Family relationships in town are brokbrok: Food sharing and “contribution” in Port Vila, Vanuatu
Under-educated and under-employed young men in Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital city, frequently refer to the “empty saucepan”. This is an idiom they use to reflect some of the social problems experienced in urban Vanuatu today; high cost of living, alienation from access to agricultural land, high rate...
সংরক্ষণ করুন:
| প্রকাশিত: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jso, |
|---|---|
| প্রধান লেখক: | |
| বিন্যাস: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| ভাষা: | Anglais |
| প্রকাশিত: |
Journal de la société des océanistes
2017
|
| বিষয়গুলি: | |
| অনলাইন ব্যবহার করুন: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| সংক্ষিপ্ত: | Under-educated and under-employed young men in Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital city, frequently refer to the “empty saucepan”. This is an idiom they use to reflect some of the social problems experienced in urban Vanuatu today; high cost of living, alienation from access to agricultural land, high rates of unemployment and financial insecurity. Yet the “empty saucepan” also speaks to specific concerns surrounding shifts in family relationships, often produced and maintained through a system of sharing of food. As this paper will show, in Freswota, one of Port Vila’s residential communities, families face difficulties balancing their incomes with obligations to give and receive. As such, some urban families are excluding people, those who are seen as consuming without contributing, from eating their food. This article considers some of the constraints of urban living, and what influence the emic notion of “contribution”, in a context of neo-liberal capitalism, is having on inter-generational relationships. I argue that urban unemployed young men are increasingly experiencing their parents and families as unsupportive, and as such, other relationships in their community are becoming stronger.. |
|---|