Research Catalog

The power of being : a study of poverty, fertility and sexuality among the Kuria in Kenya and Tanzania

Title
The power of being : a study of poverty, fertility and sexuality among the Kuria in Kenya and Tanzania / Ann-Britt Bernhardsdotter ; [edited for publication by Jan-Åke Alvarsson].
Author
Bernhardsdotter, Ann-Britt
Publication
  • Uppsala : Uppsala Universitet, [2021]
  • Uppsala : Uppsala University Library
  • ©2021

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Details

Additional Authors
Alvarsson, Jan-Åke, 1952-
Description
340 pages : illustrations; 23 cm.
Summary
"This study is concerned with power based on 'being,' and draws on 11 years of ethnographic engagement with Kuria society in Kenya and Tanzania in the 1980s and 1990s. Ann-Britt Bernhardsdotter takes the extended family as the focal point to explore poverty, sexuality and fertility in Kuria society. In this study, poverty involves drawing attention to local perceptions of destitution and prosperity, to issues about access to, and control over, resources, to impoverishing mechanisms inherent in traditional socioeconomic systems and to strategies to overcome poverty. Kuria society is generally recognized as patriarchal, which has led to a de-emphasizing of principles mediating male dominance. This study sheds light upon principles restraining male power and on compelling female recourses in situations of transgressions of cultural codes. It provides ethnographic examples demonstrating formal cursing as a powerful female recourse in contexts of male abuse of power. 'The Power of Being' is manifested when women curse in their capacity as married daughters and sisters, as well as in Kuria woman marriage that the author sees as a strategy by women who are excluded from privileged categories to overcome poverty and humiliation, and by which female aspirations to male spheres of power and status are revealed."--Back cover.
Series Statement
Uppsala studies in cultural anthropology, 0348-5099 ; no 61
Uniform Title
Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Uppsala studies in cultural anthropology ; no 61.
Subject
  • Kuria (African people) > Social life and customs
  • Women, Kuria > Social life and customs
  • Poverty
  • Sex role
  • Blessing and cursing
  • Kuria (African people)
  • Women, Kuria
  • Kenya > Social conditions
  • Tanzania > Social conditions
  • Kenya
  • Tanzania
Note
  • Original published as dissertation for the degree of Doctor in the Philosophy in Cultural Anthropolgy presented at the Uppsala University in 2001.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references.
Call Number
ReCAP 22-10666
ISBN
  • 9789151313139
  • 9151313138
OCLC
1325673534
Author
Bernhardsdotter, Ann-Britt, author.
Title
The power of being : a study of poverty, fertility and sexuality among the Kuria in Kenya and Tanzania / Ann-Britt Bernhardsdotter ; [edited for publication by Jan-Åke Alvarsson].
Publisher
Uppsala : Uppsala Universitet, [2021]
Distributor
Uppsala : Uppsala University Library
Copyright Date
©2021
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Series
Uppsala studies in cultural anthropology, 0348-5099 ; no 61
Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Uppsala studies in cultural anthropology ; no 61.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
Added Author
Alvarsson, Jan-Åke, 1952- editor.
Research Call Number
ReCAP 22-10666
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