title: Cultural anthropology

text: Anthropology is concerned with the lives of people in different parts of the world, particularly in relation to the discourse of beliefs and practices. In addressing this question, ethnologists in the 19th century divided into two schools of thought. Some, like Grafton Elliot Smith, argued that different groups must have learned from one another somehow, however indirectly; in other words, they argued that cultural traits spread from one place to another, or "diffused".


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Other ethnologists argued that different groups had the capability of creating similar beliefs and practices independently. Some of those who advocated "independent invention", like Lewis Henry Morgan, additionally supposed that similarities meant that different groups had passed through the same stages of cultural evolution (See also classical social evolutionism). Morgan, in particular, acknowledged that certain forms of society and culture could not possibly have arisen before others. For example, industrial farming could not have been invented before simple farming, and metallurgy could not have developed without previous non-smelting processes involving metals (such as simple ground collection or mining). Morgan, like other 19th century social evolutionists, believed there was a more or less orderly progression from the primitive to the civilized.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: 20th-century anthropologists largely reject the notion that all human societies must pass through the same stages in the same order, on the grounds that such a notion does not fit the empirical facts. Some 20th-century ethnologists, like Julian Steward, have instead argued that such similarities reflected similar adaptations to similar environments. Although 19th-century ethnologists saw "diffusion" and "independent invention" as mutually exclusive and competing theories, most ethnographers quickly reached a consensus that both processes occur, and that both can plausibly account for cross-cultural similarities. But these ethnographers also pointed out the superficiality of many such similarities. They noted that even traits that spread through diffusion often were given different meanings and function from one society to another. Analyses of large human concentrations in big cities, in multidisciplinary studies by Ronald Daus, show how new methods may be applied to the understanding of man living in a global world and how it was caused by the action of extra-European nations, so highlighting the role of Ethics in modern anthropology.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Accordingly, most of these anthropologists showed less interest in comparing cultures, generalizing about human nature, or discovering universal laws of cultural development, than in understanding particular cultures in those cultures' own terms. Such ethnographers and their students promoted the idea of "cultural relativism", the view that one can only understand another person's beliefs and behaviors in the context of the culture in which they live or lived.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Others, such as Claude Lévi-Strauss (who was influenced both by American cultural anthropology and by French Durkheimian sociology), have argued that apparently similar patterns of development reflect fundamental similarities in the structure of human thought (see structuralism). By the mid-20th century, the number of examples of people skipping stages, such as going from hunter-gatherers to post-industrial service occupations in one generation, were so numerous that 19th-century evolutionism was effectively disproved.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Cultural relativism is a principle that was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas and later popularized by his students. Boas first articulated the idea in 1887: "...civilization is not something absolute, but ... is relative, and ... our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes." Although Boas did not coin the term, it became common among anthropologists after Boas' death in 1942, to express their synthesis of a number of ideas Boas had developed. Boas believed that the sweep of cultures, to be found in connection with any sub-species, is so vast and pervasive that there cannot be a relationship between culture and race. Cultural relativism involves specific epistemological and methodological claims. Whether or not these claims require a specific ethical stance is a matter of debate. This principle should not be confused with moral relativism.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Cultural relativism was in part a response to Western ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism may take obvious forms, in which one consciously believes that one's people's arts are the most beautiful, values the most virtuous, and beliefs the most truthful. Boas, originally trained in physics and geography, and heavily influenced by the thought of Kant, Herder, and von Humboldt, argued that one's culture may mediate and thus limit one's perceptions in less obvious ways. This understanding of culture confronts anthropologists with two problems: first, how to escape the unconscious bonds of one's own culture, which inevitably bias our perceptions of and reactions to the world, and second, how to make sense of an unfamiliar culture. The principle of cultural relativism thus forced anthropologists to develop innovative methods and heuristic strategies.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Boas and his students realized that if they were to conduct scientific research in other cultures, they would need to employ methods that would help them escape the limits of their own ethnocentrism. One such method is that of ethnography: basically, they advocated living with people of another culture for an extended period of time, so that they could learn the local language and be enculturated, at least partially, into that culture. In this context, cultural relativism is of fundamental methodological importance, because it calls attention to the importance of the local context in understanding the meaning of particular human beliefs and activities. Thus, in 1948 Virginia Heyer wrote, "Cultural relativity, to phrase it in starkest abstraction, states the relativity of the part to the whole. The part gains its cultural significance by its place in the whole, and cannot retain its integrity in a different situation."


title: Cultural anthropology

text: The rubric "cultural" anthropology is generally applied to ethnographic works that are holistic in approach, are oriented to the ways in which culture affects individual experience, or aim to provide a rounded view of the knowledge, customs, and institutions of a people. "Social" anthropology is a term applied to ethnographic works that attempt to isolate a particular system of social relations such as those that comprise domestic life, economy, law, politics, or religion, give analytical priority to the organizational bases of social life, and attend to cultural phenomena as somewhat secondary to the main issues of social scientific inquiry.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Parallel with the rise of cultural anthropology in the United States, social anthropology developed as an academic discipline in Britain and in France.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881), a lawyer from Rochester, New York, became an advocate for and ethnological scholar of the Iroquois. His comparative analyses of religion, government, material culture, and especially kinship patterns proved to be influential contributions to the field of anthropology. Like other scholars of his day (such as Edward Tylor), Morgan argued that human societies could be classified into categories of cultural evolution on a scale of progression that ranged from "savagery", to "barbarism", to "civilization". Generally, Morgan used technology (such as bowmaking or pottery) as an indicator of position on this scale.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Franz Boas (1858–1942) established academic anthropology in the United States in opposition to Morgan's evolutionary perspective. His approach was empirical, skeptical of overgeneralizations, and eschewed attempts to establish universal laws. For example, Boas studied immigrant children to demonstrate that biological race was not immutable, and that human conduct and behavior resulted from nurture, rather than nature.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Influenced by the German tradition, Boas argued that the world was full of distinct "cultures," rather than societies whose evolution could be measured by how much or how little "civilization" they had. He believed that each culture has to be studied in its particularity, and argued that cross-cultural generalizations, like those made in the natural sciences, were not possible.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: In doing so, he fought discrimination against immigrants, blacks, and indigenous peoples of the Americas. Many American anthropologists adopted his agenda for social reform, and theories of race continue to be popular subjects for anthropologists today. The so-called "Four Field Approach" has its origins in Boasian Anthropology, dividing the discipline in the four crucial and interrelated fields of sociocultural, biological, linguistic, and archaic anthropology (e.g. archaeology). Anthropology in the United States continues to be deeply influenced by the Boasian tradition, especially its emphasis on culture.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Boas used his positions at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to train and develop multiple generations of students. His first generation of students included Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie, Edward Sapir, and Ruth Benedict, who each produced richly detailed studies of indigenous North American cultures. They provided a wealth of details used to attack the theory of a single evolutionary process. Kroeber and Sapir's focus on Native American languages helped establish linguistics as a truly general science and free it from its historical focus on Indo-European languages.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: The publication of Alfred Kroeber's textbook "Anthropology" (1923) marked a turning point in American anthropology. After three decades of amassing material, Boasians felt a growing urge to generalize. This was most obvious in the 'Culture and Personality' studies carried out by younger Boasians such as Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. Influenced by psychoanalytic psychologists including Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, these authors sought to understand the way that individual personalities were shaped by the wider cultural and social forces in which they grew up.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Though such works as Mead's "Coming of Age in Samoa" (1928) and Benedict's "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" (1946) remain popular with the American public, Mead and Benedict never had the impact on the discipline of anthropology that some expected. Boas had planned for Ruth Benedict to succeed him as chair of Columbia's anthropology department, but she was sidelined in favor of Ralph Linton, and Mead was limited to her offices at the AMNH.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: In the 1950s and mid-1960s anthropology tended increasingly to model itself after the natural sciences. Some anthropologists, such as Lloyd Fallers and Clifford Geertz, focused on processes of modernization by which newly independent states could develop. Others, such as Julian Steward and Leslie White, focused on how societies evolve and fit their ecological niche—an approach popularized by Marvin Harris.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Economic anthropology as influenced by Karl Polanyi and practiced by Marshall Sahlins and George Dalton challenged standard neoclassical economics to take account of cultural and social factors, and employed Marxian analysis into anthropological study. In England, British Social Anthropology's paradigm began to fragment as Max Gluckman and Peter Worsley experimented with Marxism and authors such as Rodney Needham and Edmund Leach incorporated Lévi-Strauss's structuralism into their work. Structuralism also influenced a number of developments in the 1960s and 1970s, including cognitive anthropology and componential analysis.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: In keeping with the times, much of anthropology became politicized through the Algerian War of Independence and opposition to the Vietnam War; Marxism became an increasingly popular theoretical approach in the discipline. By the 1970s the authors of volumes such as "Reinventing Anthropology" worried about anthropology's relevance.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Since the 1980s issues of power, such as those examined in Eric Wolf's "Europe and the People Without History", have been central to the discipline. In the 1980s books like "Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter" pondered anthropology's ties to colonial inequality, while the immense popularity of theorists such as Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault moved issues of power and hegemony into the spotlight. Gender and sexuality became popular topics, as did the relationship between history and anthropology, influenced by Marshall Sahlins, who drew on Lévi-Strauss and Fernand Braudel to examine the relationship between symbolic meaning, sociocultural structure, and individual agency in the processes of historical transformation. Jean and John Comaroff produced a whole generation of anthropologists at the University of Chicago that focused on these themes. Also influential in these issues were Nietzsche, Heidegger, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, Derrida and Lacan.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Many anthropologists reacted against the renewed emphasis on materialism and scientific modelling derived from Marx by emphasizing the importance of the concept of culture. Authors such as David Schneider, Clifford Geertz, and Marshall Sahlins developed a more fleshed-out concept of culture as a web of meaning or signification, which proved very popular within and beyond the discipline. Geertz was to state:


