Of Rice and Men
Climate Change, Religion, and Personhood among the Diola of Guinea-Bissau
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v6i3.363Keywords:
agrarian culture, gender, masculinity, environmental change, political ecology, West AfricaAbstract
When Diola Christians participated in their male initiation rites despite missionary objections, the argument was framed in theological terms. But Diola actions regarding this and other religious practices can only be understood within the wider frame of ecological changes that have challenged not only their agrarian livelihoods but their very conceptions of personhood and processes of socialization. Given the decline in rain, Diola males can no longer ‘become men’ in the rice paddies. By drawing out connections among Diola agrarian culture, ideals of masculinity, current environmental conditions, and missionary pressures, I argue that this incident—and, by implication, religious change more broadly—must be appreciated not only for its theological signi?cance within Diola agrarian culture, but as enmeshed in contemporary dynamics of climate change.
References
Baum, Robert. 1990. ‘The Emergence of a Diola Christianity’, Africa 60.3: 370-98. Doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1160112.
———. 1999. Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Beidelman, Thomas O. 1982. Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study of an East African Mission at the Grassroots (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).
Berry, Sara. 1984. ‘The Food Crisis and Agrarian Change in Africa: A Review Essay’, African Studies Review 27.2: 59-112. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/524116.
———. 1989. ‘Coping with Confusion: African Farmers’ Responses to Economic Instability in the 1970s and 1980s’, Working Papers in African Studies, no. 141 (African Studies Center: Boston University).
Bertrand-Bocandé, Emmanuel. 1849. ‘Notes sur la Guinée Portugais ou Sénégambie Méridionale’, Bulletin de la Societé de Géographie 3.12: 57-93.
Bravman, Bill. 1998. Making Ethnic Ways: Communities and their Transformations in Taita, Kenya, 1800–1950 (Portsmouth: Heinemann).
Brooks, George E. 1980. ‘Luso-African Commerce and Settlement in the Gambia and Guinea-Bissau Region’, Working Papers in African Studies, no. 24 (African Studies Center: Boston University).
———. 1993. Landlords and Strangers: Ecology, Society, and Trade in Western Africa, 1000–1630 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
Carney, Judith, and Michael Watts. 1991. ‘Disciplining Women? Rice, Mechanization, and the Evolution of Mandinka Gender Relations in Senegambia’, Signs 16.4: 651-81. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/494698.
Chazan, Naomi, and Timothy M. Shaw (eds.). 1988. Coping with Africa’s Food Crisis (Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner).
Cohen, Ronald (ed.). 1988. Satisfying Africa’s Food Needs: Food Production and Commercialization in African Agriculture (Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner).
Comaroff, Jean. 1985. Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Comaroff, John L., and Jean Comaroff. 1991. Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa, vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
———. 1997. Of Revelation and Revolution: The Dialectics of Modernity on a South African Frontier, vol. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Commins, Stephen K., Michael F. Lofchie, and Rhys Payne (eds.). 1986. Africa’s Agrarian Crisis: The Roots of Famine (Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner).
Davidson, Joanna. 2007. ‘Feet in the Fire: Social Change and Continuity among the Diola of Guinea-Bissau’ (PhD diss., Emory University).
———. 2009. ‘ “We Work Hard”: Customary Imperatives of the Diola Work Regime in the Context of Environmental and Economic Change’, African Studies Review 52.2: 119-41. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/arw.0.0179.
———. 2010. ‘Cultivating Knowledge: Development, Dissemblance, and Discursive Contradictions among the Diola of Guinea-Bissau’, American Ethnologist 37.2: 212-26. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01251.x.
———. 2012. ‘Basket Cases and Breadbaskets: Sacred Rice and Agricultural Development in Postcolonial Africa’, Culture, Agriculture, Food & Environment 34.1: 15-32.
de Beauvoir, Simone. 1973. The Second Sex (New York: Vintage Books).
Engelke, Matthew. 2004. ‘Discontinuity and the Discourse of Conversion’, Journal of Religion in Africa 34.1–2: 82-109.
Etherington, Norman. 1983. ‘Missionaries and the Intellectual History in Africa’, Itinerario 7: 116-43.
Fernandez, James W. 1978. ‘African Religious Movements’, Annual Review of Anthropology 7: 195-234. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.07.100178.001211.
———. 1986. ‘The Argument of Images and the Experiences of Returning to the Whole’, in V. Turner and E. Bruner (eds.), The Anthropology of Experience (Urbana: University of Illinois Press): 159-87.
Fortes, Meyer. 1966. ‘Religious Premises and Logical Technique in Divinatory Ritual’, Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society of London, Series B 251: 409-22. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1966.0027.
