Blood, Land, And Sex: Legal And Political Pluralism In Eritrea

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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.

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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