DOCSLIB.ORG

Re-Thinking Sexualities in Africa

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Re-Thinking Sexualities in Africa Arnfred Page 1 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM RE-THINKING SEXUALITIES IN AFRICA Edited by Signe Arnfred Arnfred Page 2 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM Indexing terms Women Gender relations Sexuality Culture Ghana Mali Namibia Senegal Tanzania Language checking: Elaine Almén Cover photo: Seydou Keïta, Mali, © Fondation Seydou Keïta © all other photos: the photographers and the Sokkelund African Collection © the authors and Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2004 ISBN 91-7106-513-X Printed in Sweden by Almqvist & Wiksell Tryckeri AB, 2004 Arnfred Page 3 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM Contents Re-thinking Sexualities in Africa: Introduction . 7 Signe Arnfred UNDER WESTERN EYES 1. Efundula: Women’s Initiation, Gender and Sexual Identities in Colonial and Post-Colonial Northern Namibia. 35 Heike Becker 2. ‘African Sexuality’/Sexuality in Africa: Tales and Silences . 59 Signe Arnfred 3. A Reflection on the Cultural Meanings of Female Circumcision. Experiences from Fieldwork in Casamance, Southern Senegal. 79 Liselott Dellenborg 4. Preventing HIV? Medical Discourses and Invisible Women . 97 Katarina Jungar and Elina Oinas 5. Whose ‘Unmet Need’? Dis/Agreement about Childbearing among Ghanaian Couples . 115 Akosua Adomako Ampofo PROBLEMS OF PLEASURE AND DESIRE 6. Kinky Politics . 139 Kopano Ratele 7. Opening a Can of Worms: A Debate of Female Sexuality in the Lecture Theatre. 157 Mumbi Mahcera 8. Paradoxes of Female Sexuality in Mali. On the Practices of Magnonmaka and Bolokoli-kela . 173 Assitan Diallo FEMALE AGENCY 9. Understanding Sexuality in Africa: Diversity and Contextualised Dividuality . 195 Jo Helle-Valle 10. ‘Prostitutes’ or Modern Women? Negotiating Respectabillity in Northern Tanzania . 211 Liv Haram Arnfred Page 4 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM 11. Masculinities, Sexuality and Socio-Economic Change in Rural and Urban East Africa . 233 Margrethe Silberschmidt 12. Re-Conceptualizing African Gender Theory: Feminism, Womanism and the Arere Metaphor . 251 Mary Kolawole Authors’ Biographies . 269 Photographers’ Biographies . 275 Arnfred Page 5 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM Photo: Abderramane Sakalay, 1958 Arnfred Page 6 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM Arnfred Page 7 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM 1. Re-Thinking Sexualities in Africa: Introduction Signe Arnfred The time has come for re-thinking sexualities in Africa: The thinking beyond the conceptual structure of colonial and even post-colonial European imaginations, which have oscillated between notions of the exotic, the noble and the depraved savage, consistently however constructing Africans and African sexuality as something ‘other’. This ‘other’ thing is constructed to be not only different from European/Western sexualities and self, but also functions to co-construct that which is European/Western as modern, rational and civilized. In a context of empirical studies as in this volume, re-thinking necessitates a double move of de-construction and re-construction, developing an analysis whereby, through critique of previous conceptualisations, attempts are made to approach materials in new ways, coming up with fresh or alternative lines of thinking. The chapters in the first section—Under Western Eyes—are various ver- sions of this type of exercise; they are all polemical against established, main- stream lines of thinking regarding gender and sexuality in Africa, and they all show in their different ways how alternative approaches produce different images —and concomitantly different realities. In one of the chapters (Jungar and Oi- nas) such mainstream lines of thinking, applied particularly in contexts of HIV/ AIDS investigations and with an undertone of ‘Africa is lost anyway’ are dubbed ‘dark continent discourse’. I find this a very fitting expression, which I shall apply in the following discussion. In the second section—Problems of Pleasure and Desire—the concerns are differ- ent, in some sense building upon the first section, taking the issues one step fur- ther. Here the focus is on investigation of areas, which have often been rendered invisible by mainstream thinking. The areas here under investigation are male and female lust and desire. A regards female sexual desire in particular, it has rarely been an object of analysis. If it has, it has generally been in a context of or with undertones of moral condemnation. Rarely has it been written about from the points of view of the women. In this section issues of male and female sexual lust and desire are analyzed and discussed by African male and female social scientists, based on analysis of empirical material, and with the benefit of experiences of the authors themselves. In the third section the focus is on Female Agency. From different professional inroads—literature and social anthropology—current socio-economic changes in African societies are investigated, particularly as impacting on gender power