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Geertz's interpretive method involved what he called "thick description". The cultural symbols of rituals, political and economic action, and of kinship, are "read" by the anthropologist as if they are a document in a foreign language. The interpretation of those symbols must be re-framed for their anthropological audience, i.e. transformed from the "experience-near" but foreign concepts of the other culture, into the "experience-distant" theoretical concepts of the anthropologist. These interpretations must then be reflected back to its originators, and its adequacy as a translation fine-tuned in a repeated way, a process called the hermeneutic circle. Geertz applied his method in a number of areas, creating programs of study that were very productive. His analysis of "religion as a cultural system" was particularly influential outside of anthropology. David Schnieder's cultural analysis of American kinship has proven equally influential. Schneider demonstrated that the American folk-cultural emphasis on "blood connections" had an undue influence on anthropological kinship theories, and that kinship is not a biological characteristic but a cultural relationship established on very different terms in different societies.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: In the late 1980s and 1990s authors such as James Clifford pondered ethnographic authority, in particular how and why anthropological knowledge was possible and authoritative. They were reflecting trends in research and discourse initiated by feminists in the academy, although they excused themselves from commenting specifically on those pioneering critics. Nevertheless, key aspects of feminist theory and methods became "de rigueur" as part of the 'post-modern moment' in anthropology: Ethnographies became more interpretative and reflexive, explicitly addressing the author's methodology; cultural, gendered, and racial positioning; and their influence on the ethnographic analysis. This was part of a more general trend of postmodernism that was popular contemporaneously. Currently anthropologists pay attention to a wide variety of issues pertaining to the contemporary world, including globalization, medicine and biotechnology, indigenous rights, virtual communities, and the anthropology of industrialized societies.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Modern cultural anthropology has its origins in, and developed in reaction to, 19th century ethnology, which involves the organized comparison of human societies. Scholars like E.B. Tylor and J.G. Frazer in England worked mostly with materials collected by others—usually missionaries, traders, explorers, or colonial officials—earning them the moniker of "arm-chair anthropologists".


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Participant observation is one of the principal research methods of cultural anthropology. It relies on the assumption that the best way to understand a group of people is to interact with them closely over a long period of time. The method originated in the field research of social anthropologists, especially Bronislaw Malinowski in Britain, the students of Franz Boas in the United States, and in the later urban research of the Chicago School of Sociology. Historically, the group of people being studied was a small, non-Western society. However, today it may be a specific corporation, a church group, a sports team, or a small town. There are no restrictions as to what the subject of participant observation can be, as long as the group of people is studied intimately by the observing anthropologist over a long period of time. This allows the anthropologist to develop trusting relationships with the subjects of study and receive an inside perspective on the culture, which helps him or her to give a richer description when writing about the culture later. Observable details (like daily time allotment) and more hidden details (like taboo behavior) are more easily observed and interpreted over a longer period of time, and researchers can discover discrepancies between what participants say—and often believe—should happen (the formal system) and what actually does happen, or between different aspects of the formal system; in contrast, a one-time survey of people's answers to a set of questions might be quite consistent, but is less likely to show conflicts between different aspects of the social system or between conscious representations and behavior.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Interactions between an ethnographer and a cultural informant must go both ways. Just as an ethnographer may be naive or curious about a culture, the members of that culture may be curious about the ethnographer. To establish connections that will eventually lead to a better understanding of the cultural context of a situation, an anthropologist must be open to becoming part of the group, and willing to develop meaningful relationships with its members. One way to do this is to find a small area of common experience between an anthropologist and their subjects, and then to expand from this common ground into the larger area of difference. Once a single connection has been established, it becomes easier to integrate into the community, and more likely that accurate and complete information is being shared with the anthropologist.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Before participant observation can begin, an anthropologist must choose both a location and a focus of study. This focus may change once the anthropologist is actively observing the chosen group of people, but having an idea of what one wants to study before beginning fieldwork allows an anthropologist to spend time researching background information on their topic. It can also be helpful to know what previous research has been conducted in one's chosen location or on similar topics, and if the participant observation takes place in a location where the spoken language is not one the anthropologist is familiar with, they will usually also learn that language. This allows the anthropologist to become better established in the community. The lack of need for a translator makes communication more direct, and allows the anthropologist to give a richer, more contextualized representation of what they witness. In addition, participant observation often requires permits from governments and research institutions in the area of study, and always needs some form of funding.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: The majority of participant observation is based on conversation. This can take the form of casual, friendly dialogue, or can also be a series of more structured interviews. A combination of the two is often used, sometimes along with photography, mapping, artifact collection, and various other methods. In some cases, ethnographers also turn to structured observation, in which an anthropologist's observations are directed by a specific set of questions they are trying to answer. In the case of structured observation, an observer might be required to record the order of a series of events, or describe a certain part of the surrounding environment. While the anthropologist still makes an effort to become integrated into the group they are studying, and still participates in the events as they observe, structured observation is more directed and specific than participant observation in general. This helps to standardize the method of study when ethnographic data is being compared across several groups or is needed to fulfill a specific purpose, such as research for a governmental policy decision.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: One common criticism of participant observation is its lack of objectivity. Because each anthropologist has their own background and set of experiences, each individual is likely to interpret the same culture in a different way. Who the ethnographer is has a lot to do with what they will eventually write about a culture, because each researcher is influenced by their own perspective. This is considered a problem especially when anthropologists write in the ethnographic present, a present tense which makes a culture seem stuck in time, and ignores the fact that it may have interacted with other cultures or gradually evolved since the anthropologist made observations. To avoid this, past ethnographers have advocated for strict training, or for anthropologists working in teams. However, these approaches have not generally been successful, and modern ethnographers often choose to include their personal experiences and possible biases in their writing instead.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Participant observation has also raised ethical questions, since an anthropologist is in control of what they report about a culture. In terms of representation, an anthropologist has greater power than their subjects of study, and this has drawn criticism of participant observation in general. Additionally, anthropologists have struggled with the effect their presence has on a culture. Simply by being present, a researcher causes changes in a culture, and anthropologists continue to question whether or not it is appropriate to influence the cultures they study, or possible to avoid having influence.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: In the 20th century, most cultural and social anthropologists turned to the crafting of ethnographies. An ethnography is a piece of writing about a people, at a particular place and time. Typically, the anthropologist lives among people in another society for a period of time, simultaneously participating in and observing the social and cultural life of the group.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Numerous other ethnographic techniques have resulted in ethnographic writing or details being preserved, as cultural anthropologists also curate materials, spend long hours in libraries, churches and schools poring over records, investigate graveyards, and decipher ancient scripts. A typical ethnography will also include information about physical geography, climate and habitat. It is meant to be a holistic piece of writing about the people in question, and today often includes the longest possible timeline of past events that the ethnographer can obtain through primary and secondary research.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Bronisław Malinowski developed the ethnographic method, and Franz Boas taught it in the United States. Boas' students such as Alfred L. Kroeber, Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead drew on his conception of culture and cultural relativism to develop cultural anthropology in the United States. Simultaneously, Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe Brown's students were developing social anthropology in the United Kingdom. Whereas cultural anthropology focused on symbols and values, social anthropology focused on social groups and institutions. Today socio-cultural anthropologists attend to all these elements.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: In the early 20th century, socio-cultural anthropology developed in different forms in Europe and in the United States. European "social anthropologists" focused on observed social behaviors and on "social structure", that is, on relationships among social roles (for example, husband and wife, or parent and child) and social institutions (for example, religion, economy, and politics).


