AN    INTERNATIONAL     JOURNAL     OF
CULTURAL  AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Volume 50, no. 2 (Spring 2011)

ETHNOGRAPHIC LIVELIHOOD STUDIES: THE MINUTIAE OF MICROLOANS

Courtney Kurlanska
University of Akron

Microfinance and microcredit are a central aspect of development around the globe. This article argues that the best way to examine microlending is through long-term ethnographic research incorporating a livelihood studies framework. A year-long study in rural Nicaragua illustrates the use of ethnographic livelihood studies as a method for examining the use of microcredit and microfinance loans and their incorporation in people’s economic decisions. Combined with political economy, this method for examining household economic strategies provides an in-depth, contextualized understanding of the choices made by household members as they struggle to make ends meet. (Political economy, microfinance, livelihoods, Nicaragua).

TOO LOUD, TOO WILD? NEGOTIATING CAJUN CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS

Rocky L Sexton
Ball State University

With chapters in Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois, the Cajun French Music Association, established in 1984 to preserve and promote traditional Cajun culture, is active in Cajun ethnic revival and cultural advocacy. But variation within the Cajun population makes determining the traditional and its representations problematic. This article discusses negotiations of Cajun cultural representations during the first two decades of the CFMA’s existence. Cultural ideals held by the association founders and leaders, primarily middle-aged and elderly Cajuns from southwest Louisiana, are not universally shared by CFMA members. Disjunction between organizational ideals and conflicting perspectives has led to intracultural crises of representation. Resistance to organizational dictates and ensuing debates provide a framework for understanding the negotiations of traditional representations. (Cajun, cultural representations, ethnic revival, French Louisiana).

THE HONG KONG OCEAN PARK KIDNAPPING RUMOR

Joseph Bosco
The Chinese University of Hong Kon

In March 2010, an emailed rumor spread through Hong Kong’s Western expatriate community describing an attempted kidnapping of a Caucasian boy by two Chinese women at a popular amusement park several days earlier. The emails were traced back to the original author who explained her role in its dissemination. This article examines the reasons why the rumor was widely believed by expatriate parents. Although factually false, the rumor carried symbolic truth in the fear of a rising China that "steals" Western jobs, and of young Chinese women who "steal" Western husbands. In addition, expatriate women are uneasy over the compromises they must make in having both a family and a career. (Emailed rumors, ethnic stereotyping, Hong Kong expatriates).

CELEBRATING DISTINCTIONS: COMMON AND CONSPICUOUS WEDDINGS IN RURAL NAMIBIA

Julia Pauli
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Hamburg University

In many parts of southern Africa, weddings have become expensive, blending local ritual practices with Western middle-class consumption habits. Ethnographic fieldwork in the Fransfontein region of northwest Namibia indicates that the transformations in wedding consumption are linked to social class formation. Until the 1970s, wedding celebrations in Fransfontein were relatively modest affairs. With the establishment of new bureaucracies and the emergence of localized elites at the end of the 1970s, wedding celebrations gradually developed into costly celebrations of class distinction. An important outcome of this is that it has become increasingly more difficult for most people to marry; consequently, marriage rates have substantially declined. (Marriage rates, conspicuous consumption, elites, Namibia).

PAST PASSAGES: INITIATION RITES ON THE ADAMAWA PLATEAU (CAMEROON)

Philip Leis
Brown University

During the 1960s in the northern Cameroon, the Nyam-Nyam (or Nizaa) performed rites of passage, where boys were circumcised and underwent lengthy initiation rites. Since the rituals are no longer performed, several occasions are described and the question of their demise is examined. (Rites of passage, circumcision, identity, Nyam-Nyam/Nizaa, Cameroon) .