Judith Wittner

The Tribal Basis of American Life: Racial, Religious, and Ethnic Groups in Conflict

Introduction: The Tribal Basis of American Life by Murray Friedman Changing American Group Setting Immigration, Pluralism and Public Policy by Gary Rubin The Religious Roots of the Culture Wars: How Competing Moral Visions Fuel Cultural Conflict by James Davison Hunter and Kimon Howland Sargeant Case Studies of Ethnic Conflict The Tribes of Brooklyn: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the Crown Heights Riots by Jonathan Rieder The Persistence of Anti-Asian Hatred by Gary Okihiro The Dynamics of American Intergroup Conflict and Responses to Bigotry by Philip Perlmutter Becoming Insiders: Factors Affecting the Creation and Maintenance of Boundaries for New Immigrants by Judith Goode The World Setting and Response Ethnic Conflict at Home and Abroad: The United States in Comparative Perspective by James Kurth How Should We Talk About Intergroup Conflict? by Nathan Glazer Index

Against Empire: Feminisms, Racism, and the WestAgainst Empire: Feminisms, Racism, and the West, by EisensteinZillah. London, UK: Zed Books, 2004. 236 pp.

helping the victim understand that what happened to her is both unjust and not inevitable. Merry helps us see how that process takes place through the translation of UN declarations into the local situation. This process is a complicated one. For example, the author offers a fascinating analysis of the Fijian practice of “bulubulu,” a ritual of forgiveness and reconciliation common in village (and increasingly urban) life. While the CEDAW committee objected to the continuing practice as one that negates the victimization of women, who are sometimes pressured by their families into the ritual or left out all together, as the men in the respective families engage in it (often the ritual is used in place of legal action), Fijian women’s groups have a more nuanced approach. They point out that the problem is not bulubulu per say, it is the politically savvy and modern use of it to avoid legal consequences. The book may offer a few frustrations for those not familiar with UN processes. A committee process and its administration may be introduced on one page, for example, without an explanation of its funding source and the impact of that on the participation of poorer countries until several pages later. However, this minor flaw only calls for the less knowledgeable readers’ patience, a small price to pay. In the end, the book is an elegant defense of the promise of both the UN and NGOs, showing us that internationally motivated principals do not have to be a form of “colonization” and that too often defense of local traditions masks very modern patriarchal practices. I highly recommend the work and feel that it is appropriate for many upper level classes in the social sciences.