In a cup of tea: Commodities and history among Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya

In this article, I explore the 20th-century history of Samburu pastoralists through the lens of a particular beverage, tea. In classic anthropological analyses, "drug foods" such as tea have been taken as emblematic of the spread of global capitalism. Tea, however, is a rare example of a c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican ethnologist Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 136 - 155
Main Author Holtzman, Jon D.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2003
American Anthropological Association
American Ethnological Society
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
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Summary:In this article, I explore the 20th-century history of Samburu pastoralists through the lens of a particular beverage, tea. In classic anthropological analyses, "drug foods" such as tea have been taken as emblematic of the spread of global capitalism. Tea, however, is a rare example of a commodity that Samburu have adopted as a central component of a self-defined "traditional" culture specifically counterposed to change. Tracing historical transformations in practices and meanings associated with tea use, I consider both the processes underlying its acceptance and their import in explicating broader processes through which Samburu agents have negotiated contexts of change.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-8V2222TX-C
istex:A28DEB0C8E036F3C3D9B37BF887B938777E99A9F
ArticleID:AMET136
ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0094-0496
1548-1425
DOI:10.1525/ae.2003.30.1.136