rela- tions, and different suggestions in terms of patterns of interpretation of current trends are presented. Uniting these chapters is an analytical concern with investi- 7 Arnfred Page 8 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM Signe Arnfred gating ways in which gendered effects of current changes on the continent are act- ed upon by men and women, co-producing future developments. In spite of overwhelming obstacles, such as widespread poverty and soaring HIV/AIDS in- fection rates, examples are given of women’s agency in ways which sometimes re- produce and at other times challenge patriarchal structures. With this introduction, by discussing theoretical issues of importance for each of these sections, I hope to provide a broader context in which to read and appre- ciate the individual contributions. Almost all of the chapters were first presented at the conference/workshop: “Contexts of Gender in Africa”organized in Upp- sala in February 2002 by the Nordic Africa Institute’s Sexuality, Gender and Society in Africa research programme. Under Western Eyes The title for this section is taken from Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s soon twenty years old but still current critique of Western feminist lines of thinking regarding women in Africa.1 In her paper Mohanty pinpoints the mechanisms of Western thinking as ‘othering’ Third World women: “It is only insofar as ‘Woman/Wom- en’ and ‘the East’ [or ‘Africa’] are defined as Others, or as peripheral, that (West- ern) Man/Humanism can represent him/itself as the center. It is not the center that determines the periphery, but the periphery that, in its boundedness, deter- mines the center. … Universal images of ‘the Third World woman’ (the veiled woman, chaste virgin etc.)—images constructed from adding ‘the Third World difference’ to ‘sexual difference’—are predicated upon (and hence obviously bringing into sharper focus) assumptions about Western women as secular, liber- ated, and having control over their own lives” (Mohanty 1991:74). Mohanty shows how in this process of ‘othering’, which is rooted in and based upon di- chotomies, the self is created by means of the other. Dangerous dichotomies As frequently shown and discussed by philosophers and social scientists over the last 20–30 years, much Western thinking from Enlightenment onwards has been constructed in terms of dichotomies and hierarchized binaries, where one is not only separate/different but also above/better than the other. Such figures of thought are part and parcel of the ‘dark continent discourse’. The importance of not only exposing dichotomies, but also dissolving them— effectively making them evaporate in order to create a space for radically different lines of thinking—is negatively demonstrated in a number of recent speeches by 1. The paper in question was first published in 1986, and again in 1988. An updated and modified version was pub- lished in Mohanty et al. (eds) 1991, from which I quote. In a recent paper: “Under Western Eyes” Revisited (2002) Mohanty discusses current intellectual and political challenges for feminist scholarship and organizing. Her cri- tique in the 1986 paper remains, however, valid. 8 Arnfred Page 9 Wednesday, March 3, 2004 2:38 PM Re-Thinking Sexualities in Africa: Introduction South African president Thabo Mbeki.1 Negatively, because Mbeki only exposes dichotomies, proceeding to turn them upside down, but he does not dissolve them. By failing to dissolve the dichotomies, Mbeki inadvertently supports and main- tains these lines of thinking. In the speeches in question, Thabo Mbeki goes out against the ‘dark continent discourse’: “It used to be that the superiority of those who are white and the inferiority of those who are black, was enforced, presented and justified as the natural order of things. Equally we can and must say that the superiority of those who are male and the inferiority of those who are female, was enforced, presented and justified as the natural order of things. As has been said, as long as the lions do not have their own historians, so long will the hunters emerge as heroic, mighty and right” (Mbeki 2001a). The quote is from a speech given at the opening of the NGO forum at the World Conference against Racism in Durban, August 2001. Mbeki goes on to talk about economic inequalities on a global scale, as created by globalization, and the extent to which these inequalities coincide with race: Put starkly, where this process of globalization has had negative consequences, its worst victims within countries and universally have been those who are not white. For these countless black people, this has not only meant that the development gap has grown even wider, it has also meant the further entrenchment of the structural dis-empowerment of billions of people, mak- ing it even more difficult for them to break out of the trap of poverty and underdevelopment (Mbeki 2001a). Mbeki locates racism in colonial history, talking about “the legacy of slavery, co- lonialism and racism”, but he is also acutely aware of colonial continuities in present day globalization, and of the continued existence of this colonial discourse. So far so good.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Where Crime Compounds Conflict
