ANTH326 Meeting 4

ANTH326 Peoples and Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa Meeting 4, Social Structure September 29, 2010

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Related References
Grinker, Lubkemann, and Steiner
How to Write about Africa
http://www.granta.com/Magazine/92/How-to-Write-About-Africa
Binyavanga Wainaina
Ma famille
Ivoirian series
Tou.tv until October 4
http://www.tou.tv/ma-famille

Africa as Mirror
Define Western by contrast
Similar to Orientalism
The go-to Other
Nostalgia
Stigmatization
"Third World"

Impossible to generalize
Unusual cases
Catalogue
Contrasting cases within Africa
Contrast with alleged reader's notions
Particular to broader

McCall

Approach
Playing with narrative
Start with striking
Contextualize
What colonial administrators missed
What colonial administrators created

Intro to Culture
Kinship/household
Cultural relativism and polygyny
Corporate ownership
Gerontocracy
Caste-like stratification

Infrastructure
Modes of production and reproduction
Agrarian by default
Market

Structure
Authority
Joking relationships
Solidarity
Sodalities
Age sets/grades
Cohorts
Institutionalized
Gender

Southall

"Tribal"
Preconceptions
Technical definition
A posteriori definition

Defining Groups
Core part of social science
Group construction
Impact of outside definitions
Allegiance
Language (Herder)
Negotiated boundaries
Barth

Constructed Groups
Widespread
Even found in Europe
Divide and conquer
United we stand
Necessary in context
Primary identity
Causing wars
Solution in ethnic groups?

Complexity
Layered identities
Fluidity
Changes in identity
Urban/rural
Social networks

Modernity
Modern Africa
Associated to colonialism
Different from Westernization
Nationalism
Individualism

Contemporary Africa
Modern
Young
Diverse

States in Africa
Long history
Kingdoms and Empires
Next to small-scale groups
Embed small-scale groups
Nation-states
Somali as textbook case

ANTH326 Meeting 4

by Alexandre Enkerli

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ANTH326 Meeting 4 Presentation Transcript