Witchcraft, Blood-Sucking Spirits, and the Demonization of Islam in Dogondoutchi, Niger

Sorcellerie, esprits suceurs de sang et diabolisation de l’islam à Dogondoutchi (Niger). – Cet article examine comment le développement de l’islam dans la ville de Dogondoutchi au Niger a profondément transformé l’imaginaire local, contribuant à la perception que la sorcellerie est une pratique musulmane. Je suggère que c’est précisément parce que la sorcellerie est perçue comme essentiellement liée à la tradition, que les musulmans sont accusés de sorcellerie malgré leur modernité. Pour ceux qui ne sont pas persuadés de la supériorité de l’islam sur les pratiques religieuses locales, la sorcellerie offre à la fois un moyen de diaboliser l’islam et un commentaire sur la façon dont l’islam a supposément transformé les modes locaux de socialité et de parenté ainsi que les formes de production et de consommation.In this article, I discuss how the spread of Islam in the town of Dogondoutchi, Niger has profoundly transformed the local imaginary, helping fuel perceptions of witchcraft as a thoroughly Muslim practice. I suggest that it is because witchcraft is seen as a hallmark of tradition that Muslims, despite their claim to have embraced modernity, are accused of being witches. For a small minority unconvinced of the superiority of Islam over local religious traditions, witchcraft offers a convenient means of demonizing Muslims and a powerful commentary on the ways that the globalizing impact of Islam has supposedly transformed local modes of sociality and kinship as well as forms of wealth production and consumption

Islam, Polygyny and Modern Contraceptive Use in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa

Francophone sub-Saharan African countries have among the highest fertility rates and lowest modern contraceptive prevalence rates worldwide. This analysis is intended to identify the factors driving contraceptive prevalence in this population.  In addition to testing the usual correlates, we have included three other variables potentially related to lower contraceptive use in the Francophone African context: being Muslim, being in a polygynous union, and participation in crucial decision-making processes. We obtained descriptive statistics for 11 Francophone African countries with DHS data collected since 2000 for relevant variables.  As expected, education, place of residence, age and number of children were significant for most countries in predicting modern contraceptive use.  The final three factors yielded inconclusive results. The conventional correlates were by far the most predictive of MCPR, although women’s participation deserves further analysis. These results dispel anecdotal evidence that being Muslim and in a polygynous union explain low CPR in this region

Zar spirit possession among Ethiopian Jews in Israel: Discourses and performances in religious identity, psychiatry, and public culture

Today there are over 70,000 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel, many of whom immigrated in two mass movements in the mid 1980's and early 1990's. Among the many cultural practices they brought with them is a spirit possession complex called zar. Zar centers around a class of invisible entities that cause illness and misfortune. Zar practices include healing therapies involving trance ceremonies, fortune telling, and daily coffee ceremonies.This dissertation explores the ways zar has been integrated with Israeli lifeways in the realms of mainstream religious practice, ethnic identity, psychiatry, and public culture. Critical methodological concerns arise in the study of zar in Israel connected to working in a multi-cultural, urban environment and the importance of observation and other phenomenological techniques in studying embodied cultural phenomena. The zar complex itself developed through a series of historical conjunctures leading to its recent manifestations in Ethiopia and Israel. Zar has undergone transformations and expansions as it has been reconciled with beam Israeli cultural practices, especially in terms of Judaism and biomedicine. In both cases, ethnic identity and changing citizenship status have influenced the psychiatric and religious discourses and practices surrounding zar. In addition, zar is portrayed and consumed by Ethiopian Jews and other Israelis through mass media and public culture. Mass media places zar in a public and political field of discourse. Ethiopian Jews resist and react to this process as their traditions are re-created in art exhibits, tourist attractions, and films based on zar and the related coffee ceremony.Overall, zar must be recognized as a phenomenon that extends beyond essentialized views of spirit possession into many facets of daily life. Zar in Israel illustrates the manner in which contradictions between modernity and tradition, mainstream and minority religious practices, and therapeutic discourses are resolved.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tulane University, 2001.School code: 0235