Those Who Play with Fire: Gender, Fertility and Transformation in East and Southern Africa (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780826463678)

Whether initiating girls or healing cattle, bringing rain or protesting taxation, many in Africa share a vision of a world where the cultural, symbolic and cosmic categories of 'male' and 'female' serve, through ritual, to both reimagine and transform the world. Those Who Play With Fire introduces recent gender theory to the analysis of African ethnography, exploring the ways in which ideational gender categories permeate African systems of thought and ritual practices. Thus, the book provides a powerful framework with which to evaluate previous ethnographic material on Africa. In addition, Those Who Play With Fire presents a broad range of new case studies - of hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists and pastoralists - revealing the varied and complex ways in which African ideas and ideals of what it means to be 'male' and 'female' broadly inform and give meaning to a wide range of transformative rituals.

Author: Henrietta Moore
ISBN-10: 0826463673
ISBN-13: 9780826463678
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Published: 01/01/1999
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.97d