Suchergebnisse

The ʿAlawi community constitutes one of the oldest secret communities originating in what is known today as the Middle East. It is the practice of secrecy that serves as an organisational basis for the ʿAlawi religion. It is the codes of secrecy that set the social and religious boundaries between ʿAlawi men and ʿAlawi women. It is, after all, the politics of secrecy that provide the basis for social relations between ʿAlawis and non-ʿAlawis. In short, secrecy creates a way of life which is implicated in two different worlds. Although most scholars acknowledge ʿAlawis' widespread concerns about keeping their religious teachings and identities secret, they opt not to investigate the role of secrecy in ʿAlawis' everyday lives. The present study, drawing on the anthropological theories of secrecy, attempts to explain, for the first time, how Turkish ʿAlawi community's uncontrolled and historically established practice of secrecy has affected the identification practices, social relations, and religious lives of present-day Turkish ʿAlawi youth in Germany. Even though the first ʿAlawis came to Germany as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) in the 1960s following bilateral labour agreements between Turkey and Germany, this is the first ethnographic (English-language) research on ʿAlawi youth in Germany which has remained unnoticed for a long time among other ethno-religious communities from Turkey.

This study, supervised by Prof. Michaela Pelican and supported with a research grant of the Thematic Network 'Remapping the Global South - Teaching, Researching, Exchanging' of the Global South Studies Center Cologne (GSSC), addresses the 2018-2019 water crisis in Cape Town. It foregrounds the experiences of Capetonians whose voices, so far, have received little attention in the discourse surrounding the water crisis: that is, Capetonians living in the townships who, irrespective of the crisis, have been living with limited water supplies and inadequate urban infrastructure. Teresa Cremer investigates how the political framing of the acute water shortage as a "crisis" was perceived by different actors and social groups, and which new scopes of action and social practices it has engendered. She argues that while the portrayal of water scarcity as a "crisis" and the measures of the city administration primarily reflect the interests and perspectives of Cape Town's privileged middle and upper classes, the needs of poorer and marginalized residents are hardly heard. At the same time, she shows that the crisis discourse not only reinforces existing inequalities, but also opens up new spaces for creativity and action. In her ethnography, Cremer focuses on the public water collection point in the Newlands neighbourhood and vividly describes how it is valued and made use of by different groups of actors as a site of dense social interaction and creative income-generating strategies. The end of the water crisis in 2019 and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 led to the closing of the Newlands water collection point. Yet Cremer's very well-informed and lucidly argued analysis is instructive also in view of other crisis situations, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The study demonstrates the strength of empirically grounded, ethnographic research to critically question crisis discourses, and recognize alternative perspectives and the emergence of new productive spaces.

Kanadas geographischer Norden liegt in dem Territorium Nunavut. Von hier aus ist es ebenso weit zum geographischen Nordpol wie zur US-kanadischen Grenze. Nunavut nimmt etwa 1/5 der kanadischen Landmasse ein, hat mit circa 38.000 Einwohnern jedoch bei weitem die kleinste Bevoelkerungsdichte des Landes. 85% der Einwohner sind Inuit deren Kultur sich in den vergangenen 70 Jahren radikal geaendert hat. Daher hat das Territorium heute mit mehreren Generationen von Inuit zu kaempfen die entweder traumatisiert sind oder zumindest schwer von den kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Veraenderungen seit Ende des zweiten Weltkrieges gepraegt sind. Zur damaligen Zeit startete die Gruendung von festen Siedlungen in Nunavut und die Landflucht aus den temporaeren traditionellen Doerfern in die neuen Gemeinden. Egal ob wir von Senioren, Erwachsenen im mittleren Alter oder Jugendlichen sprechen, jede Generation hat eine Vielzahl von Veraenderungen erfahren, und erfaehrt sie immer noch. Diese beinhalten die Infragestellung persoenlicher und kultureller Identitaet, finanzielle Sicherheit, Wohnformen, Nahrungsmangel, Alkohol- und Drogenmisbrauch, Bildungssytem und der Wandel sozialer Werte wie inter-generationeller Wandel, Aufkommen neuer Geschlechterrollen, oder die Einfuehrung eines