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Bewitching development [[electronic resource] ] : witchcraft and the reinvention of development in neoliberal Kenya / / James Howard Smith



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Autore: Smith James Howard Visualizza persona
Titolo: Bewitching development [[electronic resource] ] : witchcraft and the reinvention of development in neoliberal Kenya / / James Howard Smith Visualizza cluster
Pubblicazione: Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2008
Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (287 p.)
Disciplina: 305.896/395
Soggetto topico: Taita (African people) - Social life and customs
Taita (African people) - Rites and ceremonies
Witchcraft - Kenya - Taita Hills
Economic development - Kenya - Taita Hills
Soggetto geografico: Taita Hills (Kenya) Economic conditions
Soggetto genere / forma: Electronic books.
Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Nota di contenuto: Bewitching development : the disintegration and reinvention of development in Kenya -- I still exist! Taita historicity -- Development's other : witchcraft as development through the looking glass -- "Each household is a kingdom" : development and witchcraft at home -- "Dot com will die seriously!" spatiotemporal miscommunication and competing sovereignties in Taita thought and ritual -- NGOs, gender, and sovereign child -- Democracy victorious: exorcising witchcraft from development -- Conclusion: Tempopolitics, or why development should not be defined as the improvement of living standards.
Sommario/riassunto: These days, development inspires scant trust in the West. For critics who condemn centralized efforts to plan African societies as latter day imperialism, such plans too closely reflect their roots in colonial rule and neoliberal economics. But proponents of this pessimistic view often ignore how significant this concept has become for Africans themselves. In Bewitching Development, James Howard Smith presents a close ethnographic account of how people in the Taita Hills of Kenya have appropriated and made sense of development thought and practice, focusing on the complex ways that development connects with changing understandings of witchcraft. Similar to magic, development's promise of a better world elicits both hope and suspicion from Wataita. Smith shows that the unforeseen changes wrought by development-greater wealth for some, dashed hopes for many more-foster moral debates that Taita people express in occult terms. By carefully chronicling the beliefs and actions of this diverse community-from frustrated youths to nostalgic seniors, duplicitous preachers to thought-provoking witch doctors-BewitchingDevelopment vividly depicts the social life of formerly foreign ideas and practices in postcolonial Africa.
Titolo autorizzato: Bewitching development  Visualizza cluster
ISBN: 1-282-16644-1
9786613809513
0-226-76459-1
Formato: Materiale a stampa
Livello bibliografico Monografia
Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
Record Nr.: 9910452694803321
Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II
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Serie: Chicago studies in practices of meaning.