Entitlements, Disputes, and Provision for the Future: Making Wills and Negotiating Inheritance in South Africa's Middle Class

自种族隔离制度结束以来，南非黑人中产阶级呈指数级增长，因为新的黑人公民阶层进入政府和企业就业。随着越来越多的南非人积累了大量财产，其支付成为亲属义务斗争的新领域。本项目通过对遗嘱和遗嘱的民族志关注来探讨阶级再生产：遗嘱和遗嘱的制作过程，以及围绕其执行的争议。其结果是一种创新的视角，关注专家和官僚在塑造阶级动态中的作用。它扩展了我对课堂再现的兴趣，在我即将出版的基于2006年以来在南非的田野调查的书（CUP 2015）中进行了探讨。在南非，随着后种族隔离时代的黑人中产阶级步入老年，开始考虑家庭的未来，这个项目显得尤为及时。该项目解决了关键的人类学问题。它结合了政治、经济（不平等）和文化（生活方式）对中产阶级的看法，以及对国家机构的学术研究。它通过超越世代，扩展了现有的关于阶级和地位再生产的研究。南非的黑人中产阶级如何将影响其亲属地位和生活机会的财产传承下去？随着立遗嘱得到越来越广泛的推广，促进立遗嘱的机构如何在死亡迫使这一问题发生之前影响亲属关系和财产的经历？这与老牌白人中产阶级相比如何？在家庭内部，如何判断所有权、权利和权利的相互竞争的定义？当未来计划的表达也成为国家监管的表达时，这对获得家庭财产（例如乡镇房屋）有何影响？在官僚主义和法律程序的瓶颈中，谁被包括在内，谁被排除在外？如何以及为什么对特定的财产进行估价？在这个过程中，人们的角色和权利是如何构成的？在不平等和不稳定加剧的情况下，如何谈论立遗嘱？媒体是如何反映对财产和遗产的关注的？考虑到南非黑人中产阶级多样化的历史，今天的立遗嘱与过去相比如何？考察阶级在一段时间内的再生产意味着结合民族志和历史方法。对于前者，我将从约翰内斯堡高等法院的长期观察开始，那里审理有关遗嘱的纠纷，并从正式的遗嘱认证程序到与个人和家庭的实地调查，追踪案件。与此同时，我将与遗嘱顾问和律师合作，采访法官、金融机构成员以及负责设计在线遗嘱模板的专家。威特沃特斯大学（Wits University）的前法学院院长（我在那里担任研究助理）表示支持，并正在为接触律师和法官提供便利。总的来说，民族志研究在机构和个人过程之间移动，提供了一个自下而上的视角，挑战了简单的元叙事。历史研究建立在与我在Wits大学的导师和同事正在进行的合作工作的基础上，将遗嘱记录作为南非黑人中产阶级历史的来源。该项目旨在收集一个多世纪以来南非历史上的所有相关记录。我提出的项目探讨了定性案例研究和汇总的定量数据，为财产的积累和分散提供了更长远的视角。将国家官员和机构的复杂和意想不到的角色放在前台，为民族志田野调查提出了问题。例如，作为遗嘱执行人，州政府官员代表死者勤勉地使用遗产（如未成年人的学费）。与此同时，关于遗嘱认证过程的民族志田野调查，以及个人和官方的交集，将为档案带来问题。其成果将阐明当今中产阶级的意志制定，但带有历史化的深度。

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa's black middle class has grown exponentially, as a new stratum of black citizens has moved into government and corporate employment. As more South Africans accumulate substantial property, its disbursement becomes a new terrain on which battles of kinship obligation are fought. This project approaches class reproduction through an ethnographic focus on wills and testaments: the processes through which they are made, and the disputes surrounding their execution. The result is an innovative lens that attends to the role of experts and bureaucrats in shaping the dynamics of class. It extends my interest in class reproduction, explored in my forthcoming book (CUP 2015) based on fieldwork in South Africa since 2006. In South Africa, as the post-apartheid black middle class ages and considers family futures, the project is especially timely.The project addresses key anthropological concerns. It combines political-economic (inequality) and cultural (lifestyle) perspectives on the middle class, and these with scholarship on state institutions. And it extends existing work on class and status reproduction by transcending generations. How do black middle-class South Africans pass on the property that shapes their kin's status and life chances? As will-making is promoted ever more widely, how do institutions that facilitate it inflect experiences of kinship and property before death forces the issue? How does this compare with the established white middle class?Within families, how are competing definitions of ownership, rights and entitlements judged? When expressions of future plans also become expressions of state regulation, how does this affect access to family property (e.g. township houses)? Who is included and excluded, in the bottleneck of bureaucracy and legal process?How and why are particular possessions valued? How are people's roles and entitlements constituted in the process?Amidst increasing inequality and precarity, how is will-making talked about? How have concerns about property and inheritance been reflected in the media?Given the South African black middle class's diverse history, how does will-making today compare with the past?Examining class reproduction over time means combining ethnographic and historical methods. For the former, I will begin with long-term observation in the Johannesburg High Court where disputes around wills are heard, and trace cases out from the formal probate process to fieldwork with individuals and families. Meanwhile, I will work with will consultants and lawyers, and interview judges, members of financial organisations, and the experts responsible for designing their online will templates. The former Dean of Law at Wits University (where I am a Research Associate) has expressed support, and is facilitating access to lawyers and judges. Taken together, the ethnographic research moves between institutional and personal processes, offering a bottom-up perspective that challenges easy meta-narratives.The historical research builds on ongoing collaborative work with my proposed mentor and colleagues at Wits University, on probate records as a source for South African black middle class history. This aims to capture all relevant records over a century of South African history. My proposed project explores qualitative case studies and aggregated quantitative data, offering a longer view on the accumulation and dispersal of property. Foregrounding the complex and unexpected roles of state officials and institutions raises questions for ethnographic fieldwork. For example, as executors, state officials diligently spent inheritances on behalf of deceased (e.g. minors' school fees). Meanwhile, ethnographic fieldwork on probate processes, and the intersection of personal and official, will generate questions for the archive. Outputs will illuminate will-making among today's middle class, but with the depth of historicisation.