This article investigates HIV/AIDS as a cosmological problem among Northern Sotho and Tsonga-speakers in the South African lowveld. Based on in-depth interviews with 70 informants (35 men and 35 women) I show how the attribution of blame for HIV/AIDS articulates gendered concerns. I suggest that women blamed men and envious nurses for spreading the virus and that these discourses expressed women's ideological association with the domestic domain. By contrast, men invoked conspiracy theories, blaming translocal agents--such as Dr. Wouter Basson, Americans, soldiers, and governments--for the pandemic. I suggest that these theories are informed by men's humiliating experiences of job losses and deindustrialization in the global labour market. My discussion highlights the need for HIV/AIDS interventions in order to address not only women's oppression but also men's gendered concerns.

No abstract

Anthropological studies generally interpret discourses about witches and zombies in subSaharan Africa as critical commentary on the emergence of new forms of wealth, the commodification of labour, and the crisis of reproduction. Drawing on data collected in the Bushbuckridge area of the South African lowveld, I point to the limitations of these arguments and suggest that we can more fully capture the diverse and contradictory meanings of witches and zombies by separating discourses from actual accusations and from subjective realities.Whilst generic discourses highlight the use of zombies as a means of accumulating wealth, those accused of witchcraft are nearly always subordinate and impoverished persons who allegedly keep zombies as a means of survival. At the same time, these beliefs are connected to powerful psychological motivations, such as emotionally overwhelming experiences of bereavement, loss, and mourning. I suggest that witches and zombies derive their broad appeal from indeterminacy that defies interpretive control and constantly allows for alternative interpretations.This article examines the fascination and fear that witches and zombies inspire in the South African lowveld. Theoretically, my approach is inspired by recent anthropological studies that ascribe the power of mystical beliefs to their multidimensionality and exuberance of meanings (see Boddy

No abstract

With reference to the history of the village of Green Valley in the South African bantustan of Lebowa over the past six decades, this article examines the complex relation-ship between witch-hunting and political action. I argue against common notions in anthropological literature that political actors engage in witch-hunting in an attempt to mystify exploitation or to intimidate opponents. Such notions overemphasise the instrumental dimensions of the witchcraft complex and pay insufficient attention to its intrinsic/existential dimension as a personalised explanation of misfortune. By taking full cognisance of the latter, witch-hunting can be seen as a creative attempt to eliminate evil and avoid the future occurrence of misfortune. It is argued that, through time, chiefs and Comrades have found it politically convenient to identify and punish witches in their efforts to attain legitimacy among villagers.