Witchcraft and a life in the new South Africa, by Isak Niehaus
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2013
Kees’s long walk from volkekunde
Langaa RPCIG eBooks, Feb 28, 2022
Nationalism, repugnance and anthropology
Langaa RPCIG eBooks, Feb 28, 2022
matthew engelke,A Problem of Presence: beyond scripture in an African church. Berkeley CA: University of California Press (pb £15.95 – 978 0 520 24904 2; hb £44.95 – 978 0 520 24903 5). 2007, 320 pp
Africa, Aug 1, 2010
A response
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2012
Nationalism, Politics and Anthropology
Biographies, histories and South African anthropology
Langaa RPCIG eBooks, Feb 28, 2022
Book review: new directions in gender and religion: the changing status of women in African independent churches – by Brigid M. Sackey
Kees, volkekunde and nationalism
Nationalism, Politics and Anthropology
Review of of Thomas Kirsch’s Spirits and Letters. Reading, writing and Charisma in African Christianity
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2009
Jacob Zuma’s Shamelessness
Conspicuous Consumption in Africa, 2019
Land Claims and Corporate Imitation: Brokering Development in Maputaland, KwaZulu-Natal
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2003
Various writers have commented on the post-apartheid resilience of discourses on ‘tradition’ and ... more Various writers have commented on the post-apartheid resilience of discourses on ‘tradition’ and ethnic identity in South Africa, previously thought to be anomalies of apartheid, that were bound to disappear under a democratic dispensation. Researchers showed that ‘traditional’ institutions like chiefs did not merely survive the democratisation of South African politics but were actually growing in popularity. What are the driving forces behind the new salience of tradition and tribalism in South Africa? Is the re-traditionalisation merely a resonance of decades of state reinforcement of traditional leadership and customary law or is it the manifestation of a locally driven post-apartheid search for identity? Or did the institution of chiefs only gain prominence in the light of the inability of local government to deliver on its development promises? This paper aims to explore the questions posed above with specific reference to ethnographic material collected from the Maputaland region of northern KwaZulu-Natal. The ethnography flows from research I did in the Ubombo and Ingwavuma magisterial districts between May 2000 and August 2001. It focuses on the land claim initiated by the Zikhali chief and the establishment of a game reserve by the Mabaso Traditional Authority Council. I argue that much of the supposed ‘re-traditionalisation’ drive in the region was due to the lucrative opportunities that development ensured for ‘real’ community representatives. My emphasis is on the ways in which the two Traditional Authorities utilised discourses on ethnicity and ‘tradition’ to legitimise their position vis-à-vis the developers as representatives of whole communities.
Conspicuous Consumption in Africa
Conspicuous Consumption in Africa, 2019
Prosperity and the work of luck in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, South Africa
Critical African Studies, 2015
In 1905, Weber contended that uncertainty about their eternal fate forced Protestants to find sec... more In 1905, Weber contended that uncertainty about their eternal fate forced Protestants to find secular signs of their destiny in their vocations, their frugality and in their ability to work hard and accumulate capital. More than a century later, the ‘Protestant ethic’ has changed irrevocably. Today, the phenomenal rise of Pentecostal–Charismatic Churches has largely displaced the doctrine of predestination and firmly entrenched the prosperity gospel at the very heart of popular Protestantism. In many African PCCs, the pursuit of ‘blessings’ now trumps older concerns over secular vocations and hard work. Indeed, in churches such as the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), Christians are urged to demand ‘miracle jobs’ from God and to reject humble vocations and small salaries, regardless of their qualifications, skills or experience. Based on long-term fieldwork with members of the UCKG in South Africa, this paper examines the work of luck (good and bad) in the lives of ordinary believers, how thi...
A response
Anthropology Southern Africa, 2012
Believing Practically and Trusting Socially in Africa
Christianity and Public Culture in Africa, 2011
... Page 211. IlAnA vAn wyK of that technology is measured only in material results, the trust in... more ... Page 211. IlAnA vAn wyK of that technology is measured only in material results, the trust in the uCKg's technology is rather precarious. ... Notes 1. in 1977, edir macedo founded the igreja universal do reino de deus, as the church is known in brazil. ...
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in South Africa: A Church of Strangers
Witchcraft and a Life in the new South Africa. By Isak Niehaus. Cambridge: Cambridge University P... more Witchcraft and a Life in the new South Africa. By Isak Niehaus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. xxi + 239pp. £57 hardcover, £40.98 Kindle edition. Isak Niehaus's Witchcraft and a Life in the new South Africa is an elegantly written but disturbing book. Breaking the mould of much of the scholarship on witchcraft in South Africa, and that of Niehaus' previous work, it steers clear of macro-political and economic analyses in favour of a biographical approach. Like Adam Ashforth's Madumo, the book traces the story of a man who gradually becomes convinced that he is a victim of witchcraft. However, unlike Madumo, Jimmy, the main character in the book, lived in rural Bushbuckridge, had a university education and was an "aspirant middle-class professional"
In southern Africa, women outnumber men by quite a margin in most Christian churches, and have do... more In southern Africa, women outnumber men by quite a margin in most Christian churches, and have done so since Christian missionaries first proselytised on these shores. This pattern is particularly pronounced in Pentecostal churches, where believers emphasise a bodily experience of the Holy Spirit, supernatural gifts and miraculous healing. Many scholars have tried to explain why these strongly patriarchal churches appeal to women. In this body of work, it became common cause that Pentecostal churches generally improved women’s autonomy and equality by creating respectable public social roles for women beyond the home. At the same time, Pentecostal churches were said to improve gender relations within households by ‘domesticating’ men and giving women a moral position from which to criticise ‘sinful’ men and resist unwanted male sexual advances. In the 1990s, these theories lost some of their explanatory force with the entry into southern Africa of an aggressive new form of Pentecost...
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