A01=China Scherz
A01=George Mpanga
A01=Sarah Namirembe
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
alcohol dependent people in Uganda
anthropology of addiction
Author_China Scherz
Author_George Mpanga
Author_Sarah Namirembe
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bar culture
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HD
Category=JBFN
Category=JBSL
Category=JHMC
COP=United States
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnography
Euro-American models of addiction and recovery
herbalists
inpatient rehabilitation programs
Language_English
PA=Available
pentecostal
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
religion
softlaunch
traditions of indigenous healing
Ugandan drinking history
Product details
- ISBN 9780520396791
- Weight: 227g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 06 Feb 2024
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.
Higher Powers draws on four years of collaborative fieldwork carried out with Ugandans working to reconstruct their lives after attempting to leave behind problematic alcohol use. Given the relatively recent introduction of biomedical ideas of alcoholism and addiction in Uganda, most of these people have used other therapeutic resources, including herbal aversion therapies, engagements with balubaale spirits, and forms of deliverance and spiritual warfare practiced in Pentecostal churches. While these methods are at times severe, they contain within them understandings of the self and practices of sociality that point away from models of addiction as a chronic relapsing brain disease and towards the possibility of release. Higher Powers offers a reconceptualization of addiction and recovery that may prove relevant well beyond Uganda.
Higher Powers draws on four years of collaborative fieldwork carried out with Ugandans working to reconstruct their lives after attempting to leave behind problematic alcohol use. Given the relatively recent introduction of biomedical ideas of alcoholism and addiction in Uganda, most of these people have used other therapeutic resources, including herbal aversion therapies, engagements with balubaale spirits, and forms of deliverance and spiritual warfare practiced in Pentecostal churches. While these methods are at times severe, they contain within them understandings of the self and practices of sociality that point away from models of addiction as a chronic relapsing brain disease and towards the possibility of release. Higher Powers offers a reconceptualization of addiction and recovery that may prove relevant well beyond Uganda.
China Scherz is Professor of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and author of Having People, Having Heart. George Mpanga and Sarah Namirembe are independent researchers living in Kampala, Uganda.
