Is a Proletariat Emerging in Nairobi?

Elkan, Walter

doi:10.1086/450914

Cited by 18 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Still, in parts of Indonesia, Africa, and elsewhere, circular migration has been going on for many generations. Reports from Nairobi in the 1980s echo observations in Java from 1916: The migrants were not being proletarianized (Elkan 1985, Parkin 1975. From a large review of anthropological literature on culture and development, Michael Kearney recently concluded just that: "migrants have not been proletarianized in any deeply ideological sense " (1986:352).…”

Section: Culture Is Not Disappearingmentioning

confidence: 88%

What is Anthropological Enlightenment? Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

Sahlins

1999

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

248

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n Abstract A broad reflection on some of the major surprises to anthropological theory occasioned by the history, and in a number of instances the tenacity, of indigenous cultures in the twentieth century. We are not leaving the century with the same ideas that got us there. Contrary to the inherited notions of progressive development, whether of the political left or right, the surviving victims of imperial capitalism neither became all alike nor just like us. Contrary to the "despondency theory" of mid-century, the logical and historical precursor of dependency theory, surviving indigenous peoples aim to take cultural responsibility for what has been done to them. Across large parts of northern North America, even hunters and gatherers live, largely by hunting and gathering. The Eskimo are still there, and they are still Eskimo. Around the world the peoples give the lie to received theoretical oppositions between tradition and change, indigenous culture and modernity, townsmen and tribesmen, and other clichés of the received anthropological wisdom. Reports of the death of indigenous cultures-as of the demise of anthropology-have been exaggerated.

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Section: Culture Is Not Disappearingmentioning

confidence: 88%

What is Anthropological Enlightenment? Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

Sahlins

1999

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

248

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“…Circular labour migration, a form of migration that characterized colonial East Africa, remains very prominent into the 1990s, allowing migrants to become involved in the commercial, modern sector, while at the same time permitting them to retain an economic and social commitment to the rural source areas. The persistence of circular mobility into independence has been widely documented for Kenya (Elkan, 1985), Uganda (Gould, 1992) and Tanzania (Lwoga, 1989), suggesting a persistence of the structural conditions that favoured circulation. In Kenya the continuity of these conditions in a neo-colonial economy of sharp differentials between core and periphery has allowed substantial circulation to persist.…”

Section: Internal Migration and Macro-economic Adjustmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Migration Experience in Africa

Sommers¹,

Baker²,

Aina³

1997

The International Journal of African Historical Studies

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The editors would like to make two personal acknowledgements. Jonathan Baker and Tade Akin Aina would like to express their deep gratitude to Pernille and Florence, respectively, for their great support and encouragement stretching over many years. This book is dedicated to them. Uppsala, January, 1995 Jonathan Baker and Tade Akin Aina interaction can therefore be analysed in relation to transformations in the rural economy and society and their subsequent impact on pastoral production.Salih presents three hypotheses. First, rural-urban migration and the political economy of resource management among pastoral societies have some similarities with peasant societies which have undergone identical processes. Second, pastoralists have suffered not only from an urban bias syndrome, but also from a cash crop production bias. Third, unlike migrant peasants, pastoralists are able to adapt to a multitude of career patterns, including townbased pastoralism, which has shielded them from absolute poverty.Johnathan Bascom provides an insightful and comprehensive overview of involuntary and refugee migrations in Africa. In Sub-Saharan Africa where such movements are most prevalent, one person in every twenty-four is an References

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“…Em um artigo intitulado "Is a Proletariat Emerging in Nairobi? ", W. Elkan (1985) chegou a conclusões muito semelhantes sobre a África mais de um século depois. Muitas das ordens tribais rural-urbanas do continente, tendo se estabelecido nos anos 20 ou mesmo antes, já estavam em sua segunda ou terceira geração quando despertaram a atenção dos pesquisadores ocidentais.…”

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“…O que os estudos sobre os Luo e os Kikuyu em Nairobi mostram, sobretudo, é que o interesse e o investimento na terra natal é diretamente proporcional ao status, à estabilidade e à remuneração recebidos no emprego urbano. As pessoas mais bem-sucedidas na cidade são as mais envolvidas na ordem tradicional do campo, pois são as que têm mais condições financeiras para isso (Parkin 1975a;1975b;Elkan 1985; Ross e Weisner 1977) 21 .…”

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“…Dado o peso relativo da ajuda externa e da burocracia do serviço público, Watters fala de um "regime 'burocrático de atravessadores'" (1987:49).3 Na "Nota do Editor" que introduz a reedição recente de Tales of the Tikongs, Vilisoni Hereniko chama a atenção para a impávida resistência popular ao maremoto desenvolvimentista que ameaça as ilhas: "Estas são menos histórias de um impacto fatal que contos otimistas sobre as respostas indígenas ao imperialismo cultural e econômico" (1983:vii).4 Watters, um dos autores do conceito de MIRAB, reconheceu que as remessas de dinheiro dos migrantes expressavam "a natureza duradoura e bilateral da relação de reciprocidade" (1987:37).5Macpherson (1985:243) adverte-nos judiciosamente que os samoanos, na presença de europeus, mostram uma tendência a manter reservas acerca de sua própria sociedade, pois a contraparte disso, o entusiasmo pela terra natal -que não é uma disposição exclusivamente samoana -, é parte de uma idealização do que é a vida em casa e a vida no estrangeiro, tipicamente expressa pelo setor complementar (ver adiante).6 É possível que formações interculturais similares tenham existido desde a Antiguidade, em cidades de Estados não-nacionais. Outros casos análogos seriam as comunidades dispersas de mercadores árabes e indianos estabelecidas na China e Indonésia no primeiro milênio de nossa era.7 Ver, entre outros,Bonnemaison (1985);Bretell (1986);Bruner (1961);Chapman (1978); Prothero eChapman (1985);Elkan (1985); Errington e Gewertz (1993); Jackson (1969); Garbett e Kapferer (1970); Gmelch (1980); Gugler (1969); Gugler…”

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O "pessimismo sentimental" e a experiência etnográfica: por que a cultura não é um "objeto" em via de extinção (parte II)

Sahlins¹

1997

Mana

138

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Este artigo (publicado em duas partes) examina e refuta as críticas ao conceito de cultura. A identificação pós-modernista da "cultura" com o colonialismo e o imperialismo é um diagnóstico falso: o contexto histórico-ideológico de gestação da idéia de cultura, marcado pela reação ao universalismo iluminista, aponta na direção oposta. Por sua vez, as ansiedades sobre o fim iminente da variedade cultural humana se mostram sem objeto: a globalização e outras peripécias capitalistas, longe de impor uma hegemonia monótona sobre o planeta, têm gerado uma diversidade de formas e conteúdos culturais historicamente sem precedentes.
This article (published in two parts) examines and refutes critiques of the concept of culture. The post-modernist identification of "culture" with colonialism and imperialism is a false diagnosis: marked by its reaction to Enlightenment universalism, the historico-ideological context within which the idea of culture took shape indicates the opposite. In turn, anxieties over the imminent end of human cultural variety are revealed to be groundless: globalisation and other capitalist phenomena, far from imposing a monotonous hegemony on the planet, have generated a historically unprecedented diversity of cultural forms and contents

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Is a Proletariat Emerging in Nairobi?

Cited by 18 publications

References 1 publication

What is Anthropological Enlightenment? Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

What is Anthropological Enlightenment? Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

The Migration Experience in Africa

O "pessimismo sentimental" e a experiência etnográfica: por que a cultura não é um "objeto" em via de extinção (parte II)

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