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African Village (african + village)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences66%
Life Sciences33%

Selected Abstracts

Curing and Healing: Medical Anthropology in Global Perspective; Everyday Spirits and Medical Interventions: Ethnographic and Historical Notes on Therapeutic Conventions in Zanzibar Town; Some Spirits Heal, Others Only Dance: A Journey into Human Selfhood in an African Village; The Straight Path of the Spirit: Ancestral Wisdom and Healing Traditions in Fiji; Healing Makes Our Hearts Happy: Spirituality and Cultural Transformations among the Ju!'hoansi

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2001
Helle Samuelsen
Curing and Healing: Medical Anthropology in Global Perspective. Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1999. vii+224 pp. Everyday Spirits and Medical Interventions: Ethnographic and Historical Notes on Therapeutic Conventions in Zanzibar Town. Tapio Nisula. Saarijanjarvi: Transactions of the Finnish Anthropological Society 43,1999. 321 pp. Some Spirits Heal, Others Only Dance:. Journey into Human Selfhood in an African Village. Roy Willis with K. B. S. Chisanga. H. M. K. Sikazwe. Kapembwa B. Sikazwe. and Sylvia Nanyangwe .Oxford: Berg, 1999. xii. 220pp. The Straight Path of the Spirit: Ancestral Wisdom and Healing Traditions in Fiji. Richard Katz. Rochester, VT. Park Street Press, 1999.413 pp. Healing Makes Our Hearts Happy: Spirituality and Cultural Transformations among the Ju!'hoansi. Richard Katz. Megan Biesele. and Verna St. Denis. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1997. xxv. 213 pp. [source]

Some Spirits Heal, Others Only Dance: A Journey into Human Selfhood in an African Village; Everyday Spirits and Medical Interventions: Ethnographic and Historical Notes on Therapeutic Conventions in Zanzibar Town

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2001
Judy Rosenthal
Some Spirits Heal, Others Only Dance:. Journey into Human Selfhood in an African Village. Roy Willis. New York: Berg, 1999. 220 pp. Everyday Spirits and Medical Interventions: Ethnographic and Historical Notes on Therapeutic Conventions in Zanzibar Town. Tapio Nisula. Helsinki, Finland: The Finnish Anthropological Society, 1999. 321 pp. [source]

Some Spirits Heal, Others Only Dance: A Journey into Human Selfhood in an African Village

AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 1 2001
Jennifer Nourse
Some Spirits Heal, Others Only Dance:. Journey into Human Selfhood in an African Village. Roy Willis. Oxford: Berg, 1999. viii. 220 pp., maps, photographs, illustrations, appendix, bibliography, glossary, index. [source]

Tradeoffs and sexual conflict over women's fertility preferences in Mpimbwe

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder
There are two principle evolutionary models for why women reduce their fertility, which can be used to explain the modern demographic transition. The first derives from optimality theory (specifically the "quantity-quality" tradeoff hypothesis), and the second from models of biased cultural transmission ("prestige bias" and "kin influence" hypotheses). Data on family planning preferences collected in 1996 and 1998 in a rural African village (in Mpimbwe, Tanzania) are used to test predictions derived from each hypothesis and show that both "quantity-quality" tradeoffs and biased cultural transmission underlie Pimbwe women's decisions. Reproductive decisions, however, are not made in a vacuum. Men and women's ideal family sizes often differ, and sexual conflict is particularly likely to affect a woman's success in limiting her family size. Pimbwe women's reproductive output between the initial family planning survey in 1996 and the most recent demographic survey (2006) is analyzed in relation to both the woman's preferences to limit her family and her exposure to husbands and husbands' kin. Despite wide differences in desired family sizes between men and women the extent of sexual conflict in this population is restricted to husbands and wives, and affects not a woman's use or planned use of modern contraception but her success in employing such methods effectively. There is also some evidence that a woman's mother and her kin assist in the use and effective use of modern methods, offering a prevailing force to the high-fertility objectives of the husband. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Patterns of bushmeat hunting and perceptions of disease risk among central African communities

ANIMAL CONSERVATION, Issue 4 2006
M. LeBreton
Abstract There is a great need to determine the factors that influence the hunting, butchering and eating of bushmeat to better manage the important social, public health and conservation consequences of these activities. In particular, the hunting and butchering of wild animals can lead to the transmission of diseases that have potentially serious consequences for exposed people and their communities. Comprehension of these risks may lead to decreased levels of these activities. To investigate these issues, 3971 questionnaires were completed to examine the determinants of the hunting, butchering and eating of wild animals and perceptions of disease risk in 17 rural central African villages. A high proportion of individuals reported perceiving a risk of disease infection with bushmeat contact. Individuals who perceived risk were significantly less likely to butcher wild animals than those who perceived no risk. However, perception of risk was not associated with hunting and eating bushmeat (activities that, compared with butchering, involve less contact with raw blood and body fluids). This suggests that some individuals may act on perceived risk to avoid higher risk activity. These findings reinforce the notion that conservation programs in rural villages in central Africa should include health-risk education. This has the potential to reduce the levels of use of wild animals, particularly of certain endangered species (e.g. many non-human primates) that pose a particular risk to human health. However, as the use of wild game is likely to continue, people should be encouraged to undertake hunting and butchering more safely for their own and their community's health. [source]

Graduate Students and Knowledge Exchange with Local Stakeholders: Possibilities and Preparation

BIOTROPICA, Issue 5 2009
Amy E. Duchelle
ABSTRACT Tropical biologists are exploring ways to expand their role as researchers through knowledge exchange with local stakeholders. Graduate students are well positioned for this broader role, particularly when supported by graduate programs. We ask: (1) how can graduate students effectively engage in knowledge exchange during their research; and (2) how can university programs prepare young scientists to take on this partnership role? We present a conceptual framework with three levels at which graduate students can exchange knowledge with stakeholders (information sharing, skill building, and knowledge generation) and discuss limitations of each. Examples of these strategies included disseminating preliminary research results to southern African villages, building research skills of Brazilian undergraduate students through semester-long internships, and jointly developing and implementing a forest ecology research and training program with one community in the Amazon estuary. Students chose strategies based on stakeholders' interests, research goals, and a realistic evaluation of student capacity and skill set. As strategies became more complex, time invested, skills mobilized, and strength of relationships between students and stakeholders increased. Graduate programs can prepare students for knowledge exchange with partners by developing specialized skills training, nurturing external networks, offering funding, maximizing strengths of universities in developed and developing regions through partnership, and evaluating knowledge exchange experiences. While balancing the needs of academia with those of stakeholders is challenging, the benefits of enhancing local scientific capacity and generating more locally relevant research for improved conservation may be worth the risks associated with implementing this type of graduate training model. [source]