Wymiary antropologicznego poznawania Afryki. Szkice z badań ostatnich
The Dimensions of the Anthropological Cognition of Africa. The Essays from the Latest Research
Contributor(s): Maciej Ząbek (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Africa; anthropology; ethnography; field research
Summary/Abstract: A collection of essays prepared by contemporary Polish African scholars. The texts explore the identity of modern inhabitants of Africa, cultural patterns, legal culture and the functioning of administrative structures in this area.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-5618-3
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-5610-7
- Page Count: 306
- Publication Year: 2022
- Language: Polish
Afrykanie w przedkolumbijskim Meksyku i Peru
Afrykanie w przedkolumbijskim Meksyku i Peru
(Africans in Pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru)
- Author(s):Karol Piasecki
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:19-49
- No. of Pages:31
- Keywords:Pre-Columbian America; Africans; physical anthropology
- Summary/Abstract:According to a widely accepted model, America’s pre-Columbian people are of Asian descent. The current a priori rejection of the possibility of trans-ocean travel in Antiquity results from a failure to take into account the diffusion of ideas and from postcolonial political correctness and the prevailing paradigm of progress. Not only has considering the possibilities of pre-Columbian migration to America by sea now been abandoned, but clear evidence of such contacts has also been rejected. Undertaking research in this field is met with reluctance by the scientific community, especially in America. The anthropological evidence of pre-Columbian African-American contacts is of three types: 1) iconographic representations bearing the characteristics of the Black Variety, 2) human bone remains, the structure of which indicates belonging to the Black Variety or its hybrids with other varieties (White or Yellow), 3) Black Variety traits found among the Native American peoples, which are the result of pre-Columbian mestization. The second type of material is the most important, although also in the case of the first one we are dealing not with individual features of the physical structure but with a whole set of them, which statistically cannot be the result of chance or artistic stylization. The most important evidence, which unfortunately should be treated as preliminary and incomplete, comes from two regions: ancient Mexico and ancient Peru. In the first region it consists of archaeological finds associated with the Olmec culture or the pre-Olmec era (skulls indicating the population of the Black or mixed Black and White Varieties, as well as sculptures and bas-reliefs with features of the Black Variety, or mixed Black and White ones). For ancient Peru, the evidence is predominantly the ceramics of the Moche culture. The article presents mainly the results of osteological and iconographic research carried out and published by Andrzej Wierciński and the author. As the influence of the African and European populations was found, this suggests that the overseas visitors probably came from the contact region of both population massifs, i.e. the western Mediterranean, most likely from the Bronze Age. The results of the research prove beyond any doubt that Africans visited America before Columbus.
- Price: 4.50 €
Wspomnienie niewolnictwa w budowaniu tożsamości współczesnego Beninu
Wspomnienie niewolnictwa w budowaniu tożsamości współczesnego Beninu
(The memory of slavery in national identity building in contemporary Benin)
- Author(s):Jacek Jan Pawlik
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:51-74
- No. of Pages:24
- Keywords:Benin; transatlantic trade; slavery; Vodun cults; return to the roots
- Summary/Abstract:The memory of slavery appeared in the political discourse of Benin in the 1990s. This was related to the change of the state system and an attempt to involve the African-American diaspora in the development of the country and the revival of cultural tourism. The article presents the memorialization of internal slavery through new ritual complexes, then looks for reasons for the silence surrounding the slave trade. Finally, it goes to the heart of the political debate of the 1990s, showing how slavery was used to build communication with the diaspora either on the basis of Vodun cults or on the basis of repentance and reconciliation. The fact that the ancestors participated in the slave trade in the past does not affect the descendants’ sense of identity.
- Price: 4.50 €
Diriyanké – wzór „prawdziwie” afrykańskiego piękna versus signares, disquettes i jongoma
Diriyanké – wzór „prawdziwie” afrykańskiego piękna versus signares, disquettes i jongoma
(Diriyanké – a model of “true” African beauty versus signares, disquettes and jongom)
- Author(s):Ryszard Vorbrich
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:75-99
- No. of Pages:25
- Keywords:Senegal; female beauty; diriyanké; signares; disquettes; jongoma; mbootaay
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of this study is to show how the conceptualization of female beauty can be an example of intersubjective interpersonal relationships preserved by social practices. It analyzes and compares four models of Senegalese beauty: diriyanké, signares, disquettes and jongoma. The sources of the article come from my fieldwork research conducted intermittently in Dakar and Saint-Louis in 2017–2020. The fieldwork observations, interviews and surveys made it possible to recreate the public discourse on the discussed issues. In the course of the analysis, I point to the genesis of different cultural patterns of female beauty in Senegal. I discuss the ways of women’s self-creation, influencing their social perception (the myth of “seductive power”) and creating the stereotypes and distinctions that separate them. From an anthropological perspective, the category of female beauty appears here as a phantasm of the mind, as a set of qualities dependent on subjective evaluation but located in a broader social and cultural context.
