Work

(Im)mobile intimacies: Commodities and marriage at the crossroads of Asia

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: This article follows traders and entrepreneurs that live and work between Kyrgyzstan and China's northwestern region of Xinjiang. Looking specifically at Islamic marriage and business partnerships forged between persecuted Uyghurs and their Uzbek partners, it argues that commodity‐mediated forms of transnational intimacy create spaces of safety and possibility in the face of political oppression, carceral violence, and gendered limitations. These transnational mobilities are forged in spite of structural immobilities. Taking seriously the imbrications of objects and people, it advances a view of intimacy as a multi‐scalar, trans‐subjective, and multiply entangled field of relationality.

Source: Feminist Anthropology

DOI: 10.1002/fea2.12156

Author: Grace H. Zhou

Institutions: National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Government of Ireland, University of Edinburgh

Language: English

Topic: China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,090