Awkward Entanglements: Kinship, Morality and Survival in Cape Town’S Prison–Township Circuit
Ethnos Journal of Anthropology ISSN: 0014-1844 (Print) 1469-588X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/retn20 Awkward Entanglements: Kinship, Morality and Survival in Cape Town’s Prison–township Circuit Karen Waltorp & Steffen Jensen To cite this article: Karen Waltorp & Steffen Jensen (2019) Awkward Entanglements: Kinship, Morality and Survival in Cape Town’s Prison–township Circuit, Ethnos, 84:1, 41-55, DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2017.1321565 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2017.1321565 Published online: 18 Dec 2018. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 156 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=retn20 ETHNOS 2019, VOL. 84, NO. 1, 41–55 https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2017.1321565 Awkward Entanglements: Kinship, Morality and Survival in Cape Town’s Prison–township Circuit Karen Waltorpa and Steffen Jensenb,c aAarhus University, Denmark; bDIGNITY Danish Institute Against Torture, Denmark; cAalborg University, Denmark ABSTRACT In this paper, we explore how townships and prison are linked in South Africa among criminalised populations. While the two are often described – also by residents – as belonging to radically different moral worlds, the article shows how they are entangled in often awkward and difficult, yet necessary ways. We show this by paying acute attention to kinship structures and how kin are disavowed, allowed and sometimes denied as residents find their way to prison and out again. The empirical basis of the article is long-term fieldwork in and engagement with Cape Town’s townships and their residents, many of who have experiences with prison as (former) inmates, as family to inmates, or through constant circulation of prison stories.
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