Pat Caplan

Gendered Fields: Women, Men and Ethnography

Examines and explores the progress of feminist anthropology, the gendered nature of fieldwork itself, and the articulation of gender with other aspects of the persona of the ethnographer.

Spirit Possession in the Nepal Himalayas

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Big society or broken society?: Food banks in the UK

This article discusses the recent increase in food poverty in the UK, the reasons for this and some of the ways in which it is being addressed by the voluntary or third sector, with a particular focus on food banks. Through use of a number of anthropological concepts such as reciprocity and gifting, shame and stigma, some of the complexities and contradictions which arise in this situation are revealed. Through the prism of food poverty and food aid, the piece poses a series of questions about rights and entitlement, as well as the political economy of inequality and austerity and the policies implicated in them and seeks to demonstrate that anthropology has a contribution to make in this area.

Feasts, fasts, famine : food for thought

This study deals with three domains of food which raise complex epistemological, political and moral issues. Through an examination of a wide range of material drawn from anthropology, history, literature and political economy, the author discusses the relationship between food and entitlement, gender, notions of the body and development. Food is shown to be a powerful metaphor for our sense of self, our social and political relations, our cosmology and our global system.

Crossing the Veg/Non-Veg Divide: Commensality and Sociality Among the Middle Classes in Madras/Chennai

Some of the literature on food in India seeks to relate culinary habits to caste or ethnic distinctions.1 There is also a widespread assumption that in India generally, and in Tamilnadu in particul...

Why do people eat what they do? Approaches to food and diet from a social science perspective.

In this paper, I utilize anthropological ideas about food which take account of its symbolism and meaning as well as its materiality. Differences in entitlements to food are considered in class and gender in western and Third-World countries. The question Why do people eat what they do? is explored in relation to the relative failure of healthy eating campaigns in the West. Finally, there is discussion of a current anthropological research project that seeks to understand new systems of food and eating in Britain.

‘But the coast, of course, is quite different’: Academic and Local Ideas about the East African Littoral

Abstract In recent years, anthropology has paid much attention to the concept of identity. Identity politics is a shifting and complex area, but the trick is to claim the right identity at the right time. This article discusses some of the issues associated with this topic on the coast of East Africa. The quotation in the title is a phrase I often heard when a student studying Swahili in the early 1960s. The East Coast was considered to be different from the rest of East Africa – otherwise known as ‘up-country’ – because it had a long history and impressive material remains as well as a written language with its own literature. What it did not have, unlike the rest of East Africa, were ‘tribes’. In the postcolonial period, ‘tribalism’ has provided a popular and simplistic explanation in the mass media for the conflicts and wars in Africa. Historians, political scientists and anthropologists have argued, however, that modern ‘tribalism’ does not represent indigenous polities but rather the fall-out from the introduction of modern political systems and conflicts over resources. Given all of these factors, why, in the late twentieth century, should there have been calls for the Swahili to be recognised as a ‘tribe’? Seeking answers to this question takes us to an old debate – who are the waSwahili? – sometimes phrased as ‘Is there such an entity as the Swahili?’ In the first section of this article, I consider the arguments of those who have maintained that the Swahili are not a single people, and in the second discuss the contrary case. The third section considers some of the reasons for such differences in approach, including historiography, identity politics, and the relative positions of authors.

Perceptions of gender stratification

In this article I consider gender as a form of stratification on the coast of East Africa with specific reference to northern Mafia Island where I have carried out fieldwork between 1965 and 1967 and again in 1976 and again in 1976 and 1985. I am interested in the way in which this has changed over the twenty-year period in which I have been observing this area. I am also concerned with how people perceive gender stratification particularly in differences between female and male perceptions. A third level of analysis is my own changing perceptions of gender in this society and also why it is that the use of different indicators apparently produces quite different readings of male- female relations and gender stratifications. (authors)

Between socialism & neo-liberalism: Mafia Island, Tanzania, 1965-2004

This article considers local perceptions of changes which have taken place on Mafia Island, Coast Region, Tanzania over a period of 40 years during which the state has moved from a policy of socialism to one of neo-liberalism. It begins by examining the apparent paradox that, while Tanzania has won plaudits from multilateral agencies for its economic policies, many ordinary people on Mafia consider that their well-being has actually worsened. The paper examines peoples perceptions of equality, inequality and poverty, with particular emphasis on the comparisons made between previous eras and the present, and between themselves and various others, as well as their views of their entitlements both as citizens and human beings.

Death on the farm: Culling badgers in North Pembrokeshire (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

The Welsh Assembly Government has recently announced its intention to cull all badgers from North Pembrokeshire on the grounds that they are vectors of bovine tuberculosis. This article considers some local reactions to this news, ranging from those who support the cull wholeheartedly to those who argue against it, and some of the reasons why people adopt different standpoints. The article considers a range of issues which help explain why people think as they do; these include perception of risk, ethnicity, ideas about animals and wildlife, the selective uses of both scientific literature and emotion, and finally some of the local and regional politics involved.