03549nam 2200661Ia 450 991078635680332120200520144314.01-283-73323-40-226-92511-010.7208/9780226925110(CKB)2670000000276055(OCoLC)819853955(CaPaEBR)ebrary10616902(SSID)ssj0000757212(PQKBManifestationID)12318747(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000757212(PQKBWorkID)10771356(PQKB)11423137(StDuBDS)EDZ0000099528(MiAaPQ)EBC1049987(DE-B1597)524805(OCoLC)945394000(DE-B1597)9780226925110(Au-PeEL)EBL1049987(CaPaEBR)ebr10616902(CaONFJC)MIL404573(OCoLC)819136589(PPN)167875787(EXLCZ)99267000000027605520120510d2013 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtccrUnmasking the state[electronic resource] making Guinea modern /Mike McGovernChicago ;London University of Chicago Press20131 online resource (311 p.) Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-226-92510-2 0-226-92509-9 Includes bibliographical references and index.Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Part One. The Grammar and Rhetoric of Identity -- Part Two. Revealing and Reshaping the Body Politic -- Appendix 1 -- Appendix 2 -- Notes -- Works Cited -- IndexWhen the Republic of Guinea gained independence in 1958, one of the first policies of the new state was a village-to-village eradication of masks and other ritual objects it deemed "fetishes." The Demystification Program, as it was called, was so urgent it even preceded the building of a national road system. In Unmasking the State, Mike McGovern attempts to understand why this program was so important to the emerging state and examines the complex role it had in creating a unified national identity. In doing so, he tells a dramatic story of cat and mouse where minority groups cling desperately to their important- and outlawed-customs. Primarily focused on the communities in the country's southeastern rainforest region-people known as Forestiers-the Demystification Program operated via a paradox. At the same time it banned rituals from Forestiers' day-to-day lives, it appropriated them into a state-sponsored program of folklorization. McGovern points to an important purpose for this: by objectifying this polytheistic group's rituals, the state created a viable counterexample against which the Muslim majority could define proper modernity. Describing the intertwined relationship between national and local identity making, McGovern showcases the coercive power and the unintended consequences involved when states attempt to engineer culture. SOCIAL SCIENCE / GeneralbisacshGuineaPolitics and government20th centuryGuineaHistory20th centurySOCIAL SCIENCE / General.966.52/03LB 40690rvkMcGovern Mike1570018MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910786356803321Unmasking the state3843364UNINA