fremden politischen Systems und einer neuen Rechtsprechung. Andererseits werden heute auch weiterhin innerhalb von Inuitfamilien viele der traditionellen sozialen Werte praktiziert. Neben der Tragoedie, die mehrere aufeinanderfolgende Inuitgenerationen erleben mussten, bemueht sich die Gesellschaft das starke indigene Selbstbewusstsein wiederzubeleben, das sowohl dem Individuum als auch der Gesellschaft erlaubt ihre Kultur zu bewahren. Insbesondere Landrechtsorganisationen der Inuit oder indigene Nichtregierungsorganisationen treten fuer den Kulturerhalt ein, indem sie fuer mehr Anerkennung von und Stolz auf historische und rezente Errungenschaften der eigenen Kultur kaempfen. Die sozialen Probleme sowie die inner- und intra-kulturellen Prozesse die ich in meiner Arbeit beschreibe treffen nicht nur ausschliesslich auf Nunavut oder Inuitkultur zu. Stattdessen zeigen Studien aus anderen Regionen Kanadas und der Welt (LaPrairie 1987; Jensen 1986; Nunatsiaq News 6/30/2010) strukturell viele Aehnlichkeiten zur Situation in Nunavut auf. Obowhl durch den ueberregionalen Vergleich viele strukturelle Gemeinsamkeiten erkannt werden koennen, z.B. Marginalisierung der lokalen indigenen Bevoelkerung, Kolonialismus, Paternalisms und daraus entstehende Probleme wie persoenlicher und kultureller Identitaetsverlust, ist es ebenso wichtig einen tiefgruendigeren Blick auf die jeweiligen Besonderheiten der einzelnen regionalen Fallbeispiele zu werfen. Meiner Meinung nach, kann eine nachhaltige Verbesserung der Situation einer Gruppe, eines Dorfes oder Region nur dann erfolgen, wenn man kulturelle Besonderheiten in der Sozialisation, Kommunikation und Philisophie beruecksichtigt. Daher wird sich meine Dissertation ausschliesslich auf Nunavut und einige ausgewaehlte Fallbeispiele aus der Region konzentrieren. Die Fallbeispiele sollen lokale Unterschiede in der historischen Entwicklung und Gegenwartssituation illustrieren was zu einem besseren Verstaendnis der aktuellen Lage in den jeweiligen Doerfern sowie Nunavut als uebergordnete Einheit beitragen kann. Die Arbeit untersucht sowohl historische als auch rezente Ursachen die zu den vielen Problemen Nunavuts beitragen. Meine zeitgeschichtliche Einteilung in "Fruehkontaktphase", "Kontaktphase", "1. Generation" und "2. Generation" lehnt sich an Damas (2002: 7, 17) Terminologie von "Fruehkontaktphase", "Kontkat-Traditionsphase" und "Umsiedlungsphase" an. Er beschreibt damit drei Zeitperioden die sich deutlich in Bezug auf den Einfluss von Nicht-Inuit auf Inuit abheben. Kapitel zwei soll dabei die Kernaspekte der gegenwaertigen Sozialproblematik beschreiben. Diesbezueglich schaue ich auf die 4 Hauptfaktoren die meiner Meinung nach die Gesellschaft in Nunavut praegen: 1) Gewalt und andere soziale Probleme, 2) Die entsprechenden Organisationen und Programme die auf diese Probleme reagieren, 3) Bildung, 4) Inuitkulturspezifische Besonderheiten bezueglich Kommunikation und Sozialisation Diese vier Bereiche bilden die Grundlage fuer meine weiter Arbeit. Die darauffolgenden Kapitel fuehren den Leser durch den Wandlungsprozess einer vorkolonialen, halbnomadischen Gesellschaft zu einer sesshaften Gemeinschaft die sehr stark von einer Euro-kanadischen Lebensweise beeinflusst ist. Die einzelnen Kapitel behandeln jeweils eine neue Phase des kulturellen Wandels den ich in "Vor-Siedlungsphase, Erste, Zweite und Dritte Generation" unterteilt habe. Dabei untersuche ich die Formen und Relevanz von Gewalt und sozialer Probleme fuer die jeweilige Phase, wie sie mit der gesamtgeschichtlichen Entwicklung der Region zusammenhaengen, und wie die jeweiligen Generationen mit den Veraenderungen und Problemen umgegangen sind. . ; Canada's geographic centre lies in the Territory Nunavut. From here the distance to the geographic North Pole is as far as to the US border. Nunavut takes up about 1/5 of the Canadian land mass but has by far the smallest population with currently about 38,000 residents. 85% of its population are Inuit whose culture dramatically changed within the last 70 years. As a result, the territory is dealing with several generations of Inuit that are traumatized or at least severely affected by cultural and economic changes that started after World War 2 with the resettlement from the land into permanent communities. No matter if we are talking about the actual elders, mid-age adults or pre-teenagers, each of this generation experienced and still experiences various personal and cultural challenges of identity, financial and housing insecurity, food insecurity, substance abuse education, change of social values ranging from inter-generational and gender relationships to the introduction of a foreign political and legal system. On the other side, a lot of the traditional societal