I feel highly honour to express my opinion on

Katherine Leigh Carter’s dissertation: „Survival, dance, language and organizing: Cape
Verdean women respond to economic globalization”
The dissertation will be approached on the basis of following aspects.
- Relevance of the subject
- Method
- Data collection, management and processing
- Conclusions

Revival of small cultures from any grade of assimilation or acculturation is known to

social sciences. Application of local cultural occurrences against globalisation and
constitution of national identity by creating national symbols, literary language, and mother
tongue literacy are also very important fields of research. This pattern is well-known from
forming nation-states of 19th century in Europe to Native American movements nowadays.
Research of subcultures, underprivileged social groups, and peripheral people is just as
much significant. The approximation of type of gender and women studies is prominently
relevant. This latter dislocates from impersonal iteration without value judgement of science,
and suggests the fight against the disclosed problems and wants to change the deeply rooted
social patterns.

Thus Katherine Leigh Carter has chosen a relevant topic from the viewpoint of
social depiction. This is how do Cape Verdean women answer to global economic and cultural
challenges.
This theme is typically ethnographical and cultural anthropological, but less the
iteration and the explanation. The dissertation is can be seen rather as a kind of humanitarian
or social report because important patterns and details are not worked out. The perspective she
approximates to the object by is too long but too unilateral, thus focusing on historically
established but actually changing fabric of society is not successful enough.

Method:

Because of her living and working in the examined society as an English teacher the
methods chosen by Katherine Leigh Carter were the attendant observation and interviews.
Coming from the topic this was a synchronic research with a small outlook to the
historical reasons of the present situation. My problem is precisely the small outlook: I think
the examined occurrences to be deeply rooted in Cape Verdean culture and society; they
surely make important parts of personal and social patterns of behaviour.
As some researches have shone, there has been a large-scale immigration from Cape
Verde to different states all over the world since the end of the 19th century. The immigration
has been decreasing in large measure since independence from Portugal and at the same time
since the beginning of globalization:
„Since independence from Portugal, the emigration aspirations of Cape Verdeans
have been challenged by increasingly restrictive immigration policies in the countries of
destination. Migration flows have fallen substantially, from an average annual population
loss of two per cent in the early 1970s to about 0.5 per cent in the early 1990s. Partly as a
result of this, the population growth rate has tripled from the 1970s to the 1990s, reaching
almost 2.5 per cent per year.
Cape Verdean authorities expect emigration flows to decline further in the coming decades.”
Cape Verde: Towards the End of Emigration? By Jørgen Carling, International Peace
Research Institute, Oslo
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=68
Simultaneously with decreasing it has been even feminising: Paralleling the decline of
emigration flows, there has been a shift in the gender balance in favor of women. There are
several reasons for this. First, there has been a change from individual labor migration to
family-related migration. Many Cape Verdean men who settled in Northern Europe in the
1960s and 1970s brought their wives and children in the 1980s. More recently, family
formation migration has come to constitute an important form of migration, particularly to
the United States and Northern Europe. In most cases, it is women from Cape Verde who go
abroad to marry and thereby obtain a residence permit.
A second reason for the feminization of emigration flows has been the growth of
independent labor migration by women. Italy, Portugal, and Spain have all become important
destinations for Cape Verdean domestic workers. While the demand for unskilled male
immigrant labor has generally fallen throughout Europe, there has been a rising demand for
female domestic workers in Southern Europe. This has resulted in considerable emigration
flows from Cape Verde, both documented and undocumented. (.” Cape Verde: Towards the
End of Emigration? By Jørgen Carling, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=68
Consequently it worth making a diachronic research too.

Topics concern the macro- and meso level of society but the main focus of research is
micro level. I think there are some disproportions here: Description of institutions, self-
definition of globalization, review of scientific attitudes associated with them should be much
compact and at the same time much more essential.
A qualitative approximation was chosen so as to work out the topic precisely and
specify it sensitively. I agree. However I have some notices, which will be detailed later.
The position of researcher would like to be émikus- (empathic) but it likes to be rather
„subjective” or even a bit “missionistic” and sometimes “of power”. I would like to detail this.
I can not think her position to be empathic because watching and describing the
examined society without her own “cultural spectacles” from inside or at least from the
border was not successful.
“Missionistic” because she wanted to repair that society and culture where she
actually was living and working. She organized women right conferences, and taught strange
patterns of behaviour which were not known in Cape Verde before. She did everything in
order to create a new type of liberate woman instead of the local woman ideal. In consequence
of this she lost her first anti-globalisation starting point.
Going to the centre of a society and starting to change it without getting an essential
impression and the greatest quantity of information is really dangerous. This could be called
“behaviour of power” or cultural colonisation. I would like you to see, that the science can
and must help, it must take responsibility, but the task of anthropology is to describe,
understand and save the traditional cultures.

