'Sick' with Child.

By: Botha, Nina. Anthropology Southern Africa, 2010, Vol. 33 Issue 1/2, p1-8, 8p

Following a discursive approach, this paper introduces a school intended for sick learners: one that is regarded as on institution that promotes good mothering, and where the attending girls ore cured of being `sick' with child. The paper aims to open a window on the socio-economic circumstances, religious ideals and norms amongst some Afrikaans-speaking people. This takes place within a wider framework of shedding light on broader issues in contemporary South Africa. Based on information generated through ethnographic methods, the paper shows how the school in question attempts to perpetuate ideas of a `good white' and a `good mother' as part of a discourse of ordentlikheid. The paper concludes speculative remarks on the appearance of this ordentlikheid discourse in political statements about teenage pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects: TEENAGE pregnancy; SICK children; DISCURSIVE practices; AFRIKANERS; SOCIAL status; MOTHERHOOD; ETHNOGRAPHIC analysis; SOUTH Africa; SOCIAL aspects; RELIGIOUS aspects

 

Memory, landscape and event: How Ndebele labour tenants interpret and reclaim the past.

By: van Vuuren, Chris J.. Anthropology Southern Africa, 2010, Vol. 33 Issue 1/2, p9-18, 10p

The article discusses the roots of memory of former Ndebele labour tenants, and how these memories manifest in landscape, object and event.Recognising the role of history that bound most of the Ndundza community into labour tenancy, the author unpacks the manner in which they articulate the past through their physical and intangible environments. A range of factors influence the quality of memory, as is illustrated through the narratives of some of these labour tenants. The Ndebele also display unique ways of remembering past chronologies and they are able to weave these into both everyday and traumatic events. The application of memory becomes contested in current land claims, and memory might be sacrificed in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects: MNEMONICS; NDEBELE (African people); MEMORY; LANDSCAPES; LANDLORD & tenant; SOUTH Africa; Residential Property Managers; Lessors of Other Real Estate Property; Lessors of Nonresidential Buildings (except Miniwarehouses); Lessors of Residential Buildings and Dwellings; PHYSICAL environment

 

ICT4D and the Siyakhula Living Lab: an anthropological contribution to digital development.

By: Palmer, Robin. Anthropology Southern Africa, 2010, Vol. 33 Issue 1/2, p19-32, 14p

Anthropologists are increasingly interested in the reception and adaptation of In formation and Communications Technologies (ICTs) at the local level, especially when these are intended or adapted for social change in the kinds of societies and communities anthropologists study. The process has been increasingly driven by the spread of landline telephones, radio, television, personal computers, the Internet (1.0 and now 2.0), basic cell phones and now internet-enabled or '3G' cell phones. These successive technological innovations, now collectively grouped as ICTs, have had the effect of shrinking distance by increasing the reach of both those who control these technologies and those who can access them. With radio and TV, and even the Internet until recently, communication tended to be one-way: from the centre to the periphery both between and within countries. This was never the case with landline telephones, which offered two-way communication from the outset; but landlines rarely extended into the rural areas of developing countries, and even where there was access, the poor generally could not afford domestic installation. Cellular phones, though even more expensive in terms of call charges, operate beyond the reach of landlines, are portable and no longer as dependent on frequent charging from mains electricity as before. The wireless networks that run them now offer access to the Internet almost everywhere - for those who have 3G handsets and/or wireless-connected computers - and include such useful adaptations to Third World conditions such as `pay as you go' and `please call me.' Moreover, the Internet itself has become more interactive with its 2.0 technologies. If `development' (as opposed to modernisation) is about agency and empowerment for those who currently lack it, then there is development potential in the newest ICTs despite their control by major multinational corporations. Informatics professionals and elements of the `development community' reaching as high as the World Bank and the United Nations (Millennium Development Goals) regard ICT4D (ICTs for development) as a potential redeemer of half a century of mostly failed interventions on behalf of the world's poor. But how feasible is ICT4D? How is it being received and what are its direct and indirect impacts? This pa per is the outcome of four years of engagement with an ICT4D research project founded in Dwesa-Cwebe on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. It assesses not only the potential and snags of ICT as a development tool, but also, via a baseline research project completed in 2008, provides a sense of the setting, the needs of the community and the potential of the `Living Lab' approach to ICT4D.[ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects: INFORMATION & communication technologies; DIGITAL divide; DIGITAL technology; SOCIAL change; RURAL development; EASTERN Cape (South Africa); SOUTH Africa; Administration of Urban Planning and Community and Rural Development

 

'Don't "paraffin" me!': deception, power and agency in a South African sport for development organisation.

