Naming matters: Inheritance, land, and reproductive labor in rural Tanzania

Abstract

This article examines changes in two types of inheritance in Mkuyuni, a farming community in east central Tanzania. The first is the inheritance of farmland, which has undergone a shift from matrilineal to patrilineal patterns. The second is the inheritance of ancestral names, which are increasingly being refused by male heirs. Viewing inheritance as a site of struggle over questions of social reproduction, this article argues that Tanzanian socialism, despite an avowed commitment to gender equality, failed to account for the complexity of social reproduction in its land policies. The article suggests that socialist and collectivist projects must directly grapple with questions of social reproduction and reproductive labor. It also argues for a more robust and broad definition of reproductive labor and for a deeper exploration of the role of ritual and religion in processes of social reproduction.

Reproductive binds: The gendered economy of debt in a Syrian refugee farmworker camp

“…This diversity underscores the necessity of examining the effects of indebtedness relationally across different domains of social life, especially the household. Agrarian scholars of gender have long drawn critical attention to social divisions of labour within families (Addison & Schnurr, 2016; Agarwal, 1983; Baglioni, 2021; Boserup, 1993; Calvário & Desmarais, 2023; Deere, 1995; Fredlund, 2020; Mincyte, 2023; Naidu & Ossome, 2016; O'Laughlin, 2002; Ossome & Naidu, 2021; Razavi, 2009). These gendered divisions of labour have also been analysed by feminist scholars of the Middle East, whose work remains marginalized within the canon of agrarian studies (Abdelali‐Martini et al, 2003; Kandiyoti, 1988; Pfeifer, 1987; Sarkis Fernández, 2015).…”