Collecting, management and processing data:

Sources:

- Literature, personal communication with specialists, Internet:

Much scientific literature had been processed focusing on problems of African
women by Katherine Leigh Carter. The dissertation was inspired with the feminist
 mentality. I agree but I miss those basic works of anthropology (e. g. Clifford Geertz’s
books) which had been able to help with constructing a scientific analysis on the basis
of a really empathic attitude and then making proposals. In other words: both empathic
experience and scientific analysis are needed to understand and demonstrate a culture.
On the basis of these two is possible to try to do something against problems.
Also I miss a more detailed review of Cape Verdean society: there are a few
researches about migration of women and men from Cape Verde, the relationship
between the motherland and the Diasporas. There are also dissertations about the
inhabitation of Chinese and African people in Cape Verde.
(http://www.samfak.gu.se/Disputationer/disp0405/akesson_abstract.pdf,
http://clasnews.clas.ufl.edu/news/clasnotes/0005/fikes.html,
Jørgen Carling munkássága stb.)

- Questionnaires and interviews:

Three groups of Cape Verdean society were chosen and three different lists of
questions were asked.
Two of three groups were enjoying some benefits of globalization, were aware
of the possibility of new strategies.
In the first group were students. They were committed to development and
involved in the direction of society.
In the second group were participants of a conference of woman rights and
feminism.
The third group was the biggest. It was formed from women of different age,
social class, and marital status. They were friends or relatives of students.
Three different questionnaires were filled in by the groups. These were not
parallel.
I have the most questions about the third group. The first problem is the author’s
absence during the interviews, and processing and translating the texts. I think most
information to be lost.
The second problem is that among interweavers were nine men but Cape Verdean
etiquette do not permit women to complain to men about their married life, children
and conflicts with husbands. The dialogue between the two genders must be controlled
by traditions. Thus the answers must be a bit superficial.
o The questionnaire includes 5 groups of questions.
 Personal data, background information
 Work, subsistence of women, their emotions related with these,
taking responsibility
 Emotional and economic contacts with men, monogamy
 Attitude with children, problems, family planning
 Wider family and economic contacts
These informants represented the traditional culture of Cape Verde, thus their answers
about their lives and strategies were relevant from the point of view of the issue. According to
the author these interviews became the basis of the dissertation. (p. 45.) However the
questionnaire did not include questions about the globalization, or at least questions
comparing the past with the present and with expectations to the future. Also it did not include
questions related with free time, self-expression, and conflict management. The informants
were not asked about the Batuku and using language thus empirical verification of affirmation
that these are forms of resistance was not successful.
I have still a notice of methodology: I miss collection narratives like life stories and
true stories. Life stories have a lot of pieces of information of everything you were interested
in: family, partner-relationship, free time, self expressing. Also as gossiping and sharing
information is an everyday thing among women, even a strange woman could get them or
even secrets, because she can not “let the cat out of the bag”.

Origin, conclusions, analysis

The dissertation begins with a macro level demonstration of institutions and effects of
the globalization as economic and cultural occurrence. Unfortunately the chapter constructed
on the basis of literature is too long and general. It works out too few events and literatures
compared with its length. My opinion is that Cape Verde should be shone as a special part of a
global progression because Cape Verdean events are parallel with that of other new
democracies.
Problems of Cape Verde are summed up. The country had been running in debt. There
is a high Ratio of unemployed and poor people. Absence of the cultivable areas, bad food- and
drinking water supply are also big questions. Birth rate is high at the same time.
Of course, the community had to answer these serious challenges and the migration
was one of the most frequently chosen techniques. Because of this Diasporas from Cape
Verde all over the world have more inhabitants than the motherland.
Statistical data shows that there are much more women in the population than men
because most of men try to make their fortune abroad. The author’s opinion is that the men
did not hold family in high esteem, they took little responsibility for their wives or partners
and children. Thus in Cape Verde the single women must fight for living and bringing
children up alone.
An other problem has been noticed before: this is the author’s conclusions are not
based on the collected data but serve an existing system of thoughts. Some definitions are not
clarified, and also the designation of the examined group is impossible. I mean we can not see
that who he author’s conclusions are concerned to.
Unities of culture are communities and these latter come into being with definition and
conservation itself and, at the same time, with exclusion of the others. However, cultures are
not integrated and bear the marks of intercourse with the outside world. The basis of its self-
definition is the mythicized past, this is the relic of origin without marks.
Cultures, communities, and personalities survive as long as this memory lives in the
community. They have an inner method to remember, know and support their origins and
cultural characteristics: these are dance, rituals, language etc. thus everything we can call
tradition.
Events of culture like Batuku dance are sketchy described. I think the author participated
Batuku, but I miss a detailed description. She mentioned the Batuku as a rite of passage, but
this is not detailed. Batukut is mainly described as one of the personal possibilities of
protestation and self-expressing. But it is not characterised as an occasion of socialization,
like a possibility for girls to get real information of marital life. Festivals, special occasions
are the times to dance Batuku, but they are also sketchy described. I have a lot of questions:
When women dance Batuku during a festival? This is a main event or not? What the men and
children, or others do during the women dance? How Batuku is connected to a religious
ceremony or family celebration as a protestation? Do the men listen to or at least know, what
the women sing? If yes, Batuku can be seen as a kind of communication and collective
control.
Relationship between men and women is told unbalanced and patriarchal. There is also a
definitional vagueness here: This must be an unusual type of patriarchal system where most of
births are extramarital and a woman can have several partners without getting married.
 Traditional and newer etiquettes, rules and rights are not detailed which determine the
relationship between the two genders. The house with movables seems to belong to the
women, the man seems to come and leave.
Agricultural work is often mentioned but possessing or inheriting of the land not.
(About the possession of the land see:
http://www.fao.org/es/ess/census/wcares/Capeverde_1988.pdf )