values are still being practiced in Inuit families. Despite all the tragedies that several generations of Inuit have experienced by now, the society keeps generating the strength and cultural pride that allows many Inuit both, as individuals and as a collective under the umbrella of either Inuit Land Claims or not for profit organizations to advocate on behalf of Inuit culture, to fight for more acknowledgement of Inuit culture and to enhance pride in the historic and present day cultural achievements of Nunavut's indigenous population. The social issues, inter- and intra-cultural processes described in my thesis are not exclusive to the situation in Nunavut or to Inuit. Studies from other regions, in Canada or from around the world (LaPrairie 1987; Jensen 1986; Nunatsiaq News 6/30/2010) reveal similar challenges. Though many structural similarities can be identified by comparing these studies with each other, e.g. marginalization of the indigenous local population, colonization, paternalism and resulting issues like personal and cultural identity loss, it is important to have a more in depth look into the single cases to determine which individual events and developments causes and maybe still cause such a devastating social situation as it is found among many indigenous peoples across the world. From my perspective effective improvements of the situation of a group, a respective community or region can only happen when particularities of socialization, communication and philosophy in the single cultural entities are being considered. That is why my thesis will exclusively focus on developments in Nunavut and use various case studies of communities. The case studies shall help to identify local differences in historic and recent developments and thus provide starting points for explanations of different developments in different Nunavut communities. The thesis is looking at both, historic and recent root causes for the many issues in Nunavut. The data that my my thesis is based on are a combination of literature and about 60 formal and informal interviews that I conducted in three Nunavut communities (Iqaluit, Whale Cove, Kugluktuk) during my 18 months of field work between October 2008 and March 2010. Many more spontaneous unstructured conversations between me and community members added to the pool of first-hand information that I gathered. Since my field work is limited to those three communities it has a very strong qualitative character. The quantitative side, which allows me to confidently apply my research analyses to entire Nunavut, comes from literature research as well as many informal conversations and a few formal interviews that I conducted with people who had some experience in other communities than Iqaluit, Kugluktuk and Whale Cove. Furthermore, while I was living at the old residence of the Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, I spend time with college students from across Nunavut. Through them, I obtained "case studies "from following communities: Iqaluit, Qikiqtarjuaq, Kimmirut, Pangnirtung, Clyde River, Pond Inlet, Igloolik, Repulse Bay, Cape Dorset, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, Whale Cove, Arviat, Taloyoak, Kugluktuk. My general categorization of "early contact period", "contact", "1st generation" and "2nd generation" is very similar to Damas' terms of "early contact phase", "contact – traditional", "resettlement" that he uses to create a timeline that describes the major phases of impact for Inuit society (Damas 2002: 7, 17). Chapters 2 is meant to provide an inventory of the key aspects of current social issues in Nunavut. In this context I am looking at the four major aspects that in my opinion shape Nunavut's society: 1) violence and other forms of social dysfunctions 2) the associated services and delivering agencies that try to address those matters 3) Education 4) Inuit cultural particularities in communication and socialization Those four areas are forming the foundation for the rest of my work. The following chapters will guide the reader through the historic transformation process of Inuit pre-colonial semi-nomadic society to a society that is living in permanent settlements, strongly influenced if not in many ways dominated by Euro-Canadian culture. Each of those chapters will be referring to the social and cultural changes that happened in the different time periods that I labeled with "Pre-settlement, First, Second, and Third Generation". The relevance of violence and other social dysfunctions, their context and strategies how each generation dealt with those matters will be analyzed while I will be also referring to the impacts that non-Inuit, primarily Euro-Canadians and Euro-Americans had and have on Inuit society. .

