Ethnology最新文献

{"title":"THE VITALITY OF LOCAL POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE MIDDLE ATLAS, MOROCCO","authors":"B. Venema, A. Mguild","doi":"10.2307/4153001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153001","url":null,"abstract":"In the Middle Atlas, Morocco, growing government bureaucracy has not undermined the informal village council and the legitimacy of local functionaries such as shaykh or muqaddam. Although official or elected bodies may formally have de facto power, in practice the village council still controls access to local resources. Instead of being manipulated by the regional government bureaucracy, the village council continues to represent the common people. However, newcomers and educated folk hold different attitudes toward local institutions and functionaries which weaken them, giving government officials opportunity to intervene. (Village council, district council, regional government, herders, farmers, Middle Atlas, Morocco) ********** This article discusses the changes that have taken place in the local political institutions of the Ait Abdi Berbers of the Middle Atlas as a result of encroaching government bureaucracy. It addresses the Ait Abdi of the rural district (commune rurale) Oued Ifrane, which has a population of 14,500. The population's main source of livelihood is sheep farming. Formerly, sheep farmers practiced transhumance between summer and winter pastures, but now they are generally settled in the winter pastures: mountain valleys with a climate permitting the development of agriculture and arboriculture. This sedentarization has resulted in the growth of rural centers in the Middle Atlas, among them Souk el Had, the main center of Oued Ifrane, with about 4,350 inhabitants. Several researchers have argued that growing government bureaucracy and extension of the powers of government courts in Morocco have undermined local political institutions in administration and in settling disputes (Geertz, Geertz, and Rosen 1979:53-57; Chiapuris 1980:232-36). With reference to the Central Atlas, Ilahiane (1999:41) concludes that the government now has a presence in every domain, curtailing the influence of local and collective institutions, and constituting an extension of government bureaucracy. Hammoudi (1997) agrees that contemporary elective institutions have increased the power of the state in the rural areas of Morocco, and claims that the central government collaborated with the rural notables, the sons of those who, as caid (district officer; pl. cuwwad) or shaykh (subdistrict officer; pl. shuyukh) during the era of the French Protectorate, acquired large parcels of land and became local strongmen. These notables now participate in the patronage network of the monarchy and state. They came to be cuwwad or shuyukh or members of the district council in return for collaborating with state authorities. This point of view does insufficient justice to the value attached to autonomy by the Berber population, however. In the Middle Atlas, the sultan and his army hardly ever succeeded in levying tribute on the trading routes between Fez, Meknes, and Tafilalt, which was considered the prerogative of the Berber leaders themselves. Only by sending tro","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"103-117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69378443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"MODERN COWS AND EXOTIC TREES: IDENTITY, PERSONHOOD, AND EXCHANGE AMONG THE IRAQW OF TANZANIA","authors":"K. Snyder","doi":"10.2307/4153004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153004","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines forms of personhood and identity among the Iraqw of Tanzania. It explores how ideas of personhood have changed from the precolonial era to the present as the Iraqw have been incorporated into the wider regional, national, and global political economy. Drawing on the literature from Melanesia, it investigates how ideas of the individual versus relational person play out in an African context. It illustrates how Iraqw are, through exchange systems, connected to different communities and social networks, each with different emphases of the person. (Iraqw, East Africa, personhood, modernity) ********** There is a widespread sentiment among the Iraqw of northern Tanzania about the differences between generations today. These differences are often framed in terms of \"traditional\" and \"backward-looking\" views versus \"forward thinking\" and \"modern.\" An example appears in the following quote from a young Iraqw man: \"I am a modern person. I don't believe in keeping herds of cattle like my father. That is a waste of time. People who are educated believe in moving forwards. I am planting trees on my land and growing cash crops. These will bring more development than `village' cattle.