Hidden in the Household: Gender and Class in the Study of Islam in Africa
The household, if understood in a dynamic multi-status, multi-generational, multi-cultural, "gendered" way, can provide a conceptual framework for reinterpreting practices, processes, and patterns of Islamization in Africa. This framework contrasts with the one privileged in literature tha...
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Published in | Canadian journal of African studies Vol. 42; no. 2-3; pp. 508 - 545 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Toronto
Routledge
01.01.2008
Canadian Association of African Studies Taylor & Francis Ltd |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The household, if understood in a dynamic multi-status, multi-generational, multi-cultural, "gendered" way, can provide a conceptual framework for reinterpreting practices, processes, and patterns of Islamization in Africa. This framework contrasts with the one privileged in literature that focuses on the agency of traders, clerics and chiefs in public institutions. It reminds us that they "lived Islam" next to their mothers, wives, sisters, and slaves in households. This preliminary exploration of women and slaves usually seen as marginal to Islamization is intended to challenge extant perceptions: women and slaves were not only "recipients" of Islam but its agents. In their households, they shaped how Islam was lived by all around them. So instead of looking only at the history of more public Islamic people and places, addressing attention to the household and its changing nature over time may allow us to see a different face of Islam and different process of Islamization. |
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ISSN: | 0008-3968 1923-3051 |
DOI: | 10.1080/00083968.2008.10751395 |