1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996398648503316

Autore

Pauli Julia

Titolo

The Decline of Marriage in Namibia : Kinship and Social Class in a Rural Community / Julia Pauli

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bielefeld, : transcript Verlag, 2019

ISBN

3-8394-4303-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (296 p.)

Collana

Kultur und soziale Praxis

Disciplina

390

Soggetti

Marriage; Namibia; Elites; Consumption; Kinship; Class; Family; Social Inequality; Postcolonialism; Ethnology; African History; Africa

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter    1  Content    5  List of tables    7  List of figures    8  Acknowledgements    9  Introduction    15  Fransfontein fieldwork    47  History through biography    73  Postapartheid livelihoods    99  Contemporary Fransfontein marriages    127  From decline to distinction    167  Forming families    199  Intimacy outside marriage    227  Conclusion    257  Reference list    267

Sommario/riassunto

In Southern Africa, marriage used to be widespread and common. However, over the past decades marriage rates have declined significantly. Julia Pauli explores the meaning of marriage when only few marry. Although marriage rates have dropped sharply, the value of weddings and marriages has not. To marry has become an indicator of upper-class status that less affluent people aspire to. Using the appropriation of marriage by a rural Namibian elite as a case study, the book tells the entwined stories of class formation and marriage decline in post-apartheid Namibia.

»It is an intricate analysis of how transformations in Namibian marriage practices have been framed and structured by dramatic political and economic changes in the twentieth century, and thus how the vantage point ofmarriage is a productive tool from which to study how personal experiences reflect larger social shifts.«  Rachel Spronk, African Studies Review, 63/4 (2020)    »With its balanced discussion of the regional literature the monograph is a good read for social scientists doing research in the Southern African region and of value to anyone



researching gender and family relations. In addition, it is an inspiration for anyone interested in class relationsin Africa.«  Astrid Bochow, Anthropos, 115 (2020)    »This is a rich and valuable study, offering a nuanced and historically sensitive approach to an important question.«  Meredith McKittrick, H-Net-Reviews, 6 (2020)    »This monograph provides a superb ethnography and a fruitful resource for understanding most of the core issues that revolve around marriage and the lack thereof in a Namibian community. It has much value as an anthropological study that indicates how new consumption patterns affect ›traditional institutions‹.«  Stephanie Rudwick, Modern Africa, 7/2 (2019)    Besprochen in:  Africa Spectrum, 55/1 (2020), Lena Kroeker  Journal of Namibian Studies, 28 (2020), Henning Melber