Erin Stiles: Islam, inheritance, and legal pluralism in Cape Town, South Africa

Title

Islam, inheritance, and pluralism in Cape Town, South Africa

Mentor

Erin Stiles, Ph.D.

Department

Anthropology

Biosketch

Erin Stiles, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist. Her research focuses on the intersections of religion, law and gender and she conducts fieldwork in Africa (Zanzibar, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana) and in Utah. Stiles has done extensive ethnographic research on Islamic family law and dispute resolution in Zanzibar, Tanzania; this project focused primarily on the way lay people and legal professionals understand, interpret, and use Islamic legal ideas in marital disputes. She has done fieldwork both in and out of courts and is particularly interested in how Islamic judges, called kadhis and litigants, reason using not only their understandings of Islamic law but also their views of real and ideal marital behavior, patterns of local authority and the role of Islamic courts. Stiles is particularly interested in comparative approaches to studying Islamic law and legal practice and is conducting comparative research gender, Islam and inheritance in Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa. In addition to her work on Islam and law, Stiles has also conducted research in northern Utah on Latter-day Saint (Mormon) conceptions of and experiences with the spirit world. In addition to anthropology, Stiles loves skiing, reading, dogs, and horses.

Project overview

The Pack Research Experience Program (PREP) student will be trained in analysis of ethnographic field data. This project aims to answer this question: in a multiethnic state with strong legal pluralism and co-existing normative orders, how does the interplay of different legal orders, religious minority experiences, and local discourses on gender influence the interpretation and use of Islamic inheritance law? Legal pluralism, which is the existence of multiple legal frameworks, both within and outside of the official state, coinciding within a single social context. Scholars of legal pluralism have long asserted that different legal orders in diverse societies must be considered “mutually constitutive” (Merry 1988, see also Moore 1973); co-existing legal and normative orders can influence one another in observable ways and in everyday legal practice. In summer 2025, Stiles and her research team will be conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Town, South Africa, and the PREP student researcher will be assisting with transcribing and coding interviews and fieldnotes from the research in Cape Town.

Pack Research Experience Program information and application