title: Cultural anthropology

text: American "cultural anthropologists" focused on the ways people expressed their view of themselves and their world, especially in symbolic forms, such as art and myths. These two approaches frequently converged and generally complemented one another. For example, kinship and leadership function both as symbolic systems and as social institutions. Today almost all socio-cultural anthropologists refer to the work of both sets of predecessors, and have an equal interest in what people do and in what people say.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: One means by which anthropologists combat ethnocentrism is to engage in the process of cross-cultural comparison. It is important to test so-called "human universals" against the ethnographic record. Monogamy, for example, is frequently touted as a universal human trait, yet comparative study shows that it is not.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: The Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF) is a research agency based at Yale University. Since 1949, its mission has been to encourage and facilitate worldwide comparative studies of human culture, society, and behavior in the past and present. The name came from the Institute of Human Relations, an interdisciplinary program/building at Yale at the time. The Institute of Human Relations had sponsored HRAF's precursor, the "Cross-Cultural Survey" (see George Peter Murdock), as part of an effort to develop an integrated science of human behavior and culture. The two eHRAF databases on the Web are expanded and updated annually. "eHRAF World Cultures" includes materials on cultures, past and present, and covers nearly 400 cultures. The second database, "eHRAF Archaeology", covers major archaeological traditions and many more sub-traditions and sites around the world.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Comparison across cultures includies the industrialized (or de-industrialized) West. Cultures in the more traditional standard cross-cultural sample of small scale societies are:


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Ethnography dominates socio-cultural anthropology. Nevertheless, many contemporary socio-cultural anthropologists have rejected earlier models of ethnography as treating local cultures as bounded and isolated. These anthropologists continue to concern themselves with the distinct ways people in different locales experience and understand their lives, but they often argue that one cannot understand these particular ways of life solely from a local perspective; they instead combine a focus on the local with an effort to grasp larger political, economic, and cultural frameworks that impact local lived realities. Notable proponents of this approach include Arjun Appadurai, James Clifford, George Marcus, Sidney Mintz, Michael Taussig, Eric Wolf and Ronald Daus.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: A growing trend in anthropological research and analysis is the use of multi-sited ethnography, discussed in George Marcus' article, "Ethnography In/Of the World System: the Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography". Looking at culture as embedded in macro-constructions of a global social order, multi-sited ethnography uses traditional methodology in various locations both spatially and temporally. Through this methodology, greater insight can be gained when examining the impact of world-systems on local and global communities.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Also emerging in multi-sited ethnography are greater interdisciplinary approaches to fieldwork, bringing in methods from cultural studies, media studies, science and technology studies, and others. In multi-sited ethnography, research tracks a subject across spatial and temporal boundaries. For example, a multi-sited ethnography may follow a "thing", such as a particular commodity, as it is transported through the networks of global capitalism.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Multi-sited ethnography may also follow ethnic groups in diaspora, stories or rumours that appear in multiple locations and in multiple time periods, metaphors that appear in multiple ethnographic locations, or the biographies of individual people or groups as they move through space and time. It may also follow conflicts that transcend boundaries. An example of multi-sited ethnography is Nancy Scheper-Hughes' work on the international black market for the trade of human organs. In this research, she follows organs as they are transferred through various legal and illegal networks of capitalism, as well as the rumours and urban legends that circulate in impoverished communities about child kidnapping and organ theft.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Sociocultural anthropologists have increasingly turned their investigative eye on to "Western" culture. For example, Philippe Bourgois won the Margaret Mead Award in 1997 for "In Search of Respect", a study of the entrepreneurs in a Harlem crack-den. Also growing more popular are ethnographies of professional communities, such as laboratory researchers, Wall Street investors, law firms, or information technology (IT) computer employees.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Kinship refers to the anthropological study of the ways in which humans form and maintain relationships with one another, and further, how those relationships operate within and define social organization.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Research in kinship studies often crosses over into different anthropological subfields including medical, feminist, and public anthropology. This is likely due to its fundamental concepts, as articulated by linguistic anthropologist Patrick McConvell: Kinship is the bedrock of all human societies that we know. All humans recognize fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, husbands and wives, grandparents, cousins, and often many more complex types of relationships in the terminologies that they use. That is the matrix into which human children are born in the great majority of cases, and their first words are often kinship terms.Throughout history, kinship studies have primarily focused on the topics of marriage, descent, and procreation. Anthropologists have written extensively on the variations within marriage across cultures and its legitimacy as a human institution. There are stark differences between communities in terms of marital practice and value, leaving much room for anthropological fieldwork. For instance, the Nuer of Sudan and the Brahmans of Nepal practice polygyny, where one man has several marriages to two or more women. The Nyar of India and Nyimba of Tibet and Nepal practice polyandry, where one woman is often married to two or more men. The marital practice found in most cultures, however, is monogamy, where one woman is married to one man. Anthropologists also study different marital taboos across cultures, most commonly the incest taboo of marriage within sibling and parent-child relationships. It has been found that all cultures have an incest taboo to some degree, but the taboo shifts between cultures when the marriage extends beyond the nuclear family unit.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: There are similar foundational differences where the act of procreation is concerned. Although anthropologists have found that biology is acknowledged in every cultural relationship to procreation, there are differences in the ways in which cultures assess the constructs of parenthood. For example, in the Nuyoo municipality of Oaxaca, Mexico, it is believed that a child can have partible maternity and partible paternity. In this case, a child would have multiple biological mothers in the case that it is born of one woman and then breastfed by another. A child would have multiple biological fathers in the case that the mother had sex with multiple men, following the commonplace belief in Nuyoo culture that pregnancy must be preceded by sex with multiple men in order have the necessary accumulation of semen.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: In the twenty-first century, Western ideas of kinship have evolved beyond the traditional assumptions of the nuclear family, raising anthropological questions of consanguinity, lineage, and normative marital expectation. The shift can be traced back to the 1960s, with the reassessment of kinship's basic principles offered by Edmund Leach, Rodney Neeham, David Schneider, and others. Instead of relying on narrow ideas of Western normalcy, kinship studies increasingly catered to "more ethnographic voices, human agency, intersecting power structures, and historical contex". The study of kinship evolved to accommodate for the fact that it cannot be separated from its institutional roots and must pay respect to the society in which it lives, including that society's contradictions, hierarchies, and individual experiences of those within it. This shift was progressed further by the emergence of second-wave feminism in the early 1970s, which introduced ideas of marital oppression, sexual autonomy, and domestic subordination. Other themes that emerged during this time included the frequent comparisons between Eastern and Western kinship systems and the increasing amount of attention paid to anthropologists' own societies, a swift turn from the focus that had traditionally been paid to largely "foreign", non-Western communities.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Kinship studies began to gain mainstream recognition in the late 1990s with the surging popularity of feminist anthropology, particularly with its work related to biological anthropology and the intersectional critique of gender relations. At this time, there was the arrival of "Third World feminism", a movement that argued kinship studies could not examine the gender relations of developing countries in isolation, and must pay respect to racial and economic nuance as well. This critique became relevant, for instance, in the anthropological study of Jamaica: race and class were seen as the primary obstacles to Jamaican liberation from economic imperialism, and gender as an identity was largely ignored. Third World feminism aimed to combat this in the early twenty-first century by promoting these categories as coexisting factors. In Jamaica, marriage as an institution is often substituted for a series of partners, as poor women cannot rely on regular financial contributions in a climate of economic instability. In addition, there is a common practice of Jamaican women artificially lightening their skin tones in order to secure economic survival. These anthropological findings, according to Third World feminism, cannot see gender, racial, or class differences as separate entities, and instead must acknowledge that they interact together to produce unique individual experiences.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Kinship studies have also experienced a rise in the interest of reproductive anthropology with the advancement of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), including in vitro fertilization (IVF). These advancements have led to new dimensions of anthropological research, as they challenge the Western standard of biogenetically based kinship, relatedness, and parenthood. According to anthropologists Maria C. Inhorn and Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli, "ARTs have pluralized notions of relatedness and led to a more dynamic notion of "kinning" namely, kinship as a process, as something under construction, rather than a natural given". With this technology, questions of kinship have emerged over the difference between biological and genetic relatedness, as gestational surrogates can provide a biological environment for the embryo while the genetic ties remain with a third party. If genetic, surrogate, and adoptive maternities are involved, anthropologists have acknowledged that there can be the possibility for three "biological" mothers to a single child. With ARTs, there are also anthropological questions concerning the intersections between wealth and fertility: ARTs are generally only available to those in the highest income bracket, meaning the infertile poor are inherently devalued in the system. There have also been issues of reproductive tourism and bodily commodification, as individuals seek economic security through hormonal stimulation and egg harvesting, which are potentially harmful procedures. With IVF, specifically, there have been many questions of embryotic value and the status of life, particularly as it relates to the manufacturing of stem cells, testing, and research.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Current issues in kinship studies, such as adoption, have revealed and challenged the Western cultural disposition towards the genetic, "blood" tie. Western biases against single parent homes have also been explored through similar anthropological research, uncovering that a household with a single parent experiences "greater levels of scrutiny and [is] routinely seen as the 'other' of the nuclear, patriarchal family". The power dynamics in reproduction, when explored through a comparative analysis of "conventional" and "unconventional" families, have been used to dissect the Western assumptions of child bearing and child rearing in contemporary kinship studies.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Kinship, as an anthropological field of inquiry, has been heavily criticized across the discipline. One critique is that, as its inception, the framework of kinship studies was far too structured and formulaic, relying on dense language and stringent rules. Another critique, explored at length by American anthropologist David Schneider, argues that kinship has been limited by its inherent Western ethnocentrism. Schneider proposes that kinship is not a field that can be applied cross-culturally, as the theory itself relies on European assumptions of normalcy. He states in the widely circulated 1984 book "A critique of the study of kinship" that "[K]inship has been defined by European social scientists, and European social scientists use their own folk culture as the source of many, if not all of their ways of formulating and understanding the world about them". However, this critique has been challenged by the argument that it is linguistics, not cultural divergence, that has allowed for a European bias, and that the bias can be lifted by centering the methodology on fundamental human concepts. Polish anthropologist Anna Wierzbicka argues that "mother" and "father" are examples of such fundamental human concepts, and can only be Westernized when conflated with English concepts such as "parent" and "sibling".


