Battering States

Madelaine Adelman

Description

Battering States explores the most personal part of people's lives as they intersect with a uniquely complex state system. The book examines how statecraft shapes domestic violence: how a state defines itself and determines what counts as a family; how a state establishes sovereignty and defends its borders; and how a state organizes its legal system and forges its economy. The ethnography includes stories from people, places, and perspectives not commonly incorporated in domestic violence studies, and, in doing so, reveals the transformation of intimate partner violence from a predictable form of marital trouble to a publicly recognized social problem.

The politics of domestic violence create novel entry points to understanding how, although women may be vulnerable to gender-based violence, they do not necessarily share the same kind of belonging to the state. This means that markers of identity and power, such as gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion and religiosity, and socio-economic and geographic location, matter when it comes to safety and pathways to justice.

The study centers on Israel, where a number of factors bring connections between the cultural politics of the state and domestic violence into stark relief: the presence of a contentious multinational and multiethnic population; competing and overlapping sets of religious and civil laws; a growing gap between the wealthy and the poor; and the dominant presence of a security state in people's everyday lives. The exact combination of these factors is unique to Israel, but they are typical of states with a diverse population in a time of globalization. In this way, the example of Israel offers insights wherever the political and personal impinge on one another.

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Soutien psychologique et conseils familiaux
• Human Rights
• Family Law
• Droit et juridique
• Ethnography
• Law

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 28 mars 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826521323
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

