Magendo: Arbitrage and Ambiguity on an East African Frontier

This article examines the ambiguities of arbitrage, focusing on illegal coffee trade across the Uganda-Kenya border. I show how residents of the borderlands harnessed ordinary tools (gunny sacks, tin cans, and gravity scales) and cultural repertoires (kinship, language, and ritual) to cultivate and capitalize on difference. They reworked territorial jurisdiction, measurement standards, and surface appearances in a form of arbitrage known as magendo. While magendo is an ordinary occurrence at the border, I focus on a particular period in which magendo reached spectacular new levels. The resulting binge economy was characterized by competitive gift-giving and interethnic conviviality, but its excessive margins eventually challenged prevailing notions of moral selfhood, gender relations, and the authority of elder men. Seeing arbitrage not merely as the reserve of high finance but also as a strategy of African frontiers provides a way to connect the anthropology of finance to enduring concerns around the postcolonial politics of borders, gerontocracy, and value. Muhtasari Nakala hii inachunguza utata wa arbitrage. Maandishi yangu yanazingatia biashara wa kahawa mpakani mwa Kenya na Uganda. Katika nakala hii, ninaonyesha jinsi wakazi wa mipakani walitumia zana za kila siku (magunia, madebe, na mizani) na pia mbinu za kitamaduni (ukoo, lugha, na mila) kuzalisha na kukuza tofauti za kisokoni na faida. Aidha wahusika hawa walipinda na kufinyanga dhana kuhusu udhibiti wa mipaka, desturi za kukadiri, na muonekano wa nje kwa kupitia kitendo cha arbitrage: almaarufu kama magendo. Ingawa uchukuzi magendo si taratibu geni kwa uchumi za mipakani, nakala hii inazingatia wakati ambapo uchuuzi wa kahawa ulifikia kilele cha kustaajabisha na kuleta uchumi wa ukwasi. Kwa upande moja msimu huo ulileta urafiki kati ya jamii tofauti na mienendo kama vile mashindano ya kutunukiana zawadi. Kwa upande mwingine, faida za kiajabu ziliibua miangalio mipya kuhusu maswala ya uadilifubinafsi, jinsia katika jamii, na mamlaka ya wazee. Kuelewa arbitrage kama zaidi ya mazoezi ya kifedha, bali pia kama mkakati wa uchumi za mapembezoni, inatupa njia ya kuunganisha anthropolojia ya fedha na masawali ya mipaka baada ya ukoloni, utawala wa wakongwe, na thamani.

The Orations of the Cappadocian Fathers on Lepers

The aim of this paper is to understand what might effectively serve to exhort the practice of the virtue of solidarity with the socially alienated. Three orations on lepers: one by Gregory of Nazianzus, and two by Gregory of Nyssa, will be studied. The methods used to engender the virtue of solidarity with the lepers in these orations will be analyzed. Redefining classical Greek virtues in a Christian theological framework; sensitizing the listeners by appealing to emotions through the use of concrete examples; attempting to restore alienated kinship by retrieving kinship language; and encouraging a tangible encounter with lepers prove to be important elements. How the Gregorys appealed to non-Christians will also be considered. I conclude that through these three orations, the Gregorys teach us that the conviction to cultivate the virtue of solidarity is inculcated by engaging closely with those whose identity appears different from one’s own.

The Household and Its Members

The chapter describes the Greco-Roman and Jewish household, including its members, customs, domestic rituals, and gender roles, along with their intersections with New Testament and other early Christian writings. It presents nomenclature used to describe what we today call “family” and its differences from modern usage. The architectural forms of ancient households (domus, oikos, insula, taberna) are described. The chapter discusses the respective domestic roles of males and females as husbands, wives, and slaves. Children, the practices of infant exposure and adoption as slaves, domestic obligations, education, household economic contribution, laws of inheritance, and rituals associated with birth and maturity are considered. The discussion also contrasts laws of slavery and manumission in the western and eastern Mediterranean. It considers the economic power of slaves and freedpersons, the typical costs of slaves, and freedperson-master obligations. It presents rituals and beliefs surrounding the deceased. Finally, it treats the role of fictive kinship language and how it patterned relationships of Christians with God and one another.