Wetlands constitute some of the most important ecosystems in the world. They provide a number of critical ecosystem services that are indispensable to human beings and to the survival of biodiversities, health and welfare. Despite their importance, wetlands are being degraded and lost more rapidly than other ecosystems. In Kenya, where wetlands cover 3-4% of the country surface area, their rich physical and biological resources have led them to be overexploited and many of these ecosystems are seriously degraded. Wetland management decisions in Kenya are usually implemented by government departments and institutions with very little local community involvement. Based on the understanding that the integration of local knowledge is necessary to formulate adequate management strategies and that local involvement helps to enforce those, this study seeks to capture the value of local knowledge for wetland management approaches as well as for further research work. Specifically, this study focuses on local knowledge of Tugen fishermen on the environmental changes of the Ramsar Site of Lake Baringo in in mid-west Kenya.

What ethnographic tools may serve to capture and understand the worlds of people inhabiting riverbanks, coast and deltas? What is specific about fluvial, coastal and deltaic lifeworlds that needs specific fieldwork methods? This working paper brings together contributions from eight researchers whose empirical work is set in watery environments, characterized by socially and ecologically uncertain transformations and what we call 'hydrosocial' relations. The term 'hydrosocial' points to the recognition that social and hydrological relations often closely correspond, in that water flows may mirror political and economic power, and human subjectivities may be shaped by the qualities, quantities and timings of water. Discussing past and current research endeavours, challenges and attempted solutions, the contributions share some of the researchers' experiences in exploring hydrosocial lifeworlds. Three crosscutting themes may be identified: (1) The fractal geography of watercourses and their inhabitants requires a multi-scalar research approach that compliments fine-grained ethnographic fieldwork with zooming out spatially and temporally. (2) In order to understand local hydrosocial life, we must pay specific attention to the social and material flows that move in and out of these places, including waters, ideas, sediments, practices, people and fish. (3) Moving along with our interlocutors – e.g. on walks or boat rides – is essential for finding out about things that would not be part of sit-down conversations, for learning about their situated practices, and for understanding the flexibility that often makes life possible in volatile hydrosocial contexts.

This special issue deals with the complex situation of Melilla as a border town that links Spain and Morocco, Europe and Africa. It addresses this subject from a historical and contemporary perspective and integrates various forms of reflection, including academic, personal, and photographic accounts. The contributions in this volume shed light on the city's historical, political, and social context, and provide insights into the everyday lives of Melilla's diverse inhabitants. They delve into the city's political history, and explore the physical and ideological transformation of the border from a zone of contact and interaction to a strict line of separation and exclusion. The chapters introduce the reader into the homes and lives of families of Rif-Berber (Tamazight) and Spanish descent as well as to the Centro de Estancia Temporal de Inmigrantes (CETI), the camp for the 'temporary' stay of (im)migrants, where refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia have been awaiting entry into mainland Europe. The contributions integrate perspectives from within and outside of the city, including the neighbouring province of Nador. They attest to the existence of multiple social and economic networks that have long crisscrossed colonial and national borders and have challenged exclusionary discourses of nationalism and identity.

