ANTH326 Peoples and Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa

Meeting 8, October 29, 2007

Business

• Media Critique (due next Monday)• Final Examination: Dec. 7, 14:00-17:00, H433• Owusu and Diop Themes (teams)• Identity and Ethnography• Owusu and Diop Discussion• Project Plans

Themes

• Team reporter• Explain theme• Active reading• Links with course

Identity

Social Identity

• Core of social sciences• Insiders/outsiders• Belonging/contrasting• “We-ness” (Schütz) / Distinction(Bourdieu)

Nativeness

• Born on site• Indigenous• Territory• Ancestors• Native-speakers• As ethnographers

“Is African” / “Is Western”

• Origins?• Representative?• Typical?• Traditional?

Otherness in ethnography

• Differences and similarities• Diversity and universality• Constructing wholes• Crisis of representation

Configuration

• Fit together• Fluidity• Other possibilities• Appiah at Pop!Tech on “Golden Nugget”

Ethnography

Ethnographic Disciplines

• Ethnology– Cultural anthropology– Social anthropology

• Folkloristics• Linguistic anthropology• Ethnomusicology• Ethnomethodology (sociology)

Ethnographic Methods

• Review of literature• Language learning• Preliminary fieldwork• Extensive field stay– Participant-observation– Open-ended interviews

Insight

• Understand• Grok• “Got it”• Possible predictive value• Alexis de Tocqueville on America

Cultural Translation

• Get others to understand• “Spirit/letter of the culture”• Implied otherness

Building Models

• Testing models• Empiricism• Forest, not trees• “Two Crows denies it” (Dorsey's disclaimer)• All Grammars Leak (Sapir 1921:39)• Dialogue

Language in ethnography

• Fluency• No use for interpreter• Could translate Proust?• Length of stay

Ngolo Diarra Enters the Field

• Ethnomusicology, linguistic anthropology• Interest in “griots”• Bamanan learning• Hunter-musician Madou Diarra• Thesis on proper names• Preliminary field trip• Establishing rapport

Owusu

Early Ethnographers

• Foundation African studies• “[H]ectic anthropological activity• Then-contemporary ethnography• European audience• Colonial context• Useless as useful• Cross-cultural comparisons• “Sacred cows” (ad hominem)

Science

• Objectivity, bias• Informant bias• Sampling (opportunistic or random)• Accuracy or significance• Briggs Learning How to Ask

Romanticism

• Assumed logic• (Real/Wise Africa?)• American and European anthropologies• Hunches as accepted• Vogues• “[T]ribal Bible”• “Segmentary societies”

Owusu on Language

• Language, dialects• Acculturation, contact languages• “Translation of cultures”• “Separate worlds”• Hale on linguistic anthropologists

Uses of Ethnography

• Insight (Tocqueville)• Generalisable science• Government• Dialogue between Africanists• (Native-speaking) African ethnographers

Post-Owusu Context

• Post-/Neo-Colonial• Post-/Neo-National• Rise in African interest (parallel Keim)• Crisis of representation (Writing Culture)• Journalists, audiences, responsibility

What Now?

• Self-assurance (“much better now”)?• Acknowledge bias• Privilege dialogue• Reporting discourse• “Snowball” sampling• Data cheapness• Emic/etic

Project Plans

Project Plans

• Focus on improving work• Aim at insight• Connect with course• Learning experience• Strong suggestions• Similarities between projects

Social Groups

Beyond Kinship

• Defining social groups– Support systems– Solidarity– Communitas

• Ethnicity as super-kinship• Kindreds (selected kins)• “Sodalities”• Associations

Age Sets and Age Grades

• Age Set as Cohort– “Oldboy”– «Promotionneur»

• Age Grades as Steps– Rites of passage (van Gennep)

• Separate genders

Secret societies

• Initiation societies• Muslim brotherhoods (sufism)– Tijaniyya

• Freemasons

Voluntary Associations

• Social networks• Urban life• Local• "Ethnic“• Cosmopolitan networks• Political parties

Media

• Coming to America• Soul Man• Videoclips

Westernization

• Cultural Contacts• Cultural change– Coerced or voluntary

• Western-like but typically African– Networks– Manage change

• Other partners

Education

• School types (Koranic, Missionary, National)– Networks

• Formal education• “Western-style”• Obsession with literacy– Power of orality

• Gender• Generation gap