No Family Is an Island

Ilana Gershon

Description

Government bureaucracies across the globe have become increasingly attuned in recent years to cultural diversity within their populations. Using culture as a category to process people and dispense services, however, can create its own problems and unintended consequences. In No Family Is an Island, a comparative ethnography of Samoan migrants living in the United States and New Zealand, Ilana Gershon investigates how and when the categories "cultural" and "acultural" become relevant for Samoans as they encounter cultural differences in churches, ritual exchanges, welfare offices, and community-based organizations.In both New Zealand and the United States, Samoan migrants are minor minorities in an ethnic constellation dominated by other minority groups. As a result, they often find themselves in contexts where the challenge is not to establish the terms of the debate but to rewrite them. To navigate complicated and often unyielding bureaucracies, they must become skilled in what Gershon calls "reflexive engagement" with the multiple social orders they inhabit. Those who are successful are able to parlay their own cultural expertise (their "Samoanness") into an ability to subtly alter the institutions with which they interact in their everyday lives. Just as the "cultural" is sometimes constrained by the forces exerted by acultural institutions, so too can migrant culture reshape the bureaucracies of their new countries. Theoretically sophisticated yet highly readable, No Family Is an Island contributes significantly to our understanding of the modern immigrant experience of making homes abroad.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• Nueva Zelanda
• New Zealand
• Cultural studies
• Central
• États-Unis
• Migration
• Nouvelle-Zélande

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801464027
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

No Family Is an Island

A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

No Family Is an Island

Cultural Expertise among Samoans in Diaspora

Ilana Gershon

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2012 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2012 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2012 Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Gershon, Ilana.  No family is an island : cultural expertise among Samoans in diaspora / Ilana Gershon.  p. cm. — (Expertise)  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801450785 (cloth : alk. paper)  ISBN 9780801478055 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Samoan Americans—California—Social conditions. 2. Samoans— New Zealand—Social conditions. 3. Samoa—Emigration and immigration—Social aspects. 4. California—Emigration and immigration—Social aspects. 5. New Zealand—Emigration and immigration—Social aspects. I. Title. II. Series: Expertise (Ithaca, N.Y.)  F870.S17G47 2012  305.89'9462—dc23 2011046583

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Cloth printing Paperback printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Solo Collins

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Contents

Part I 1. Exchanging While NotKnowing 2. The Moral Economies of Conversion

Part II Introduction: Some Political and Historical Context 3. When Culture Is Not a System 4. Legislating Families as Cultural

5. Constructing Choice, Compelling Culture

Conclusion References Index

ix

1

25 48

72 89 114 138

165 171 185

Acknowledgments

When I look at the pages of this book, I see the traces of other people’s patience. Penny Schoeffel, Malama Meleisea, Judith Huntsman, and Helen Tuitama gently suggested less cumbersome ways to think about other peo ple’s actions. Solo Collins as well as her friends and family talked to me for hours and hours about what it means to care for others in a Samoan family. Trish Epati brought such good humor and common sense to bear, along with Semi, Tiana, and Mana Epati. Many wise people told me stories about how to work alongside government bureaucracies, or how to man age the oddities of living a moral Samoan life among oblivious capitalist people: Joann Below, Fia CarlosValentino, Tom Church, Lyneki, Fofoa, Rev. Risatisone and Fereni Ete, Toeutu Fa’aleava, Fatilua Fatilua, Marilyn Kohlhase, Pat Luce, Lealaisalanoa Setu Petaia, Sam Ripley, Rev. Ioritana and Lonise Tanielu, Tina Tuitama, and Dee Uhile. Some of the people who were the most patient and generous I wish to keep anonymous. They shared the stories of their lives with me and did not necessarily anticipate