Related Links:

Five Challenges to Diffusing Women's Rights Law

International Community Puts Pressure on National Lawmaking

The Origin of Anti-Female Genital Cutting Laws

Overview: Aspects of Diffusing Law Globally

Universal Culture Is in Tension with Local Culture

How do transnational human rights ideas and practices make it to the local level? How do global ideals become real in local settings?

Anthropologist Sally Engle Merry describes the transfer of ideas and practices back and forth between local settings like villages and international settings like the United Nations. How does this transfer back and forth take place?

Merry describes the transfer of ideas and practices in terms of two metaphors: translation and flow.

Translation of Meaning

The documents that make up international conventions on human rights are meant to apply universally. The challenge however, is that these documents are often highly abstract and couched in language that human rights advocates in local situations would find difficult or impossible to understand—much less put into action.

In order for these transnational documents to be relevant in far-flung local settings they must be “translated into the vernacular.” says Merry.

Cultural Translation Is More than Switching Languages

Translation is not simply a matter of putting the document into a different language. An international convention may be translated from French to Chinese, but that does not mean that a social worker in a rural Chinese province is going to be able to make heads-or-tails of it. Rather, universal ideas have to make sense in terms of local ideas, practices and values. Merry describes this as translating global culture into the vernacular.

Local Blinders in the Global South

For instance, an international convention may state that women have a right to be free from physical abuse. However, in a local context the term “physical abuse” may have quite a different meaning. In a particular village or society it may be perfectly acceptable for a man to “discipline” his wife (in fact, he may be ridiculed if he does not). In the minds of local people “discipline” only becomes “abuse” when it “goes too far” (however that is defined in the local setting). So, while global conventions may mean “physical abuse” in terms of any violence directed toward women, local interpretations may understand “physical abuse” as only certain types of violence.

Global ideas will not make sense (or make a difference) in local situations until they are translated in ways that people in the local setting can understand.

Local Blinders in the Global North

Local cultural ideas and practices can create blinders that prevent people from understanding what transnational women's rights language is really saying. A woman in a rural village in Nigeria may take it as perfectly normal (and no violation of women's rights) when she is expected to drink the water used to wash her husbands' corpse. However, in a different Nigerian village, women may see this practice as a heinous type of abuse.

However, says Merry, we should not think that this problem of translation only affects cultures in the global South. People in the “civilized” North may be equally blinded. It may seem obvious to Americans that female genital cutting is a type of violence against women's bodies. However, it may not occur to them that cosmetic surgery may be viewed as an equally violent act against women's bodies. In both cases, women's bodies are put under the knife in order to meet up with cultural expectations.

Cultural Flow

Perhaps a useful way to understand how transnational values become lived practice in local settings is to understand it in terms of “cultural flow.” Transnational cultural ideas and ideals “flow” through institutions, organizations and individuals into local settings. Along the way any number of things can happen. For example:

• Global ideas may be forced on local settings “as is” without any attempt to translate these ideals in ways that make sense in local situations,
• The transnational ideals may flow through organizations and individuals that translate them into local meanings,
• In cases where states sign a convention but then do little or nothing to institute changes, the flow may be dammed up by the state.

Merry identifies three types of global cultural flows.

Transnational Consensus Building

Representatives from states and NGOs come together in an international setting (like the UN) to work out a consensus on human rights. In these situations participants take great care in drafting language that is both universal and acceptable to all parties. By doing this, representatives from around the globe create a common forum or arena in which matters of human rights are discussed, defined and monitored. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Transnational Consensus Building

Transnational Program Transplants

Once a set of transnational ideals are written down in a formal convention, how do they then flow to local situations? One way is to transplant legal innovations or social service programs from one society to another. Actors in the international setting create repertoires for legal and social action used in one country that then flow to local situations. For instance, laws about domestic violence and rape may be transplanted from one society to another.

These transplanted repertoires for action may be tailored to local circumstances. However, Merry reports that in her research the transplanted legal and social repertoires were quite similar. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. Transnational Program Transplants

Transferring Local Knowledge

International meetings and conferences are not just places to hash out universal conventions. These forums are also opportunities for individuals and organizations from local settings to get together to share stories, practices, approaches and successes. These actors not only gain knowledge of transnational ideas, but they share knowledge and experiences with each other.

So, in these settings, human rights ideas flow not only from the transnational setting to the local situation, but ideas and practices from local settings flow back into the transnational setting. (See Figure 3.)

Figure 3. Localizing Transnational Knowledge

Full Text Availability:

Available for purchase at