Men between Worlds

Abstract

In 2003 Mozambique’s parliament approved a new legal code that proposes a “Western” view of family and gender roles. These changes question the social organization and the symbolic views of gender in Mozambique. We show how men are reconstructing their identities when caught between tradition and male dominance and the Westernized values of the modern equalitarian family. We analyze change at the levels of individual practices and identities and of societal symbolic models to show how entanglements are produced at both levels. At the macro-level the law legitimates Western values and deals with hybrid realities. At the micro-level, men live entangled trajectories in which they mix different references and social times when relating themselves to hegemonic masculinity(ies). The analysis draws on data collected in urban Maputo both through a survey applied to Eduardo Mondlane University students and in-depth interviews with men from several generations and contexts.

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