Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:24:53.242Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

TOPICS AND TANGENTS FOR MUTUAL HELP IN UNCERTAINTY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2014

Parker Shipton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Self-help groups of varied kinds emerge when kinship, territorial governance or other accustomed associations prove unreliable. Interactions that appear helpful and mutual to one party need not always seem so to another. Shaping their character are not just reason and economic or political necessity, but also feelings, some of which humans share with other animals. These feelings often depend, however, on distinctly human symbolic and linguistic contrivances, sometimes of ironic kinds. Mutual help in Africa often spans generations, and by some interpretations both the living and the non-living. Rites and ceremonies can change over time in relation to other ones performed. Whether these conventions strengthen each other, as if by exercise, or substitute for each other in a more hydraulic way as a trade-off is hard to predict or generalize. Input from several sciences, once integrated with humanistic inquiry, may further enrich our understanding.

Résumé

Des groupes d'entraide de genres variés émergent lorsque la parenté, la gouvernance territoriale ou d'autres associations coutumières s'avèrent peu fiables. Les interactions qui semblent utiles et mutuelles à l'une des parties ne semblent pas nécessairement l’être à une autre. Leur caractère n'est pas façonné que par la raison et la nécessité économique ou politique, mais également par les sentiments, dont certains sont communs aux humains et aux animaux. Ces sentiments dépendent souvent, néanmoins, de dispositifs symboliques et linguistiques distinctement humains, parfois de genres ironiques. L'entraide en Afrique s’étend souvent sur plusieurs générations et, selon certaines interprétations, au vivant et au non-vivant. Les rites et les cérémonies peuvent évoluer au fil du temps par rapport à d'autres qui sont pratiqués. Il est difficile de généraliser ou de prédire si ces conventions se renforcent mutuellement, comme par la pratique, ou se substituent à d'autres de manière plus hydraulique, comme un compromis. Les données multidisciplinaires, une fois intégrées à une pensée humaniste, pourront nous aider à mieux comprendre.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 84 , Issue 4 , November 2014 , pp. 510 - 529
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abrahams, R. G. (1998) Vigilant Citizens: vigilantism and the state. London: Polity.Google Scholar
Alcock, J. (1998) Animal Behavior. Sunderland MA: Sinauer.Google Scholar
Ardener, S. and Burman, S. (1996) Money-Go-Rounds: the importance of ROSCAs for women. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Aronson, E. (2004) The Social Animal, 9th edition. New York NY: Worth.Google Scholar
Behrend, H. (1999) Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits: war in northern Uganda, 1985–97. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Belcher, S. (ed.) (2006) African Myths of Origin. Harmondsworth and New York NY: Penguin.Google Scholar
Berry, S. (1993) No Condition is Permanent: the social dynamics of agrarian change in sub-Saharan Africa. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Binsbergen, W. M. J. van and Venbrux, E. (eds) (2010) New Perspectives on Myth. Papers in Intercultural Philosophy and Transcontinental Comparative Studies no. 5. Haarlem: Shikanda.Google Scholar
p'Bitek, O. (compiler and translator) (1985) Acholi Proverbs. Nairobi: Heinemann Kenya.Google Scholar
Boissevain, J. (1974) Friends of Friends: networks, manipulators and coalitions. London: St Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Bourdillon, M. F. C. and Fortes, M. (eds) (1980) Sacrifice. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bulliet, R. W. (2005) Hunters, Herders, and Hamburgers: the past and future of human–animal relationships. New York NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Carpenter, S. (2010) ‘Trust-building in post-conflict West Africa: urban hunting societies in Sierra Leone and the Gambia’. PhD thesis, Boston University.Google Scholar
Chasan, E. (2013) ‘Corporate cash concentrated in “just a few hands.”’ Wall Street Journal, 23 April. CFO Journal online, <http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2013/04/23/corporate-cash-concentrated-in-just-a-few-hands/>, accessed 22 July 2014.Google Scholar
Cheney, K. (2007) Pillars of the Nation: child citizens and Ugandan national development. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Churchland, P. (2012) Braintrust: what neuroscience tells us about morality. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cook, K. S., Levi, M. and Hardin, R. (eds) (2009) Whom Can We Trust? New York NY: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Cribb, J. (ed.) (1986) Money: from cowrie shells to credit cards. London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
de Heusch, L. (1985) Sacrifice in Africa: a structuralist approach. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
De Waal, F. (2009) The Age of Empathy: nature's lessons for a kinder society. New York NY: Random House.Google Scholar