HUBUNGAN KEKERABATAN BAHASA REJANG, SERAWAI, DAN PASEMAH DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN TEKNIK LEKSIKOSTATISTIK

AbstrakTujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk melihat hubungan kekerabatan antara Bahasa Rejang, Serawai dan Pasemah. Ketiga bahasa ini dipilih karena merupakan bahasa daerah mayoritas yang digunakan masyarakat Provinsi Bengkulu. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode kuantitatif dengan teknik leksikostatistik yaitu suatu teknik untuk mengkaji bahasa dengan melakukan pengelompokan data secara statistik. Pengelompokan dilakukan berdasarkan persamaan dan perbedaan suatu bahasa dengan bahasa yang lain untuk mengetahui hubungan kekerabatan bahasa tersebut. Data diperoleh berdasarkan hasil wawancara kepada penutur asli tiap bahasa tersebut. Dari hasil penelitian diketahui bahwa waktu pisah bahasa Serawai-Rejang yakni antara 1327 –1138 tahun yang lalu, Bahasa Serawai-Pasemah yakni antara 455 - 347 tahun yang lalu sedangkan waktu pisah Bahasa Rejang-Pasemah yakni antara 1402 – 1188 tahun yang lalu. Hal ini menunjukan bahwa ketiga bahasa tersebut masih dalam satu bahasa karena waktu pisah masih berkisar antara0-5 abad. Jika dilihat persentase kata kerabat dapat kita ketahui bahwa kekerabatan bahasa Serawai- Rejang 58%. Serawai-Pasemah 84% sedangkan bahasa Rejang-Pasemah 57% yang artinya, bahwa Bahasa Serawai-Rejang dan Rejang- Pasemah merupakan satu bahasa (language), sedangkan bahasa Serawai-Pasemah merupakan Keluarga (family) karena persentase kata kerabat 84%. Kata kunci: Leksikostatistik, Rejang, Serawai, Pasemah. AbstractThe purpose of this study is to see the relationship between Rejang, Serawai and Pasemah language. These three languages were chosen because it is the majority area language used by the people of Bengkulu Province. The research method used is quantitative method with lexicostatistics technique that is a technique to study the language by doing grouping data statistically. Grouping is done based on the similarities and differences of a language with another language to know the kinship relationship of the language. The data were obtained based on interviews to native speakers of each language. From the result of the research, it is known that Serawai-Rejang split time is between 1327 - 1138 years ago, Serawai-Pasemah Language is between 455 - 347 years ago while the time of split of Rejang-Pasemah language is between 1402 - 1188 years ago. This shows that the three languages are still in one language because the time of separation is still ranged from 0-5 century. If you see the percentage of the word relatives we can know that the kinship language Serawai-Rejang 58%. Serawai-Pasemah 84% while Rejang-Pasemah language is 57% which means that Serawai-Rejang and Rejang- Pasemah Language is one language, while Serawai-Pasemah is Family because the percentage of the word is84% relative. Keywords: Leksikostatistik, Rejang, Serawai, Pasemah

Les possibles de l’amour décolonial : relations, transmissions et silences dans Kuessipan de Naomi Fontaine

Cet article se penche sur les divers types de relations dans le roman Kuessipan de l’auteure innue Naomi Fontaine qui sont chargées d’amour décolonial. Ce concept, que Huberman établit à partir de Leanne Simpson, Junot Díaz et Chela Sandoval, envisage l’amour comme un outil de transformation politique, capable de libérer le sujet opprimé et de générer des possibilités pour un mode d’existence décolonisé. Dans le roman poétique de Fontaine, les relations de parenté, de langue, de transmission du savoir et celles qu’on retrouve dans la pratique littéraire elle-même sont des moyens pour explorer et reconstruire l’acceptation, l’intimité, la connexion et l’amour. This article examines how various forms of relationships in Innu author Naomi Fontaine’s novel Kuessipan are laden with instances of decolonial love. This concept, which Huberman grounds in the interpretations of Leanne Simpson, Junot Díaz and Chela Sandoval, formulates love as a tool for political change, capable of liberating the oppressed subject and of generating possibilities for a decolonized mode of existence. In Fontaine’s poetic novel, relationships of kinship, language, transmission of knowledge and those found in the literary practice itself are ways to explore and rebuild acceptance, intimacy, connection and love.

Space of kinship, space of empire

This article centres on perceptions of ‘space’ amongst members of the Mysore royal caste from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. There were several perceptions of space coexisting at the time. One was based upon a traditional idea of space that prohibited the aristocracy, especially the king, from travelling beyond a certain area. Another was the imposed perception of empire, which gave Indian royals the idea that parts of their world were connected horizontally through the expansion of empire. The Mysore royals tried to embody perceptions of both spaces through restrictions on kinship and strategic matrimonial alliances beyond their territories. On the one hand, one of the royal clans insisted that they had the right to receive women from the royal house by using a Dravidian kinship language of ‘reciprocity’, which had in practice never been fully exercised between the clan and the royal house in the pre-colonial period. On the other hand, some royal caste members were keen to embody the Imperial hierarchy, in which Mysore occupied the second highest position, by establishing marriage alliances with the Rajputs in northern India. By doing so, they could re-assert their status, both in terms of Imperial hierarchy and of Kshatriyaness. The article argues that both perceptions of spaces helped a national class of Indian aristocracy to emerge, and that that class of aristocracy still influences the political culture of India in the twenty-first century.