Haosgel

Kinship, class and urban transformations

Bibliographic Data

ID11708307
AuthorsChristine Jourdan (Concordia University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume144-145
Pages131-146
Publication date2017-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal de la Société des océanistes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0300-953X • E-ISSN: 1760-7256
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/jso.7905
OpenAlexW2775962813
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited20

In Honiara, Solomon Islands, middle-class households routinely include young unmarried girls who hail from the villages to work as domestic help (haosgel in Solomon Islands Pijin) for their kin. Using data gathered in Honiara over the last 15 years, and more recently in 2015, the paper explores what is it to be a young haosgel in Honiara today while focusing on a set of issues that are central to the life of these young women: the power and transformation of kinship; the relationship between urban life and domesticity, and the link between agency, gender and resistance. Arguing that the presence of house girls contributes to the establishment of the middle-class, I seek to understand how these young women engage a complex situation in which their urban relatives, usually wealthier than their own parents, act out kinship while playing boss

Agency (philosophy · Class (philosophy · Genealogy · Geography · Kinship · Middle class · Political science · Power (physics · Resistance (ecology · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies

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