Money, milk and sorghum beer: change and continuity among the Iraqw of Tanzania

Abstract

This article focuses on the symbolic qualities of sorghum beer and milk among the Iraqw of northern Tanzania. The author illustrates how the villagers in a southern Mbulu village handle and make use of these two products, and seeks to illuminate the manner in which they both become associated with qualities that are perceived as positive and desirable. With the spread of the market economy, and of money as a medium of exchange, the symbolic content of sorghum beer and milk has come under considerable pressure. As products in demand, they may today circulate in impersonal relations which lack the social and religious qualities that they traditionally communicated. The monetisation of sorghum beer and milk has not, however, caused a breakdown in established practices, or in the structures of meaning in which such practices are embedded. The article illuminates some of the processes which seem to be of importance in explaining this remarkable cultural continuity in the face of fairly radical social change. The examples of sorghum beer and milk seem to reflect and highlight more general dynamics of change and continuity among the Iraqw, and it is suggested that they may help to shed light on certain seemingly paradoxical ways in which the Iraqw have been conceived by outsiders and by members of neighbouring ethnic groups.

Ordinary Violence and Social Change in Africa

“…From the viewpoint of the present discussion, space must be viewed as a relative concept. For example, for many non-Iraqw women as well as women in a state of meeta, the urban space of Mbulu can be seen as a liberating experience but for traditional Iraqw women this urban space should be approached with caution or best For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV Rekdal 1996, Selvik 1998and Snyder, 2005 for further details).…”

“…Young women have to be careful not to stray into non-traditional Iraqw space for fear of being afflicted by other young Iraqw women who are in a state of meeta. This should be seen in the light of the central position ascribed to women and their life-giving flows (see Rekdal 1996, Selvik 1998and Snyder, 2005 for further details).…”

“…From the viewpoint of the present discussion, space must be viewed as a relative concept. For example, for many non-Iraqw women as well as women in a state of meeta, the urban space of Mbulu can be seen as a liberating experience but for traditional Iraqw women this urban space should be approached with caution or best For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV Rekdal 1996, Selvik 1998and Snyder, 2005 for further details).With this interpretation in mind, it would be more difficult to argue that the practices of meeta are to be understood as a form of social violence which should be acted upon or at best eradicated as a tradition that does not belong in a modernized society. On the contrary, meeta should be viewed as a way of protection.…”

“…This strongly suggests that some of the rural population (young men without agricultural land and young unmarried women without customary rights to land) will be obliged to permanently leave For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV 26 Baker and Wallevik the land and search for employment opportunities elsewhere. All these changes might lead to a weakening or the eventual dissolution of the strength of clan solidarity and control, thus weakening meeta practices.However, it can also be argued that an understanding of changes taking place in different African communities demands a deconstruction of the modern-traditional dichotomy (Rekdal 1996, Selvik 1998. Consequently, it is necessary to go beyond the assumption that there is a linear, one-way process from traditional to modern life or as Comaroff and Comaroff (1993: xii) say 'the terminus towards which non-western peoples constantly edge ' .…”

Competing Practices of Drinking and Power: Alcoholic "Hegemonism" in Southern Ethiopia

“…focus on the case of the Surma in southern Ethiopia, a group of lowland agro-pastoralists, hut the problems and dilemmas of changing alcohol use and its valuation are in many respects similar for groups in other parts of Ethiopia and East Africa (for one example, see Rekdal 1996).…”