Suchergebnisse

This article aims at offering a contribution to context-related methods in anthropological fieldwork. The multidimensional realities of ethnographic fieldwork require much creativity in adapting research strategies to peculiar research contexts. This idea is illustrated with a description of a variant on the elicitation method as developed during research on Marian pilgrimage. Researchers studying religion come across specific problems such as peoples' profound emotions and private suffering that may strongly inhibit communication with the researcher. The elicitation method as used in the project explicitly aimed at overcoming the problem of silence and outburst of tears among emotionally touched respondents, which seriously hampered initial interviews based on verbal stimuli. In contrast to this, emotional responses to the iconographic stimuli appeared to evoke stories revealing important religious meanings, whereas precisely this emotional dimension made it difficult for the people to express themselves when approached by the use of conventional interview techniques.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction /Erdmute Alber , Jeannett Martin and Catrien Notermans -- 1. A Framework for the Analysis of Parent Roles /Esther Goody -- 2. Adoption, Fosterage, and Alliance /Suzanne Lallemand -- 3. The Transfer of Belonging: Theories on Child Fostering in West Africa Reviewed /Erdmute Alber -- 4. Experiencing Father's Kin and Mother's Kin: Kinship Norms and Practices from the Perspective of Foster Children in Northern Benin /Jeannett Martin -- 5. Relating Affiliation and Descent: Brothers' Daughters as Co-wives among the Bulsa in Northern Ghana /Barbara Meier -- 6. Children Coming and Going: Fostering and Lifetime Mobility in East Cameroon /Catrien Notermans -- 7. The Promises of Shared Motherhood and the Perils of Detachment: A Comparison of Local and Transnational Child Fostering in Cape Verde /Heike Drotbohm -- 8. Disputes Over Transfers of Belonging in the Gold Coast in the 1870s: Fosterage or Debt Pawning? /Cati Coe -- 9. Child Adoption and Foster Care in the Context of Legal Pluralism: Case Studies from Ghana /Ulrike Wanitzek -- Index.

Based on ethnographic research and inventive, child-oriented research methods, the current volume offers children's perspectives on kinship, children's experiences of work, caring, disease, migration, conflict, and many other key features of contemporary life in Africa