The study takes an anthropological perspective on a globalized political environment – more particularly on the fields of global environmental governance and development cooperation and their interplay with national and local arenas and actors. I offer an anthropological account of the rise of the global environmental governance agenda, of the international arenas where it has been generating debates and joint decisions, and of their consequences for national politics and local resource management regimes in the Global South. Furthermore, this study contributes observations and findings on how ideas, discourses, and processes at different scales affect the emergence and change of local institutions. The connecting thread underlying my account is based on the way in which natural resource management concepts and models emerge on the international scene of water experts, policy-makers, and practitioners, and how the models travel between international, national, regional, and local scales, being translated and transformed during their travelling. Having applied the concept of travelling models previously elaborated by a group of anthropologists and other social scientists to my particular case, to the field work I did, and to the documents I collected, I draw some conclusions from my own experiment, following ethnographically a travelling model of community-based water management across scales and between locations. The main contribution of the study at hand is to devise and refine ways of grasping the dynamics behind discourses and blueprint-like models at different scales, conceptually and methodologically. My account serves to demonstrate the potential of the travelling models approach in ethnography and anthropological analysis, especially by focusing on the travelling of a particular model for local behaviour in situations of connectivity between actors from different spheres and scales, and in interactions of representatives of the state with civil society organizations and of both of these with local individuals and groups. This study meets the challenge of not only concentrating on the local consequences of global tendencies as others have done before, but also of applying the toolbox of anthropological methods to scenarios where 'the global' becomes tangible, and to the spaces of connectivity, movement, and friction in between the different scales. In so doing, the aim has been to also test the theoretical paradigm of 'travelling models' based on researchers from STS and ANT, and applied to other ethnographic contexts more recently by a group of mainly Germany-based anthropologists, and to identify some of the advantages and limitations it has to offer. I demonstrate by an exemplary case how such a standardized model for the management of rural water supply, prescribed by the state and introduced at the water points by a group of external actors, emerges from and is influenced by discourses and actors at the national and global level. For Namibia, a new set of standardized management institutions was introduced in a blueprint-like manner to groups of water users through a national reform programme and through various development interventions starting in the 1990s. My analysis focuses on institutions that regulate the management and supply of water in Namibia's rural areas, and more particularly in Kunene Region – and in similar ways in many other countries in the Global South. The historical perspective provided on prominent ideas and concepts in the water-management sector in the colonial past informs the account of present-day water management institutions and practice, because these historical concepts have shaped the emergence and travelling of the community based water management model in question. Key findings The establishment of the Namibian community-based water management (CBWM) model is shaped by global discourses which 1) conceive of water as a scarce resource per se; 2) have led to approaches of water governance following the idea of a 'hydraulic mission', augmenting water supply as part of a state-run 'environmental engineering' approach; 3) having realized that the hydraulic mission had failed to lead to increased sustainable water supply, have advocated ideas of participation, decentralization, and demand-orientation as guarantors of sustainability and equality, as well as of cost efficiency in the realm of water management. These ideas are actively propagated by NGOs and state actors in Namibia and elsewhere within the framework of community meetings, institutional blueprints, and training guidelines. The decentralization program's success is measured by the same actors implementing and monitoring the CBWM model, and they evaluate their achievements according to the extent to which the water-point user associations implement their own developed rules and water point constitutions. Pending further analysis I would state from the information gathered among established WPAs that the CBWM-related component did not quite lead to the outcomes that the Ministry would have called for. The major criteria, defined by the WPA model constitution, which the national water administration usually takes into account when assessing the functionality of a WPA, include regular WPC and WPA meetings, regular collection of user fees; financial and management-related reporting, and the adherence to management plans and budgets adopted upon establishment of the WPA. Many of these criteria were not met in most of the places I visited. At the same time, however, only a few of the WPAs visited reported any shortcomings in terms of accessibility of sufficient quantities of water. In a nutshell, water in these places seems to be managed in a generally reliable and satisfactory way for local users, even though WPAs do not comply with the