Scholars have long heralded mestizaje, or race mixing, as the essence of the Cuban nation. Revolutionizing Romance is an account of the continuing significance of race in Cuba as it is experienced in interracial relationships. This ethnography tracks young couples as they move in a world fraught with shifting connections of class, race, and culture that are reflected in space, racialized language, and media representations of blackness, whiteness, and mixedness. As one of the few scholars to conduct long-term anthropological fieldwork in the island nation, Nadine T. Fernandez offers a rare insider's view of the country's transformations during the post-Soviet era. Following a comprehensive history of racial formations up through Castro's rule, the book then delves into more intimate and contemporary spaces. Language, space and place, foreign tourism, and the realm of the family each reveal, through the author's deft analysis, the paradox of living a racialized life in a nation that celebrates a policy of colorblind equality.

In 1950, China's new Communist government enacted a Marriage Law to allow free choice in marriage and easier access to divorce. Prohibiting arranged marriages, concubinage, and bigamy, it was one of the most dramatic efforts ever by a state to change marital and family relationships. In this comprehensive study of the effects of that law, Neil J. Diamant draws on newly opened urban and rural archival sources to offer a detailed analysis of how the law was interpreted and implemented throughout the country. In sharp contrast to previous studies of the Marriage Law, which have argued that it had little effect in rural areas, Diamant argues that the law reshaped marriage and family relationships in significant--but often unintended--ways throughout the Maoist period. His evidence reveals a confused and often conflicted state apparatus, as well as cases of Chinese men and women taking advantage of the law to justify multiple sexual encounters, to marry for beauty, to demand expensive gifts for engagement, and to divorce on multiple occasions. Moreover, he finds, those who were best placed to use the law's more liberal provisions were not well-educated urbanites but rather illiterate peasant women who had never heard of sexual equality; and it was poor men, not women, who were those most betrayed by the peasant-based revolution. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 2000. In 1950, China's new Communist government enacted a Marriage Law to allow free choice in marriage and easier access to divorce. Prohibiting arranged marriages, concubinage, and bigamy, it was one of the most dramatic efforts ever by a state to change mari

The author stages a series of conversations with prominent writers and artists to assess how to define cultural identity in the modern world and age of mass media and global migration. His premise is that conventional cultural identity is not static.

This vibrant new collection edited by Viviane Gosselin and Phaedra Livingstone explores the central role of museums as memory keepers and makers. The idea of historical consciousness – how our conception of the past informs our sense of the present and of the future – is of growing importance for cultural institutions in North America. Using case studies and observations that emerge from a Canadian context, Museums and the Past considers how the modern museum fosters public perceptions of history. Contributors focus on the relationship between historical consciousness and museum practice and reflect on the challenges of transforming museums into dynamic civic labs and meaningful places of memory and learning. The result is an engaging range of perspectives on the contemporary museum’s pedagogical and ethical responsibilities.

Revolutionizing Feminism offers the first feminist analysis of the human rights crisis in the Philippines during the Arroyo presidency (2001-2010) and the declaration of the country as the 'second front' in the US-led 'war on terror'. During this period over 1,000 activists, including peasants, journalists and lawyers, were murdered. Lacsamana situates Filipino women within the international division of labour, showing the connection between the 'super-exploitation' of their labour power at home and their migration abroad as domestic workers, nurses, nannies, entertainers, and 'mail-order brides'. In contrast to the cultural turn in feminist theorising that has retreated from the concepts of class and class exploitation, Revolutionizing Feminism seeks to reorient feminist scholarship in order to better understand the material realties of those living in an increasingly unstable and impoverished global south.

Content Description #Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.