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The Widow Refuses: Embodied Practices and Negotiations over Inheritance in Zimbabwe

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Political Economy, Power and the Body

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

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Abstract

The subject of this chapter — urban, middle-class widows trying to redefine and renegotiate inheritance practices in Zimbabwe — provides an entry point for exploring the intersection between gender, power, embodied practices and property in a postcolonial society. These societies are particularly interesting because their discursive, legal and institutional contexts reflect international/colonial legacies as well as local beliefs, practices and institutions. They offer an opportunity to think about the way individuals and groups negotiate complex and often contradictory sets of discourses and practices, often in very unequal circumstances, but in ways that reveal the limitations and possibilities for change in the increasingly global/local world of the late 20th century.

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Authors
  1. Jane L. Parpart
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Mass Communication Research, University of Leicester, UK

    Gillian Youngs (Lecturer) (Lecturer)

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© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Parpart, J.L. (2000). The Widow Refuses: Embodied Practices and Negotiations over Inheritance in Zimbabwe. In: Youngs, G. (eds) Political Economy, Power and the Body. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983904_9

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