This book offers a unique look behind the scenes of anthropological fieldwork amongst the Mende in Sierra Leone in the mid-1930s. The Dutch anthropologist and sociologist Sjoerd Hofstra (1898-1983... Show moreThis book offers a unique look behind the scenes of anthropological fieldwork amongst the Mende in Sierra Leone in the mid-1930s. The Dutch anthropologist and sociologist Sjoerd Hofstra (1898-1983), Rockefeller research fellow of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures and one of Bronislaw Malinowski's three 'Mandarins' (as were also Meyer Fortes and S. Frederick Nadel), reports in long, bi-weekly letters to his adoptive mother about his experiences with the Mende. During his first stay in Sierra Leone (January 1934 - March 1935), Hofstra got blackwater fever, a complication of malaria tropica. His second stay (May - September 1936) came to an untimely end because he again developed symptoms of blackwater fever and was advised to return to Europe. Because of this his fieldwork remained unfinished, and Hofstra never got round to publishing the planned book on the Mende. However, Hofstra published four articles on the Mende in English, photocopies of which are included in this book. Next to these articles Hofstra's letters to his adoptive mother contain valuable first-hand information about his fieldwork. His daughter, cultural and social historian Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, has edited and translated these letters, while also including contextual information. Show less
This book offers an intriguing account of the complex and often contradictory relations between music and society in Freetown's past and present. Blending anthropological thought with ethnographic... Show moreThis book offers an intriguing account of the complex and often contradictory relations between music and society in Freetown's past and present. Blending anthropological thought with ethnographic and historical research, it explores the conjunctures of music practices and social affiliations and the diverse patterns of social dis/connections that music helps to shape, to (re)create, and to defy in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown. The first half of the book traces back the changing social relationships and the concurrent changes in the city's music life from the first days of the colony in the late 18th century up to the turbulent and thriving music scenes in the first decade of the 21st century. Grounded in this comprehensive historiography of Freetown's socio-musical palimpsest, the second half of the book puts forth a detailed ethnography of social dynamics in the realms of music, calibrating contemporary Freetown's social polyphony with its musical counterpart. Show less
This book is about human body movement and culture. The body skills of a sample of Sierra Leoneans are analyzed in terms of acquisition of the skills, the importance of learning these skills to... Show moreThis book is about human body movement and culture. The body skills of a sample of Sierra Leoneans are analyzed in terms of acquisition of the skills, the importance of learning these skills to become part of a community and the physical consequences of the activities. It focuses on skills in football as well as skills used in mundane daily life. Using a combination of technical and anthropological research methods, it offers an example of how to study human body movement in a real-life setting and how culture can be studied by analysis of the techniques of the body. Anneke van der Niet is a human movement scientist and africanist. She is currently preparing a PhD study on a comparable topic as the present study, again in West Africa Show less
This thesis explores the postwar reintegration strategies of young women who had forcibly become affiliated with one of the fighting factions during the ten years of civil war in Sierra Leone.... Show moreThis thesis explores the postwar reintegration strategies of young women who had forcibly become affiliated with one of the fighting factions during the ten years of civil war in Sierra Leone. Instead of conceptualizing reintegration as the result of policies, the author defines it as the dynamic process that revolves around the (re-)establishment of relations between the individual and social networks. The thesis seeks to understand how the local meaning of the social identities 'youth' and 'female gender' affect the course of this process. It demonstrates how the social and cultural identity of the women as either daughters or wives influenced their decision to return or not to their former community and how they constantly have to negotiate their social identities in the community in order to integrate into new networks. Data collected during six months of fieldwork in Sierra Leone in 2003-2004 provide the basis for describing how reintegration is highly diversified and contextual. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
After an introductory chapter on the assumptions and methods of the study, which was carried out in Sierra Leone in 1971, this report contains chapters on marriage, divorce, property rights of... Show moreAfter an introductory chapter on the assumptions and methods of the study, which was carried out in Sierra Leone in 1971, this report contains chapters on marriage, divorce, property rights of women, maintenance responsibilities, rights over children and adoption under customary law in Sierra Leone. Then the authors attempt to indicate areas where conflicts of law exist or where certain social problems are created or aggravated by the inadequacies of the law. Finally, a number of problems relating to the administration of customary law are considered. Throughout the report the inferior legal position of women in the face of changing social and economic conditions has been stressed. Show less