title: Cultural anthropology

text: A more recent critique of kinship studies is its solipsistic focus on privileged, Western human relations and its promotion of normative ideals of human exceptionalism. In "Critical Kinship Studies", social psychologists Elizabeth Peel and Damien Riggs argue for a move beyond this human-centered framework, opting instead to explore kinship through a "posthumanist" vantage point where anthropologists focus on the intersecting relationships of human animals, non-human animals, technologies and practices.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: The role of anthropology in institutions has expanded significantly since the end of the 20th century. Much of this development can be attributed to the rise in anthropologists working outside of academia and the increasing importance of globalization in both institutions and the field of anthropology. Anthropologists can be employed by institutions such as for-profit business, nonprofit organizations, and governments. For instance, cultural anthropologists are commonly employed by the United States federal government.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: The two types of institutions defined in the field of anthropology are total institutions and social institutions. Total institutions are places that comprehensively coordinate the actions of people within them, and examples of total institutions include prisons, convents, and hospitals. Social institutions, on the other hand, are constructs that regulate individuals' day-to-day lives, such as kinship, religion, and economics. Anthropology of institutions may analyze labor unions, businesses ranging from small enterprises to corporations, government, medical organizations, education, prisons, and financial institutions. Nongovernmental organizations have garnered particular interest in the field of institutional anthropology because they are capable of fulfilling roles previously ignored by governments, or previously realized by families or local groups, in an attempt to mitigate social problems.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: The types and methods of scholarship performed in the anthropology of institutions can take a number of forms. Institutional anthropologists may study the relationship between organizations or between an organization and other parts of society. Institutional anthropology may also focus on the inner workings of an institution, such as the relationships, hierarchies and cultures formed, and the ways that these elements are transmitted and maintained, transformed, or abandoned over time. Additionally, some anthropology of institutions examines the specific design of institutions and their corresponding strength. More specifically, anthropologists may analyze specific events within an institution, perform semiotic investigations, or analyze the mechanisms by which knowledge and culture are organized and dispersed.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: In all manifestations of institutional anthropology, participant observation is critical to understanding the intricacies of the way an institution works and the consequences of actions taken by individuals within it. Simultaneously, anthropology of institutions extends beyond examination of the commonplace involvement of individuals in institutions to discover how and why the organizational principles evolved in the manner that they did.


title: Cultural anthropology

text: Common considerations taken by anthropologists in studying institutions include the physical location at which a researcher places themselves, as important interactions often take place in private, and the fact that the members of an institution are often being examined in their workplace and may not have much idle time to discuss the details of their everyday endeavors. The ability of individuals to present the workings of an institution in a particular light or frame must additionally be taken into account when using interviews and document analysis to understand an institution, as the involvement of an anthropologist may be met with distrust when information being released to the public is not directly controlled by the institution and could potentially be damaging.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: In a jury trial, a Chewbacca defense is a legal strategy in which a criminal defense lawyer tries to confuse the jury rather than refute the case of the prosecutor. It is an intentional distraction or obfuscation.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: As a Chewbacca defense distracts and misleads, it is an example of a red herring. It is also an example of an irrelevant conclusion, a type of informal fallacy in which one making an argument fails to address the issue in question. Often an opposing counsel can legally object to such arguments by declaring them irrelevant, character evidence, or argumentative.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: The name "Chewbacca defense" comes from "Chef Aid", an episode of the American animated series "South Park". The episode, which premiered on October 7, 1998, satirizes the O. J. Simpson murder trial, particularly attorney Johnnie Cochran's closing argument for the defense. In the episode, Cochran bases his argument on a false premise about the 1983 film "Return of the Jedi". He asks the jury why a Wookiee like Chewbacca would want to live on Endor with the much smaller Ewoks when "it does not make sense". He argues that if Chewbacca living on Endor does not make sense—and if even mentioning Chewbacca in the case does not make sense—then the jury must acquit.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: In the Simpson murder trial, the real Johnnie Cochran tried to convince jurors that a glove found at the crime scene, alleged to have been left by the killer, could not be Simpson's because it did not fit Simpson's hand. Because the prosecution relied on the glove as evidence of Simpson's presence at the scene, Cochran argued that the lack of fit proved Simpson's innocence: "It makes no sense; it doesn't fit; if it doesn't fit, you must acquit." "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" was a refrain that Cochran also used in response to other points of the case.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: In the episode, the character of Chef contacts a "major record company" executive, seeking to have his name credited as the composer of a fictional Alanis Morissette hit called "Stinky Britches". Chef's claim is substantiated by a 20‑year-old recording of Chef performing the song.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: The record company refuses and hires Johnnie Cochran, who files a lawsuit against Chef for harassment. In court, Cochran resorts to his "famous" Chewbacca defense, which he "used during the Simpson trial," according to Chef's lawyer, Gerald Broflovski. Although Broflovski uses logic, reasoning, and the fact that Chef properly copyrighted his work, Cochran counters with the following:


title: Chewbacca defense

text: This statement is a parody of Cochran's closing arguments in the O. J. Simpson murder case, where he said to the jury, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit!" in reference to a courtroom demonstration in which Simpson appeared unable to fit a pair of bloody leather gloves found at the murder scene over the medical gloves he was wearing.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: In the episode, Cochran's defense is successful. The jury finds Chef guilty of "harassing a major record label", after which the judge sets his punishment as either a $2 million fine to be paid within 24 hours or, failing that, four years in prison (the judge initially sentences him to eight million years before being corrected by a court officer).


title: Chewbacca defense

text: Ultimately, a "Chef Aid" benefit concert is organized to raise money for Chef to hire Cochran for his own lawsuit against the record company. At the concert, Cochran has a change of heart and offers to represent Chef "pro bono." He again successfully uses the Chewbacca defense, this time to defeat the record company and force them to acknowledge Chef's authorship of their song. In the second use of the Chewbacca defense, he ends by taking out a monkey puppet and shouting, "Here, look at the monkey. Look at the silly monkey!" causing a juror's head to explode.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: The Associated Press obituary for Cochran mentioned the Chewbacca defense parody as one of the ways in which the attorney had entered pop culture.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: Criminologist Thomas O'Connor says that when DNA evidence shows "inclusion", that is, does not exonerate a client by exclusion from the DNA sample provided, "About the only thing you can do is attack the lab for its (lack of) quality assurance and proficiency testing, or use a 'Chewbacca defense' … and try to razzle-dazzle the jury about how complex and complicated the other side's evidence or probability estimates are." Forensic scientist Erin Kenneally has argued that court challenges to digital evidence frequently use the Chewbacca defense by presenting multiple alternative explanations of forensic evidence obtained from computers and Internet providers to confuse the jury into reasonable doubt. Kenneally also provides methods that can be used to rebut a Chewbacca defense. Kenneally and colleague Anjali Swienton have presented this topic before the Florida State Court System and at the 2005 American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: The term has also seen use in political commentary; Ellis Weiner wrote in "The Huffington Post" that Dinesh D'Souza was using the Chewbacca defense in criticism of then-new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, defining it as when "someone asserts his claim by saying something so patently nonsensical that the listener's brain shuts down completely".


title: Chewbacca defense

text: Jay Heinrichs' book "" states that the term "Chewbacca defense" is "sneaking into the lexicon" as another name for the red herring fallacy.


title: Chewbacca defense

text: The term was used by Paul Krugman, who wrote in "The New York Times" that John Taylor is using the Chewbacca defense as a seemingly last option for defending his hawkish monetary policy position, after years of publicly stating that "quantitative easing would lead to a major acceleration of inflation."


title: Chewbacca defense

text: Lawyer Josh Gilliland states in their blog that "A judge likely would say, 'I have a bad feeling about this' and possibly declare a mistrial if such an argument was made in court." Gilliland continued "A party successfully using the Chewbacca Defense to confuse the jury into engaging in jury nullification in a civil lawsuit runs the risk of the losing party winning on a Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict (JNOV). In Chef's case, the copyright violation should have entitled him to a judgment as a matter of law."


title: Chewbacca defense

text: Lawyer Devin Stone outlined all the things that he claimed would never happen in a real world case, giving the episode a "C−" for legal accuracy.