Dehaene, S., Duhamel, J.-R., Hauser, M. D. and Rizzolatti, G. (eds) (2005) From Monkey Brain to Human Brain. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durkheim, E. (1966 [1893]) The Division of Labor in Society. New York NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1933) ‘Zande Blood-brotherhood’, Africa 6 (4): 369–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1940) The Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Ferme, M. (2001) The Underneath of Things: violence, history and the everyday in Sierra Leone. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Finnström, S. (2008) Living with Bad Surroundings: war, history, and everyday moments in northern Uganda. Durham NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Fischer-Shofty, M., Levkovitz, Y. and Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2013) ‘Oxytocin facilitates accurate perception of competition in men and kinship in women’, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 8 (3): 313–17.Google Scholar
Fleisher, M. L. (2000) Kuria Cattle Raiders: violence and vigilantism on the Tanzania/Kenya frontier. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, D. (ed.) (2012) Pentecostalism and Development: churches, NGOs, and social change in Africa. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Geissler, P. W., Alber, E. and Whyte, S. R. (2007) Grandparents and Grandchildren. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Geschiere, P. (1997) The Modernity of Witchcraft: politics and the occult in postcolonial Africa. Charlottesville VA: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Golomski, C. (2013) ‘Right passages: work and ritual in Swaziland's Age of HIV/AIDS’. PhD thesis, Brandeis University.Google Scholar
Goodenough, W. H. (1963) Cooperation in Change. New York NY: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Goody, E. N. (2007 [1982]) Parenthood and Social Reproduction: fostering and occupational roles in West Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gulliver, P. (1955) The Family Herds: a study of two pastoral tribes in East Africa, the Jie and the Turkana. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (1995) Money Matters: instability, values, and social payments in the modern history of West African communities. Portsmouth NH and London: Heinemann and James Currey.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (2004) Marginal Gains: monetary transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. and Peters, P. E. (eds) (1984) Conceptualizing the Household: issues of theory, method and application. Ann Arbor MI: Joint Committee on African Studies, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Habyarimana, J., Humphreys, M., Posner, D. S. and Weinstein, J. M. (2011) Coethnicity: diversity and the dilemmas of collective action. New York NY: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Hart, K. (2001) Money in an Unequal World. New York NY and London: Textere.Google Scholar
Heald, S. (1998) Controlling Anger: the anthropology of Gisu violence. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Honwana, A. (2006) Child Soldiers in Africa. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hrdy, S. B. (2009) Mothers and Others: the evolutionary origins of mutual understanding. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Iacoboni, M. (2009) Mirroring People: the science of empathy and how we connect with others. New York NY: Picador.Google Scholar
Isichei, E. (2002) Voices of the Poor in Africa: moral economy and the popular imagination. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
James, D. and Hull, E. (eds) (2012) ‘Popular economies in South Africa’, Africa 82 (1): special issue.Google Scholar
Kane, A. (2010) Tontines, Caisses de Solidarité et Banquiers Ambulants: univers des pratiques financières informelles en Afrique et en milieu immigré africain en France. Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Kea, P. (2010) Land, Labour and Entrustment: West African female farmers and the politics of difference. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Khaldûn, ibn (2004 [c.1377]) The Muqaddimah: an introduction to history. Translated by Rosenthal, F.; edited by Dawood, N. J.; introduction by Lawrence, B.. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Khazanov, A. M. and Schlee, G. (eds) (2012) Who Owns the Stock? Collective and multiple rights in animals. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P. J., Fischbacher, U. and Fehrr, E. (2005) ‘Oxytocin increases trust in humans’, Nature 435: 673–6.Google Scholar
LeVine, R. A. (1962) ‘Witchcraft and co-wife proximity in southwestern Kenya’, Ethnology 1 (1): 39–45.Google Scholar
LeVine, R. A.Dixon, S., LeVine, S., Richman, A., Leiderman, P. H., Keefer, C. H. and Brazelton, T. B. (1996) Child Care and Culture: lessons from Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
MacClancy, J. (2003) ‘The milk tie’, Anthropology of Food. <http://aof.revues.org/339>, accessed 26 February 2014.,+accessed+26+February+2014.>Google Scholar
Malmberg, T. (1980) Human Territoriality. The Hague, Paris and New York NY: Mouton.Google Scholar
Mauss, M. (1967 [1925]) The Gift. Translated by Cunnison, I.. New York NY: Norton.Google Scholar
McNeill, W. (2008 [1997]) Keeping Together in Time: dance and drill in human history. New York NY: ACLS Humanities E-book. [Original publisher Harvard University Press.]Google Scholar
