Category Archives: Gender relations

When Women’s Laughter Keeps Men in Line; or, What Gathering-Hunting Women of Central Africa Have in Common with Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, et al.

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Among the Mbendjele gathering-hunting people who live in the Republic of Congo, “women’s laughter manages to keep men in line.” Drawing from ethnographic research by Jerome Lewis, anthropologist Chris Knight relates that among the Mbendjele, “senior women exercise a special privilege, seeing it as their enjoyable role to bring down

Africa, Anthropology, Congo, Cultural Anthropology, Current Issues, Donald Trump, Ethnography, Feminism, Gender equity, Gender relations, Human evolution, Humans as a social species, Hunter-gatherers, Inequality, Mbendjele, Nancy Pelosi, Politics and society, Sexism, Social activism, Social justice, U.S. Congress, Women, Women's activism Read more

To Be a Man Is Not a One-Day Job: A Conversation with Daniel Jordan Smith

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Daniel Jordan Smith has been conducting research in, and writing about, West Africa since 1995.     His first book, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria, was a compelling work narrating the daily experience of interrelations between morality and economy, seen from the bottom up. It won

Academia, Academic Career, Africa, Africanist scholarship, Anthropology, Author interviews, Books, Cultural Anthropology, Current Issues, Economic anthropology, Ethnography, Gender relations, Igbo, Masculinity, Men's studies, Money, Nigeria, Research methods, West Africa Read more