official management rules introduced by the state. That is not to say that other important criteria, such as satisfactory water quality, or 'fairness' (in terms of the water fees postulated by the state's facilitators and by the user groups) are being met. The situation reveals the picture of a complex and costly administration and implementation process around a model for which it has not been established whether its guidelines suit the living conditions of the rural water users. While one of the underlying motivations of reforming the rural water supply sector starting in the 1990s was to mitigate the detrimental effects that a century of colonization and Apartheid rule had had on the society and the environment, questions such as for instance: 'Is there any distributional justice in regard to the access to water?', or 'Is water affordable for all?', are not currently priority matters of discussion in Namibia's water sector or politics. To some extent, this might have to do with the fact that the actors involved have significant vested interest in the decentralization program continuing as it is, such as retaining employment in the public administration, decentralized presence in the local communities, political influence, and voters' consent; yet it would be worthwhile to (re-)evaluate these and other aspects of the CBWM measures. In the meantime, the debate around the human right to water and sanitation is ongoing. Even five years after this right was officially declared by the UN in July 2010, its supporters still claim that generally not enough is being done, or not enough of the right things are being done, in order to enforce it worldwide. Another continuing debate is the longstanding confrontation and sometimes probably fruitful engagement of supporters of the idea that water as a public, common good should be managed publicly in order to ensure equitable access and sustainability, and proponents of the idea of water as an economic good and commodity, which ought to be managed based on commercial principles. The fifteen years of global action for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) between 2001 and 2015 included the target of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation which shaped many of the discourses this study sheds light on. The 193 UN member states who adopted the new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) following up on the MDGs in September 2015 have decided to include an independent water-related goal which aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030. I hope that some of the content discussed here may be of interest not only to scientists, but also to people working in and on the water-sector in other ways towards achieving this SDG.

The United Nations of Football engages with contemporary developments in professional football, in particular the recruitment of international players in national football teams. It scrutinizes these developments in view of South-South mobility, international football politics, and the players' sense of identity and belonging. The study is based on a critical engagement with relevant theoretical approaches in the fields of international migration and the anthropology of football and combines it with empirical data derived from multi-sited fieldwork in Brazil and in social media networks. The study, supervised by Prof. Michaela Pelican, makes a valid contribution to the debate about the role of the nation state in contemporary identity politics in the field of football migration. It stands out by its effort to integrate the perspectives of international institutions (FIFA), national governments and, importantly, individual players. Moreover, the study sheds light on a regional trajectory (Latin America – Africa) that, so far, has been neglected in studies on football or migration. Moreover, it illustrates the limits of classical anthropological fieldwork and attests to the need for innovative methodological approaches to studying mobile subjects in a highly mobile world.

This dissertation is based on research conducted at a small state-managed conservancy called the Edith Stephens Nature Reserve (ESNR) situated in the low-lying flatlands of the Cape Town metropolis. By tracing some of the complex and varied ways in which different ways of knowing and valuing urban "natures" and practices of conservation co-constitute each other, this dissertation critically engages with the social power relations at work in the continual making and unmaking of Cape Town's "natural" heritages. In doing so, I argue for recognizing the ways in which Cape Town's urban "natures" remain entangled with the epistemological, ecological and spatial legacies of colonialism and apartheid. Moreover, by focusing on the ESNR, I explore the current material and discursive practices by the state in relation to urban "nature" conservation. In recent years, the discursive framework of biodiversity conservation was mapped onto ESNR through the state apparatus. At the same time, ESNR was identified as pilot site for an experimental partnership project that was called Cape Flats Nature (CFN), a project that ran from 2002 till 2010 which explored what biodiversity conservation would mean within marginalized, poverty-stricken and highly unequal urban landscapes. By engaging with ESNR's historically constituted material-discursivity, this dissertation argues that, during this time, a particular relational knowledge emerged which, in turn, co-crafted and configured the emerging poetics, politics and practices at ESNR. In doing so, I foreground my main argument – that urban "nature" conservation, far from only being about conserving and caring for nonhuman lifeworlds, is rather simultaneously about conserving a particular relation to the world, to others and to oneself.

