Sökformulär

Social anthropology

Re-thinking sexualities in Africa

Medarbetare: Arnfred, Signe
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2004
Ämnesord: Women, gender relations, sexuality, Culture, Ghana, Mali, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania, Social anthropology, Socialantropologi
The volume brings together papers by African and Nordic/Scandinavian gender scholars and anthropologists, in attempts to investigate and critically discuss existing lines of thinking about sexuality in Africa, while at the same time creating space for alternative approaches. Issues of colonial and contemporary discourses on 'African sexuality' and on 'female genital mutilation' are being discussed, as well as issues of female agency and of feminists' engagement with HIV/AIDS. The volume contributes to contemporary efforts of re-thinking sexualities in the light of feminist, queer and postcolonial theory.

Sexuality and Gender Politics in Mozambique : Rethinking Gender in Africa

Upphovsperson: Arnfred, Signe
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Nordiska Afrikainstitutet; James Currey
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Gender politics, Mozambique, gender and sexuality, Social anthropology, Socialantropologi
The book is about gender politics in Mozambique over three decades from 1975 to 2005. The book is also about different ways of understanding gender and sexuality. Gender policies from Portuguese colonialism through Frelimo socialism to later neo-liberal economic regimes share certain basic assumptions about men, women and gender relations. But to what extent do such assumptions fit the ways in which rural Mozambican men and women see themselves? The author argues that gender relations should be investigated, not assumed, and that policies not matching people’s lives are unlikely to succeed. The empirical data on which the author draws are from a unique body of material collected in 1982-1984 by the Mozambican National Women's Organization, and from more recent fieldwork. Her research demonstrates short-comings in Western feminist conceptualizations, and shows how insights from African feminist thinking may enhance understandings of gender, both in and beyond Africa.

Knowledge, renewal and religion : repositioning and changing ideological and material circumstances among the Swahili on the East African coast

Medarbetare: Larsen, Kjersti
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Social anthropology, Cultural anthropology, cultural identity, Islam, Social change, modernization, Social history, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi
In the past decades religion has entered the political debate and is evoked in relation to a variety of events taking place around the world. Religion and religious differences, not political, economic or social, are claimed to be the cause rather than an expression of – or even a reaction to – ongoing problems. Islam and Christianity (or also Islam and Hinduism) are, in most cases, represented not only as opposed, but also as incommensurable worldviews, value systems and identities, where the one is threatening the existence of the other. Among the Swahili on the East-African Coast, this trend provokes questions related to whether we should approach what appear to be expressions of religious positioning in terms of renewal of previous understandings and relationships, or as a rephrasing of complex and conflictual matters that were always part of Swahili society. The papers in this book reveal that the Swahili are experiencing worsening economic, political and social conditions. Within these circumstances, Islam is invoked as a source of knowledge that not only explains the current state of life and living, but also gives directions on how to cope with and to change the situation for the better. Islam is both what reinforces Swahili identity and a particular way of life, and at the same time, given the current international climate, further marginalizes Swahili society and culture.

Dealing with uncertainty in contemporary African lives

Medarbetare: Haram, Liv | Yamba, C. Bawa
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Uncertainty, Traditional culture, anthropology, cultural change, Social change, modernization, gender relations, Sexually transmitted diseases, Economic implications, Daily life, Conference papers, Social anthropology, Socialantropologi
The articles in ‘Dealing with Uncertainty in Contemporary African Lives’ are based largely on work in Tanzania which has been spared much of the turmoil that elsewhere has uprooted populations and destroyed communities. Nevertheless they illuminate phenomena common throughout sub-Saharan Africa as modernity in its many guises undercuts old certainties, outmodes established knowledge of how to order life and deal with crises, introduces new hazards, and frustrates ambition and expectations. But as the editors, Haram and Yamba, point out, uncertainty and insecurity have a positive side, providing the basis for ‘curiosity and exploration’. The case studies demonstrate both the increasing uncertainty and insecurity of life in contemporary Africa and the ways that people respond, including warding off and reaching out. Scapegoats are sought. Witch beliefs become elaborated as explanations of failures and malaise while witchfinding becomes a lucrative profession. Pentecostal or other fundamentalist churches burgeon as they assure people that life has meaning and better times are before them if only they believe. Suicide and insanity are other possible responses. All in all, a thought-provoking volume. Elizabeth Colson, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley

Reconsidering informality : perspectives from urban Africa

Upphovspersoner: Hansen, Karen Tranberg | Vaa, Mariken
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2004
Ämnesord: Informal sector, Hidden economy, Employment, Land use, Livelihood, Urban areas, Urban planning, Urban housing, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Social anthropology, Socialantropologi
This book brings together two bodies of research on urban Africa that have tended to be separate: Studies of urban land use and housing, and studies of work and livelihoods. Africa’s future will be to an increasing extent urban. Nevertheless, the inherited legal, institutional and financial arrangements for managing urban development are inadequate. The recent decades of neo-liberal political and economic reforms have increased social inequality across urban space. Access to employment, shelter and services is precarious for most urban residents. Extra-legal housing and unregistered economic activities proliferate. Basic urban services are increasingly provided informally. The result is the phenomenal growth of the informal city and extra-legal activities. How do urban residents see these activities? What do they accomplish through them? How can these “informal” cities be governed? The case studies are drawn from a diverse set of cities on the African continent. A central theme is how practices that from an official standpoint are illegal or extra-legal do not only work but are considered legitimate by the actors concerned. Another is how the informal city is not exclusively the domain of the poor, but also provides shelter and livelihoods for better-off segments of the urban population.  

