Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-s9k8s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-25T18:20:03.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The power of sex: some reflections on the Caldwells' ‘African sexuality’ thesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Suzette Heald
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Résumé

Cet article consiste en une série de réflections sur la sexualité en Afrique de l'Est, formulées en réponse aux théories avancées par J. C. Cadwell et ses collaborateurs. L'article soutient que leurs points de vu ne réussissent pas à saisir la manière dont les restreintes et restrictions sexuelles forment la base de l'ordre moral dans les sociétés de l'Afrique de l'Est. Leur modèle d'un système sexuel africain distinct insiste trop sur la descendance d'une facon qui méthodiquement n'attribue pas assez d'importance au mariage et réduit les cultes ancestraux à avoir pour seule préoccupation la reproduction et la continuité de la lignée. En contraste, cet article suggère, en renvoyant aux Gisus d'Ouganda, que leurs croyances ancestrâles dans leurs formes générates sont associées avec l'ensemble des régies de conduite visant à établir un mode de vie social correct, et que celles-ci ne sont pas basées sur la lignée mais sur la sexualité et son contrôle. Vu sous cet angle, la plupart des cultures de l'Afrique de l'Est peuvent être étiquetées “des cultures de respect”, par le fait qu'elles considèrent leur ordre social comme étant enraciné dans le respect, un respect qui implique de la déférence, une attention aux convenances indiquées, et avant tout de la retenue. Ces règies de conduite rendent la sexualité problématique. Cet article se tourne ensuite vers le pouvoir sacré attribué au coït même. Ceci est adressé en examinant la métaphore du mélange des sangs qui est largement utiliséé pour parler des rapports sexuels en Afrique de l'Est. La dernière section de cet article prête attention au contraste entre la consanguinité et l'alliance et l'idée que l'union entre l'homme et la femme sert de prototype pour des rapports contractuels.

Type
The meanings of sexuality
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , October 1995 , pp. 489 - 505
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ahlberg, B. M. 1994. ‘Is there a distinct African sexuality? A critical response to Caldwell et al.’ Africa. 64(2), 220–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beidelman, T. O. 1986. Moral Imagination in Kaguru Models of Thought. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Berglund, A. L. 1976. Zulu Thought Patterns and Symbolism. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C., and Caldwell, P. 1987. ‘The cultural context of high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa’, Population and Development Renew 13, 409–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, J. C., Caldwell, P., and Quiggin, , 1989. ‘The social context of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa’, Population and Development Review 15, 185–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, J. C., Orubulwe, I., and Caldwell, P. 1991. ‘The destabilisation of the traditional Yoruba sexual system’, Population and Development Review 17, 229–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chege, J. 1993. ‘The Politics of Gender and Fertility Regulation in Kenya: a case study of the Igembe’, Ph.D. thesis, Lancaster University.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1933. ‘Zande blood brotherhood’, Africa 6, 369–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1951. Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Frank, O., and McNicoll, G. 1987. ‘The interpretation of fertility and population policy in Kenya’, Population and Development Review 13, 209–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heald, S. 1982. ‘The making of men' I, ‘The relevance of vernacular psychology to the interpretation of a Gisu ritual,’ Africa 52 (1), 15–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heald, S. 1986. ‘The ritual use of violence: circumcision among the Gisu of Uganda’, in Riches, D. (ed.), The Anthropology of Violence. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Heald, S. 1989. Controlling Anger: the sociology of Gisu violence. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Heald, S. 1991. ‘Joking and avoidance, hostility and incest: an essay on Gisu moral categories’, Man. (new series) 25, 377–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heald, S. 1994. ‘Every man a hero: Oedipal themes in Gisu circumcision’, in Health, S. and Deluz, A. (eds.), Anthropologist and Psychoanalysis: an encounter through culture. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Karp, I., and Karp, P. 1973. ‘The Iteso of Kenya’, in Molnos, A. (ed.), Cultural Source Materials for Population Planning in East Africa III, Beliefs and Practices. Nairobi: Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi.Google Scholar
Kenyatta, J. 1938. Facing Mount Kenya, London: Seeker & Warburg.Google Scholar
Kisekka, M. N. 1973. ‘Baganda of central Uganda’, in Molnos, A. (ed.), Cultural Source Materials for Population Planning in East Africa III, Beliefs and Practices. Nairobi: Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi.Google Scholar
Kuper, A. 1982. ‘Lineage theory: a critical retrospect’, Annual Review of Anthropology 11, 71–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, H. E. (1912–18). ‘Disintegration and Reintegration in the Meru Tribe’. Nairobi: Kenya National Archives.Google Scholar
Le Blanc, M. N., Meintel, D., and Piche, V. 1991. ‘The African sexual system: comments on Caldwell et al.’ Population and Development Review 17 (3), 497–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeVine, R. A. 1959. ‘Gusii sex offences: a study of social control’, American Anthropologist 61, 965–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molnos, A. (ed.). 1973. Cultural Source Materials for Population Planning in East Africa III, Beliefs and Practices. Nairobi: Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi.Google Scholar
Ngubane, H. 1976. ‘Some notions of “purity” and “impurity” among the Zulu’, Africa 46 (3), 274–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obbo, C. 1976. ‘Dominant male ideology and female options: three East Africa case studies’, Africa 46 (4), 371–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkin, D. 1973. ‘Luo of Kampala, Nairobi and western Kenya’, in Molnos, A. (ed.), Cultural Source Materials for Population Planning in East Africa III, Beliefs and Practices, Nairobi: Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi.Google Scholar
Potash, B. 1978. ‘Some aspects of marital stability in a rural Luo community’, Africa 48 (4), 380–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raum, O. F. 1973. ‘Chaga of north-eastern Tanzania’, In Molnos, A. (ed.), Cultural Source Materials for Population Planning in East Africa III, Beliefs and Practices, Nairobi: Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi.Google Scholar
Richards, A. I. 1956. Chisungu, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ruel, M. 1985. ‘Growing the girl’. Cambridge Anthropology 15, Audrey Richards' Memorial Volume, 45–55.Google Scholar
Southall, A. W. 1960. ‘On chastity in Africa’, Uganda Journal 24, 207–16.Google Scholar
Stephens, W. N. (and D'Andrade). 1962. The Oedipus Complex. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
White, L. 1994. ‘Blood brotherhood revisited: kinship, relationship, and the body in East and Central Africa’, Africa 64, 359–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whyte, S. R. 1990. ‘The widow's dream: sex and death in western Kenya’, In Jackson, M. and Karp, I. (eds.), Personhood and Agency: the presentation of self and other in African cultures. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 1957. Rituals of Kinship among the Nyakyusa. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar