Full Description
In Eritrea, state, traditional, and religious laws equally prevail, but any of these legal systems may be put into play depending upon the individual or individuals involved in a legal dispute. Because of conflicting laws, it has been difficult for Eritreans to come to a consensus on what constitutes their legal system. In Blood, Land, and Sex, Lyda Favali and Roy Pateman examine the roles of the state, ethnic groups, religious groups, and the international community in several key areas of Eritrean law—blood feud or murder, land tenure, gender relations (marriage, prostitution, rape), and female genital surgery. Favali and Pateman explore the intersections of the various laws and discuss how change can be brought to communities where legal ambiguity prevails, often to the grave harm of women and other powerless individuals. This significant book focuses on how Eritrea and other newly emerging democracies might build pluralist legal systems that will be acceptable to an ethnically and religiously diverse population.
Contents
Preliminary Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
1. Facts and Ideas: The Struggle for Power and Legitimacy
2. From Tradition to Globalization
3. Changing Leadership, Unchanging Law
4. The Transitional Period and Attempts at Legal Reform
5. From Blood Feud and Blood Money to the State Settlement of Murder Cases
6. Land Tenure on the Highland Plateau
7. Land Disputes and Conflict Resolution
8. The Virgin, the Wife, the Spinster, and the Concubine: Gender Roles and Gender Relations
9. Female Genital Mutilation: Symbol, Tradition, or Survival?
10. Creating Space in a Changing World for Traditional and Religious Law
Glossary
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
