A01=James Howard Smith
africa
african
anthropological
anthropology
Author_James Howard Smith
Category=JHM
Category=QRYX5
ceremonies
colonial
colonialism
customs
development
diversity
economics
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnographic
ethnography
governing
government
imperial
imperialism
kenya
kenyan
living standards
magic
miscommunication
morality
morals
neoliberal
neoliberalism
occult
occultism
political
politics
postcolonial
postcolonialism
reinvention
social live
taita hills
wataita
witch doctors
witchcraft
witches
Product details
- ISBN 9780226764580
- Weight: 425g
- Dimensions: 15 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jul 2008
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
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 - "Bewitching Development" vividly depicts the social life of formerly foreign ideas and practices in postcolonial Africa.
James Howard Smith is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis.
