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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Death as a public space for negotiating gender and kinship trouble
| Panel |
55. Gender and death in Africa
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| Paper ID | 298 |
| Author(s) |
Notermans, Catrien
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper studies mourning rituals and funerals as public spaces where trouble with gender and kinship is discussed. In East Cameroon, issues of gender and kin identity are negotiated during mourning rituals when people try to bring long lasting conflicts about bride wealth, polygyny, or rights on children to an end. In the actual context of death, domestic disputes become articulated and finalised. Because gender and kinship trouble is often expressed in the idiom of witchcraft, the paper also explores how, in the public space of death, intimate trouble is articulated in witchcraft accusations. To prepare ethnographic field research on this topic in East Cameroon, the paper will give an overview of anthropological death studies and explore what has been said on the issues of gender and kinship and what conclusions can be made. |
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