What happens to marginalized groups from Africa when they ally with the indigenous peoples' movement? Who claims to be indigenous and why? Dorothy L. Hodgson explores how indigenous identity, both in ...concept and in practice, plays out in the context of economic liberalization, transnational capitalism, state restructuring, and political democratization. Hodgson brings her long experience with Maasai to her understanding of the shifting contours of their contemporary struggles for recognition, representation, rights, and resources. Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous is a deep and sensitive reflection on the possibilities and limits of transnational advocacy and the dilemmas of political action, civil society, and change in Maasai communities.
In Africa, why have so many more women converted to Christianity than
men? What explains the appeal of Christianity to women? What does religious
conversion mean for the negotiation of gender and ...ethnic identity? What role does
religious conversion play as a tool for empowering women? In The Church of Women,
Dorothy L. Hodgson looks at how gender has shaped the encounter between missionary
priests and Maasai men and women in Tanzania. Building on her extensive experience
with Maasai and the Spiritan missionaries, Hodgson explores how gendered change
among Maasai has shaped women's notions of religious faith, religious practice, and
spiritual power. Hodgson explores the appeal of Catholicism among women in East
Africa, the enmeshing of Catholic practice with Maasai spirituality, and the meaning
of conversion to new Christians. This rich, engaging, and original book challenges
notions about religious encounter and the role of ethnic identity, female authority,
and power among Maasai.
In this interdisciplinary, international collection of original essays, distinguished scholars, lawyers, and activists probe the complex relationship between gender, culture, and rights. The authors ...offer thoughtful, provocative case studies to suggest that the power of women's rights is also the source of its limits.
Africa from the Margins Hodgson, Dorothy L.
African studies review,
09/2017, Volume:
60, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article argues for the continued merits of research with rural, long-marginalized peoples, including those whose fervent invocations of ethnic difference—such as Maasai—make many scholars and ...politicians nervous. Their perspectives “from the margins” offer key theoretical and political insights into this complicated place we call “Africa” by challenging grand narratives of modernization, “Africa rising,” and supposedly “universal” ideas of progress and justice. They also defy enduring stereotypes about the passivity and ignorance of rural peoples. I argue, in other words, for the value of both seeing and theorizing Africa from the margins. Cet article fait valoir les bénéfices d’une recherche continue avec les peuples ruraux, longtemps marginalisés, y compris ceux dont les appels fervents sur la différence ethnique—comme les Masaï—rendent beaucoup de chercheurs et de responsables politiques nerveux. Leurs points de vue prient “de la marge” donnent des perspectives théoriques et politiques clés dans ce lieu compliqué que nous appelons “Afrique” en contestant les grands récits de la modernisation; “Afrique naissante” et les idées soi-disant de progrès et de justice “Universelles.” Ils défient aussi les stéréotypes persistants concernant la passivité et l’ignorance des populations rurales. J’affirme en d’autres termes, la valeur de voir et de théoriser l’Afrique des marges.
Becoming Indigenous in Africa Hodgson, Dorothy L.
African studies review,
12/2009, Volume:
52, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article traces the history of how and why certain African groups became involved in the transnational indigenous rights movement; how the concept of the indigenous has been imagined, understood, ...and employed by African activists, donors, advocates, and states; and the opportunities and obstacles it has posed for the ongoing struggles for recognition, resources, and the rights of historically marginalized people like Maasai.
Using ethnographic case studies, these "In Focus" articles explore the indigenous rights movements in two regions, Africa and the Americas, where the histories, agendas, and dynamics of the movements ...are at once similar and different. They consider a range of relevant questions about the politics of representation, recognition, resources, and rights as these movements engage shifting political and economic landscapes; transnational discourses, alliances, and organizations; and the complicated cultural politics of inclusion and exclusion invoked by the term indigenous. As such, they offer a critical, comparative perspective on the issues of culture, power, representation, and difference inherent in the complicated alliances, articulations, and tensions that have produced and transformed the transnational indigenous rights movement. This introduction provides a brief history of the movement, highlights some major themes in previous anthropological work, reviews the insights of the section articles, and explores some of the ways in which anthropologists have engaged with the movement.
Recent work has celebrated the political potential of ‘counter‐mapping’, that is, mapping against dominant power structures, to further seemingly progressive goals. This article briefly reviews the ...counter‐mapping literature, and compares four counter‐mapping projects from Maasai areas in Tanzania to explore some potential pitfalls in such efforts. The cases, which involve community‐based initiatives led by a church‐based NGO, ecotourism companies, the Tanzanian National Parks Authority, and grassroots pastoralist rights advocacy groups, illustrate the broad range of activities grouped under the heading of counter‐mapping. They also present a series of political dilemmas that are typical of many counter‐mapping efforts: conflicts inherent in conservation efforts involving territorialization, privatization, integration and indigenization; problems associated with the theory and practice of ‘community‐level’ political engagement; the need to combine mapping efforts with broader legal and political strategies; and critical questions involving the agency of ‘external’ actors such as conservation and development donors, the state and private business interests.
MORALITY AND MEDIA IN MALAWI HODGSON, DOROTHY L.
Journal of African history,
11/2012, Volume:
53, Issue:
3
Journal Article, Book Review
Peer reviewed
Englund argues that these stories - submitted by listeners, revised by editors, heard and debated by thousands of men and women throughout the country in the local language of Chichewa - provide ...alternative ways of expressing claims and expectations in the context of the liberal but still authoritarian state of Malawi and the continued dominance of human rights approaches to equality. Nonetheless, Englund has written a provocative and compelling book, which, like his earlier award-winning study, Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor (California, 2006), uses the methodological and theoretical power of ethnography to challenge easy accolades about the inherent value of the ideas and practice of human rights. ...the dominance of human rights assumptions about freedom and rights often undermine rather than promote struggles against poverty and injustice because of their failure to address the structural conditions that produce impoverishment.
Since 1990, over one hundred indigenous nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) have emerged in predominantly Maasai areas in Tanzania, attempting to organize people around diverse claims of a common ..."indigenous" identity based on ethnicity, mode of production, and a long history of political and economic disenfranchisement. Despite attempts to foster unity and promote common political agendas, the indigenous rights movement has been fractured by sometimes quite hostile disagreements over priorities, competition over resources, and tensions over membership and representation. This article explores the complicated causes and consequences of these tensions by focusing on the discussions, disagreements, and silences that occurred during a recent attempt to reconcile indigenous groups in Tanzania. The workshop offers a unique window on the cultural, political, and historical dynamics of the indigenous rights movement in northern Tanzania, the principles and practices of inclusion and exclusion that have defined and shaped the movement, and the internal and external stresses that have made alliances within and among the INGOs, donors, and the government precarious, at best.
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