b lo o d , l a n d , a n d s ex Blood, Land, and Sex Legal and Political Pluralism in Eritrea Lyda Favali and Roy Pateman This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail
[email protected] © 2003 by Lyda Favali and Roy Pateman All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Favali, Lyda, date Blood, land, and sex : legal and political pluralism in Eritrea / Lyda Favali and Roy Pateman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-253-34205-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21577-3 (paper : alk. paper) 1. Legal polycentricity—Eritrea. I. Pateman, Roy. II. Title. KRN48.3 .F38 2003 340.5′2635—dc21 2002010945 1 2 3 4 5 08 07 06 05 04 03 To t h e E r i t r e a n s a n d o t h e r s w e l ov e Contents Preface and Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xv One: Facts and Ideas: The Struggle for Power and Legitimacy 1 Two: From Tradition to Globalization 14 Three: Changing Leadership, Unchanging Law 39 Four: The Transitional Period and Attempts at Legal Reform 57 Five: From Blood Feud and Blood Money to the State Settlement of Murder Cases 73 Six: Land Tenure on the Highland Plateau 105 Seven: Land Disputes and Con®ict Resolution 131 Eight: The Virgin, the Wife, the Spinster, and the Concubine: Gender Roles and Gender Relations 165 Nine: Female Genital Mutilation: Symbol, Tradition, or Survival? 194 Ten: Creating Space in a Changing World for Traditional and Religious Law 212 Glossary 227 Notes 235 Selected Bibliography 307 Index 335 Preface and Acknowledgments Eritrea was the last country in Africa to become independent. From 1889 it was occupied in turn b