africa
La plante alan et le culte des ancêtres chez les Fang du Gabon
By: GIORGIO SAMORINI – The alan plant and the ancestor cult among the Fangs of Gabon” – During the past centuries, the Fang, a Bantu-speaking ethnic group of the Western Equatorial Africa, used the hallucinogenic plant alan (Alchornea floribunda) in their Byeri initiatory ceremonies. Byeri was a cult of ancestors that involved the conservation and worship of…
Etnografia delle dature in Africa
africa, alkangaudé, bori, datura, Ethiopia, hausa, jimsonweed, khomba, leba shay, marabout, mozambique, senegal, tsongaBy: GIORGIO SAMORINI – Daturas belong to the tropane Solanaceous group of plants, traditionally used in the Old and New World for their intoxicant properties. In Africa two species – Datura stramonium, and D. metel – are used in religious, initiatory, divinatory, magic-therapeutic rites, and also as tools during trials by ordeal, in courts of…
Meanings and taboos in traditional gastronomy of Maasai communities in Kajiado County, Kenya
By: MICHELE FILIPPO FONTEFRANCESCO, LEAH LEKANAYIA – The article analyses food traditions among the Maasai of Kajiado County. It explores them on the basis of an ethnographic research conducted between 2017 and 2018. In particular, it investigates the cultural meanings and taboos associated with blood, meat and milk: key elements in the traditional Maasai diet.…
Ebola e magia. Rappresentazioni sociali della febbre emorragica in Africa
By: STEFANO GALEAZZI – While the disease forces to rethink both the individual and the community, it also involves identity theories and practices to contrast it. Yet, some diseases such as the outbreaks of Ebola in Africa can destroy everyday social codes and prevent treatment. This article highlights the relations between Ebola and magic /…
Modernization and Individualism in the Ayt Merghad Community
By: FATIMA GADDAR – In an attempt to build a modern state, Morocco has embarked on a process of social, economic and political development since its independence in 1956. Numerous projects of development have been implemented both at the national and local levels. These projects have produced new patterns of life which are governed by…
Etnogenesi in Rwanda. Costruzione coloniale ed effetti di ritorno
By: GIULIA BECCHIS – In questo articolo mi soffermerò sul processo di etnologizzazione che coinvolse il Rwanda nei cinquant’anni della colonizzazione, che coincise con la costruzione di un immaginario sulla storia del paese e sulla sua società che ebbe un ruolo centrale nel Rwanda postcoloniale così come nella sintassi delle violenze genocidiarie del ’94. Questo…
“They are poor and violent”: stereotype and the Ibadan urban motor park space
By: ADEYEMI JOHNSON ADEMOWO – In this work, we are interested in finding out how, and why, the interplay of poverty and violence, the park stereotypes, has problematised the motor park space, and consequently the culture that evolved from the space. Of great concern to us are the origin and the operation of the park;…
Somalie: suicide collectif ou appel desesperé a l’aide? Essai de reponse
africa, Afrique, droit maritime, eaux territoriales, failed state, faillite de l’Etat, haute mer, international relations, maritime law, mass suicide, modern piracy, nomadism, nomadisme, piraterie moderne, relations internationales, Somalia, Somalie, suicide collectif, territorial waters, tribalism high sea, tribalismeBy: THIERRY ONGA – What child has not dreamt of being a pirate? The adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew of the “Black Pearl” trilogy “Pirates of the Caribbean” have a strong base of fans around the world! In this early twenty-first century, pirates are doing well, thanks for asking. They are actually…
Performing the Eradication of Infibulation. Mana Abdurahman Isse at Merka, Somalia
By: SANDRA BUSATTA – The experiments with the Sunna Gudnin Project, as well as later forms of attenuation of female circumcision, such as the Gudnin Usub (New Rite) promoted by Mana Sultan Abdurahman and her collaborators, have met a good success in Ayuub and other villages in the area of Merka. The DVD shows that,…
Eating out in Africa
By: MIKE SINGLETON – Con un simile titolo il lettore si aspetterà un racconto di trucide orgie cannibalesche. In realtà l’antropofagia in Africa è più immaginata che messa in pratica (io ne ho sentito parlare solo una volta), anche se il cannibalismo rituale non era del tutto sconosciuto. In senso metaforico, il verbo “mangiare” è…
Eritrea: l’Acqua Santa di S. Michele
By: MARCO MENICOCCI, RODOLFO MENICOCCI – Le Acque Sante sono un tipico istituto terapeutico eritreo. Si tratta di fondi di acqua usata, variamente, per la cura di alcune malattie e poste sotto la “protezione” di uno o più santi, cristiani o musulmani. Quella di S. Michele è considerata curativa per le possessioni, le malattie mentali,…
Le incisioni rupestri di Harurona Cave nel Wolayta
By: LUCA BACHECHI – La stazione preistorica di Gesuba è situata nella zona nord-occidentale della regione del Wolayta a circa 1370 m s.l.m. (foglio 0637 B3 – 1:50.000 GESUBA – ETHIOPIA; Lat. N 06° 41’ 45’’, Long. E 37° 30’ 35’’). Si tratta di una piccola grotta con riparo prospiciente che si apre in una…