BATTERING STATES

Battering States
The Politics of Domestic Violence in Israel
Madelaine Adelman
Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville
© 2017 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
First printing 2017
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Frontispiece: Traditional Bedouin embroidery
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
LC control number 2016007510
LC classification number HV6626.23.I75 A34 2016
Dewey class number 362.82/92095694—dc23
LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2016007510
ISBN 978-0-8265-2131-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2130-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2132-3 (ebook)
For my sisters.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on the Cover Illustration
1. The Politics of Domestic Violence
2. Moving from Personal Trouble to Social Problem
3. The Domestic Politics of Just Leaving
4. States of Insecurity
5. A Political Economy of Domestic Violence
6. Reframing Domestic Violence and the State
Notes
References
Index
Acknowledgments
THE RITUAL OF PREFATORY REMARKS CONVEYS meaningful messages, both about the behind-the-scenes production of the book as well as its author (Ben-Ari 1987). Being aware of these conventions has made me particularly self-conscious about my presentation of self and others within this component of the book. Nevertheless, I will draw on the textual tradition and attempt, but surely fail, to suitably acknowledge the many people who have generously shared their intellectual, personal, and material resources with me over the years.
I earned my undergraduate and graduate degrees at Duke University, the most beautiful and challenging campus imaginable. I am indebted to Anne Allison, miriam cooke, Virginia Dominguez, Karla Fischer, Richard Fox, Ernie Friedl, Roger Kaplan, Bruce Lawrence, Jean O’Barr, Mack O’Barr, Ellen Plummer, Orin Starn, and others from the Department of Anthropology and the Program in Women’s Studies.
At Arizona State University, where cross-disciplinary conversations are more than encouraged, my thinking and writing are much improved because of former and current colleagues and students in the School of Justice Studies (now Justice and Social Inquiry); Jewish Studies Program; Religious Studies; Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict; Institute for Humanities Research; School of Social Work; School of Politics and Global Studies; Film & Media Studies; School of Human Evolution and Social Change; School of Film, Dance, and Theatre; and School of Social Transformation, including Elizabeth Segal, Nancy Jurik, Gray Cavender, Marjorie Zatz, Julia Himberg, Nancy Winn, Miriam Elman, Mary Bernstein, Jennifer Culbert, Michael Musheno, Souad Ali, Carolyn Forbes, Laurie Perko, Joel Gereboff, Linell Cady, Carolyn Warner, Miki Kittilson, Yasmin Saikia, Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Ilene Singer, Rachel Leket-Mor, and Dawn Beeson; and I appreciate the career and scholarly guidance over the years from Anne Schneider, Marie Provine, Marjorie Zatz, Mary Margaret Fonow, and Beth Swadener.
The Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA) at the American Anthropological Association, and the multidisciplinary Law and Society Association have been intellectual and professional homes, where I have been formed by the kinship and collegiality offered by so many, including Sally Merry, Lisa Neumann, Donna Coker, Phoebe Morgan, Jennifer Curtis, Sarah Hautzinger, Andrea Ballestero, Kate Sullivan, Susan Coutin, Carol Greenhouse, Susan Hirsch, Mindie Lazarus-Black, Rebecca Torstrick, John Conley, Jennifer Weis, Hillary Haldane, Erik Harms, and Catherine Besteman. The collaborative scholarship of Becky Dobash and Russell Dobash inspired this research. Scholarly circles at Martha Fineman’s innovative Feminist Legal Theory Workshop at Emory University and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University also offered resources for and feedback on my work.
I thank the founding editor of Violence Against Women , Claire Renzetti, for shepherding publications that helped form my thinking for Chapters 3 and 4 . I also thank Elizabeth Segal, founding editor of the Journal of Poverty , for inviting me to explicitly incorporate political economy into my work, which launched ideas for Chapter 5 . The manuscript reflects the reviewers’ incisive reading and comments, and I recommend that others work with the generous staff at Vanderbilt University Press, and with Ideas on Fire founder Cathy Hannabach, who developed the index.
The book is set within and possible because of the broadly defined feminist movement against gender violence in Israel, where a number of justice provocateurs (Aiken 2001; Cavender and Jurik 2012) and NGOs welcomed me, including Isha l’Isha Haifa Feminist Center, Kayan-Feminist Organization, Haifa Rape Crisis Center, Women for Women Haifa Shelter for Battered Women, and Haifa Crisis Shelter for Women. I am grateful for Marilyn Safir’s friendship, insight, hospitality, and guidance, and I have benefitted greatly from engagement with activists and researchers working in the region, including Nathalie Brochstein, Amalia Sa’ar, Edna Erez, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Hannah Safran, Michal Mor, Rula Deeb, Zvi Eisikovits, Muhammad Haj-Yahia, and many others. I also could not anticipate how much my work with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and education scholars and advocates would influence my thinking about social movements.
I would be lost without my extended family, who sustained me along the way, including Lauren Kotkin, Cory Greenberg, Marilyn Jarvis, Cheryl Reiss, Nora Haenn, Deanna Cavelli, Jen Robinson, Rebecca Stanier-Shulman, Ellen Ben-Naim, Deborah Waxman, and Christina Ager. Fellow ethnographic travelers Liz Faier, Sharon Lang, Patricia Woods, and honorary anthropologist and comrade Shoshana (Cohen) Ben-Yoar were invaluable during and after my fieldwork. Several additional “logical” family members nurtured me along with the research and writing process: Bahney Dedolph cheered me on and offered learned feedback; Nancy Jurik and Marjorie Zatz contributed impossible-to-reciprocate emotional and intellectual labor; Liz Segal’s friendship and hospitality were rivaled only by her intellectual gifts and institutional savviness; Nora Haenn reanimated and expertly shaped my writing; Brian Shire and Matt Heil helped me navigate the integration of activism and academics; Lauren Kotkin is the sole person who lent her sharp eye to every iteration of the manuscript; and Julia Himberg shared the pain (and pleasure) of writing, celebrating each step in the process. Amy Ettinger’s love and encouragement accompanied me, and this book, from aspiration to reality.
They don’t call it a “body of writing” for nothing: I benefitted greatly from my ASU-subsidized membership to the Lincoln Downtown YMCA; my health insurance, which granted me access to physical therapists at the Mayo Clinic, including the amazing Sandy Flatten; and the friendly staff at the Wildflower Café at 44th Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix.
My parents and ninety-seven-year-old grandmothers have been patient champions of this project. I dedicate this book to my sisters, Michelle Buckman and Melanie Kinard, whose love (of family) has sustained me throughout.
Note on the Cover Illustration
THE FIRST THING A PROSPECTIVE READER SEES is the front cover of a book. Like most authors, I wanted the cover to be attractive and to reflect the core subject matter: the relationship between domestic violence and the cultural politics of the state. I welcome readers to make their own interpretation, of course, but here is my take on the design.
Overall, the three horizontal stripes are meant to evoke the imagery of a flag, a symbol that signals the establishment of a state, along with its official currency, stamps, anthem, and so on. A state flag represents the polity and marks its territorial sovereignty. The symbols or colors that make up the flag itself connote belonging to or exclusion from the state. As the state’s most well-known symbol, a flag stands in for the state, and thus it is metaphorically fought for, or materially desecrated to communicate rejection of the state’s ideology, boundaries, or policies. In Israel, the Ministerial Committee on Symbols and Ceremonies determines the contours of annual state rituals, where the flag plays a visible role. Similar to other states, legislation in Israel regulates who can use the flag and for what purposes. On the cover of this book, the blue stripe corresponds to the blue in the Israeli flag; and the green references the Palestinian flag.
The “stripe” in the middle is a photo I took of a piece of embroidery that I purchased during a visit to the Association for the Improvement of Women’s Status, an NGO and social enterprise located in Lakia, a small town in the Negev. Lakia is located only a dozen miles from Be’er Sheva, the “capital” of the Negev, but it has more in common with the other six towns founded by the state in order to settle and “civilize” the Bedouin people. The NGO was founded by and for Bedouin women to help address the persistent poverty, isolation, and lack of infrastructure in the region, which includes unrecognized Bedouin villages as well. More information about the project and its organizational partners is available on their website, along with the option to purchase items from their online catalog ( desert-embroidery.org ).
There is much to say about the selection of the fabric shown on the cover. It is a newly commodified piece of material culture, its stitching, colors, and design derived from Bedouin women’s clothing. As such, it could too easily contribute to the touristic search for “cultural authenticity” or be read as emblematic of a seminomadic tribe putatively frozen in time. A critic might argue that its placement on the cover pulls attention away from the prevalence