Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa
This article introduces the special issue “Becoming (Un)Equal in Age: Seniority and Superiority in African Societies”.
Category: English
Training as a Rite of Passage
Following the transformative journey of Kenyan geothermal professionals throughout a training programme in Iceland and back to their homes, I argue that such long-term training in foreign countries can function as a rite of passage. The coll…
Doing Being Senior/Junior
In this article, I will reconsider the naming and kinship relationships of the !Xun San in north-central Namibia from the perspective of child socialization. I will thereby deconstruct the naturalized view in which ‘relative age’ (a concept …
Differences of Age Without Distinctions of Authority
This contribution begins with the puzzle as to why there are kinship and naming systems that distinguish junior from senior, elaborately and systematically, even though these practices are embedded in substantially egalitarian societies. The…
“I’m Bigger!”
Pre-school age children in European contexts are known to use labels like ‘big’ and ‘small’ to orient to age differences, very often to highlight differences in physical and social competence (Häll 2022). This research report explores Datoog…
Augmented Authority
The paper describes changed elderhood in Sukuma-speaking villages in Tanzania through a combined situational and cultural analysis, starting with the traditional role of (re)generation and medicine in practices of greeting. Elderhood, I argu…
Power and Age
Spencer (1965, 1988, 1993, 2003) theorizes two distinct strands in the life course of a Maasai male. The first strand is the building of a cattle herd and a family, and the second is developing involvement in the age class system. The second…
“This Child Is This Small Only on His Age”
This paper examines the emic concepts pertaining to age in Ngəmba, a language spoken in the Western Region of Cameroon. It explores both the terminological concepts available in the language for talking about age and their usage in everyday …
What Is ‘Old’ in Old Age? An Inquiry into Swahili Paremia
This article is about gerontological proverbs in Swahili folkloric discourses. The question posed in this study is as follows: how is old age depicted according to Swahili paremiology? To answer this question, 49 popular Swahili gerontologic…
Seniority in Midwifery in Tanzania
Concepts of seniority and elderhood were important structuring elements in many societies of precolonial Africa and were connected with social status. This changed with the European colonization of Africa, and strongly affected traditional c…
Compte-rendu de l’ouvrage « Patrimoine et œnotourisme, vers une recomposition culturelle du monde vitivinicole », sous la direction de Bernard Cherubini
Cherubini B. (dir.) 2022. Patrimoine et œnotourisme, vers une recomposition culturelle du monde vitivinicole. Bordeaux : Presses Universitaires Bordeaux.
Cet ouvrage ouvre sur le propos de B. Cherubini qui questionne l’alliance entre œnot…
Compte-rendu de l’ouvrage « Patrimoine et œnotourisme, vers une recomposition culturelle du monde vitivinicole », sous la direction de Bernard Cherubini
Cherubini B. (dir.) 2022. Patrimoine et œnotourisme, vers une recomposition culturelle du monde vitivinicole. Bordeaux : Presses Universitaires Bordeaux.
Cet ouvrage ouvre sur le propos de B. Cherubini qui questionne l’alliance entre œnot…
We will not be saved: a memoir of hope and resistance in the Amazon rainforest
Review: We will not be saved: a memoir of hope and resistance in the Amazon rainforest, by Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson. London: Wildfire, 2024. 368 pp., plates.
Jean Langdon: transformations and perspectives from half a century of research about shamanism
This text reviews some of Jean Langdon’s most important classical and contemporary writings about shamanism, highlighting her key contributions to the area, as well as her relevance to the anthropology of health and Indigenous health policies. The …
“Nós vamos lutar por eles”: a defesa do povo “isolado” Pirititi pelos Waimiri Atroari, Amazonas e Roraima, Brasil
Os Pirititi são um grupo indígena “isolado” pouco conhecido, que ocupa um território altamente ameaçado na divisa entre os estados do Amazonas e Roraima (Brasil), e tem majoritariamente rejeitado todo tipo de contato e encontro. Os Waimiri Atroari …
“We will fight for them”: The defense of the ´isolated´ Piriti people by the Waimiri Atroari, Amazonas and Roraima, Brazil
The Pirititi are a little known ´isolated´ Indigenous group occupying a highly threatened territory on the border between Amazonas and Roraima states in Brazil who have rejected all previous attempts at contact and encounter. The Waimiri Atroari pr…
(Un)worlding with Karipuna’s Shadowy Alliances: the Mirangã and the Isolados
This ethnographically inspired article investigates the ways in which the Karipuna Indigenous people in Rondônia defend their land in the Western Brazilian Amazon against forces of deforestation and dispossession. I focus on the Karipuna’s plurival…
Ratting on the coca spirit or mastering exchange? Andoque negotiations of power and commodification between forest and market
Asserting the importance of analyzing Indigenous involvement in the extraction and trade of nonhuman entities against the backdrop of Amazonian perceptions of personhood, this article investigates the risks and opportunities that coca commercializa…
La escucha de los soplos: Chamanismo y proposiciones ontológicas sobre el lenguaje en el Alto Río Negro, Amazonas
La región del Alto Río Negro-AM es considerada una de las áreas con mayor intensidad de multilingüismo en Brasil e incluso en el mundo. Hay un total de 23 pueblos indígenas que hablan lenguas de las familias lingüísticas arawak, tukano y hup, yuhup…
Bahsé Ahpose: o adocicamento das águas e dos peixes como regeneração da vida no Alto Vaupés, Noroeste Amazônico
Nas paisagens etnográficas do Noroeste Amazônico brasileiro se encontra o Rio Vaupés, na Terra Indígena do Alto Rio Negro, no Município de São Gabriel da Cachoeira. Nessas paisagens, os povos do Vaupés fazem o Bahsé Ahpose, o adocicamento das águas…
“Before, we didn’t eat manioc flour”: Historical and social transformations in food techniques among Indigenous Peoples of the Rio Negro basin in the Brazilian Amazon
Manioc flour is currently considered one of the main foods consumed by Indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. It is fundamental both to the traditional diet and to adding an “Indigenous flavor” to urban dishes. This article presents an analysi…
Revitalizing while transmitting: conversations around “natural birth”practices with Kichwa midwives in Ecuador’s Napo region
Despite its relevance for analyzing many distinctive native imaginaries and societal values, childbirth remains a relatively neglected theme within Amazonianist scholarship. Yet, birthing can be shown to structure contemporary struggles around kins…
Asian Ethnology
precarity emotions secularization Fukushima Pure Land Buddhism Since the triple disaster of 2011, parents in Fukushima Prefecture have been raising their children under a cloud of uncertainty about possible radiation in their environment. This article …
Asian Ethnology
folklore tricksters horror infanticide adaptation retelling violence The Assamese film Kothanodi (2015) radically demonstrates how film adapts to folklore, rather than the other way around. It actively contributes to the folkloric tradition, notably th…
Asian Ethnology
Taiwan material religion Daoism ritual whip craft cultural improvisation Among the most ubiquitous ritual implements in modern Taiwan, the ritual whip functions to dispel demons and to summon spirit soldiers, the material embodiment of a fearsome serpe…