Africanist Anthropology

ANTH326/4A – Peoples & Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa

Last Meeting: April 16, 2015

Activity 11

1WP

First World Problems

Know Your Meme

Modernity

  • Revolutions
  • Industrialism
  • Progress
  • Liberal subject (aka “individualism”)
  • Democracy

Occidentalism

  • Essentialism
  • Ethnicity
  • Racialism
  • Nationalism

African Mirror

  • Exoticism
  • Othering
  • Representations

“Post-” Society

  • ( Blogpost)
  • -Colonialism
  • -Industrialism
  • -Development
  • -Modernity
  • -Humanism

Fluidity

  • Nomadism
  • Orality
  • Complexity
  • Social Networks
  • Learning Networks (Connectivism)
  • Wirearchy

Donsoya

Alex’s Field Research

Bamako

Southern Mali

Mande Ethnicity

  • Mande languages
  • “Mandingo”
  • Maninka (“Malinké”), Bamanan (“Bambara”)…
  • Jula, Somono, Bozo
  • Siya/Fasiya (descent)
  • Shift to national identity?

Mande “Caste” system

  • Horonw (“nobles”)
  • Nyamakalaw (“craftspeople”)
    • Jeliw (“griots”)
    • Numuw (“blacksmiths”)
    • Garankéw (“leatherworkers”)

Mande Hunters (Donsow)

  • Donsoya: hunterness
  • Freemasonry-like
  • Meritocracy?
  • Fadenya (“rivalry”) vs. Badenya (“harmony”)

Hunters’ Music

  • Soraw (praise-singers)
  • Donsongoni (hunter’s harp-lute)
  • Cefoli (male greetings)

Performers

Wrap-Up

Themes

  • Crisis of Representation
  • Field Practice
  • “Aid”
  • Africanness
  • Learning Experiences

The Future