The Underneath of Things
Violence, History, and the Everyday in Sierra Leone
1st Edition
Published on 14. September 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
299 pages
978-0-520-22543-5 (ISBN)
Description
In this erudite and gracefully written ethnography, Mariane Ferme explores the links between a violent historical and political legacy, and the production of secrecy in everyday material culture. The focus is on Mende-speaking southeastern Sierra Leone and the surrounding region. Since 1990, this area has been ravaged by a civil war that produced population displacements and regional instability. The Underneath of Things documents the rural impact of the progressive collapse of the Sierra Leonean state in the past several decades, and seeks to understand how an even earlier history is reinscribed in the present.
Reviews / Votes
"The world is currently quite aware of Sierra Leone and its predicament, and it needs this well-informed and beautifully written account of what makes the country so wonderful despite its woes. Ferme's work is truly transcendent, capturing magnificently well some of the most important aspects of an otherwise 'difficult' ethnographic case. It is a truthful and honest piece of work, based on a deep grasp of the ethnographer's craft." - Paul Richards, author of Fighting for the Rain ForestMore details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
6 b-w photos, 3 line figures
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-22543-5 (9780520225435)
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 Classification
Person
Mariane C. Ferme Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and Chair of the Center for African Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Immaterial Practices: Clues in a Modern Sierra Leonean
Landscape
INTERLUDE I: Weaving Cloth, Hair, and the Social World
2. Ambiguity and Gendered Practices
3. Strategies of Incorporation: Marriage and the Forms of
Dependence
INTERLUDE 2: Splitting Kola
4. The House of Impermanence and the Politics of Mobility
5. Becoming a Kpako: The Body and the Aesthetics of Power
INTERLUDE 3: Clay, Palm Oil, and Temporality
6. Children and Their Doubles
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Immaterial Practices: Clues in a Modern Sierra Leonean
Landscape
INTERLUDE I: Weaving Cloth, Hair, and the Social World
2. Ambiguity and Gendered Practices
3. Strategies of Incorporation: Marriage and the Forms of
Dependence
INTERLUDE 2: Splitting Kola
4. The House of Impermanence and the Politics of Mobility
5. Becoming a Kpako: The Body and the Aesthetics of Power
INTERLUDE 3: Clay, Palm Oil, and Temporality
6. Children and Their Doubles
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index