\" This difference in mindset accompanies changing views on the nature of personhood in Iraqw communities. Studies of personhood in Africa have benefited from analyses of Melanesian societies, where Strathern's (1988) landmark Gender of the Gif set in motion much fruitful debate about notions of the person. Lambek and Strathern's (1998) collection of cross-fertilization efforts suggests new avenues for investigation in all geographical locales. A related topic is the subject of identity. In much of the African literature, identity is often portrayed as a strategy deployed by actors to handle various events and situations, particularly in the turbulent postcolonial world. A recent volume seeks to explore the \"cultural politics of identities in transition within postcolonial Africa [by examining the] disparate identity strategies emerging in everyday life\" (Werbner and Ranger 1996:2). These strategies are deployed by actors to achieve particular aims. Yet the political and strategic nature of identity must also be complemented by attention to what is considered important in forming a person or actor in these societies. Identity and personhood exist in reference to each other, not in isolation. This article explores the connections between the ideas of personhood and identity among the agropastoral Iraqw. It draws heavily on ideas explored in Lambek and Strathern's (1998) volume, particularly those of LiPuma (1998), who rightly points out, in something of a corrective to Marilyn Strathern's dichotomy of the Western individual versus the Melanesian \"dividual,\" or relational person, that people act in ways that are both individual and dividual in all societies. After carefully examining the patterns that emerge from these practices and actions in a Melanesian sett","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"155-173"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69378628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Poetic Dialogues: Performance and Politics in the Tuscan Contrasto","authors":"V. Pagliai","doi":"10.2307/4153003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153003","url":null,"abstract":"Performance can represent politics in a way that empowers the audience, transforming the context from one only marginally political into one in which relevant political decisions may be taken. In the Contrasto, a Tuscan genre of verbal duel, the constant articulation of a dialogue between two points of view allows the artists to dispute social behaviors and political views, while veiling their opinions through the formal structure of the genre. (Verbal art, performance, language and politics, Italy) ********** Linguistic anthropologists and other social scientists have argued that social structure emerges and can be reshaped in performance. Unlike other social interactions, performance offers the participants \"a special enhancement of experience, bringing with it a heightened intensity of communicative interactions which binds the audience to the performer in a way that is specific to performance as a mode of communication\" (Bauman 1977:43). As this augments the authority of the performers, performance can change the perception of reality with performers and audience and present other models of reality. (1) Also, Briggs (1988:15) notes, \"Performance features do not merely reflect situational factors; rather, they interpret the social interaction, thus opening up the possibility of transforming its very nature.\" However, to think of social structure as emergent in performance implies that performance is a highly political activity, a ground where the political views and the political organization of the society may be represented and scrutinized, and where alternative models may be proposed. As an immediate consequence, performance may also be a highly dangerous ground, which explains why performers are often political targets or targets of censure, especially in oppressive regimes. The present essay, based on my work on the Tuscan verbal art called Contrasto, (2) demonstrates how performance represents the Italian political sphere in a way that empowers the audience, transforming the context from one only marginally political into one actively political. Performance helps define the situation as one where politics is discussed and political decisions may be made. The article shows how the structure of the Contrasto furnishes a protective veiling for the artists by creating for them a poetic space of freedom for expressing their ideas. Finally, it argues that both the contextual changes and the veiling are made possible by the dialogical nature of the genre; namely, the Contrasto's constant articulation of a dialogue, in the form of verbal duel, between two different points of view. To understand how performance modifies the political realities that it portrays (Bauman 1977:43; Peacock 1968) requires understanding language (and poetic language) as action, and how performance is a reflexive activity created in the interaction of performers and their audience. From this reflexive interaction, performance furnishes a commentary on society and thus ac","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"135-154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69378476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"FAST FOOD AND INTERGENERATIONAL COMMENSALITY IN JAPAN: NEW STYLES AND OLD PATTERNS","authors":"J. Traphagan, L. Brown","doi":"10.2307/4153002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153002","url":null,"abstract":"The introduction of McDonald's and indigenous fast-food restaurants reflects changes in the Japanese diet, eating behaviors, and social patterns. But these changes are not the expression of urban anomie and social