    WHERE CRIME COMPOUNDS CONFLICT Understanding northern Mozambique’s vulnerabilities SIMONE HAYSOM October 2018 WHERE CRIME COMPOUNDS CONFLICT Understanding northern Mozambique’s vulnerabilities Simone Haysom October 2018 Cover photo: iStock/Katiekk2 Pemba, Mozambique: ranger with a gun looking at feet of elephants after poachers had killed the animals for illegal ivory trade © 2018 Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Global Initiative. Please direct inquiries to: The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime WMO Building, 2nd Floor 7bis, Avenue de la Paix CH-1211 Geneva 1 Switzerland www.GlobalInitiative.net Contents Summary and key findings ..............................................................................................................................................1 Background .........................................................................................................................................................................................2 The militants and funding from the illicit economy .......................................................................................4 Methodology .....................................................................................................................................................................................5 Corrosion, grievance and opportunity: A detailed picture
    [Show full text]
  • UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Staging Lusophony: politics of production and representation in theater festivals in Portuguese-speaking countries Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/70h801wr Author Martins Rufino Valente, Rita Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Staging Lusophony: politics of production and representation in theater festivals in Portuguese-speaking countries A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance by Rita Martins Rufino Valente 2017 © Copyright by Rita Martins Rufino Valente 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Staging Lusophony: politics of production and representation in theater festivals in Portuguese-speaking countries by Rita Martins Rufino Valente Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Janet M. O’Shea, Chair My dissertation investigates the politics of festival curation and production in artist-led theater festivals across the Portuguese-speaking (or Lusophone) world, which includes Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. I focus on uses of Lusophony as a tactics to generate alternatives to globalization, and as a response to experiences of racialization and marginalization stemming from a colonial past. I also expose the contradictory relation between Lusophony, colonialism, and globalization, which constitute obstacles for transnational tactics. I select three festivals where, I propose, the legacies of the colonial past, which include the contradictions of Lusophony, become apparent throughout the curatorial and production processes: Estação da Cena Lusófona (Portugal), Mindelact – Festival Internacional de Teatro do Mindelo (Cabo Verde), and Circuito de Teatro em Português (Brazil).
    [Show full text]
  • Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought
    DIALOGUE PO Box 1094 Farmington, UT 84025 electronic service requested DIALOGUE 52.3 fall 2019 52.3 DIALOGUE a journal of mormon thought EDITORS DIALOGUE EDITOR Boyd Jay Petersen, Provo, UT a journal of mormon thought ASSOCIATE EDITOR David W. Scott, Lehi, UT WEB EDITOR Emily W. Jensen, Farmington, UT FICTION Jennifer Quist, Edmonton, Canada POETRY Elizabeth C. Garcia, Atlanta, GA IN THE NEXT ISSUE REVIEWS (non-fiction) John Hatch, Salt Lake City, UT REVIEWS (literature) Andrew Hall, Fukuoka, Japan Papers from the 2019 Mormon Scholars in the INTERNATIONAL Gina Colvin, Christchurch, New Zealand POLITICAL Russell Arben Fox, Wichita, KS Humanities conference: “Ecologies” HISTORY Sheree Maxwell Bench, Pleasant Grove, UT SCIENCE Steven Peck, Provo, UT A sermon by Roger Terry FILM & THEATRE Eric Samuelson, Provo, UT PHILOSOPHY/THEOLOGY Brian Birch, Draper, UT Karen Moloney’s “Singing in Harmony, Stitching in Time” ART Andi Pitcher Davis, Orem, UT BUSINESS & PRODUCTION STAFF Join our DIALOGUE! BUSINESS MANAGER Emily W. Jensen, Farmington, UT PUBLISHER Jenny Webb, Woodinville, WA Find us on Facebook at Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought COPY EDITORS Richelle Wilson, Madison, WI Follow us on Twitter @DialogueJournal Jared Gillins, Washington DC PRINT SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS EDITORIAL BOARD ONE-TIME DONATION: 1 year (4 issues) $60 | 3 years (12 issues) $180 Lavina Fielding Anderson, Salt Lake City, UT Becky Reid Linford, Leesburg, VA Mary L. Bradford, Landsdowne, VA William Morris, Minneapolis, MN Claudia Bushman, New York, NY Michael Nielsen, Statesboro, GA RECURRING DONATION: Verlyne Christensen, Calgary, AB Nathan B. Oman, Williamsburg, VA $10/month Subscriber: Receive four print issues annually and our Daniel Dwyer, Albany, NY Taylor Petrey, Kalamazoo, MI Subscriber-only digital newsletter Ignacio M.
