Within the Boundaries: Karuwanci as Women’s Work

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is the examination and analysis of the practice of karuwanci, which is treated here as a form of labour within particular relations of exchange. The operationalisation of the practice of karuwanci, in terms of the specific kinds of labour undertaken, brings to the fore examination of relations of production and reproduction, and a reconsideration of the extent to which karuwanci replicates or echoes the sexual division of labour within the household, and thus the extent to which these forms of labour can be treated as the same or similar phenomena, or conversely, should be treated as distinct forms of labour. Incorporated into this area of analytical concern are the additional forms of labour which karuwai undertake, which in some ways bring them farther still from the constellation of activities generally included in domestic labour.