title: Metal Slug

text: The gameplay consists of run and gun elements as well as in later releases shoot 'em up mechanics. The run and gun pits a player against a large numbers of enemies with extremely powerful weapons pick-ups. In most run and guns, contact with an enemy leads to damage. In this series, however, contact results in the opportunity to perform a melee attack and the opportunity for the enemy to perform a melee attack of his own, if he has one. The player's melee attack is also much stronger than most shots. This leads to the players ability to run in and use melee attacks to take down a number of enemies at once, as well as the ability to quickly defeat enemies that can take plenty of damage, such as the mummies in "Metal Slug 2".


title: Metal Slug

text: The player starts with only a simple semi-automatic handgun ("Metal Slug 6" and "7" used a fully automatic handgun in place of the stock semi auto first used in every game including spin off); as the game progresses, the player may pick up new weapons. The player can only use one weapon at a time. When a new weapon is found, it replaces the previous one. Similarly, when ammunition runs out, the player reverts to using the handgun, which has unlimited ammunition. A new system was implemented with "Metal Slug 6" allowing players to carry and switch between the handgun and two other weapons. The player is also equipped with grenades which can be used to throw at enemies and cause more damage, however the number of grenades is limited and must be replenished periodically with ammunition found along the way.


title: Metal Slug

text: The SV-001 (SV being an abbreviation for "Super Vehicle") or 'Metal Slug' is the main vehicle of the "Metal Slug" franchise. It is a small, cartoonish silver-gray tank propelled by caterpillar treads. The tank is armed with one cannon which shoots powerful bombs in limited numbers, and twin vulcan cannons which shoot unlimited tracer bullets. The vehicle can jump and crouch. Crouching opens a hatch on the top of the tank through which grenades already in the player's possession can be thrown. The grenades remain independent of the cannon's ammunition system. The vehicle's bombs can also be replenished with ammunition boxes found along the way. The vehicle can run over infantry and perform a suicide attack, with the driver jumping clear and the tank ramming into and exploding upon the target. The vehicle can take three direct hits before it is destroyed, at which point a warning will be given to eject before the vehicle explodes. The enemy chaser variant has a shield that must be destroyed before the vehicle can be destroyed.


title: Metal Slug

text: Over time, these specifications changed into any vehicle armed with a vulcan cannon and a cannon variant suited to the role of the vehicle, and propelled suitably for that vehicle's environment. Some vehicles will only provide vulcan cannons (which are more powerful than the handgun's bullets and are also unlimited), but neither special bombs (grenades must be used) nor armored protection to the player. In "Metal Slug 6" (and the home version of "Metal Slug X" onwards), the playable character Tarma can lock the vulcan cannons into one position and fire continuously.


title: Metal Slug

text: "Metal Slug" games typically have 6 levels. The exceptions are "Metal Slug 3", "Metal Slug 5" and "Metal Slug 6", which have 5, and "Metal Slug 7", which has 7. In the Western arcade and console versions, the game would have the blood censored, showing white sweat instead of blood in its place. However, there is a code to disable this censor within the BIOS of the Neo-Geo hardware both on the arcade and home ports respectively.


title: Metal Slug

text: The first game's story involved the Peregrine Falcon (PF) Squad, a small but skilled team of soldiers serving under the Regular Army's special operations division, who fight against the army of General Donald Morden in order to prevent a massive coup d'état and the creation of a New World Order. Later games featured characters from the Sparrows Unit, which is under the control of the Regular Army's intelligence division. Beginning with "Metal Slug 2", the PF Squad also battles an alien threat to Earth (the Mars People), as well as several other supernatural threats including yetis, zombies, ambulatory Venus flytraps, giant crabs, and mummies. These outlandish elements were removed from the fifth game to return to the feel of the original title. The fifth moved to the motif of modern guerrilla warfare, leaving only traces of the series' signature quirky humor and paranormal enemies, with the exception of the final boss. "Metal Slug 6" returned to the plot of the first three installments, bringing back Morden's Rebel Army and the Mars People. "Metal Slug 7" has less outlandish elements with the Mars People replaced by an alternative universe of Morden's Army with futuristic equipment and weapons.


title: Metal Slug

text: Major Marco Rossi (voiced by Takenosuke Nishikawa in "NeoGeo Battle Coliseum" and by Kenta Miyake in "") and Captain Tarma Roving were the only playable characters in the first game, and each was reserved solely to the first and second player, respectively. From the second installment, characters can be chosen independently, and Sergeant Second Class Eri Kasamoto and Master Sergeant Fiolina "Fio" Germi were added to the cast. These four are typically considered to be the quintessential "Metal Slug" team. In the fourth game, Nadia Cassel and Trevor Spacey made their debut, replacing Eri and Tarma. They have not returned in later games, as they were created by the Korean-based Mega Enterprise and due to Playmore retaining intellectual rights to all SNK titles. Eri and Tarma returned in the fifth game. The Game Boy Advance edition of the game features two new characters specific to that title: PF squad trainees Cadets Walter Ryan and Tyra Elson. "The King of Fighters"/"Ikari Warriors" characters Colonel Ralf Jones and Second Lieutenant Clark Still have appeared since "Metal Slug 6", and their "King of Fighters" teammate Leona Heidern is available as an extra downloadable character for "Metal Slug XX", a revised edition of "Metal Slug 7".


title: Metal Slug

text: General Donald Morden is the main antagonist of the "Metal Slug" franchise. He is depicted as a rambling madman wearing a beret, eyepatch, and wearing his army's uniform. In some games, he bears a passing resemblance to Saddam Hussein. He appears in every game except "Metal Slug 5." He apparently mends his ways by the end of "Metal Slug 6", as he (or Rootmars depending on the player(s)' chosen route) rescues the player(s) after they are knocked off a wall by an explosion caused by the alien end boss. His army is the main force of opposition in the Metal Slug games, with the exception of "Metal Slug" 5 and 6. He commands the Rebel Army, and in "Metal Slug 4" he was thought to be behind the Amadeus Terror Syndicate. He once again returns to his roots of attempted world domination in "Metal Slug 7", this time with the help of the Rebel Army from the future, also being the final boss for the first time since the original "Metal Slug". Like the main characters, General Morden appears in various SNK games as a cameo, especially in the "" series.


title: Metal Slug

text: Allen O'Neil, a sub-boss, appears in all of the games except "Metal Slug 5" and "6". He returns in "Metal Slug 7". He uses an M60 machine gun, a knife, and grenades. Despite the fact that Allen is clearly killed at the conclusion of every encounter, the game makers have humorously brought him back in each new iteration of the series. Allen's son, Allen Jr., appears in "Metal Slug Advance" as the recruits' drill sergeant but later reveals himself as a double-agent for the Rebel Army. He can be fought in the final mission as an optional boss.


title: Metal Slug

text: The Mars People are aliens that are in a plot to take over Earth in the "Metal Slug" universe. They resemble squids, using their tentacles as a form of movement, and a strange fighting style which involves gas and a laser pistol. In "Metal Slug 2", they appeared as enemies near the climax of the game, with their mothership appearing as the final boss. They appear again in "Metal Slug 3", abducting Morden and one of the members of the Regular Army in the final level (which ever one the player uses will be abducted), only for the Regular Army and Morden's army to take the fight to their mothership and defeat them, and their leader Rootmars. In "Metal Slug 6", the Mars People, Morden, as well as his rebel army, and the Ikari Warriors, join forces with the Regular Army to fight a new alien invader who feeds on the Mars People. In "Metal Slug X" they appear as enemies early in the game. Mars People also are the first characters from the "Metal Slug" series who appear in a fighting game: first in "" as a hidden (but playable) character, and later in "Neo Geo Battle Coliseum" as an unlockable playable character.


title: Metal Slug

text: The aspect of the "Metal Slug" series was to create a simple, but exciting side-scrolling shoot-em-up game with a very easy control scheme (one joystick and three buttons). The same team that created "Metal Slug" for the Neo-Geo previously created several games for Irem which have very similar graphics and gameplays, such as "GunForce" (1991), "In the Hunt" (1993) and "Gunforce 2" (1994).


