Although slavery was legally abolished in 1981 in Mauritania, its legacy lives on in the political, economic, and social discrimination against ex-slaves and their descendants. Katherine Ann Wiley examines the shifting roles of Muslim arain (ex-slaves and their descendants) women, who provide financial support for their families. Wiley uses economic activity as a lens to examine what makes suitable work for women, their trade practices, and how they understand and assert their social positions, social worth, and personal value in their everyday lives. She finds that while genealogy and social hierarchy contributed to status in the past, women today believe that attributes such as wealth, respect, and distance from slavery help to establish social capital. Wiley shows how the legacy of slavery continues to constrain some women even while many of them draw on neoliberal values to connect through kinship, friendship, and professional associations. This powerful ethnography challenges stereotypical views of Muslim women and demonstrates how they work together to navigate social inequality and bring about social change.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Katherine Ann Wiley provides a complex account of how slavery practices and post-slavery conventions have been entangled with ambiguous colonial, postcolonial, and neoliberal moments to reframe ethnic and social status."-Hsain Ilahiane, author of The Historical Dictionary of the Berbers
"This book is rich in content, and the lives of those occupying what is often considered as only a political category or a human-rights discourse become very real to the reader. Katherine Ann Wiley uses vignettes and anecdotes extremely effectively and her 'data' take on the personae of the real women she lived and worked with."-E. Ann McDougall, editor of Engaging with a Legacy: Nehemia Levtzion (1935-2003)
"Work, Social Status, and Gender in Post-Slavery Mauritania is a brilliantly written book employing elegant and accessible language. While it focuses primarily on Harain women's experiences in Kankossa, Mauritania, it provides important insights into the question of non-elites' accessibility to elite forms of Islam and related status. It thus makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on gender, social hierarchy, economics, Islam, slavery, and dress. Policymakers, scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students who are interested in global studies of slavery, gender, social hierarchy, and Islam will surely find the book worth reading."-
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Für Beruf und Forschung
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-253-03621-6 (9780253036216)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Katherine Ann Wiley is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Pacific Lutheran University. Her work has appeared in Africa and Africa Today.
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration and Language
Introduction: I Will Make You My Servant: Social Status, Gender, and Work
1. From Black to Green: Changing Political Economy and Social Status in Kankossa
2. "We Work for Our Lives": Revaluing Femininity and Work in a Post-slavery Market
3. Joking Market Women: Critiquing and Negotiating Gender Roles and Social Hierarchy
4. Women's Market Strategies: Building Social Networks, Protecting Resources, and Managing Credit
5. Making People Bigger: Wedding Exchange and the Creation of Social Value
6. Embodying and Performing Gender and Social Status through the Malafa (Mauritanian veil)
Conclusion: Social Rank in the Neoliberal Era
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
