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The Impact of Rural Political Economy on Gender Relations in Islamizing Hausaland, Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Paul Clough
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Abstract

This article departs from general anthropological debates about the nature of gender to focus more narrowly on the impact of political economy and religion on gender relations. It explores the dialectic between commodification, Islamic conversion and gender relations in the Hausa hamlet of Marmara, in northern Nigeria. Despite changes in political economy and in religion, there has been great continuity in gender relations. The article ends with a structural comparison between the Hausa of Marmara and the Giriama of Kaloleni (in Kenya). In this comparison, it appears that political economy can be privileged over religion in the understanding of gender. Over the long term, however, a deeper continuity in local moral concepts structures people's very understanding of political economy, religion and gender.

Cet article sort du cadre général des débats anthropologiques sur la nature du genre pour examiner de plus près l'impact de l’économie politique et de la religion sur les relations entre les sexes. Il explore la dialectique entre marchandisation, conversion à l'islam et relations entre les sexes dans le hameau haoussa de Marmara, dans le Nord du Nigeria. Malgré les changements intervenus dans l’économie politique et la religion, les relations entre les sexes font preuve d'une grande continuité. L'article se termine par une comparaison structurelle entre les Haoussa de Marmara et les Giriama de Kaloleni (au Kenya). Il semble en ressortir que l'interprétation du genre peut privilégier l’économie politique sur la religion. Sur le long terme, en revanche, une continuité plus profonde dans les concepts moraux locaux structure l'interprétation populaire de l’économie politique, de la religion et du genre.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 79 , Issue 4 , November 2009 , pp. 595 - 613
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2009

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