fragmentation often attributed to postmodern society and symbolically represented by the ubiquity of these restaurants. Indeed, eating and social patterns within such establishments suggest that they provide opportunities for intergenerational commensality, conviviality, and intimacy that are less evident in some of the traditional Japanese fast-food establishments, where snacks and meals likewise are quickly served and quickly consumed. The proliferation in Japan today of these fast-food establishments reflects changes in Japan as part of global processes, rather than Westernization per se; such eating venues are used in ways that are consistent with patterns long established in Japanese culture. (Japan, family, globalization, fast food, McDonald's) ********** Fast foods have a long history in Japan, and continue today with new and old forms, each having its own meaning and place in this fast-paced, hard-working society. The introduction of McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and domestic restaurants like MOS Burger have clearly effected, and reflect, changes in the Japanese diet and eating behaviors (Watson 1997:6). (2) One might expect that such changes associated with globalization would be the expression of urban anomie, impersonal and mechanical social relations, alienation and social fragmentation, symptoms often attributed to postmodern society, symbolically represented in the ubiquity of these gustatory venues (cf. Clammer 2001). McDonald's frequently is portrayed as the central icon of the evils of globalization. Ritzer (2000:6), for example, sees the company and its golden arches as a \"global icon\"; indeed, as \"the ultimate icon of Americana,\" with its emphasis on efficiency, uniformity, and mass production. This article presents an entirely different perspective, and argues that McDonald's and some other new styles of fast food in Japan express long-standing Japanese cultural patterns, and facilitate human intimacy and warmth not possible with some other, more traditional styles of inexpensive and rapidly served food in Japan. Ethnographic observation of eating patterns within recently introduced fast-food restaurants suggests that these establishments provide opportunities for intergenerational commensality, conviviality, and intimacy that are less evident in more traditional establishments where people go for food that likewise is quickly served and quickly consumed. The opportunities for these intimate occasions of sharing indeed may well be a major factor in their rapid growth in the past several decades. (3) Ethnographic observation also underscores the importance of avoiding simplistic conclusions that things global necessarily lead to common interpretations and uses and that a particular mode of production is inherent","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"119-134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69378454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"CONFIRMING UNILOCAL RESIDENCE IN NATIVE NORTH AMERICA","authors":"J. Moore, Janis E Campbell","doi":"10.2307/4153005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153005","url":null,"abstract":"Some scientists have been reluctant to cite the coded entries of the Human Relations Area Files, especially concerning marriage and residence, because the codes are largely based on normative statements rather than empirical data. In this article, HRAF assertions about postmarital residence among Crees and Mvskoke Creeks are tested against empirical databases. For Crees, 97.6 per cent of early historical first marriages were found to be patrilocal, in accordance with tribal law. For Creeks, 94.9 per cent of such marriages were matrilocal, also according to tribal law. (Cree, Creek, postmarital residence, HRAF) ********** Data collected by human geneticists in recent years seem to show regular patterns in the global and regional distributions of human alleles (Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi, and Piazza 1994; Seielstad, Minch, and Cavalli-Sforza 1998; Stoneking 1998; Mesa et al. 2000; Jorde et al. 2000). To understand the mating patterns and social practices that might have produced these regularities, geneticists have followed the example of paleodemographers, ecologists, and epidemiologists in consulting standard ethnographic references such as the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) (Keeley 1988; Sellen and Mace 1999; Flaxman and Sherman 2000). (2) These and related publications provide descriptions of kinship structures and marriage practices, especially among small-scale, non-Western societies. In Murdock's Atlas of World Cultures (1981), for example, many ethnographically known societies have been described and categorized by their definitions of incest, and by patterns of spouse selection and postmarital residence (Barry and Schlegel 1980). (3) An important and long-standing question among ethnologists, however, is whether these characterizations merely represent ideal or normative patterns elicited from native people by ethnographic researchers, or whether they represent the actual practice of each society at the time of the fieldwork, during the so-called ethnographic present (Driver 1973; Moore 1994:363; Bernard 1994). There are many reasons why normative characterizations of social