title: Metal Slug

text: Some of the stock sound effects and sprites from Irem and "The King of Fighters" titles were used in the "Metal Slug" games. The music was composed by Takushi Hiyamuta (who is credited as "Hiya!"), a key member of the Nazca Corporation, which was acquired by SNK in 1996. The first 3 titles were developed by the "Nazca" team before SNK declared bankruptcy in October 2001, leading to the disbandment of the original team. Anticipating the collapse of SNK, the company Playmore was launched August 2001, which became known as SNK Playmore in 2003, the year after "Metal Slug 4" was released. Development on the series has since continued without the original staff, with Noise Factory handling 4, 5, 6 and 7.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The New Zealand Labour Party (), or simply Labour (), is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers describe Labour as social-democratic and pragmatic in practice. The party participates in the international Progressive Alliance. It is one of two major political parties in New Zealand, alongside its traditional rival, the National Party.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The New Zealand Labour Party formed in 1916 out of various socialist parties and trade unions. It is the country's oldest political party still in existence. Alongside the National Party, Labour has alternated in leading governments of New Zealand since the 1930s. , there have been six periods of Labour government under ten Labour prime ministers. The party has traditionally been supported by working class, urban, Māori, Pasifika, immigrant and trade unionist New Zealanders, and has had strongholds in inner cities and the Māori seats for much of its existence. The party is currently strongest in Wellington, Palmerston North and Hamilton, where it won all of the electorates in 2020. Labour also won the party vote in 71 out of 72 electorates in that election, making them overwhelmingly the most successful political party of the MMP era.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The party first came to power under prime ministers Michael Joseph Savage and Peter Fraser from 1935 to 1949, when it established New Zealand's welfare state. It governed from 1957 to 1960, and again from 1972 to 1975. In 1974, the prime minister Norman Kirk died in office, which contributed to a decline in party support. Up to the 1980s, the party advocated a strong role for governments in economic and social matters. When it governed from 1984 to 1990, Labour instead privatised state assets and reduced the role of the state in the economy; Labour prime minister David Lange also introduced New Zealand's nuclear-free policy. Labour again became the largest party from 1999 to 2008, when it governed in coalition with, or based on negotiated support from, several minor parties; Helen Clark became the first Labour prime minister to secure a third term in office.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In the 2017 general election the party, under Jacinda Ardern, returned to prominence with its best showing since the 2005 general election, winning 36.9% of the party vote and 46 seats. On 19 October 2017, Labour formed a minority coalition government with New Zealand First, with confidence and supply from the Green Party. In the 2020 general election, Labour won in a landslide, winning an overall majority of 10 and 50.01% of the vote. Jacinda Ardern currently serves as the party leader and prime minister, while Kelvin Davis is the deputy leader.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: On 7 July 1916 in Wellington the founding of the New Zealand Labour Party, brought together socialist groups advocating proportional representation; the abolition of the country quota; the recall of members of Parliament; as well as the nationalisation of production and of exchange. Despite the Party's Wellington origins, the West Coast town of Blackball is often regarded as the birthplace of the party, as it was the location of the founding of one of the main political organisations which became part of the nascent Labour Party. The party was created by, and has always been influenced by, trade unions; the Labour Party identifies itself as part of the wider labour movement in New Zealand.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The New Zealand Labour Party was an amalgamation of a number of earlier groups, the oldest of which was founded in 1901. The process of unifying these diverse groups into a single party was difficult, with tensions between different factions running strong.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: At the turn of the 20th century, the radical side of New Zealand working class politics was represented by the Socialist Party, founded in 1901. The more moderate leftists generally supported the Liberal Party. In 1905 a group of working-class politicians who were dissatisfied with the Liberal approach established the Independent Political Labour League, which managed to win a seat in Parliament in the . This established the basic dividing line in New Zealand's left-wing politics – the Socialists tended to be revolutionary and militant, while the moderates focused instead on progressive reform.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In 1910 the Independent Political Labour League was relaunched as an organisation called the Labour Party, distinct from the modern party. Soon, however, the leaders of the new organisation decided that additional effort was needed to promote left-wing cooperation, and organised a "Unity Conference". The Socialists refused to attend, but several independent labour activists agreed. The United Labour Party was born.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Soon afterward, the labour movement went through the 1912 Waihi miners' strike, a major industrial disturbance prompted by radicals in the union movement. The movement split over supporting or opposing the radicals, and in the end, the conservative Reform Party government of William Massey suppressed the strike by force. In the strike's aftermath, there was a major drive to end the divisions in the labour movement and to establish a united front. Accordingly, Walter Thomas Mills organised another Unity Conference, and this time the Socialists attended. The resulting group was named the Social Democratic Party.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Not all members of the United Labour Party accepted the new organisation, however, and some continued under their own banner. Gradually, however, the differences between the Social Democrats and the ULP Remnant broke down, and in 1915 they formed a unified caucus – both to oppose Reform better and to differentiate themselves from the Liberals. A year later yet another gathering took place. This time, all major factions of the labour movement agreed to unite, establishing the modern Labour Party.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Almost immediately, the new Labour Party became involved in the acrimonious debate about conscription which arose during World War I (1914–1918) – the Labour Party strongly opposed conscription, several leading members – Peter Fraser, Harry Holland, Bob Semple and Paddy Webb – were jailed and expelled from Parliament for their stand against the war. The loss of leadership threatened to seriously destabilise the party, but the party survived. (Fraser, Semple and Webb later supported conscription in World War II.)


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In its first real electoral test as a united party, the , Labour won eight seats – the party's quick success shocked many conservatives. The eight seats compared with 47 for the governing Reform Party and 21 for the Liberal Party.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Although Labour had split with its more militant faction (which went on to form various socialist parties), it maintained what were at the time radical socialist policies. Labour's 'Usehold' policy on land was, in essence, the replacement of freehold tenure by a system of perpetual lease from the state, with all land-transfer conducted through the state (the full nationalisation of farmland). This policy proved unpopular with voters, and Labour dropped it, along with other more radical policies, in the course of the 1920s.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In the , Labour more than doubled its number of seats, winning seventeen. In the , it declined somewhat but had the consolation of soon overtaking the Liberals as the second-largest party. Labour leader Harry Holland became the official Leader of the Opposition on 16 June 1926, after the Eden by-election on 15 April elected Rex Mason (Labour) to replace James Parr (Reform), who had resigned. After the , however, the party was left in an advantageous position – the Reform Party and the new United Party (a revival of the Liberals) tied with 27 seats each, and neither could govern without Labour support. Labour chose to back United, the party closest to its own views – this put an end to five terms (1912–1928) of Reform Party government.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In the early 1930s the rigours of the Great Depression brought Labour considerable popularity, but also caused tension between Labour and the United Party. In 1931 United passed a number of economic measures which Labour deemed hostile to workers, and the agreement between the two parties collapsed. United then formed a coalition government with Reform, making Labour the Opposition. The coalition retained power in the , but gradually, the public became highly dissatisfied with its failure to resolve the country's economic problems. Harry Holland died in 1933 and his deputy, Michael Joseph Savage, became the Labour Party parliamentary leader. In the , the Labour Party gained a significant majority, gaining 53 seats to the coalition's 19, and returned to government.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Several of the early Labour Party stalwarts were Australian-born: Alfred Hindmarsh, Harry Holland, Michael Joseph Savage, Bob Semple, Paddy Webb, Bill Parry and later Jerry Skinner, Mabel Howard, Hugh Watt, Jim Edwards and Dorothy Jelicich.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Party leader Michael Joseph Savage became Prime Minister on 6 December 1935, marking the beginning of Labour's first term in office. The new government quickly set about implementing a number of significant reforms, including a reorganisation of the social-welfare system and setting up the state housing scheme. Workers also benefited from the introduction of the forty-hour week, and legislation making it easier for unions to negotiate on their behalf. Savage himself was highly popular with the working classes, and his portrait could be found on walls in many houses around the country. At this time the Labour Party pursued an alliance with the Māori Rātana movement.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The parliamentary opposition, meanwhile, attacked the Labour Party's more left-wing policies and accused it of undermining free enterprise and hard work. In May 1936, months after Labour's first general election win, the Reform Party and the United Party took their coalition to the next step, agreeing to merge with each other. The combined organisation, named the National Party, would be Labour's main rival in future years.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Labour also faced opposition within its own ranks. While the Labour Party had been explicitly socialist at its inception, it had gradually drifted away from its earlier radicalism. The death of the party's former leader, the "doctrinaire" Harry Holland, had marked a significant turning-point in the party's history. Some within the party, however, were displeased about the changing focus of the party. Most notably, John A. Lee. Lee, whose views were a mixture of socialism and social credit theory, emerged as a vocal critic of the party's leadership, accusing it of behaving autocratically and of betraying the party's rank and file. After a long and bitter dispute, the Party expelled Lee from the party, who then established his own breakaway Democratic Labour Party.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Savage died in 1940 and Peter Fraser, who became Labour's longest-serving prime minister, replaced him. Fraser became best-known as New Zealand's Head of Government for most of World War II. In the post-war period, however, ongoing shortages and industrial problems cost Labour considerable popularity, and the National Party, under Sidney Holland, gained ground, although Labour was able to win the 1943 and 1946 elections. Eventually, in the , Labour suffered electoral defeat.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Fraser died shortly afterward, and was replaced by Walter Nash, the long-serving Minister of Finance. It would be some time before Labour would return to power; however – Nash lacked the charisma of his predecessors, and National won considerable support for opposing the "industrial anarchy" of the 1951 waterfront dispute. In the , however, Labour won a narrow majority of two seats, and returned to office.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Nash, Labour's third prime minister, took office in late 1957. Upon coming to power, Labour decided that drastic measures were needed to address balance-of-payments concerns. This resulted in the highly unpopular 1958 "Black Budget" of Arnold Nordmeyer, the new Minister of Finance, which raised taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, cars, and petrol. It is widely thought to have doomed the party to defeat despite the economy rejuvenating less than a year after the adoption of the Black Budget. In the , the National Party returned to power.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The elderly Nash retired in 1963, suffering from ill health. Nordmeyer replaced him, but the taint of the Black Budget ensured that Nordmeyer did not have any appreciable success in reversing the party's fortunes. In 1965 the leadership went to the younger Norman Kirk, who many believed would revitalise the party. Labour suffered defeat again in the next two elections, but in the , the party gained a significant majority over its rival.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Kirk proved an energetic Prime Minister and introduced a number of new policies. His foreign-policy stances included strong criticism of nuclear-weapons testing and of South Africa's apartheid system. However, Kirk suffered from poor health, worsened by his refusal to slow the pace of his work. In 1974 Kirk was taken ill and died. Bill Rowling replaced him, but did not have the same electoral appeal – in the , Labour lost to the National Party, then led by Robert Muldoon.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Rowling remained the leader of the Labour Party for some time after his defeat. In the and the Labour won a larger share of the vote than National but failed to win an equivalent number of seats. Rowling himself was compared unfavourably to Muldoon, and did not cope well with Muldoon's aggressive style. In 1983 Rowling was replaced as parliamentary leader by David Lange, whom the parliamentary caucus perceived as more charismatic. In the snap election of , Labour defeated the National Party.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: When the Fourth Labour Government came into power it uncovered a fiscal crisis that had been largely hidden by the outgoing Third National Government. Government debt was skyrocketing, due largely to the costs of borrowing to maintain a fixed exchange-rate. When the result of the election became clear, Lange asked Muldoon to devalue the New Zealand dollar, which Muldoon refused to do, resulting in a constitutional crisis and precipitating some of the changes in the Constitution Act 1986.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The economic-policy agenda of the Fourth Labour Government differed significantly from previous Labour governments. The Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas, supported free-market theories, and sought to implement sweeping reforms ("Rogernomics") to the economy and to the tax system. This involved floating the New Zealand dollar, cutting government spending, reducing taxes and removing almost all industry subsidies. The government also revolutionised New Zealand's foreign policy, making the country a nuclear-free zone, which resulted in suspension from the ANZUS alliance. Labour liberalised immigration policy and promoted migration from Asia.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Other innovations during the term of the Fourth Labour Government included extending the jurisdiction of the Waitangi Tribunal back to 1840 (the date of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi); the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986, which legalised homosexual relations; and the Bill of Rights Act, which enumerated civil and political rights. Throughout its first term (1984–1987), the Labour government remained largely unified behind the enacted radical financial, economic and social policy reforms, but early signs of dissension began to appear before the 1987 election.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In Labour won another considerable election victory against the National Party, while ruptures over the direction of policy remained concealed. Despite taking votes from affluent areas, Labour suffered negative swings in more traditional seats, while the blue-ribbon seat of Remuera nearly fell into the Labour column. The government's second term (1987–1990), with an increased Labour majority won on the back of Lange's anti-nuclear stance, saw emerging divisions over economic policy arising within Cabinet. Ministers debated the extent and pace of further reforms, and there was disillusion among party members and supporters loyal to Labour's left-wing tradition. The Council of Trade Unions criticised the Labour Party. One vocal Member of Parliament critical of government policy, Jim Anderton, left the Party to establish the NewLabour Party, which later became a part of the left-wing Alliance Party. At the same time Roger Douglas and Lange fought intermittent battles inside Cabinet, with Douglas wanting to expand his economic programme dramatically. Lange strongly opposed a flat-tax proposal from Douglas and moved to sack him, resulting in political clashes throughout 1988 and the departure of Douglas from the Cabinet in December 1988. After the Labour Caucus re-elected Douglas to Cabinet on 3 August 1989, Lange resigned from office himself (8 August 1989), interpreting Douglas's reappointment as a vote of no confidence in his leadership.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Geoffrey Palmer became the new Labour Prime Minister. However, Palmer failed to rebuild the shattered remnants of Lange's government and in September 1990, Mike Moore replaced him. Despite Moore's ascension somewhat salvaging poll-ratings, Labour suffered its worst defeat since it first took office in 1935 (losing twenty-eight seats) – voters flung the Party into the political wilderness with an election landslide loss. National swept to power, seemingly repudiating the Lange/Douglas program, but then engaged in even more radical policies than Labour had contemplated. Political disillusionment caused by both governments proved decisive in the later adoption of mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) in 1993 (implemented in 1996).