Special women problems had been increased by the loneliness because of the migration
of men, poverty, many children, controversial results of globalization, lack of education and
jobs. Women answered to these economic and social challenges by using tools from their
inner self because they have not enough practical and financial resources. These inner tools
are: help each other, dance, and an own expressive language which is eligible to articulate
emotions and express feelings.
The statement is problematic in a few respects: as I have noticed before, decreasing and
feminizing of migration is connected to the globalization. Cape Verdean women appear in
South European countries as breadwinners: fish-vendors, housemaids or even wives.
By the same token a big portion of incomes are the remittances from relatives and
husbands working abroad.
Many of men take their family after themselves to Diaspora in 10-20 years, or in other
words: after the creation of financial resources.
Connected to the migration I have some questions: What do the community holds about
the men gone abroad, and stayed home. I think, for ages it was a man’s duty to go abroad and
try to get money in Cape Verde. (About the migration from Cape Verde see:
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Resources/capeverde.cfm,
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=68
and http://migration.dragoeiro.com/. )

Thus, most women stay home, and they have the power to decide about their family
and they have a little possibility to try to get by. They are able to get off the aggressive man
and organize their lives.

The dissertation says that men dance, make music and use language too. However the
difference is not detailed the author’s opinion is that these are special women tools. What is
the reason of this? Perhaps because there were few of men, and they did not live with their
family, women spoke and danced mainly among themselves. Or because of their short
education women speak a special dialect? The historical roots and the present rules should be
showed.
The number of women among the decision-makers is not presented in the dissertation.
If they are few, it is a big result in a patriarchal society that the Batuku, which was defined as
a women tool against the men, has become one of the most important symbols of Cape Verde.
Even tough they want to make the Creole language, which is also a women self-expressing
appliance, an official language and also they want to establish the Creole tongue literacy.
I think, or women have more power, or the community does not think the Batuku and
the Creole language to be a special women implement.
It is not detailed in the dissertation, and even it is not included in questionnaires, if
women (and men) have other traditional or new tools so as to express their feelings and
problems, like personal and social patterns of behaviour, other kinds of music or dance,
religion, spiritualism, magic. For example do they try to make their partners to come back by
using occult practices? Personal histories of forsaken fights for living by using alcohol, drugs,
suicide or disorders are not expressed too.
 Topic of religion is less mentioned; however religion is really important from the point
of view of family planning, sexual life, conflict management etc.
Answers connected to family planning are not demonstrated however it is a new
possibility of self-ordering and self-confidence. In other words: family planning must be a
relevant part of new life-strategies.

I miss that the chapter included the topic of violence against women does not
demonstrate the group involved in it.
Questions about the violence were not in the questionnaire: it is impossible to know,
what the informants mean violence (rape, physical or psychological abuse, negligence,
vicious words etc. and how often do they experience it.
I see that violence in Cape Verde is general and known all over the country but the
sources of information, spreading and definitions of the occurrence should be detailed in the
dissertation.
Regardless of my questions I think this chapter is worked out very well. Economic,
social, cultural and personal aspects of subjugation and reactions of women are well shown in
it.
The new wave of feminism holds that woman in modern societies is an object and not a
subject to the action. In Cape Verde, women surely are not only objects
“Strategies of engagement” as new possibilities, are shortly summarized: They
centrally try to generate new chances and tools in order to allow independence of women, like
organizing affiliates, programs, agricultural and employment associations; humanitarian,
religious or business cooperation; political intentions to change low, police and media.
These methods are not too successful because of the patriarchal establishments, thus
women must use their old traditional “tricks” to win the men and survive physically and
psychologically.
Women are not powerless victims but owing many-sided techniques they are
survivors. However they are often excluded from formal institutions, they have a lot of
possibilities.
Tools of “strategies of disengagement” like manipulation, affectation or simulation of
traditional roles; sharing and management of information with gossip and humour; refusal of
work (strike); help each other and collective actions against the incessant violence are
regularly used. In its entirety these seem more useful than formal power.
Moreover I did I can not tell anything to the chapter about the language.
It is not detailed if the author speaks the language or not, and what is the difference between
the language of women and men.
Whether it is a women specificity to use expressive idioms, proverbs, or the men also
employ them? I am sorry, but because of lack of my linguistic competence I can not deem this
chapter enough.
In final chapters we can see the emancipation to be in progress and some new women
attitudes connected to it. I think the author tries to help this by teaching English and writing
this dissertation.
My questions and problems are related to position and method of researcher. I think
the problem demonstrated in dissertation to be really relevant, and with a more precise usage
of definitions, a more sensitive management of data and a deeper analysis of collected
interviews can help in them.
I congratulate the author and best wishes. 

Debrecen, 10. 19. 2005.. Bottyán Katalin