practice were not or sometimes could not be confirmed empirically at the time of the original ethnographic fieldwork, mostly in the early and middle twentieth century. Foremost among these reasons was a lack of time and money, since fieldwork at that time was often restricted to a period of twelve to eighteen months, only enough time to witness one seasonal cycle of cultural events. Another difficulty in collecting data on matters of marriage and kinship was the frequent unwillingness of native people to discuss such sensitive subjects as paternity and adoption (Barnes 1978; Rivers 1968; Dyke and Morrill 1980). Also, genealogical inquiries in some societies were sometimes confounded by native name taboos and complex kinship systems that were frequently difficult for an outsider to penetrate (Amadiume 1993; Chagnon 1974:90-103). In addition, there may have been indiffer","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"175-188"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69378637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Power and placement in blood practices","authors":"P. Stewart, A. Strathern","doi":"10.2307/4153013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153013","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropologists writing on the Highlands societies of Papua New Guinea have stressed the variable importance of ideas of menstrual pollution as markers of gender relations. This article suggests an alternative approach to these ideas, emphasizing instead aspects of power, placement, complementarity, collaboration, and the moral agency of both genders. Turning to the ethnographic work of the 1960s, we contrast the writings of Salisbury and Meggitt and discuss the usefulness of the \"three bodies\" concept of Lock and Scheper-Hughes in the comparative analysis of body substances and their meanings in this region. The use of a collaborative model is helpful in such an overall analysis.","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"349-363"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69378846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"OWNERSHIP OF SEA-SHRIMP PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTIONS OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY IN A NICARAGUAN MISKITU VILLAGE","authors":"M. Jamieson","doi":"10.2307/4153029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153029","url":null,"abstract":"This article on the catching and processing of sea shrimp investigates the relationship between differing degrees of access to the means of production and the generation of economic inequalities among the Miskitu people of Kakabila in Nicaragua's Pearl Lagoon. The widely held Kakabila notion that the production of wealth among some entails a concomitant impoverishment of others (Foster's \"image of the limited good\") is shown, in the context of the local sea-shrimp economy, to have a verifiable basis in truth. (Miskitu, economic anthropology, fishing, shrimp, Nicaragua) ********** One of Marx's most important insights in his analysis of the capitalist system was the significance of ownership of the means of production, specifically rights to the tools and property that reproduce and make operable the relations of production. Among anthropologists, however, this aspect of Marx's work has tended to be obscured through ethnographic and analytical focus on the relations of production themselves (e.g., Josephides 1985) and on articulations between local systems of production and global markets (e.g., Seddon 1978; Nash 1979), the assumption apparently being that analytic attention to property and tools necessarily constitutes a vulgar technological determinism. Anthropologists have long held theoretical and substantive interest in the social relations between people and things (Malinowski 1950 [1922]; Mauss 1974 [1925]; Appadurai 1986; Kopytoff 1986), but few have considered in detail the significance of these relations when it comes to those things that constitute tools and property to facilitate production. (2) Consequently, White's (1949:365-66) advice that anthropologists should examine the human experience of technology has remained strangely neglected (see also Sahlins 1976; Ingold 1986). For example, an important textbook (Gregory and Altman 1989) on key methods of data collection and analysis for economic anthropologists provides virtually no attention to ownership of tools and property. This neglect also appears in important ethnographic studies of economic activity, the most significant for this article being Nietschmann's (1973) superb account of the subsistence ecology of the Miskitu Indians. This article examines the social relations pertaining to the technological apparatus for catching and processing sea shrimp among the Miskitu. It attempts to show how focusing on the social lives of tools and property can yield valuable insights into the productive process, accounting to a considerable degree for the existence of the \"image of the limited good\" (Foster 1965). Among the Miskitu of eastern Nicaragua's remote Mosquito Coast the image of the limited good is common. Influenced perhaps by their proximity to Anglophone Caribbean communities with the similar concept of \"crab antics\" (Wilson 1973), the idea that one's social ascent is inevitably