Seit mehreren Dekaden hat sich die Ethnologie der Problematik bewaffneter Konflikte zugewandt, wovon zahlreiche theoretische und empirische Untersuchungen zeugen, die in Zeitschriftenartikeln, Monographien und Sammelbände publiziert wurden. Bei diesen Arbeiten handelt es sich vornehmlich um Analysen innerstaatlicher Konflikte, die nicht selten bürgerkriegsähnliche Formen annehmen. Ob es sich um die Aneignung wertvoller Bodenschätze, Drogen oder um Machtansprüche, oft auch im Zusammenhang mit religiösen, politischen und/oder ethnischen Ideologien handelt, immer haben sich "Gewaltmärkte" (Elwert 1996) entwickelt, die große Teile der Bevölkerung in Mitleidenschaft ziehen. Als Antwort auf diese internen, profitorientierten Konflikte kam es jedoch auch zunehmend zur Entstehung zivilgesellschaftlicher Organisationen, die sich bemühen die Spirale der Gewalt aufzuhalten, um zu einem friedlichen Miteinander zurückzukehren. Über diese Formen des gewaltfreien Widerstandes, ihre Strukturen und Methoden jedoch finden sich bisher fast keine ethnologischen Untersuchungen. Umso wichtiger ist die nun von Frau Mucha vorgelegte Arbeit, die während eines einjährigen Aufenthalts in Kolumbien entstand. Ihr ist es gelungen in Medellin, der Hochburg des kolumbianischen Drogenhandels und Paramilitarismus, Zugang zu zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen zu bekommen, die mit friedlichen Mitteln gegen die zunehmende Gewalt und soziale Marginalisierung in der Stadt kämpfen. Bei diesen Konflikten handelt es sich nicht nur um die bewaffneten Auseinandersetzungen zwischen den verschiedenen Banden, die um die Kontrolle über Territorium und Bevölkerung in den einzelnen Stadtvierteln (Comunas) kämpfen, sondern auch um die Konfrontationen zwischen diesen Banden und staatlichen sowie privaten Sicherheitskräften. Nach der theoretischen Einführung, in der die strukturellen Elemente friedlicher Widerstandsbewegungen, wie die politischen und sozialen Rahmenbedingungen, Probleme der Identitätsbildung und Schaffung einer kollektiven Identität dargestellt werden, folgt zunächst eine kurze Darlegung des aktuellen Forschungsstandes zum Widerstand in Kolumbien. Da das Forschen in einem Gewaltkontext wie in der Comuna 13 sowohl für den Forscher als auch die Informanten gravierende Risiken und vor allem eine ethische Verantwortung des Ethnologen impliziert, widmet Frau Mucha dieser Problematik ein eigenes Kapitel. Nach der Einführung in den historischen und sozioökonomischen Kontext Medellins und der Comuna 13 werden eingehend die Hintergründe des nationalen Konfliktes geschildert, um anschließend die Urbanisierung des Bürgerkrieges und damit die bewaffneten Auseinandersetzungen auf lokaler Ebene in Medellín sowie der Comuna 13 zu erläutert. In diesem Zusammenhang geht Frau Mucha auf die gegenwärtige Konfliktsituation ein, in der speziell die Einbeziehung von Kindern und Jugendlichen als Kriegsressource, die aufgrund ihrer ökonomischen Perspektivlosigkeit zur Eingliederung in die Banden prädisponiert sind, sowie das Phänomen der "unsichtbaren Grenzen" - Kriegsterritorien der unterschiedlichen Konfliktakteure - behandelt werden. Die Tatsache, dass die Zivilbevölkerung nicht nur direkt von der Gewalt betroffen ist, sondern selbst auch in die gewalttätigen Organisationen integriert ist, erschwert die Trennung von Opfer und Täter maßgeblich. Nur diese Teilnahme und Unterstützung der Banden gibt ihnen den notwendigen Rückhalt und stellt einen Teil ihres finanziellen Auskommens. Zentraler Gegenstand des empirischen Teils der Arbeit bilden schließlich die verschiedenen Formen und Akteure friedlichen Widerstandes in der Comuna 13. Hierbei hat sich Frau Mucha besonders mit vier Initiativen befasst, die durch unterschiedliche Methoden versuchen, gegen Gewalt und Terror vorzugehen. Dabei zeigt sie, dass die Zivilbevölkerung, entgegen dem öffentlichem Diskurs, nicht nur als passives Opfer der Gewalt zu verstehen ist, sondern sich durch ihre Widerstandsaktionen als eigenständiger sozialer Akteur definiert. Die Arbeit schließt mit einer deutschen und einer spanischen Zusammenfassung ab und gibt einen Hinweis auf aktuelle Geschehnisse. In einem Anhang finden sich detaillierte Angaben zu den Interviews sowie einige weitere Abbildungen.