    [Show full text]
  • View 2019 Edition Online
    Emmanuel Emmanuel College College MAGAZINE 2018–2019 Front Court, engraved by R B Harraden, 1824 VOL CI MAGAZINE 2018–2019 VOLUME CI Emmanuel College St Andrew’s Street Cambridge CB2 3AP Telephone +44 (0)1223 334200 The Master, Dame Fiona Reynolds, in the new portrait by Alastair Adams May Ball poster 1980 THE YEAR IN REVIEW I Emmanuel College MAGAZINE 2018–2019 VOLUME CI II EMMANUEL COLLEGE MAGAZINE 2018–2019 The Magazine is published annually, each issue recording college activities during the preceding academical year. It is circulated to all members of the college, past and present. Copy for the next issue should be sent to the Editors before 30 June 2020. News about members of Emmanuel or changes of address should be emailed to development-office@emma.cam.ac.uk, or via the ‘Keeping in Touch’ form: https://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/members/keepintouch. College enquiries should be sent to communications@emma.cam.ac.uk or addressed to the Development Office, Emmanuel College, Cambridge CB2 3AP. General correspondence concerning the Magazine should be addressed to the General Editor, College Magazine, Dr Lawrence Klein, Emmanuel College, Cambridge CB2 3AP. Correspondence relating to obituaries should be addressed to the Obituaries Editor (The Dean, The Revd Jeremy Caddick), Emmanuel College, Cambridge CB2 3AP. The college telephone number is 01223 334200, and the email address is magazine@emma.cam.ac.uk. If possible, photographs to accompany obituaries and other contributions should be high-resolution scans or original photos in jpeg format. The Editors would like to express their thanks to the many people who have contributed to this issue, with a special nod to the unstinting assistance of the College Archivist.
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis Title Page with Pictures2
    The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University GIRLS IN WAR, WOMEN IN PEACE: REINTEGRATION AND (IN)JUSTICE IN POST-WAR MOZAMBIQUE Town Cape of University A MINOR DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY IN JUSTICE AND TRANSFORMATION LILLIAN K. BUNKER BNKLIL001 FACULTY OF THE HUMANITIES UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN 2011 COMPULSORY DECLARATION This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Date: Town Cape of University i UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN GRADUATE SCHOOL IN HUMANITIES DECLARATION BY CANDIDATE FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES I, Lillian Bunker, of 101 B W. McKnight Way #27, Grass Valley, California 95949 U.S.A. do hereby declare that I empower the University of Cape Town to produceTown for the purpose of research either the whole or any portion of the contents of my dissertation entitled Girls in War, Women in Peace: Reintegration and (In)justice in Post-war Mozambique in any manner whatsoever.
    [Show full text]
  • Download The
    f the past is another country, it might well be called Mozambique. In this east African nation, history is an extra element in the atmosphere, a living, breathing part of daily life that intrudes upon and retreats from one’s experience of the place like the aquamarine tides. A mural outside Maputo airport gives a quick sweep of events, depicting an unbroken stream of history from the Portuguese colonisation to the slave trade, the war of independence to the recent civil war (represented by stony- faced men in military fatigues). The past is unavoidable – but why would you want to? In a country where an IAK-47 imprints the national flag, Mozambique’s often turbid, sometimes torrid past lends a fascinating aspect to a refreshed luxury travel destination. Spirited new hotels deliver a cultural fix alongside their castaway chic – plus all the kayaking, diving, boating, beaches, private pools and first-rate cuisine that come as five-star standard in these parts. It’s a combination that few Indian Ocean locales can match. The sense of utter dislocation and off-map seclusion – bet on being the only diver on the reef for several hundred miles – the staggering natural beauty and pioneering spirit (a psychic hangover from those centuries-old explorers, now palpable in the discovery of vast reserves of precious stones, ore and gas) makes Mozambique a country for now. Ibo Island is a jungly tract of sand, palms and mangrove in the northern Quirimbas archipelago, a Unesco protected haven of 32 islands where the sea recedes to reveal vast, crenulated swirls of white sand like marbled paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Anthropology 2 Handbook 2016