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Moore himself, despite recovering sixteen seats at the 1993 election, was replaced by Helen Clark in December 1993. Clark led the party in opposition to the National government for six years under the administrations of Bolger (1993–1997) and Shipley (1997–1999). During this period in opposition, the party made a measured repudiation of Rogernomics, although it has never returned to its original leftist roots (Labour's contemporary position is left-of-centre). When the , the first conducted under the MMP electoral system, gave the balance of power to the centrist New Zealand First party, many believed that Labour would return to power, but in the end New Zealand First formed a coalition arrangement with the National Party. Despite initially appearing coherent, the coalition became increasingly unstable and eventually collapsed, leaving the National Party to govern as a minority government from 1998 to 1999.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: After the , a coalition government of Labour and the Alliance took power, with Helen Clark becoming New Zealand's second female Prime Minister. This government, while undertaking a number of reforms, was not particularly radical when compared to previous Labour governments, and maintained a high level of popularity. The Alliance, however, fell in popularity and split internally. Clark cited the Alliance split as one of the reasons for calling the several months early; Labour won comfortably.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Policies of the Fifth Labour Government included the KiwiSaver scheme, the Working for Families package, increasing the minimum wage 5% a year, interest-free student loans, the establishment of District Health Boards, the introduction of a number of tax credits, overhauling the secondary-school qualifications system by introducing the NCEA, and the introduction of fourteen weeks' parental leave. Labour also supported the Civil Union Act 2004, which legalised civil unions for same-sex and opposite-sex couples.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In early 2004 Labour came under attack in the foreshore and seabed controversy. Significant internal tensions within the party eventually culminated in the resignation of junior minister Tariana Turia and her establishment of the new Māori Party.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Following the , Labour formed a coalition with the Progressive Party (breakaway party of the old Alliance), and entered into complex confidence and supply agreements with the centrist United Future and New Zealand First parties, which gave each party's leader a ministerial portfolio, while the support parties remained outside the Cabinet. A limited support agreement also linked Labour with the Green Party, giving certain policy concessions to the Greens in return for abstention on confidence-and-supply votes. Labour lost power when the National Party soundly defeated it in the .


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Following the loss to the National Party in the November 2008 election, Helen Clark stood down as leader of the party – Phil Goff succeeded her (serving from 2008–2011). Labour had a relatively high turnover of four leaders during its most recent term in opposition; journalist Nicky Hager has attributed this to Labour's reaction to changes within public media and the political environment. Goff led Labour into a second electoral defeat in and was succeeded by David Shearer, who led the Labour parliamentary from 2011 to 2013.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Shearer resigned after losing the confidence of caucus. David Cunliffe (2013–2014) assumed the leadership after the 2013 leadership election in which, under new rules, members and unions held 60% of the vote. Most of the Labour caucus disliked Cunliffe, but he had strong support from the party membership. In the leadership contest he won first-preference votes from only one-third of Labour MPs.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Cunliffe's tenure as leader quickly became mired in internal disputes and falling poll-ratings. Labour went on to suffer its worst electoral reversal since 1922 at the election, Cunliffe opted to resign after initially wishing to re-contest the leadership. His replacement, Andrew Little (2014–2017), then resigned in 2017 following new polling showing the party sinking to a record low result of 24%, with internal voices hoping that rising star Jacinda Ardern would take over in his stead.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The caucus confirmed Ardern as the new Labour leader (2017–present). After Ardern's election to its parliamentary leadership Labour rose dramatically in opinion polls. By late August they had risen to 43% in one poll (having been 24% under Little's leadership), as well as managing to overtake National in opinion polls for the first time in over a decade.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: During the , Labour gained 36.6% of the party vote and increased its presence in the House of Representatives to 46 seats, making it the second-largest party in Parliament.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: On 19 October 2017, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters announced that his party would form a coalition government with Labour, citing changing international and internal economic circumstances as the reasoning behind his decision, coupled with a belief that a Labour government was best-placed to handle the social and economic welfare of New Zealanders in a global environment that was undergoing rapid and "seismic" change. This coalition, combined with confidence and supply from the Green Party, saw Labour return to government for the first time since 2008. Ardern became Prime Minister, with Peters as her deputy. The Labour government pledged to eliminate child poverty, make tertiary education free, reduce immigration by 20,000 to 30,000, decriminalise abortion, and make all rivers swimmable within 10 years.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In mid-July 2020, the Serious Fraud Office announced that it was investigating donations made to the Labour Party by two Chinese businessmen during the 2017 general election. Labour Party President Claire Szabó announced that the party would co-operate with the investigation.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In the , Labour gained 50% of the party vote and increased its presence in the House of Representatives to 65 seats, marking the first time that a party has won enough seats to govern alone since the introduction of the MMP system in 1996. Described as a "landslide" victory in which the party won the party vote in "virtually every single electorate", Labour is believed to have gained support from swing voters, many of whom had previously voted for National under John Key. Despite this landslide victory Labour faced criticism from economists due to the government's lack of action on New Zealand's housing affordability crisis, despite it being a key feature of Labour's 2017 election campaign.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The New Zealand Labour Party's founding 1916 policy objectives called for "the socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange", including state ownership of major parts of the economy, and increased rights for workers. Up to the 1980s, Labour remained a party that believed in a strong role for governments in economic and social matters. However, it had been transformed from a union-dominated, socialist-oriented movement into a moderate social-democratic party. The Labour Government of the 1980s deviated sharply from a social-democratic path; in a series of economic reforms, the government removed a swathe of regulations and subsidies, privatised state assets and introduced corporate practices to state services.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The party's constitution and platform programme declares its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers describe Labour's policies as social-democratic and pragmatic in practice. From the 1990s onwards, Labour has again aimed to use the power of the state to try to achieve a "fairer and more equal society", based on a mixed economy in which both the state and private enterprise play a part. Subsequently, the party has also been described as embracing certain social-liberal policies.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Historically, the party drew upon a stable sectional voter base comprising the urban working class, predominantly manual labourers and trade unionists. From the 1930s onwards, Labour has increasingly positioned itself as a broad-based party by responding and adapting to different social and economic problems and changing demographics (appealing to an expanding migrant population and a diversified ethnic, social make-up). Beginning in the 1980s, there was a shift away from class-issues and towards the promotion of individual freedoms, particularly for members of disadvantaged groups such as women and Māori. The modern party's core support base lies among young people, urban workers, civil servants, and minorities (particularly the Māori and Pasifika communities).