bought at the expense of others, much as a crab's attempt to climb out of a barrel is predicated on i","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"281-298"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153029","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69379019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Managing Infidelity: A Cross-Cultural Perspective","authors":"William R. Jankowiak, M. Nell, A. Buckmaster","doi":"10.2307/4153022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153022","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropologists have not systematically examined extramarital affairs. Our cross-cultural study found that within every culture men and women actively resort to mate-guarding tactics to control their mate's extramarital behavior. A person's level of interest and involvement does not change with a culture's notion of descent, level of social complexity, or the degree to which a culture is normatively permissive or restrictive in sexual matters. In effect, sexual propriety is the presumed right of both sexes. Our findings are consistent with both the sexual jealousy and the pair-bond hypotheses, which hold that every marriage or love relationship is organized around a presumption of sexual propriety. (Extramarital affair, pair bond, sexual jealousy, human universal) ********** Conventional wisdom holds that in many societies women express relative indifference to their spouse's infidelities. Many social-science researchers ascribe this indifference to either male's propensity for psychological violence (Bourdieu 2001; MacKinnon 1988) or women's structural marginality (Freeman 1990; Harris 1993; Leacock 1993; Ressner 1987; Rosaldo and Lamphere 1974). These theories link patriarchy with male superiority to account for institutionalizing a double standard. A constant life lesson for women in these societies is their inability to forestall their spouse's infidelities. Reinforced by folk ideology, social convention, and common practices, men come to believe that it is their right to have extramarital affairs, while women become indifferent to their spouse's infidelity. From this theoretical perspective, it is axiomatic that men believe that they have ownership of women's bodies, whereas women own neither their own bodies nor that of their spouse. The strength of this axiom derives in part from a kind of folklore of professional anthropologists and not from empirical documentation. To date, there is no comparative study that systematically examines how husbands and wives respond to a spouse's infidelity. Thus, the conventional wisdom of ownership and indifference remains untested anthropological assertion. This article examines the similarities and differences in women's and men's responses to a mate's infidelity. It explores the significance of structural factors--degree of social complexity, type of descent ideology, the degree to which sexual practices are restrictive or permissive, etc.--on the way men and women respond to an act of infidelity. It also questions if there are sex-linked factors shaping men's and women's perception of and response to spousal infidelity. SOCIAL-SCIENCE EXPLANATIONS FOR EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIRS Half a century ago, Ford and Beach's (1951) pioneering cross-cultural study of human sexuality found that less than 39 per cent (54 out of 139) of societies approved of some form of infidelity. Although not explored in any depth, the study determined that cultures overwhelmingly prefer to \"circumscribe [extramarital affairs] in one wa","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"85-101"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69379339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From true Dorobo to Mukogodo Maasai: Contested ethnicity in Kenya","authors":"Lee Cronk","doi":"10.2307/4153019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153019","url":null,"abstract":"Between 1925 and 1936, the Mukogodo of Kenya changed from Cushitic-speaking foragers to Maa-speaking pastoralists. This rapid transition took place in the midst of competing views of Mukogodo ethnic identity. To Maa-speakers, Mukogodo were low-status il-torrobo. To British colonialists, Mukogodo were true Dorobo, victims of more powerful agricultural and pastoralist groups. Although British administrators fashioned a set of policies designed to protect Mukogodo from such groups, other British policies inadvertently contributed to the Mukogodo acquisition of Maasai subsistence patterns, language, and culture. Mukogodo themselves strategically used a Dorobo identity to manipulate the British while striving to lose the stigma of the il-torrobo label and achieve acceptance among Maa-speakers as true Maasai. (Mukogodo, Dorobo, Torrobo, Maasai, Samburu, ethnicity, Kenya) ********** Between the mid-1920s and mid-1930s, Mukogodo of Kenya underwent a rapid transition from being Cushitic-speaking hunters, gatherers, and beekeepers to being Maa-speaking pastoralists. (2) This transition is problematic in a number of ways. First, thanks to data on time allocation collected since the 1960s, it can no longer be assumed that a change from foraging to food production will improve a group's standard of living or reduce the workloads of its members (see