Sacred Rice: An Ethnography of Identity, Environment, and Development in Rural West Africa (Issues of Globalization: Case Studies in Contemporary Anthropology) - Softcover

Davidson, Joanna

 
9780199358687: Sacred Rice: An Ethnography of Identity, Environment, and Development in Rural West Africa (Issues of Globalization: Case Studies in Contemporary Anthropology)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0199358680 ISBN 13: 9780199358687
Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr, 2015

Synopsis

Sacred Rice explores the cultural intricacies through which Jola farmers in West Africa are responding to their environmental and economic conditions given the centrality of a crop--rice--that is the lynchpin for their economic, social, religious, and political worlds.

Based on more than ten years of author Joanna Davidson's ethnographic and historical research on rural Guinea-Bissau, this book looks at the relationship among people, plants, and identity as it explores how a society comes to define itself through the production, consumption, and reverence of rice. It is a narrative profoundly tied to a particular place, but it is also a story of encounters with outsiders who often mediate or meddle in the rice enterprise. Although the focal point is a remote area of West Africa, the book illuminates the more universal nexus of identity, environment, and development, especially in an era when many people--rural and urban--are confronting environmental changes that challenge their livelihoods and lifestyles.

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About the Author


Joanna Davidson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Boston University.

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Publisher
Oxford Univ Pr
Publication date
2015
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0199358680
ISBN 13 
9780199358687
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
249