    University of Edinburgh School of Social & Political Science Subject Area 2016 – 2017 Social Anthropology 2, Key Topics in Social Anthropology SCAN 08004 Semester 1, Year 2 Key Information Course Organiser Dr. Naomi Haynes Email: Naomi.Haynes@ed.ac.uk Room no. 4.10 Chrystal MacMillan Building, 15A George Square Guidance & Feedback Hours: Mondays 13.00 – 15:00 and by appointment Lecturers Prof Jonathan Spencer Email: jonathan.spencer@ed.ac.uk Dr John Harries Email: j.harries@ed.ac.uk Location Mondays and Thursdays 15:10 – 16:00 Lecture Hall C, David Hume Tower LTs Tutors Tutor’s name: Jenny Lawy Email: j.lawy@ed.ac.uk Tutor’s name: Heid Jerstad Email: h.m.jerstad@sms.ed.ac.uk Tutor’s name: Leo Hopkinson Email: lhopkins@exseed.ed.ac.uk Course Secretary Secretary’s name: Lauren Ayre Email: Lauren.Ayre@ed.ac.uk Undergraduate Teaching Office Assessment • Essay #1 – 17 October 2016 12 noon Deadlines • Essay #2 – 14 November 2016 12 noon • Essay #3 – 12 December 2016 12 noon Aims and Objectives This course will provide a historical overview of anthropological thought and will be taught through an introduction to keywords that have helped to shape the development of social anthropology. The thematic approach is designed to be engaging and stimulating to students and to help to foster critical conceptual and theoretical thought. It will highlight the continued significance of key concepts and oppositions over time. The course is organized around the exploration of a cluster of linked keywords: society and culture; humans and the environment; and persons and 2016-17 Social Anthropology 2A 1 production.
    [Show full text]
  • Female Genital Cutting
    DHS Comparative Reports 7 Female Genital Cutting in the Demographic and Health Surveys: A Critical and Comparative Analysis MEASURE DHS+ assists countries worldwide in the collection and use of data to monitor and evaluate population, health, and nutrition programs. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), MEASURE DHS+ is implemented by ORC Macro in Calverton, Maryland. The main objectives of the MEASURE DHS+ project are: 1) to provide decisionmakers in survey countries with information useful for informed policy choices, 2) to expand the international population and health database, 3) to advance survey methodology, and 4) to develop in participating countries the skills and resources necessary to conduct high-quality demographic and health surveys. Information about the MEASURE DHS+ project or the status of MEASURE DHS+ surveys is available on the Internet at http://www.measuredhs.com or by contacting: ORC Macro 11785 Beltsville Drive, Suite 300 Calverton, MD 20705 USA Telephone: 301-572-0200 Fax: 301-572-0999 E-mail: reports@orcmacro.com DHS Comparative Reports No. 7 Female Genital Cutting in the Demographic and Health Surveys: A Critical and Comparative Analysis P. Stanley Yoder Noureddine Abderrahim Arlinda Zhuzhuni ORC Macro Calverton, Maryland, USA September 2004 This publication was made possible through support provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development under the terms of Contract No. HRN-C-00-97-00019- 00. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Editor: Sidney Moore Series design: Katherine Senzee Document production: Justine Faulkenburg Recommended citation: Yoder, P.
    [Show full text]
  • The Association Between Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the Risk of HIV/AIDS in Kenyan Girls and Women (15-49 Years)
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Public Health Theses School of Public Health Spring 5-4-2010 The Association between Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the Risk of HIV/AIDS in Kenyan Girls and Women (15-49 Years) Rosemary G. Kinuthia Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/iph_theses Part of the Public Health Commons Recommended Citation Kinuthia, Rosemary G., "The Association between Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the Risk of HIV/ AIDS in Kenyan Girls and Women (15-49 Years)." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2010. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/iph_theses/98 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Public Health at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Public Health Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact scholarworks@gsu.edu. Abstract Rosemary Kinuthia The Association between Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the Risk of HIV/AIDS in Kenyan Girls and Women (15-49 Years) (Under the direction of Dr. Ike S. Okosun, MS, MPH, PhD, FRSPH and Dr. Richard Rothenberg, MD, MPH, FACP). INTRODUCTION: Kenya like the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be plagued with high rates of AIDS/HIV. Research has shown that cultural practices have serious implications for the spread of HIV/AIDS, as well as other communicable diseases. One of the practices that have been speculated to have an impact on AIDS/HIV is female genital mutilation (FGM). Despite efforts to eradicate the practice, prevalence of FGM in Kenya remains relatively high.
