Description
Some of the most interesting ethnographies of experience are concerned to highlight the indeterminate nature of life. Questioning Misfortune is very much within this tradition. Based on a long-term study of adversity and its social causes in Bunyole, eastern Uganda, it considers the way in which people deal with uncertainties of life, such as sickness, suffering, marital problems, failure, and death. Divination may identify causes of misfortune, ranging from ancestors and spirits to sorcerers. Sufferers and their families will then try out a variety of remedial measures, including pharmaceuticals, sorcery antidotes, and sacrifices. But remedies often fail, and doubt and uncertainty persist. Even the commercialisation of biomedicine, and the peril of AIDS can be understood in terms of a pragmatics of uncertainty.
This study of adversity and its social causes in rural Uganda considers how people deal with life's uncertainties.
Reviews
'The author's work, which expands over a period of twenty-five years, presents a unique style of anthropology of social experience ... The student of anthropology and other readers not familiar with the African culture would find this an excellent piece of work. The illustrations are selected well, and in themselves a great reflection of practical social experience. The text is up-to-date and references abound ... All in all, those with an interest in the subject of medical anthropology - especially in the African setting, whether observers, planners or teachers can expect to find much value in this book.' Social Science and Medicine
'This is a coherent, elegantly written book, full of nuanced insight, highly crafted, very usable as a text in medical anthropology but also accessible to a wide readership.' Anthropology Today
Awards
Winner of Amaury Talbot Prize 1997.
Book Information
ISBN 9780521594028
Author Susan Reynolds Whyte
Format Hardback
Page Count 274
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 560g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 158mm * 23mm
This study of adversity and its social causes in rural Uganda considers how people deal with life's uncertainties.
Reviews
'The author's work, which expands over a period of twenty-five years, presents a unique style of anthropology of social experience ... The student of anthropology and other readers not familiar with the African culture would find this an excellent piece of work. The illustrations are selected well, and in themselves a great reflection of practical social experience. The text is up-to-date and references abound ... All in all, those with an interest in the subject of medical anthropology - especially in the African setting, whether observers, planners or teachers can expect to find much value in this book.' Social Science and Medicine
'This is a coherent, elegantly written book, full of nuanced insight, highly crafted, very usable as a text in medical anthropology but also accessible to a wide readership.' Anthropology Today
Awards
Winner of Amaury Talbot Prize 1997.
Book Information
ISBN 9780521594028
Author Susan Reynolds Whyte
Format Hardback
Page Count 274
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 560g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 158mm * 23mm
