Unmasking the State

McGovern, Mike

doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226925110.001.0001

Cited by 44 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Crucially, Atlantic slavery and colonisation were experienced in this region not just as an encounter with the Euro-American world, but with Manding warlords who profited from the slavery and then the rivalry between colonial powers. This heightened antagonism between inhabitants of the Forest Region and both the colonial (Christian) world and the Manding and increasingly Muslim political orders entangled with it (Anoko, 2014; Højbjerg, 2007; Iffono, 2010; McGovern, 2012). …”

Section: Guineamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although people are familiar with Western health care and make use of biomedical products, it is alongside existing understandings of disease and ways of managing health that share much in common (Højbjerg, 2007; Jambai & MacCormack, 1996; McGovern, 2012). Ill health might be relieved by biomedicine but the causes and treatment often require a different sort of attention – to social faults, the anger of the deceased or of other spirits, or the maleficent work of sorcerers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Comparison of social resistance to Ebola response in Sierra Leone and Guinea suggests explanations lie in political configurations not culture

Wilkinson

Fairhead

2016

Critical Public Health

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sierra Leone and Guinea share broadly similar cultural worlds, straddling the societies of the Upper Guinea Coast with Islamic West Africa. There was, however, a notable difference in their reactions to the Ebola epidemic. As the epidemic spread in Guinea, acts of violent or everyday resistance to outbreak control measures repeatedly followed, undermining public health attempts to contain the crisis. In Sierra Leone, defiant resistance was rarer. Instead of looking to ‘culture’ to explain patterns of social resistance (as was common in the media and in the discourse of responding public health authorities) a comparison between Sierra Leone and Guinea suggests that explanations lie in divergent political practice and lived experiences of the state. In particular the structures of state authority through which the national epidemic response were organised integrated very differently with trusted institutions in each country. Predicting and addressing social responses to epidemic control measures should assess such political-trust configurations when planning interventions.

show abstract

Section: Guineamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of social resistance to Ebola response in Sierra Leone and Guinea suggests explanations lie in political configurations not culture

Wilkinson

Fairhead

2016

Critical Public Health

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ancestors, supernatural beings, and ritual artefacts such as shrines, masks, divinatory media, fetish objects, and herbal medicine are expressed in the concept of salɛ (expressed in Liberian English as "medicine"; Hojberg 2007, McGovern 2012. We found that that in SA, ancestors and some trees are seen as being endowed with this metaphysical power.…”

Section: Cultural Processes Shaping Sacred Agroforestsmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Therefore, the physical production or "domestication" of space by the Loma, follows an arc through time from the initial clearance of forest and establishment of the town-space, decades or even centuries of daily domestic activities, and the spatial and temporal dynamics of the planting and management of tree crops and other trees, forest regrowth, and the eventual abandonment of spaces as a living area . In this final stage, the surrounding forest island makes the town "too cold," referring to a phenomenon where forest growth over time makes the town "colder," which is associated with a growing power of ancestors and also malevolent spirits, leading to the need to establish a new town in a safer space (McGovern 2012). The abandoned townspace then becomes protected precisely because of the traces of the former settlement, the presence of graves, cotton trees and kola linked to the living.…”

Section: Cultural Processes Shaping Sacred Agroforestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ownership normally lies with the male head of a single family within the population of descendants. SA are sometimes used by gender-specific initiation societies (Poro for men, Sande for women), and for ritual and religious activities including divinations and sacrifice to protect individuals and groups (Little 1965, 1966, Leopold 1991, Hojberg 2007, McGovern 2012. These factors mean that clear cutting and burning these sites is strictly forbidden in customary law, thereby conserving plants and trees growing on them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea forest, West Africa

Fraser¹,

Diabaté²,

Narmah³

et al. 2016

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. The cultural valuation of biodiversity has taken on renewed importance over the last two decades as the ecosystem services framework has become widely adopted. Conservation initiatives increasingly use ecosystem service frameworks to render tropical forest landscapes and their peoples legible to market-oriented initiatives such as REDD+ and biodiversity offsetting schemes. Ecosystem service approaches have been widely criticized by scholars in the social sciences and humanities for their narrow focus on a small number of easily quantifiable and marketable services and a reductionist and sometimes simplistic approach to culture. We address the need to combine methods from each of the "three cultures" of natural science, quantitative social science, and qualitative social science/humanities in conceptualizing the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation. We combine qualitative data with forest inventories and a quantitative index of cultural value to evaluate the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in Upper Guinea forest in Liberia, West Africa. Our study focuses on "sacred agroforests," spaces that are associated with Mande macro-language speaking groups such as the Loma. We demonstrate that sacred agroforests are associated with different cultural values compared with secondary forests. Although biodiversity and biomass are similar, sacred agroforests exhibit a different species composition, especially of culturally salient species, increasing overall landscape agro-biodiversity. Sacred agroforests are also shaped and conserved by local cultural institutions revolving around ancestor worship, ritual, and the metaphysical conceptual category "salɛ." We conclude that to understand the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation, interpretivist approaches such as phenomenology should be employed alongside positivist ecosystem service frameworks.

show abstract

The Ebola Crisis and Post‐2015 Development

Leach

2015

J of Intl Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article argues that the recent Ebola crisis is the result of structural violence, as interlocking institutions have produced interlaced inequalities, unsustainabilities and insecurities. These have underlain the vulnerabilities in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea through which a disease outbreak became a major health, social and economic crisis and the local fears, distrust, rumours and resistance that magnified it further. Articulating this analysis of Ebola with broader perspectives, the case is made for a reframing of post-2015 development as transformational politics towards equality, sustainability and security, enabling people to realise well-being

show abstract

Unmasking the State

Cited by 44 publications

References 0 publications

Comparison of social resistance to Ebola response in Sierra Leone and Guinea suggests explanations lie in political configurations not culture

Comparison of social resistance to Ebola response in Sierra Leone and Guinea suggests explanations lie in political configurations not culture

Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea forest, West Africa

The Ebola Crisis and Post‐2015 Development

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About