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“Xenophobia” In South Africa: Order, Chaos, and the Moral Economy of Witchcraft

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This article explores the violent, anti-immigrant riots that swept through informal settlements in South Africa in 2008, during which more than sixty foreigners were killed and more than one hundred thousand displaced. In the first part of the paper, I draw on research conducted in informal settlements around the city of Durban to argue that many people’s perceptions of foreigners are informed by ideas about witches and witchcraft, which articulate with widespread anxieties about rising unemployment, housing shortages, and a general crisis of social reproduction. These ideas provide a semiotic environment in which anti-immigrant violence becomes thinkable. In the second part of the paper, I argue that these ethnographic data help us interrogate existing theories of xenophobic violence, which tend to see it as a reaction to the cultural confusion and social anomie that globalization allegedly triggers. This
dominant approach relies on assumptions about order and chaos that are native to Euro-American culture and thus do not necessarily apply cross-culturally. I show that these assumptions have a long and troubling history in South Africa, where colonial administrators and mid-century social scientists drew on them in their attempts to manage African populations. [globalization; violence; race; cultural analysis; anthropological theory]

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Ketersediaan

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

: The American Anthropological Association., 2014

Deskripsi Fisik

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 29, Issue 1, pp. 103–127

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

15481360

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

ANTROPOLOGI

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

Yuli / Hasndiar

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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