Beyond bodies : rainmaking and sense making in Tanzania

Sanders, Todd 1965- (Author).

Summary: "Beyond Bodies examines Ihanzu sensibilities about gender through a fine-grained ethnography of rainmaking rites. It considers the meaning of ritual practices in a society in which gender is not as bound to the body as it is in the Euro-American imagination. Engaging with recent anthropological and gender theory, this book calls crucially into question how social scientists have explained gender symbolism in a host of ethnographic and historical studies from across Africa."--BOOK JACKET.

Record details

ISBN: 9780802091499
ISBN: 0802091490
ISBN: 9780802095824
ISBN: 0802095828
Physical Description: print
xviii, 261 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2008.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-247) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction: Rainmaking, Gender Epistemologies, and Explanation -- 1. Ihanzu Everyday Worlds -- 2. The Making and Unmaking of Rains and Reigns -- 3. Gendered Life-Worlds and Transformative Processes -- 4. Annual Rain Rites -- 5. (Wo)men Behaving Badly: Genders within Bodies -- 6. Ancestral Rain Offerings: Genders without Bodies -- 7. Witchcraft, Gender, and Inversion.