The relationship between population mobility and land transformation holds an important role in research on the linkages between human society and ecological systems. Various studies on population mobility in Tanzania have looked at rural – urban migration with little attention to rural – rural migration which has played a significant role for population change in the Lake Eyasi Basin since the early 1980's. Besides, the few studies undertaken in areas of study have focused on livestock markets; agriculture and cultural history of population mobility and migration without putting emphasis on its implication on land resource transformation. The primary objective of this study therefore was to obtain a better understanding of the interrelations between population mobility and land transformation processes in the Lake Eyasi Basin in Karatu District in Tanzania. In order to understand the interrelations between population mobility and land transformation a comprehensive conceptual framework which incorporated the political ecology approach and theories of migration and land use change was developed. The analysis drew on empirical data collected from four rural villages in Karatu District, where population mobility rate is currently the highest in Arusha region and Tanzania at large. The study used a mixed-methods approach in data collection and analysis. Secondary socioeconomic and biophysical data provided contextual information for the study area and guided the selection of study communities. In-depth key informant interviews and historical narratives gathered detailed information about land resource management and people interaction experiences in study communities for the development of survey instrument, and provided a contextualized backdrop for the analysis of survey data. The household survey was conducted using a face-to-face questionnaire interview technique to collect data on head of household background and people's interaction to land resource. The results have addressed the research objectives that population mobility and migration has influenced the population balance and presented a significant change in land resource management and socio-economic development in the receiving area. As the population has increased with the influx of migrant farmers, livestock keepers as well casual laborers in the Lake Eyasi Basin, the pressure on available land resources has increased. Among the migrants in the area are wealthy farmers and agro-business people from urban areas and surrounding villages who claim land from poor local people and heavily invest into agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, water pumps, herbicides and pesticides. As a response to the increased cost of agricultural production the poor farmers have remained with the option of selling, renting or enter into sharecropping agreement with rich migrant farmers. These options seem not to improve people's livelihood but accelerate poverty and land conflicts among people in the area. Altogether, these findings have implications for the subsequent population change and corresponding land resource management and policy in rural destination areas.

Violent conflicts have haunted northern Kenya – a semi-arid region inhabited by pastoral communities – since some decades. The enormous increase of violence in recent years has several pertinent causes. Instability in neighbouring countries and a far flung network of small-arms trade has brought thousands of semi-automatic guns to the region. Political change in Kenya has created a lee-way for competing politicians to engage vigilantes on their behalf. Beyond these causes which are rather to be sought for at a macro-level there are a number of factors located at the micro-level. Rampant food insecurity linked to population increase coupled with a stagnant economic system, changes from a pastoral mode of production to more sedentary lifestyles and a continued focus on a heroic warrior ideal contribute to the situation. While there have been a number of efforts to manage and suppress violence through army, police or other state actors, non-state actors have become important during the past few years. It is here that Okumu's thesis has its focus. During a two months stay in northern Kenya he studied the "Laikipia Peace Caravan" (LPC). The LPC is constituted by about 70 professionals, highly educated members of pastoral communities like the Pokot, Samburu and Turkana. The members of LPC generally live in Nairobi or in other urban centres of Kenya. All of them still have strong linkages to their pastoral communities. They are engaged in well-paid jobs, have good links to the press or other media and have also ties to the political establishment. They have formed an NGO which has as its aim to step in immediately once violence is threatening or has happened in order to prevent an escalation of conflicts. In an ethnographic effort Okumu sheds light at the origins, principles and practices of the peace caravan and analyzes its potential to foster peace.