Beverly J. Stoeltje

The Self in ‘Fieldwork’: A Methodological Concern

As concepts of reflexivity and postcolonial perspectives have advanced our understandings of the way we represent those we study, they have also introduced a consciousness of the role of the self in research. The AA. review the history of the field of folklore with regard to the method of obtaining data or texts and demonstrate that collecting material contrasts with the practice of conducting research in the field. Pointing to a moment of transition, they show that theories of folklore had to undergo significant change before methods of research would acknowledge the identity of the fieldworker and its significance.

ASANTE QUEEN MOTHERS

The Asante (also Ashanti) people of Ghana belong to the ethnic group known as the Akan who constituted 50% of the Ghanaian population in 1988, which then totaled approximately 14.4 million. The Akan inhabit the forest and coastal belts bounded by the Bandama River (Ivory Coast) and the Volta River (Ghana). The Asante continue to occupy the forest area as they have for many centuries. In the modern nation state this area has been designated the Ashanti Region. Twi is the language of the Asante; Twi and Fante are now considered to constitute the Akan language group which is a member of the Tano subdivision of the Volta‐Comoe language family. (The boundaries of the Akan language group are not exactly coterminous with the boundaries of the ethnic group.)

Gender: Anthropological Aspects

Having moved from the margins of anthropology to a position of centrality in the discipline, studies of gender now tend to focus on ethnographic and historical particularities and on interrelationships between gender and other aspects of society and culture, including prominently language and law, health and reproduction, religion, violence, and gender identity as a situated and performative accomplishment. The role of gender under conditions of regional and world historical change, such as postcolonial and postsocialist transformations, is a significant organizing principle in these lines of inquiry.