Bruce Whitehouse - Böcker

In cities throughout Africa, local inhabitants live alongside large populations of "strangers." Bruce Whitehouse explores the condition of strangerhood for residents who have come from the West African Sahel to settle in Brazzaville, Congo. Whitehouse considers how these migrants live simultaneously inside and outside of Congolese society as merchants, as Muslims in a predominantly non-Muslim society, and as parents seeking to instill in their children the customs of their communities of origin. Migrants and Strangers in an African City challenges Pan-Africanist ideas of transnationalism and diaspora in today's globalized world.

Polygamy: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the kinship structure known as plural marriage or polygamy. Tailored for general readers and non-specialists, this book distils research findings from evolutionary anthropology, history, economics, political science, and cultural anthropology to survey polygamy’s place in human cultural, economic, and demographic developments from prehistory to the present. It addresses questions such as:How have perceptions of plural marriage have changed over time?Where does polygamy fit within human reproduction and family organization?What is the pair bond and is it universal or learned?Is polygamy a choice and, if so, for whom?Is polygamy inherently harmful?Drawing on global case studies, it endeavors to help readers aside their own cultural prisms and preconceived notions in order to examine plural marriage in its proper complexity.

Polygamy: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the kinship structure known as plural marriage or polygamy. Tailored for general readers and non-specialists, this book distils research findings from evolutionary anthropology, history, economics, political science, and cultural anthropology to survey polygamy’s place in human cultural, economic, and demographic developments from prehistory to the present. It addresses questions such as:How have perceptions of plural marriage have changed over time?Where does polygamy fit within human reproduction and family organization?What is the pair bond and is it universal or learned?Is polygamy a choice and, if so, for whom?Is polygamy inherently harmful?Drawing on global case studies, it endeavors to help readers aside their own cultural prisms and preconceived notions in order to examine plural marriage in its proper complexity.

Why hasn't polygamous marriage died out in African cities, as experts once expected it would? Enduring Polygamy considers this question in one of Africa's fastest-growing cities: Bamako, the capital of Mali, where one in four wives is in a polygamous marriage. Using polygamy as a lens through which to survey sweeping changes in urban life, it offers ethnographic and demographic insights into the customs, gender norms and hierarchies, kinship structures, and laws affecting marriage, and situates polygamy within structures of inequality that shape marital options, especially for young Malian women. Through an approach of cultural relativism, the book offers an open-minded but unflinching perspective on a contested form of marriage. Without shying away from questions of patriarchy and women's oppression, it presents polygamy from the everyday vantage points of Bamako residents themselves, allowing readers to make informed judgments about it and to appreciate the full spectrum of human cultural diversity.