By: Clark, Cassandra. Anthropology Southern Africa, 2010, Vol. 33 Issue 1/2, p33-43, 11p

The staff of Sport FUNdamentals Southern Africa (SFSA), a sport for development organisation, have labelled a range of deceitful behaviours `paraffining'. These behaviours range from improvising life skills lessons to lying in reports. It references paraffin, a common, yet potentially dangerous fuel used in South African townships. In this paper the striking similarities between `paraffin', the innovative verb, and paraffin, the familiar noun, are examined, highlighting their uses, reasons for usage, impacts and methods of control. As individuals encounter role conflicts between their job expectations and personal capabilities or available resources, between personal and professional roles or conflicting expectations from different managers, they often respond by `paraffining'. In these situations, `paraffining' can be seen as a creative coping mechanism used to maintain the appearance of professional proficiency. `Paraffining' also demonstrates individual power and agency within organisational structures since it provides a platform for individuals to confront deceitful situations with people at all levels of authority and pressures the organisation to implement measures to reduce their prevalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects: NONGOVERNMENTAL organizations; DECEPTION; TRUTHFULNESS & falsehood; ROLE conflict; LIFE skills; OCCUPATIONAL roles; ORGANIZATIONAL structure; SOUTH Africa

 

Bafokeng, Inc. - Power of the nation/corporation amalgam.

By: Kriel, Inge. Anthropology Southern Africa, 2010, Vol. 33 Issue 1/2, p44-54, 11p

The concept of 'Ethnicity, Inc.' so thoroughly conjoins the ethnic nation with the ethnic corporation that it becomes increasingly difficult to think of one without the other. This article aims to deconstruct this relationship by demonstrating how the ambiguity between nation and corporation affords Bafokeng, Inc. several beneficial statuses. Power brokers play the boundaries, skilfully blending, equivocating, mediating, and otherwise working the spheres of nation and corporation, of bureaucracy and market. The strength of Ethnicity, Inc. organisations lies in significant part in their ability to adopt different statuses in the context of a politics of recognition and representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects: BAFOKENG (African people); ETHNIC groups; ORGANIZATIONAL sociology; INTERORGANIZATIONAL relations; BUREAUCRACY; CULTURAL fusion; CULTURAL pluralism; AFRICA

 

Rural people's perceptions of wildlife conservation - the case of the Masebe Nature Reserve in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

By: Boonzaaier, Chris. Anthropology Southern Africa, 2010, Vol. 33 Issue 1/2, p55-64, 10p

The First World rationale for nature conservation is usually the aesthetic and recreational experiences and opportunities that nature provides and its scientific importance, but rural populations in Africa tend to focus on the utilisation of natural resources. This paper argues that management decisions regarding the conservation and utilisation of natural resources are inseparable from a people's world view and value system, because values inform people's ideas about useful or valuable resources, appropriate behaviour and their priorities regarding issues such as grazing, hunting versus poaching, job creation, tourism, and access to sacred sites and natural resources. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the perceptions of wildlife conservation among the North Ndebele in Limpopo Province to create a climate in which the community can become involved in issues regarding policy matters and the management of the Masebe Nature Reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects: WILDLIFE conservation; NATURE conservation; ENVIRONMENTAL education; NATURAL resources -- Multiple use; POACHING; NDEBELE (African people); LIMPOPO (South Africa); SOUTH Africa

 

'Vote for real people': the making of Griqua and Korana identities in Heidedal.

By: Erasmus, Piet. Anthropology Southern Africa, 2010, Vol. 33 Issue 1/2, p65-73, 9p

Since the first European settlements in what is now South Africa, various factors have, over centuries, contributed to the near destruction of the social structures, cohesion and identities of the broader Khoekhoe and San communities of the country. The last few years, however, have seen ethnic mobilisation and the creation and establishment of new political structures among people claiming Khoekhoe or San descent. Many revival movements have sprung up across the country, some of which are spearheaded by self-appointed leaders who mobilise support on ethnic grounds.The claims of origin prompted strong criticism both from within the ranks of the Khoekhoe and San, as well as from academics. This article focuses on some of the revival processes among Griqua and Korana in Heidedal. Ethnographic material from Heidedal indicates that the processes differ in terms of preamble, agenda and type of leadership. It also shows that the use of the names `Griqua' and `Korana' remains controversial and unstable, and that at this stage it would be problematic to apply the notion of `ethnic group' to the people referred to by these attributes without qualification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects: NAMA language; KORANA (African people); SOCIAL structure; ETHNIC groups; GRIQUAS; ETHNOGRAPHIC analysis; SOUTH Africa