Franke, Richard W., and Barbara H. Chasin. 1980. Seeds of Famine: Ecological Destruction and the Development Dilemma in the West African Sahel (New York: Universe Books).
Gell, Alfred. 1974. ‘Understanding the Occult’, Radical Philosophy 9: 17-26.
Glantz, Michael H. (ed.). 1987. Drought and Hunger in Africa: Denying Famine a Future (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Gutmann, Matthew C. 1997. ‘Traf
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1160112.
———. 1999. Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Beidelman, Thomas O. 1982. Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study of an East African Mission at the Grassroots (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).
Berry, Sara. 1984. ‘The Food Crisis and Agrarian Change in Africa: A Review Essay’, African Studies Review 27.2: 59-112. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/524116.
———. 1989. ‘Coping with Confusion: African Farmers’ Responses to Economic Instability in the 1970s and 1980s’, Working Papers in African Studies, no. 141 (African Studies Center: Boston University).
Bertrand-Bocandé, Emmanuel. 1849. ‘Notes sur la Guinée Portugais ou Sénégambie Méridionale’, Bulletin de la Societé de Géographie 3.12: 57-93.
Bravman, Bill. 1998. Making Ethnic Ways: Communities and their Transformations in Taita, Kenya, 1800–1950 (Portsmouth: Heinemann).
Brooks, George E. 1980. ‘Luso-African Commerce and Settlement in the Gambia and Guinea-Bissau Region’, Working Papers in African Studies, no. 24 (African Studies Center: Boston University).
———. 1993. Landlords and Strangers: Ecology, Society, and Trade in Western Africa, 1000–1630 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
Carney, Judith, and Michael Watts. 1991. ‘Disciplining Women? Rice, Mechanization, and the Evolution of Mandinka Gender Relations in Senegambia’, Signs 16.4: 651-81. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/494698.
Chazan, Naomi, and Timothy M. Shaw (eds.). 1988. Coping with Africa’s Food Crisis (Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner).
Cohen, Ronald (ed.). 1988. Satisfying Africa’s Food Needs: Food Production and Commercialization in African Agriculture (Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner).
Comaroff, Jean. 1985. Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Comaroff, John L., and Jean Comaroff. 1991. Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa, vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
———. 1997. Of Revelation and Revolution: The Dialectics of Modernity on a South African Frontier, vol. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Commins, Stephen K., Michael F. Lofchie, and Rhys Payne (eds.). 1986. Africa’s Agrarian Crisis: The Roots of Famine (Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner).
Davidson, Joanna. 2007. ‘Feet in the Fire: Social Change and Continuity among the Diola of Guinea-Bissau’ (PhD diss., Emory University).
———. 2009. ‘ “We Work Hard”: Customary Imperatives of the Diola Work Regime in the Context of Environmental and Economic Change’, African Studies Review 52.2: 119-41. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/arw.0.0179.
———. 2010. ‘Cultivating Knowledge: Development, Dissemblance, and Discursive Contradictions among the Diola of Guinea-Bissau’, American Ethnologist 37.2: 212-26. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01251.x.
———. 2012. ‘Basket Cases and Breadbaskets: Sacred Rice and Agricultural Development in Postcolonial Africa’, Culture, Agriculture, Food & Environment 34.1: 15-32.
de Beauvoir, Simone. 1973. The Second Sex (New York: Vintage Books).
Engelke, Matthew. 2004. ‘Discontinuity and the Discourse of Conversion’, Journal of Religion in Africa 34.1–2: 82-109.
Etherington, Norman. 1983. ‘Missionaries and the Intellectual History in Africa’, Itinerario 7: 116-43.
Fernandez, James W. 1978. ‘African Religious Movements’, Annual Review of Anthropology 7: 195-234. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.07.100178.001211.
———. 1986. ‘The Argument of Images and the Experiences of Returning to the Whole’, in V. Turner and E. Bruner (eds.), The Anthropology of Experience (Urbana: University of Illinois Press): 159-87.
Fortes, Meyer. 1966. ‘Religious Premises and Logical Technique in Divinatory Ritual’, Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society of London, Series B 251: 409-22. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1966.0027.
Franke, Richard W., and Barbara H. Chasin. 1980. Seeds of Famine: Ecological Destruction and the Development Dilemma in the West African Sahel (New York: Universe Books).
Gell, Alfred. 1974. ‘Understanding the Occult’, Radical Philosophy 9: 17-26.
Glantz, Michael H. (ed.). 1987. Drought and Hunger in Africa: Denying Famine a Future (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Gutmann, Matthew C. 1997. ‘Traf
Published
2012-11-15
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Davidson, J. (2012). Of Rice and Men: Climate Change, Religion, and Personhood among the Diola of Guinea-Bissau. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 6(3), 363-381. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v6i3.363
