Bewitching Development: Witchcraft and the Reinvention of Development in Neoliberal Kenya (Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning) - Softcover

Buch 7 von 27: Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning

Smith, James Howard

 
9780226764580: Bewitching Development: Witchcraft and the Reinvention of Development in Neoliberal Kenya (Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0226764583 ISBN 13: 9780226764580
Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

These days, development inspires scant trust in the West. For critics who condemn centralized efforts to plan African societies as latter day imperialism, such plans too closely reflect their roots in colonial rule and neoliberal economics. But proponents of this pessimistic view often ignore how significant this concept has become for Africans themselves. In Bewitching Development, James Howard Smith presents a close ethnographic account of how people in the Taita Hills of Kenya have appropriated and made sense of development thought and practice, focusing on the complex ways that development connects with changing understandings of witchcraft.

Similar to magic, development’s promise of a better world elicits both hope and suspicion from Wataita. Smith shows that the unforeseen changes wrought by development—greater wealth for some, dashed hopes for many more—foster moral debates that Taita people express in occult terms. By carefully chronicling the beliefs and actions of this diverse community—from frustrated youths to nostalgic seniors, duplicitous preachers to thought-provoking witch doctors—BewitchingDevelopment vividly depicts the social life of formerly foreign ideas and practices in postcolonial Africa.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

James Howard Smith is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis.


James Howard Smith is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis.

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Verlag
University of Chicago Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2008
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0226764583
ISBN 13 
9780226764580
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
285
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Buchbär
info@buchbaer.de

Weberstr. 67
Osnabrück
49084
Deutschland

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780226764573: Bewitching Development: Witchcraft and the Reinvention of Development in Neoliberal Kenya (Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning)

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0226764575 ISBN 13:  9780226764573
Verlag: UNIV OF CHICAGO PR, 2008
Hardcover