Argentine) ˇ Pouvoir ˇ Systčme juridique ˇ Autochtonie ˇ Résistance politique

Resist through division. Articulations and disarticulations of power among the Mapuche of Neuquén (Argentina)
The scattered distribution of power among the various Mapuche communities and associations of the province of Neuquén, in the north of the Argentine part of Patagonia, has allowed them to resist state hegemony as the Mapuche have succeeded in preserving certain areas of relative autonomy by increasing the number of people holding of power. This particular situation allows for investigation into the soft spots of power and the possibility of resistance against state hegemonies in which power takes diffuse, mobile, flexible and unstable forms. the current situation juxtaposes and / or articulates various measures of legitimization along a continuum of positions, on various levels of the social and political organization, which the Mapuche construct, re-appropriate and articulate according to the contexts in which they find themselves. An understanding of local situations is only possible when one takes into account the debates on indigenousness which take place at international, national and provincial levels.

Valerio Simoni

Mots-clés: Power relations ˇ Tourism ˇ Cuba ˇ Jineterismo

This article focuses on different manifestations of power in the realm of informal encounters between foreign tourists and cubans / jineteros (Ťtourist-ridersť) in Cuba. The controversial notion of jineterismo, which evokes tourism-hustling and prostitution, is employed as an entry point in order to outline the main registers of power at stake in such encounters. I examine how the relational positions of jinetero/-a and tourist are constituted through discourses, texts, and other material objects such as money and passports, which contribute to the stabilization of asymmetric power relations and which thereby restrain / enable Cubans' and tourists' possibilities. the consideration of some deployments of power in the course of ambiguous encounters between tourists and Cubans / jineteros shows how people can shift and reframe their respective positions and power relations, unpack and dissect issues of domination and compliance, and transform the role and power of the tourism industry and of the Cuban authorities.

Carena Brenner

Mots-clés: Reverse Anthropology ˇ ethnografi scher Film ˇ Postkolonialismus ˇ Cultural Studies

Inversion of power? Filmic representations as a critique of representation
Since the formal end of the European colonial hegemony, the discipline of anthropology has found itself confronted with a number of unresolved problems concerning not only conventional ethnographic methods but also global systems of domination. The colonial process deeply altered colonial societies and restructured contemporary realities; transnationalism and global migration challenge the construction of fixed cultural and racial differences and thus undermine simple binary oppositions. Manthia Diawara's film Rouch in Reverse can therefore be understood as an attempt to abandon the Ťgrand narrativesť and to undercut the discourses concerning the powerful and the disempowered. With his ŤReverse anthropologyť, Diawara wants to challenge the images that come Ťstraight out of the textbooks of my francophone upbringing in africať revealing predetermined categories and concepts of identity. In this sense, as Gupta and Ferguson (1997: 47) point out, Ťchanging the way we think about the relations of culture, power, and space opens the possibility of changing more than our [anthropological] textsť.

Brigit Allenbach

Mots-clés: albanische Diaspora in der Schweiz ˇ Verwandtschaft ˇ Geschlechterforschung ˇ Partnerwahl ˇ Forschungsethik

ŤI am in a quandary!ť Migration, kinship and gender in the context of the Albanian Diaspora in Switzerland
This paper deals with gender and kinship in the context of the Albanian Diaspora in Switzerland. Due to migration, family life changes and the meaning of gender and kinship are interpreted in new ways. Besides individual resources, the structure of both the society of origin and that of the host country play an important role in defining the relationship between gender and generation within the family. Based on ethnographic data concerning the (new) meaning of in-laws in the context of Swiss Ťexileť and women's choices of marriage partners from their country of origin, this article aims to investigate the strategies used by albanian women in Switzerland to improve their life conditions. Having adopted an actor-centred investigative approach, the author also discusses some related aspects of research ethics.