Abstract

How does one explain the poverty and marginalization of a group that lives in a remarkably successful economy and peaceful society? A native anthropologist, the author provides critical insight into the dynamics of contemporary Mauritian society. In her meticulously researched study of ethnic, gender and racial discrimination in Mauritius, she addresses debates carried out in many developing societies on subaltern identities, ethnicity, poverty and social injustice. The book therefore also offers important empirical material for scholars interested in the wider Indian Ocean region and beyond.

"... a major contribution to both the ethnography of Mauritius and to the anthropology of discursive identity formation."  ·  Paula Heinonen, University of Oxford

"Nobody has done this ethnography before... her material is rich and unique... [it will] be a standard reference in anthropological studies of the Indian Ocean island societies, but it will also be of interest to scholars and students looking at the Caribbean as well as hybridity in other settings."  ·  Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo

Rosabelle Boswell received her doctorate from the Free University of Amsterdam and is conversant in French and the Indian Ocean Creole dialect. A Creole born in Mauritius and raised in Malawi (during the dictatorship of Kamuzu Banda), she emigrated to South Africa in 1990 where she is now teaching Anthropology at Rhodes University.