According to the people of the Mueda plateau in northern Mozambique, sorcerers remake the world by asserting the authority of their own imaginative visions of it. While conducting research among these Muedans, anthropologist Harry G. West made a revealing discovery-for many of them, West's efforts to elaborate an ethnographic vision of their world was itself a form of sorcery. In Ethnographic Sorcery, West explores the fascinating issues provoked by this equation. A key theme of West's research into sorcery is that one sorcerer's claims can be challenged or reversed by other...
According to the people of the Mueda plateau in northern Mozambique, sorcerers remake the world by asserting the authority of their own imaginative...
On the Mueda plateau in northern Mozambique, sorcerers are said to feed on their victims, sometimes "making" lions or transforming into lions to literally devour their flesh. When the ruling FRELIMO party subscribed to socialism, it condemned sorcery beliefs and counter-sorcery practices as false consciousness, but since undertaking neoliberal reform, the party--still in power after three electoral cycles--has "tolerated tradition," leaving villagers to interpret and engage with events in the idiom of sorcery. Now, when the lions prowl plateau villages, suspected sorcerers are often lynched....
On the Mueda plateau in northern Mozambique, sorcerers are said to feed on their victims, sometimes "making" lions or transforming into lions to liter...
In southeast Africa, the power to heal is often associated with crossing borders, whether literal or metaphorical. This wide-ranging volume reveals that healers, whose power depends on the ability to broker therapeutic resources, also contribute to the construction of the borders they transgress. While addressing diverse healing practices such as herbalism, razor-blade vaccination, spirit possession, prophetic healing, missionary health clinics, and traumatic storytelling, the nine lively and provocative essays in Borders and Healers explore the creativity and resilience of the region's...
In southeast Africa, the power to heal is often associated with crossing borders, whether literal or metaphorical. This wide-ranging volume reveals...
Transparency has, in recent years, become a watchword for good governance. Policymakers and analysts alike evaluate political and economic institutions courts, corporations, nation-states according to the transparency of their operating procedures. With the dawn of the New World Order and the mutual veil dropping of the post Cold War era, many have asserted that power in our contemporary world is more transparent than ever. Yet from the perspective of the relatively less privileged, the operation of power often appears opaque and unpredictable. Through vivid ethnographic analyses,...
Transparency has, in recent years, become a watchword for good governance. Policymakers and analysts alike evaluate political and economic institution...
This book is part of a continuing series that explores international political change. The volume focuses on African nation-states, their internal conflicts, and their role in the international arena, and also delves into history, political leadership, rebellion, military conflict, policymaking, and diplomacy in Africa. Topics such as ethnic differences, political corruption, and revolution are discussed against the backdrop of contemporary political life. Recent experiences in Somalia and Rwanda and the United States and the United Nations' intervention in African conflicts are also...
This book is part of a continuing series that explores international political change. The volume focuses on African nation-states, their internal co...
At a time when the relationship between 'the country' and 'the city' is in flux worldwide, the value and meanings of food associated with both places continue to be debated. Building upon the foundation of Raymond Williams' classic work, The Country and the City, this volume examines how conceptions of the country and the city invoked in relation to food not only reflect their changing relationship but have also been used to alter the very dynamics through which countryside and cities, and the food grown and eaten within them, are produced and sustained.
Leading scholars in...
At a time when the relationship between 'the country' and 'the city' is in flux worldwide, the value and meanings of food associated with both plac...