Hames 1992 for a review). In the Mukogodo case specifically, there is no convincing evidence of an increase in standard of living since their acquisition of livestock (Cronk 1989b). Second, other hunter-gatherers in East Africa in superficially similar situations have remained hunter-gatherers despite contact with pastoralists (e.g., Hadza; see Kaare and Woodburn 1999), and Mukogodo themselves had had contact with pastoralists for centuries before the transition without themselves becoming pastoralists. Third, it cannot be taken for granted that even if a group does change its subsistence strategy it will also necessarily undergo the sort of wholesale cultural shift experienced by Mukogodo. Other groups in East Africa have made similar changes in subsistence while still keeping their own languages and other aspects of their own cultures (e.g., Okiek; Huntingford 1928, 1929, 1931, 1942, 1951, 1954, 1955; Blackburn 1976, 1982; Kratz 1981, 1994, 1999). Elsewhere (Cronk 1989a, 1989b) I have analyzed the Mukogodo transition in behavioral ecological terms, suggesting that for individual Mukogodo men the adoption of pastoralism represented a response to a rapidly changing social environment in which they either obtained livestock or failed to marry. I have also examined some of the consequences of the Mukogodo transition to pastoralism, including their low position in a regional hierarchy of wealth and ethnic status (Cronk 1989c, 1990, 1991c). This article explores the change from a different but complementary angle, focusing more on the external factors that changed their social environment. An examination of the broader","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"27-49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69378933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Best of friends and worst of enemies: Competition and collaboration in polygyny","authors":"S. Madhavan","doi":"10.2307/4153021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/4153021","url":null,"abstract":"Much of the scholarship on polygyny portrays it as harmful to women, noting in particular that it pits co-wives against each other. Some feminists have used this characterization to associate polygyny with the subjugation of women. However, other work has illustrated the collaborative nature of polygynous relationships. Despite efforts to generalize about polygyny (as either competitive or collaborative), it has become increasingly clear that co-wife relationships and women's experiences with polygyny can only be understood within particular sociocultural and personal contexts. This essay describes co-wife relationships in two ethnic groups in Mali, West Africa, to illustrate the varying nature of polygynous unions and demonstrate that co-wives negotiate their relative statuses within the domestic group through both competitive and collaborative strategies. The research underscores the importance of cultural and socioeconomic contexts in determining the relative value of collaboration and competition in polygynous households. (Polygyny, competition, collaboration, feminism, Mali) ********** Statements of two women in polygynous unions illustrate polar differences in attitudes about it. For Aissata (age 44), a polygynous union can be humiliating. If there is another woman, it is the first wife that suffers; now I am here only because of the children not because of love for my husband; polygyny shows that your husband does not like you and the whole village thinks that you are not a real woman. But for Setou (age 33), it is comforting. I get along very well with Koro [her co-wife]; I treat her like an older sister; I can talk to her about anything, even pregnancy; if I have problems with my pregnancy, I tell Koro first, who then informs our husband. The case of Aissata lends support to the common notion that polygyny is essentially competitive because it pits women against each other (Fainzang and Journet 1988; Meekers and Franklin 1995; Ware 1981). However, Setou's situation indicates how polygyny can foster collaboration among women (cf. Abu-Lughod 1993; Steady 1987). Despite efforts to generalize about polygyny (as either competitive or collaborative), it has become increasingly clear that co-wife relationships and women's experiences with polygyny can only be understood within particular sociocultural and personal contexts. Even among African women who live in patrilineal, patrilocal societies, attitudes toward polygyny range from intense competition to collaboration. Using qualitative data from two ethnic groups in the West African country of Mali, this study illustrates: 1) how co-wife relationships are conditioned by social, cultural, and personal contexts; and 2) how co-wives negotiate their relative statuses within the domestic group through both competitive and collaborative strategies. The relative force of competition or collaboration among co-wives depends on factors such as cultural attitudes about self-assertion versus consensus, sex","PeriodicalId":81209,"journal":{"name":"Ethnology","volume":"41 1","pages":"69-84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2002-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/4153021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69379276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}