How do those on the margins of modernity face the challenges of globalization? This book demonstrates that secrecy is one of the means by which a society on the fringe of modernity produces itself as locality. Focusing on initiation rituals, masked performances and modern art, this study shows that rituals and performances long deemed obsolete, serve the insertion of their performers in the world at their own terms. The Jola and Mandinko people of the Casamance region in Senegal have always used their rituals and performances to incorporate the impact of Islam, colonialism, capitalism, and contemporary politics. Their performances of secrecy have accommodated these modern powers and continue to do so today. The performers incorporate the modern and redefine modernity through secretive practices. Their traditions are not modern inventions, but traditional ways of dealing with modernity. This book will interest anthropologists, historians, political scientists and all those studying how globalisation affects peripheral societies. It shows that secrecy, performed as a weapon of the weak, empowers their performers. Secrecy serves to mark boundaries and define the local in the global.

'An impressive and meticulously crafted African ethnography, which has theoretical and practical relevance for understanding masculinity and violence in general'- David Parkin, Professor of Anthropology, Cambridge University Manhood and Morality explores issues of male identity among the Gisu of Uganda and the moral dilemma faced by men who define themselves by their capacity for violence. Drawing extensively on twenty years of fieldwork and on psychological theory the book covers: circumcision
Oedipal feelings
witchcraft
deviance
joking
sexuality
and ethnicity.
This ethnographic study challenges our preconceptions of manhood, especially African virility, inviting a wider re-evaluation of masculinity.

Manhood and Morality explores issues of male identity among the Gisu of Uganda and the moral dilemma faced by men who define themselves by their capacity for violence. Drawing extensively on twenty years of fieldwork and on psychological theory the book covers: circumcision
Oedipal feelings
witchcraft
deviance
joking
sexuality
and ethnicity.
This ethnographic study challenges our preconceptions of manhood, especially African virility, inviting a wider re-evaluation of masculinity.

In Anthropology and Psychoanalysis the contributors, both practising anthropologists and psychoanalysts, explore in detail the interface between the two disciplines and locate this within the history of both anthropology and psychoanalysis. In particular, they deal with the distinctive reactions of British, French and American anthropology to psychoanalysis and the way in which the present fracturing of each of these national traditions and their post-modern turn has led to a new willingness to investigate the relationships between the disciplines and the role of the unconscious in cultural life. They also address important issues of methodology, and present a critical discussion of the concept of culture and the academic specialisation of knowledge.
Anthropology and Psychoanalysis will be invaluable reading to all anthropologists and psychoanalysts.

In Anthropology and Psychoanalysis the contributors, both practising anthropologists and psychoanalysts, explore in detail the interface between the two disciplines and locate this within the history of both anthropology and psychoanalysis. In particular, they deal with the distinctive reactions of British, French and American anthropology to psychoanalysis and the way in which the present fracturing of each of these national traditions and their post-modern turn has led to a new willingness to investigate the relationships between the disciplines and the role of the unconscious in cultural life. They also address important issues of methodology, and present a critical discussion of the concept of culture and the academic specialisation of knowledge.
Anthropology and Psychoanalysis will be invaluable reading to all anthropologists and psychoanalysts.

"Controlling Anger" examines the dilemmas facing rural people who live within the broader context of political instability. Following Uganda's independence from Britain in 1962, the Bagisu men of Southeastern Uganda developed a reputation for extreme violence.
Drawing on a wide range of historical sources including local court records, statistical survey analysis, and intensive fieldwork, Suzette Heald portrays and analyzes the civil violence that grew out of intense land shortage, the marginalization of the Gisu under British rule, and the construction of male gender identity among the Gisu. Now available in a paperback edition with a new preface by the author, "Controlling Anger" is an important contribution to rural sociology in Africa.

This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, the communities of devotees, and the artists who make artifacts for their shrines. The visual arts are part of a wider configuration of practices that include song, dance, possession and healing. These practices provide the means for exploring the relationships of the visual to both the verbal and performance arts that feature at these shrines. The analysis in this book raises fundamental questions about how the art of Benin, and non-Western art histories more generally, are understood. The book throws critical light on the taken-for-granted assumptions which underpin current interpretations and presents an original and revisionist account of Benin art history.