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Afrykański strój, europejskie tkaniny i katolicka moda w Ghanie
Afrykański strój, europejskie tkaniny i katolicka moda w Ghanie
(African dress, European fabrics, and Catholic fashion in Ghana)
- Author(s):Anna Niedźwiedź
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:101-128
- No. of Pages:28
- Keywords:Ghana; dress; Catholicism; history of nakedness; colonialism; African wax print
- Summary/Abstract:This paper discusses the complex history behind today’s African dresses, especially those used in the context of African Christianity in contemporary Ghana, where the author conducted ethnographic fieldwork. The history of clothes and fabrics used broadly to dayas markers of African identity reveals the hybrid and changing character of fashion. The first part of the paper focuses on the history of nakedness as a concept framed by the missionaries’ imagination and the colonial hegemonic gaze on the “African body”. Then the process of “inventing clothes for Africans” is discussed with a special emphasis on the development of the African wax print. In the final part, examples of contemporary “African dresses” are analyzed in the context of today’s post-missionary lived Catholicism in Ghana. Clothes are used as markers of religious and ethnic identities; they also express hierarchies and form gender roles. Additionally, they are intimately connected with individual bodies, shaping them as tools in religious practices.
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Fenomen zasłony w Tunezji: safsari versus hidżab
Fenomen zasłony w Tunezji: safsari versus hidżab
(The phenomenon of the veil in Tunisia: safsari versus hijab)
- Author(s):Anna Barska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:129-143
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Tunisia; traditional veil; safsari; sefsari; Muslim veil; hijab
- Summary/Abstract:The article presents the essence, functions and meanings of the traditional veil – safsari/sefsari, and the Muslim veil – hijab, worn by women in Tunisia throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The stages of the veils’ acceptance and abandonment were presented, and the reasons for their return. Contexts of wearing veils were indicated, as well as their polysemy related to communication as a distinguishing form of social behaviour.
- Price: 4.50 €
Oddolne systemy pomocy społecznej we współczesnym Zimbabwe
Oddolne systemy pomocy społecznej we współczesnym Zimbabwe
(Grassroots social welfare systems in contemporary Zimbabwe)
- Author(s):Marcin Brocki
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:145-158
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:social protection; local community; social institutions; Zimbabwe
- Summary/Abstract:Community-based social protection systems have a long history in Africa, and due to the weakness of many states as institutions, they have not disappeared but have adapted their forms of functioning to the new tools of governance of the domains they cover and the new organization of social life. In this paper, I will aim to present grassroots social security systems that respond to environmental and economic problems as well as cultural challenges in contemporary Zimbabwe. These systems are institutionalized, often not in the sense of state-registered activities, but of sanctioned and socially stabilized forms of assistance. They can take the form of exchange of material goods, micro-investment support, mitigation of drought shocks, assistance with illness or burial, or mutual care for children. An important component of any form of aid organization is the remittances of economic migrants, so this form of support will receive more attention. I will try to identify the reasons for the systems’ resistance to changes taking place in social life (modernization) and the social and cultural effects of their progressive commercialization.
- Price: 4.50 €
Czyj jest ten kawałek Sahelu?
Czyj jest ten kawałek Sahelu?
(Who owns this piece of the Sahel?)
- Author(s):Marek Kulczyk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:159-188
- No. of Pages:30
- Keywords:disposal of land real estate; land law; parcelling; city; urbanism; migration; Niger; Burkina Faso; Senegal
- Summary/Abstract:The right to dispose of real estate has unique properties in the countries of the Sahel, a result of an overlapping of local and postcolonial traditions. The features and dynamic of this phenomenon determine the economic development in the region as well as the spatial changes taking place there. Analyzing the legal codifications of the Sahel states of Niger, Burkina Faso and Senegal, and two Burkina Faso case studies – the Sawadogo forest in Ouahigouya and the Pazaani district mosque in Wagadugu – the author discusses the operation of the existing laws and their adaptation to the local economic and natural circumstances. Law-imposed restrictions on the disposal of real estate are also pointed out. The analysis shows that the tradition enshrined in law has impeded economic growth in the conditions of liberal economy. The current legal practice in this field has been evolving following the example of developed economies, which has brought with it both opportunities and threats.
