Flexible Kinship : Shaping Transnational Families among the Chinese in Tahiti

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State: Public
Version: Final published version
Serval ID
serval:BIB_0FACD1E680BA
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Flexible Kinship : Shaping Transnational Families among the Chinese in Tahiti
Journal
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Author(s)
Trémon Anne-Christine
ISSN
1359-0987
Publication state
Published
Issued date
03/2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
23
Number
1
Pages
42-60
Language
english
Abstract
This article examines the practices of ‘flexible kinship’ used by Chinese migrants in colonial Tahiti. ‘Flexible kinship’ draws attention to the strategic uses that are made of kinship in the context of migration and diaspora: the adjustments to cultural, political, and legal borders that lead to changes in family forms and in the relations between kin. Using a multi-generational perspective, I examine how families were shaped by successive changes and reversals in legal-political and economic events and conjunctures over the long twentieth century. I argue for the importance of addressing transnational border-crossing practices that involve not just a spatial extension of networks but also legal strategies within the host locality. I further show that if it is true that the Confucian hierarchical order has conditioned transnational practices of flexible kinship, then this hierarchy has not only bent to the circumstances, it has to a great extent been weakened. Finally, I argue that the history of familial adjustments has shaped a habitus that maximizes economic and legal security, especially among women.
Keywords
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Anthropology
Web of science
Create date
15/01/2018 8:45
Last modification date
20/08/2019 12:36
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