Masculinity, Morality, and the State in Northern Kenya:The Case of Baringo County's Il Chamus

Since the early 2000s, armed attacks and inter-ethnic violence have increased in parts of northern Kenya's Baringo County. This article examines how the Maa-speaking Il Chamus men respond to the growing insecurity as they draw on long-standing notions of morality and on the Kenyan state. In contrast to tropes of (agro)pastoralist northern Kenya being plagued by inter-ethnic animosity, lawlessness, and absence of governance, Il Chamus men situate inter-ethnic violence and gun ownership in notions of peace, prosperity, and security and engage the Kenyan state in an effort to achieve these values. Analyses of men in precarious conditions as experiencing “waithood” and turning to violence “in search of respect” need to be complemented by attention to emic notions of morality, masculinity, and intergenerational hierarchy, albeit not as simple remnants of “culture” but as points of debate in contemporary contexts of political and ecological insecurity.</p

Masculinity, Morality, and the State in Northern Kenya:The Case of Baringo County's Il Chamus

Since the early 2000s, armed attacks and inter-ethnic violence have increased in parts of northern Kenya's Baringo County. This article examines how the Maa-speaking Il Chamus men respond to the growing insecurity as they draw on long-standing notions of morality and on the Kenyan state. In contrast to tropes of (agro)pastoralist northern Kenya being plagued by inter-ethnic animosity, lawlessness, and absence of governance, Il Chamus men situate inter-ethnic violence and gun ownership in notions of peace, prosperity, and security and engage the Kenyan state in an effort to achieve these values. Analyses of men in precarious conditions as experiencing “waithood” and turning to violence “in search of respect” need to be complemented by attention to emic notions of morality, masculinity, and intergenerational hierarchy, albeit not as simple remnants of “culture” but as points of debate in contemporary contexts of political and ecological insecurity.</p

The Reconstruction of the Villa of Serenos Season 2014 – The Art of Copying

After the (near) completion of the decoration of the dome last year [2013], all that remained to finish the elaborate decoration of the Domed Room was the figurative scenes. However, the first week of the season was spent on cleaning the Villa, adding the very last details to the dome pattern, removing the scaffolding, and finally adding the very last details to the Red Room. Then were added the four Putti, who adorn the four corners of the room, holding on to fluffy flower garlands. The rest of the season, exactly four weeks, was dedicated to reconstructing the figurative scenes. My goal was to copy at least everything that was still in situ on the walls of the original fourth century Villa of Serenos when it was first uncovered

“The World is Made by Talk”

The article combines an interpretation of female adolescents’ fan practices with an exploration of new forms of “coming together” made possible the creation of local radio stations in urban Mali. To understand girls’ admiration for Malian women singers who, have become acclaimed stars in national and international arenas, the article explores their fan practices by reference to their current predicaments of “postponed becoming” a full-grown member of the adult world. Girls’ fan practices shed light on the historically specific possibilities of mimetic appropriation, such as imagination made possible by new media, but also its limitations in the current era of global capitalism. Their consumption of pop music takes place in new, “intimate” publics that are constituted by listeners’ debates and their experiences of “being touched” by the singer’s voice. Music programs and talk radio programs on local radio create a realm of public and localized intimacy based on a community of common taste.Cet article est consacré à la fois aux pratiques des admiratrices des chanteuses et aux nouvelles formes de « rencontre » rendues possibles par la création des nouvelles stations de radio dans les villes du Mali. De façon à rendre compte de l’admiration des jeunes filles envers les chanteuses maliennes qui sont devenues des vedettes à la fois sur le plan national et international, l’auteur analyse les pratiques des adoratrices de ces dernières en les situant par rapport au problème du report de l’entrée de ces jeunes filles dans l’âge adulte. L’étude des pratiques d’adoration des jeunes filles éclaire sur les spécificités historiquement situées d’appropriation mimétique, telles qu’elles sont rendues possibles par les nouveaux médias, mais également sur leurs limitations à l’époque du capitalisme global. À cet égard, la consommation de musique populaire s’effectue dans le cadre de « publics intimes », c’est-à-dire de discussions d’auditrices centrées sur la façon dont elles ont été touchées par la voix de la chanteuse. Les programmes musicaux de même que les débats radiophoniques créent un domaine d’intimité à la fois privé et public, domaine qui repose sur une communauté de goût partagé

Engineering planar separator algorithms

We consider classical linear-time planar separator algorithms, determining for a given planar graph a small subset of the nodes whose removal separates the graph into two components of similar size. These algorithms are based upon Planar Separator Theorems, which guarantee separators of size asymptotically in the square root of the number of nodes n and remaining components of size less than 2n/3. In this work, we present a comprehensive experimental study of the algorithms applied to a large variety of graphs, where the main goal is to find separators that do not only satisfy upper bounds but also possess other desirable qualities with respect to separator size and component balance. We propose the usage of fundamental cycles, whose size is at most twice the diameter of the graph, as planar separators: For graphs of small diameter the guaranteed bound is better than the bounds of the classical algorithms, and it turns out that this simple strategy almost always outperforms the other algorithms, even for graphs with large diameter

« Sources et méthodes historiques »

Sébastien Barret, Juliette Flori, Dorothea Kraus et Kristina Schulz sont les auteurs que Labyrinthe a publiés sur ce thème dans les précédents numéros (cf. note 1) ; Yann Potin et Marc Aymes sont étudiants-chercheurs, respectivement en histoire de la France médiévale et en histoire contemporaine de l’Empire ottoman. Labyrinthe a successivement publié, sur le thème « Sources et méthodes historiques », quatre articles. Nous proposons aujourd’hui, à partir de ces quatre textes, un « bilan de th..