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Party membership is tied into geographically-based branches in each parliamentary electorate. General branches must consist of at least 10 members aged 15 or over. Members may also form special branches where they have a special community of interest (such as university students and academics, young people, women, Māori people, Pasifika, multicultural groups, people with disabilities, the rainbow community and industrial workers). Influential branches include Princes Street Labour (this Auckland university branch is described as the "ideological powerhouse of the party", and has contributed many prominent Labour politicians) and Vic Labour (the Victoria University of Wellington branch).


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Membership figures are rarely released to the public. Full (non-affiliate) membership is known to have peaked at 55,000 in 1976. During the 1980s and 1990s, party membership plummeted to levels not seen since before the First Labour Government. This decline might be attributed to disillusionment on the part of some members with the economic policies of the Fourth Labour Government ("Rogernomics"). Membership figures began to recover under Helen Clark's leadership, with 14,000 members recorded in 2002.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Delegates from all branches in the electorate, together with delegates from affiliated unions, make up the Labour Electorate Committee (LEC). The LEC is responsible for party organisation in the electorate. The party is divided into six regional areas, which each year convene a Regional Conference. Policy and other matters are debated and passed onto the Annual Conference.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The Annual Conference (called Congress in election years) is the supreme governing body of the Labour Party when it is in session. All constituent bodies of the party are entitled to send delegates to Annual Conference.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The New Zealand Council is the Labour Party's governing executive. It ensures that the party is governed effectively according to its constitution. The NZ Council consists of the president, two senior vice presidents (one of which must be Māori), three vice presidents (representing women, affiliates, and Pacific Islanders), seven regional representatives, one Policy Council representative, three Caucus representatives, and the general secretary.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The Policy Council, responsible for the development of the policy platform and election manifesto, is elected for a three-year term following each general election. The party structure also provides for Special Interest Group Councils: representing the affiliates, women's issues, Māori issues, Pacific Islands, primary industries, local government, and youth.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: The elected members representing the Labour Party in the House of Representatives meet as the Parliamentary Labour Party, also called the Caucus. The current parliamentary leader is Jacinda Ardern. A leadership election is triggered upon the vacancy of the position of leader or a motion of no confidence. Candidates are nominated from within the Caucus. Under Labour Party rules, party members have 40% of the votes, MPs have another 40% of the votes, and affiliated unions have 20% of the votes. Some observers have criticised the influence of the unions in leadership elections.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In the first decades of the 20th century, manufacturing industries grew strongly in New Zealand's main cities and union membership also increased. The Labour Party was formed in this period as the political wing of the labour movement and was financed by trade unions. Since then, the unions have retained close institutional links with the party. There are currently six unions that are directly affiliated to the party and pay affiliation fees, as well as receiving a percentage of the vote in party leadership elections. These unions are the following:


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In addition, the president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions continues to speak at the Labour Party Annual Conference.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Young Labour is the party's youth wing. It exists to organise young members (under 26) and encourage wider involvement of young New Zealanders in centre-left politics. Young Labour is the most active sector in the Labour Party and plays a significant role in policy development and campaign efforts. It is endearingly called the "conscience of the party".


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In March 2018, it was reported that four people under 16 were allegedly sexually assaulted at a Young Labour summer camp in February. The camp was said to have "mountains of alcohol", and people under the legal drinking age of 18 were said to have consumed alcohol. Although Young Labour and the Labour Party were aware of the allegations, party leadership failed to tell the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. The party offered counselling and support after the allegations were publicly reported. An independent review into the party's conduct and sexual assault complaint policy was announced by Party President Nigel Haworth, and was completed late August. The party has declined to release the report to the public.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Labour Party members including current and former Members of Parliament have contested various local government positions throughout New Zealand during local body elections. While several have stood as Labour Party candidates, others have contested the elections as independents.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Labour has contested the Auckland local body elections alongside City Vision, a left-wing electoral ticket representing the local Labour, Green parties and other progressives. Following the 2022 Auckland local elections, the Auckland Council had four councillors serving under the Labour ticket and one serving under the affiliated City Vision ticket. In addition, 26 Labour Party candidates were elected to local community boards across Auckland while four Labour candidates were elected to local licensing trusts in the Auckland Region. Meanwhile, seven City Vision local board members and three City Vision liquor licensing trust members were also elected.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Former Labour MP and cabinet minister Phil Goff served as Mayor of Auckland for two terms between 2016 and 2022.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In Christchurch, former Labour MP and cabinet minister Lianne Dalziel served for three terms as Mayor of Christchurch between 2013 and 2022. She ran as an independent


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Within the Christchurch City Council, Labour maintains an umbrella, including community independents called The People's Choice (formerly Christchurch 2021). During the 2019 Christchurch local elections, People's Choice candidates held 10 community board seats, seven council seats, and several community board chairmanships.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: On 26 February 2016, Dunedin city councillor and former Labour MP David Benson-Pope announced that he would be contesting the Dunedin local elections in October under the "Local Labour" ticket. While still a Labour Party member, Benson Pope had stood in the 2013 local elections as an independent candidate. This report coincided with the dissolution of the city's main local body ticket, the centre-left Greater Dunedin group. On 20 April, it was reported that the Labour Party had dropped its plan to field a bloc of candidates in the 2016 Dunedin elections. However, the Party has not ruled out endorsing other candidates.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: During the 2019 New Zealand local elections, Steve Walker and Marian Hobbs were elected to the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council respectively on Labour Party tickets. Hobbs subsequently resigned from the Otago Regional Council in November 2021.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: During the 2022 Dunedin local elections, Steve Walker and Joy Davis stood as Labour candidates for the Dunedin City Council. While Walker was re-elected, Davis failed to win a seat.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: In New Plymouth, former MP Harry Duynhoven served as mayor from 2010 to 2013, when he was defeated by Andrew Judd.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Beginning in 2016, the Labour Party began contesting the Palmerston North local elections, ending a long tradition of keeping national party political affiliations out of local government bodies. During the 2016 New Zealand local elections, Lorna Johnson was elected on the Labour Party ticket to the Palmerston North City Council. During the 2019 New Zealand local elections, she was joined by Zulfiqar Butt, who also stood on the Labour ticket. During the 2022 New Zealand local elections, Johnson was re-elected to the Palmerston North City Council but Butt was defeated.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Former electorate then list MP Steve Chadwick, was elected as Mayor of Rotorua in the 2013 elections. She stood as an independent. She served for three terms before resigning in 2022.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: During the 2022 Wellington local elections, four Labour Party councillors were elected: Ben McNulty - Northern Ward, Rebecca Matthews – Onslow-Western Ward, Teri O'Neill – Eastern Ward, and Nureddin Abdurahman - Southern Ward. Labour Member of Parliament Paul Eagle unsuccessfully contested the 2022 Wellington mayoral election but came third place.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Daran Ponter of the Wellington City ward on the Greater Wellington Regional Council was the only councillor to have been re-elected on a Labour ticket during the 2022 Wellington local election.


title: New Zealand Labour Party

text: Campbell Barry has been the mayor of Lower Hutt since 2019 and was re-elected on the Labour ticket along with Wainuiomata ward councilor Keri Brown during the 2022 Hutt City Council elections.