Accounting for Belief: Causation, Misfortune and Evil in Tuareg Systems of Thought

Rasmussen, Susan J.

doi:10.2307/2802550

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Smiths are also identified with spirits: specifically, fire djinn, who work on tiny forges underground and play tricks on travellers. See Nicolaisen (1961), Nicolaisen and Nicolaisen (1997), Saenz (1991), Rasmussen (1992Rasmussen ( , 1998. relationships figure prominently in many, though not all, patterns of not solely tezma, but also togerchet, accusations.…”

Section: The Historical and Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Other types of personal destiny are explained as caused by spirits, Qur'anic and non-Qur'anic (eljenan or djinn and Kel Essuf, respectively). Individuals become vulnerable to spirit attacks during isolation in remote places outside villages and camps (also metaphorically, in psycho-social loneliness and nostalgia), or during transitions, on birth and marriage (Nicolaisen 1961;Rasmussen 1995Rasmussen , 1997Rasmussen , 2001. Indeed, even the powers of marabouts' tombs may become malevolent after sundown and their usually protective al baraka may attack passers-by.…”

Section: The Historical and Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Many leaders of the five-year rebellion and current cultural revitalisation discourage emphasis upon traditional social origins and encourage unity of all Tuareg, ideally based upon common wider identity as speakers of the Tamajaq language. For discussion of the traditional social system and more recent trends, see Keenan (1977), Bernus (1981), Claudot-Hawad (1993), Nicolaisen and Nicolaisen (1997) and Rasmussen (2001). 4 Tuareg groups tend to vary considerably regarding devotion to Islam.…”

Section: The Historical and Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…On the other hand, some Tuareg in the South of Niger have become more integrated into the Hausa and Zarma-Songhay societies there; and not all Tuareg, even in the North, supported the rebellion. For more in-depth discussion of the historical and political background on this topic, see Bourgeot (1994), Charlick (1991), Claudot-Hawad (1993) and Rasmussen (2001). over their client and formerly servile populations.…”

Section: The Historical and Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Casajus (2000: 61) reports a similar injunction when a woman told him that she was now toothless because of having once been complimented on her very white teeth. Clinic staff who are not knowledgeable about the local culture sometimes complained to me that patients 'hid' their illnesses and also their progress once treated (Rasmussen 2001).…”

Section: 'Evil Eye/mouth' [Togerchet]mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reflections on Witchcraft, Danger, and Modernity Among the Tuareg

Rasmussen¹

2004

Africa

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compares four overlapping, yet distinct, ritual powers. I analyse how these 'witchlike' beliefs and practices continually reassert themselves in larger moral discourses that are modified by long-standing and current upheavals and forces of globalisation, but that nonetheless retain a cultural autonomy, linked to local dynamics. More broadly, the data indicate that the local is not, and never was, unchanging; nor is witchcraft solely a response to changes induced from the outside. Witch-like powers are multiple and contested, as are modernity and globalisation.The Tuareg, a stratified, semi-nomadic, Muslim people who speak a Berber language, Tamajaq, and live in Mali, Niger, Algeria, Burkina Faso, and Libya, have numerous concepts of powers and dangers. In the Air dialect of Tamajaq spoken near Mont Bagzan in Niger, four types of power are often invoked to explain human destiny: togerchet; tezma; (ark) echaghel; and al baraka. These powers both shape and reflect socio-economic and political turmoil in the distant and more recent past, as well as currently in diverse social contexts. 1 Relevant here are local distinctions of historical time and social scale: the pre-colonial era; French colonialism; post-colonialism in the mid-twentieth century; and more recent post-colonial eras, the latter including the Tuareg nationalist/separatist rebellion and its aftermath. Also relevant are disagreements among both local Tamajaq-speakers and outside ethnographers (Nicolaisen 1961; Norris 1990; Rasmussen SUSAN RASMUSSEN is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Houston. Her interests include ritual, gender, the life course, verbal art performance, and ethnographic analysis. She has conducted field research among the Tuareg of northern Niger for approximately twenty years, on topics of spirit possession, ageing, herbalists, and rural and urban smith/artisans. More recently, she has also worked among Tuareg in northern Mali and, briefly, in France. She has published several books and numerous articles on spirit possession, the life course, cultural memory and narratives, and healing specialists. Currently she is working on a book on herbal medicine, women, and issues of modes of thought in the anthropology of religion.1 From approximately the early 1980s, there have been World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies termed 'restructuring' applied to many African countries, including Niger. These involve a sharp turn, on the transnational plane, to the political right: enforcing

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Section: The Historical and Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: The Historical and Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: The Historical and Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: The Historical and Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 'Evil Eye/mouth' [Togerchet]mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reflections on Witchcraft, Danger, and Modernity Among the Tuareg

Rasmussen¹

2004

Africa

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Willful times: Unpredictability, planning, and presentism among entrepreneurs in a central Chinese city

Steffen

2017

Economic Anthropology

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On the basis of more than twenty‐four months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between March 2013 and March 2016 in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, this article examines the reasons why three different generations of entrepreneurs continue to make what appear to be risky economic decisions in the face of what they admit is an economic downturn. I argue that in Zhengzhou, recent historical experiences of sudden, unexpected outcomes have resulted in a preference for presentist practices that allow people to leave decisions unmade until the last minute. In the wake of the unprecedented liberalizing policies that transformed the People's Republic of China, people were often arbitrarily and unexpectedly rewarded; even success appeared to happen by accident. My research indicates that as a result of these unexpected personal outcomes, people have begun to cultivate willfulness (renxing), an orientation that allows them to place opportunity in opposition not to risk but to other people's opinions. Finally, observing that risk grows out of a specific conception of time that directly links present actions to future consequences, I argue that unpredictability is a better analytic concept for events and decision making in Zhengzhou.

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Reflections on tamazai, a Tuareg idiom of suffering

Rasmussen¹

1992

Cult Med Psych

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In this essay, I explore ways in which the theatrical and the medical are inextricably mixed and affect each other, in the Nigerien Tuareg idiom of tamazai. Tamazai is locally-described as "an illness of the heart and soul, not curable by Koranic verses," but by exorcism of spirits. A case study and analysis of healing rituals demonstrate how this idiom communicates women's relationships and empowers dramatic framing.

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Accounting for Belief: Causation, Misfortune and Evil in Tuareg Systems of Thought

Cited by 13 publications

References 13 publications

Reflections on Witchcraft, Danger, and Modernity Among the Tuareg

Reflections on Witchcraft, Danger, and Modernity Among the Tuareg

Willful times: Unpredictability, planning, and presentism among entrepreneurs in a central Chinese city

Reflections on tamazai, a Tuareg idiom of suffering

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