Embodying Post-Development: Bodies in places, places in bodies
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development. Copyright © 2002 Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (200203) 45:1; 54–73; 022367. NB When citing this article please use both volume and issue numbers.
Local/Gobal Encounters
Embodying Post-Development: Bodies in places, places in bodies YVONNE UNDERHILL-SEM
ABSTRACT Yvonne Underhill-Sem from her place-based perspective of the Pacific Islands argues that as we think more about place, so too we must think more about bodies. She proposes that what is needed is a theoretical position that allows bodies and places to be both grounded and materially pinchable, but also to be fluid and discursively constituted. KEYWORDS maternal body; Papua New Guinea; transformative; violence; Wanigela
Introduction In the days leading up to Papua New Guinea’s 26th Independence Day celebrations, the newspaper headlines of the three national newspapers provide a glimpse of the troubled reality of women’s place-based struggles that continue to affect women in contemporary Papua New Guinea. Warders want equal work chances Female staff of the Correctional Services have called on the national government to review its commitment to the ratification of the Convention of Discrimination Against Women . . . . (Rei, 2001) Man jailed for murdering woman . . . seven other people convicted last month over deaths they caused due to domestic violence. In the most recent case, Justice Hinchliffe was passing sentence on a man convicted of killing his wife over his displeasure over a village court decision. . . . (Post Courier, 2001) Women: ‘a disempowered part of the labour force’ This Sunday, September 16, Papua New Guinea will celebrate its 26th year as a sovereign, independent nation. Celebrate? Exactly . . . celebrate what? . . . . (Daure, 2001) Women have their say . . . Happy 26th anniversary Papua New Guinea. We are proud to be your citizen and will endeavour to make you a proud country. God bless Papua New Guinea. (Setae, 2001)
03 Local /Global (to/d)
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Underhill-Sem: Embodying Post-Development Ato, taneba [and, another thing] Roxanne, taurabob [she died during childbirth]. (Telephone conversation between cousins in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and Bonn, Germany, 24 September 2001)
These are some of the remarkable constellations of powers that constitute the wider issues of bodily politics facing women in Papua New Guinea: demands for equitable conditions of employment, the futility of judicial systems to protect women from domestic violence, and the divergent yet complicit nationalist and religious discourses that place hope for change in higher powers. The last quote is a personal telephone call relaying the death of a cousin-sister, aged 26, during childbirth. This event is unlikely to be captured in national headlines, except periodically concealed as a national statistic, despite the fact that even after many years of ‘development’ women in ‘developing’ countries are still dying, on a daily bas
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