Mothercraft, statecraft, and subjectivity in the Palestinian intifada

Focusing on Palestinian subjectivity during the intifada, I highlight connections between domestic processes and the nascent state. Empowered by the progressive-nationalist movement, ordinary young men and women challenged the moral authority of the domestic patriarch. The new moral subjects were not, however, producing "themselves" individually and reflexively. In the face of paradoxical conditions of self-making precipitated by the organized political struggle, young men with their mothers and sisters became moral persons through a collaborative and reciprocal exercise of self. [statecraft, kinship, political organization, gender, personhood, Middle East]