    [Show full text]
  • The Emergence of Pristine States
    The Emergence of Pristine States Henri J. M. Claessen Leiden University ABSTRACT In this article the emergence of the Pristine State will be considered. First, I will present an overview of the applied method. Then seven cases of – probable – Pristine States are described. This makes a comparative research possible. As the case studies have been de- scribed with the help of the Complex Interaction Model, the com- parative part is also based upon this approach. From the compari- sons it appeared that all cases developed in a situation of relative wealth. They were not a consequence of hunger or population pres- sure. Nor could the often mentioned role of war be established as crucial in the formation of these states. War, as far as it occurred, was rather a consequence than a condition of state formation. 1. PRELIMINARY REMARKS In 1967, Morton H. Fried introduced the concept of the pristine state in The Evolution of Political Society, stating that ‘all contemporary states, even those that seem to be lineally descended from the states of high antiquity, like China, are really secondary states; the pristine states perished long ago’ (Fried 1967: 231). The pristine states were those that ‘emerged from stratified societies and experienced the slow, autochthonous growth of specialized formal instruments of social control out of their own needs for these institutions’ (Ibid.). The institutions grew and a leader – a priest, a warrior, a man- ager, or a charismatic person – came to the fore, and started to use his power. Gradually the organization of such a polity developed into an incipient early state (term in Claessen 1978, 2014).
    [Show full text]
  • John Gledhill There Are Significant National Differences Between The
    FATEFUL LEGACIES AND THE BURDENS OF ACADEmic EXCELLENCE: UK ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE John Gledhill There are significant national differences between the public profiles of anthropology in different countries and regions of the world today. The obvious way to account for them is to apply sociological analysis to the development of the discipline in different contexts, and at the same time consider the differences between the contexts themselves. In the case of British social anthropology, much, if not all, of what we need to know to diagnose the roots of the problem has already been published. Key texts include Jonathan Spencer’s incisive implementation of Edmund Leach’s suggestion that: ‘the sociology of the environ- ment of social anthropologists has a bearing on the history of social anthropology’, in an article published in Annual Review of Anthropology in 2000 (Spencer 2000: 21). David Mills has recently been exploring the history of the discipline in a whole range of incisive articles, with a major book on the way. One very acce- ssible example that illustrates the way David makes history ask searching practical questions about the future is his Anthropology Today piece on the history of the two UK associations, ASA and RAI, and the implications of their continuing separation (Mills 2003). Adam Kuper’s celebrated and thrice updated contribution to the intellectual and social history of ‘The Modern British School’ remains a rich and indispensable reference (Kuper 1996), even if Spencer’s article also makes the important point that we need to continue thinking about what, if anything, makes British anthropology distinctive today.
    [Show full text]
  • Adorno's Dilemma: on Difficult Writing and Sophistication in Anthropology
    38 Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers Vol. 99/100 KROEBER ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 100(1): 38-63 Adorno’s Dilemma: On Difficult Writing and Sophistication in Anthropology Today1 Marc Goodwin, University of California, Berkeley Introduction Writing in 1966, in an essay entitled “Difficulties,” Theodor Adorno saw modern mu- sic as, “faced with an alternative,” “that between the fetishism of the material and the process, on the one hand, and unfettered chance [in the form of aleatory music] on the other” (2002:660). In other words, after the collapse of tonality in the early twenti- eth century, composers could choose either to ignore this fact and compose music that could make no claims to being autonomous art, or face complete isolation from musical expressivity. This paper uses Adorno’s dilemma as a starting point and central organiz- ing device for exploring the political, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions of debates on “difficult writing” in anthropology. More specifically, for heuristic purposes, it draws a connection between the “crisis of musical meaning” in the early to mid-twentieth cen- tury, and the so-called “crisis of representation” in anthropology in the 1980s and 1990s in order to think of the problem of difficulty as a particular response to objective histori- cal conditions. In particular, I argue that the shift to textuality in anthropology created a bifurcation between the epistemological and political dimensions of representation, and introduced sophistication as the key diacritic of critical engagement and inquiry. Because the notion of sophistication implies both technical refinement and deception, I show how criticisms of difficulty in writing imply already a specific notion of failed or inauthentic public address.
    [Show full text]