Mead, M. (ed.) (1961 [1937]) Cooperation and Competition Among Primitive Peoples. Boston MA: Beacon.Google Scholar
Moock, J. L. (1986) Understanding Africa's Rural Households and Farming Systems. Boulder CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Morris, B. (1998) The Power of Animals: an ethnography. Oxford and New York NY: Berg.Google Scholar
Morris, B. (2000) Animals and Ancestors: an ethnography. Oxford and New York NY: Berg.Google Scholar
Netting, R. (1993) Smallholders, Householders: farm families and the ecology of intensive, sustainable agriculture. Palo Alto CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Niehaus, I. (2001) Witchcraft, Power and Politics: exploring the occult in the South African Lowveld. Cape Town: David Philip.Google Scholar
Obbo, C. (1980) African Women: their struggle for economic independence. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Ogembo, J. M. H'A. (2006) Contemporary Witch-hunting in Gusii, Southwestern Kenya. Lewiston NY: Edwin Mellen.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E. and Walker, J. (eds) (2005) Trust and Reciprocity: interdisciplinary lessons for experimental research. New York NY: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Parkes, P. (2005) ‘Milk kinship in Islam: substance, structure, history’, Social Anthropology 13 (3): 307–29.Google Scholar
Pritchett, J. (2007) Friends for Life, Friends for Death: cohorts and consciousness among the Lunda-Ndembu. Charlottesville VA: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1952 [1924]) ‘The mother's brother in South Africa’ in Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., Structure and Function in Primitive Society. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Radin, P. (1970) African Folktales. New York NY: Schocken.Google Scholar
Rappaport, R. (1999) Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Richards, P. (1996) Fighting for the Rain Forest: war, youth and resources in Sierra Leone. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Robinson, M. (2001) The Microfinance Revolution. Washington DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Runciman, W. G. (2009) The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sahlins, M. (1974) Stone Age Economics. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Sapolsky, R. (2010) ‘This is your brain on metaphors’, On the Human, National Humanities Center. <http://onthehuman.org/2010/11/your-brain-on-metaphors/>, accessed 26 February 2014.Google Scholar
Schatzberg, M. (2001) Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa: father, family, food. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Schino, G. and Aureli, F. (2009) ‘Reciprocal altruism in primates: partner choice, cognition, and emotions’, Advances in the Study of Behavior 39: 45–69.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (2007) The Nature of Entrustment: intimacy, exchange, and the sacred in Africa. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (2009) Mortgaging the Ancestors: ideologies of attachment in Africa. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (2010) Credit Between Cultures: farmers, financiers, and misunderstanding in Africa. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (2012) ‘Recruiting nature: snakes, serpents, and social movements in East Africa and North America’ in Gordon, D. M. and Krech, S. III, Indigenous Knowledge and the Environment in Africa and North America. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (2014) ‘Trusting and transcending: sacrifice at the source of the Nile’, Current Anthropology 55 (S9): S51–S61.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (1937 [1776]) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. New York NY: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (1976 [1759, 1761]) The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Indianapolis IN: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Smith, J. H. (2008) Bewitching Development: witchcraft and the reinvention of development in neoliberal Kenya. Chicago IL and London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Stiansen, E. and Guyer, J. I. (eds) (1999) Credit, Currencies and Culture: African financial institutions in historical perspective. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Stoller, P. (2002) Money Has No Smell: the Africanization of New York City. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tegnaeus, H. (1952) Blood-brothers. Stockholm: Ethnographical Museum of Sweden.Google Scholar
Trager, L. (2001) Yoruba Hometowns: community, identity, and development in Nigeria. Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Vokes, R. (2013) Ghosts of Kanungu: fertility, secrecy and exchange in the Great Lakes of East Africa. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Weisner, T. S., Bradley, C. and Kilbride, P. L. (eds) in collaboration with A. B. C. Ocholla-Ayayo, J. Akong'a and Wandibba, S. (1997) African Families and the Crisis of Social Change. Westport CT and London: Bergin and Garvey.Google Scholar
Whyte, S. R., Alber, E. and Wenzel Geissler, P. (eds) (2004) ‘Grandparents and grandchildren’, Africa 74 (1): special issue.Google Scholar
Wittenberger, J. F. (1981) Animal Social Behavior. Boston MA: Duxbury Press.Google Scholar