- Price: 4.50 €
Antropologia pieniądza w Somalilandzie
Antropologia pieniądza w Somalilandzie
(An anthropology of money in Somaliland)
- Author(s):Wojciech Trojan
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:189-221
- No. of Pages:33
- Keywords:Somaliland; hawala; xeer; Islamic banking; international remittances; UN; khat
- Summary/Abstract:Somaliland has survived a period of complete isolation and financial blockade associated with being cut off of the SWIFT system, owing to emigrants residing in the UK, Canada, Australia and the Scandinavian countries, who assisted their families in the country of origin via the money transfers of the hawala system. The income from the seaport of Berbera and a tax on khat sales are sources of enrichment for the major Somaliland clans. During the sanctions period, transnational know-how was developed, which allowed for the creation of a modern, autonomous system of certified money transfers. As in the case of hawala, the success was based on the capital of trust and on customer networks. The internal market of Somaliland uses the GSM cell phone network for daily money transactions. In practice, the plan for independent cashless transactions has been fulfilled. Somaliland has made a digital revolution in line with the sharia law, defending its financial sovereignty.
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Etnofikcja radiowa jako metoda badań społecznych aspektów głosu w Malawi
Etnofikcja radiowa jako metoda badań społecznych aspektów głosu w Malawi
(Radio ethnofiction as a method of researching the social aspects of the voice in Malawi)
- Author(s):Piotr Cichocki
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:223-240
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:sound anthropology; radio art; Malawi; postcolonialism; ethnography; experiment
- Summary/Abstract:The article discusses the methodology behind "Other voices, other votes. Ethnographic radio play", which was co-produced by the author and non-professional Malawian actors. Their collaboration drew from the ethnofiction method formulated by French-Nigerien anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch. The radio play examines the understanding of fieldwork as a collective process whose outcomes are significant to all contributors. Its first part, a monologue of Martin Kaphukusi, proves that cultural reflexivity is not restricted to professional researchers. The second part, a comment on the elections in Malawi, is a critical juxtaposition of local perspectives and voices.
- Price: 4.50 €
Prawo, polityka i praktyka – podstawy legitymizacji (i delegitymizacji) medycyny „tradycyjnej” w Tanzanii
Prawo, polityka i praktyka – podstawy legitymizacji (i delegitymizacji) medycyny „tradycyjnej” w Tanzanii
(Law, politics and practice – the bases of legitimizing (and delegitimizing) “traditional” medicine in Tanzania)
- Author(s):Olga Pawlik
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:241-251
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Tanzania; law; traditional medicine; John Pombe Magufuli
- Summary/Abstract:The article gives a brief overview of the changes that have occurred in recent years (2015–2021) in the practice of “traditional” medicine in Tanzania and of the network of not always obvious links that led to these changes. I will walk the reader through the law to which traditional medicine practitioners are subject, the dynamics of its enforcement, and the direct impact that the recently deceased President John Pombe Magufuli has had on this and other aspects of social life in Tanzania. The article is based on fieldwork research conducted in 2015–2021, Tanzanian legal documents, and press reports on the political situation in that country.
- Price: 4.50 €
Między nowoczesnością, tradycją i zrównoważonym rozwojem – budowanie tożsamości turystycznej Iringi i regionu
Między nowoczesnością, tradycją i zrównoważonym rozwojem – budowanie tożsamości turystycznej Iringi i regionu
(Between modernity, tradition and sustainable development – building the tourist identity of Iringa and the region)
- Author(s):Agata Kuza
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:253-272
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:tourism; anthropology of tourism; tourist attractions; cultural heritage; commodification of culture
- Summary/Abstract:The article contains a description of the field research which I conducted as part of the “Contemporary Mobility Patterns in Tanzania” Project, carried out by the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Warsaw in cooperation with the Mkwawa University College in Iringa in 2017. The focus of this presentation is on the relationship between the people and institutions shaping the developing tourism industry in the city of Iringa and its vicinity. I pay particular attention to the shaping and promoting of tourist attractions and to local attitudes and strategies towards the development of the market.
- Price: 4.50 €
Khat
Khat
(Khat)
- Author(s):Maciej Ząbek
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, 19th Century
- Page Range:273-299
- No. of Pages:27
- Keywords:Somaliland; khat; qat; stimulants; narcotics
- Summary/Abstract:This article proposes a synthetic account of the social role of khat (qat), the green leaves of the "Catha edulis" plant, the most popular stimulant in the Horn of Africa sub-region (Somalia and Ethiopia). Chewing these leaves is an old ritual in this region that can be compared to the practice of drinking coffee or wine, or consuming coca leaves in South America. The aim of the text is to focus not on the physiological or psychological properties of this plant but on its recreational and integrative function: stimulating social interactions, helping Muslims in particular to feel more comfortable during social gatherings, being a drug that facilitates breaking the ice and making new friends.
- Price: 4.50 €