Beyond territory and scarcity : exploring conflicts over natural resource management

Medarbetare: Gausset, Quentin | Whyte, Michael | Birch-Thomsen, Torben
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2005
Ämnesord: Resources management, environmentel degradation, natural resources, conflicts, boundaries, Living conditions, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Dmocratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Social anthropology, Socialantropologi
The attainment of sound and sustainable environmental management is one of humanity's greatest challenges this century, particularly in Africa, which is still heavily dependent on the exploitation of natural and agricultural resources and is faced with rapid population growth. Yet, this challenge should not be reduced to Malthusian parameters and the simple question of population growth and failing resources.In this volume, ten anthropologists and geographers critically address traditionalMalthusian discourses in essays that attempt to move "beyond territory andscarcity" by:- Exploring alternatives to the strong natural determinism that reduces natural resource management to questions of territory and scarcity.- Presenting material and methodologies that explore the different contexts in which social and cultural values intervene, and discovering more than 'rational choice' in the agency of individuals.- Examining the relevance of the different conceptions of territory for the ways in which people manage, or attempt to manage, natural resources.- Placing their research within the framework of the developing discussion on policy and politics in natural resource management. The studies are drawn from a range of sub-Saharan African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. CONTENT Introduction. Quentin Gausset and Michael Whyte Land and Labour: Agrarian Change in Post-retrenchment Lesotho. Christian Boehm Social Resilience in African Dryland Livelihoods: Deriving Lessons for Policy. Michael Mortimore The Making of an Environment: Ecological History of the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and North Eastern Nigeria. Walter van Beek and Sonja Avontuur Agro-pastoral Conflicts in the Tikar Plain (Adamawa, Cameroon). Quentin Gausset Transhumance, Tubes and Telephones: Drought Related Migration as a Process of Innovation. Kristine Juul Understanding Resource Management in Western Sudan: A Critical Look at New Institutional Economics. Leif Manger Within, and Beyond, Territories: A Comparison of Village Land Use Management and Livelihood Diversificationin Burkina Faso and Southwest Niger. Simon Batterbury Moving the Boundaries of Forest and Land Use History: The Case of Upper East Region in Northern Ghana. Andrew Wardell Transnational Dimensions to Environmental Resource Dynamics: Modes of Governance and Local Resource Management in Eastern DRC. James Fairhead

The inconvenient indigenous : remote area development in Botswana, donor assistance, and the first people of the Kalahari

Upphovsperson: Saugestad, Sidsel
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2001
Ämnesord: anthropology, indigenous people, Social anthropology, Socialantropologi
The book deals with the relationship between the government of Botswana and its indigenous minority, known as Bushmen, San, Basarwa, or more recently N/oakwe, and tries to understand why the San people remain a marginalised minority in a country that since Independence in 1966 has committed itself to a democratic and non-racial agenda. The use of the concept 'indigenous' is controversial in Botswana and in the rest of Africa, and the book asks thought-provoking questions about the responsibility of the state, the role of the international community and the need for representative organisations. While there have been dozens of books published on the ethnography of the San, this is the first book that places them in the comparative context of indigenous peoples' struggle for recognition. An in-depth documentation and analysis is given of a series of events in 1992 and 1993 that were crucial in establishing San indigenous organisations and identities, and the emergent San organisations are followed from the communities in Kalahari to international meetings in Geneva.

Women and the remaking of politics in Southern Africa : negotiating autonomy, incorporation and representation

Upphovsperson: Geisler, Gisela
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2004
Ämnesord: Southern Africa, women's participation, political participation, political movements, women's status, gender equality, Social anthropology, Socialantropologi
African women have a long history of political involvement. Yet, the fervour with which they participated in anti-colonial struggles and supported national liberation were not acknowledged after independence leaving them to fight for representation and personal liberation on other fronts. This study looks at women’s struggles in Southern Africa where the last ten years have seen the most pervasive success stories on the African continent. Tracing the history of women’s involvement in anti-colonial struggles and against apartheid, the book analyses post-colonial outcomes and examines the strategies employed by women’s movements to gain a foothold in politics. In this book, the author presents in depth analyses and women’s narratives of their experiences in political parties, in the national machinery for the advancement of women and in the autonomous women’s movements.