Details

Series

• Kultur und Soziale Praxis [More in this series]
• Kultur und soziale Praxis

Biographical/​Historical note

Julia Pauli is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her main research interests are gender and kinship studies, transnational migration, and class formation processes. She has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico (since 1995) and Namibia (since 2003). For "Anthropology Southern Africa" she co-edited a special issue on continuity and change in Southern African marriages with Rijk van Dijk (2016/2017).

Summary note

• In Southern Africa, marriage used to be widespread and common. However, over the past decades marriage rates have declined significantly. Julia Pauli explores the meaning of marriage when only few marry. Although marriage rates have dropped sharply, the value of weddings and marriages has not. To marry has become an indicator of upper-class status that less affluent people aspire to. Using the appropriation of marriage by a rural Namibian elite as a case study, the book tells the entwined stories of class formation and marriage decline in post-apartheid Namibia.
• Besprochen in:Africa Spectrum, 55/1 (2020), Lena KroekerJournal of Namibian Studies, 28 (2020), Henning Melber
• »With its balanced discussion of the regional literature the monograph is a good read for social scientists doing research in the Southern African region and of value to anyone researching gender and family relations. In addition, it is an inspiration for anyone interested in class relationsin Africa.«
• »It is an intricate analysis of how transformations in Namibian marriage practices have been framed and structured by dramatic political and economic changes in the twentieth century, and thus how the vantage point ofmarriage is a productive tool from which to study how personal experiences reflect larger social shifts.«
• »This monograph provides a superb ethnography and a fruitful resource for understanding most of the core issues that revolve around marriage and the lack thereof in a Namibian community. It has much value as an anthropological study that indicates how new consumption patterns affect ›traditional institutions‹.«
• »This is a rich and valuable study, offering a nuanced and historically sensitive approach to an important question.«
• »This is a rich and valuable study, of-fering anuanced and historically sensitive ap-proach to an important question.«
• »This monograph provides a superb ethnography and a fruitful resource for understanding most of the core issues that revolve around marriage and the lack thereof in a Namibian community. It has much value as an anthropological study that indicates how new consumption patterns affect traditional institutions.«

Rights and reproductions note

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license:

Language note

In English.

Contents

Frontmatter 1 Content 5 List of tables 7 List of figures 8 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 15 Fransfontein fieldwork 47 History through biography 73 Postapartheid livelihoods 99 Contemporary Fransfontein marriages 127 From decline to distinction 167 Forming families 199 Intimacy outside marriage 227 Conclusion 257 Reference list 267

Other title(s)

Pauli, The Decline of Marriage in Namibia Kinship and Social Class in a Rural Community

ISBN

• 9783839443033
• 3839443032

OCLC

1083627320

Doi

10.14361/9783839443033

Statement on responsible collection description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...