Masquerades of Modernity

by Jong, Ferdinand De

• ISBN13: 9780253351722
• ISBN10: 0253351723
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

How do those on the margins of modernity face the challenges of globalization? In this provocative and compelling book, Ferdinand de Jong shows that secrecy provides a powerful means of asserting locality against the forces of globalism. Focusing on initiation rituals and masked performances, de Jong shows how the people of the Casamance region of Senegal have used these practices to incorporate Islam, colonialism, capitalism, and contemporary politics into their world. This book will appeal to readers with interests in the making of modernity and the importance of performing secrecy in global contexts. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Ferdinand de Jong is Lecturer in Anthropology at the School of World Art Studies and Museology at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.

Table of Contents

List of maps, figures, plates and tables	p. vi
Acknowledgements	p. viii
About the author	p. xi
Introduction
Power of Secrecy	p. 3
Transitions
Jola Initiations, Gendered Localities	p. 25
Out of Diaspora into the Forest	p. 54
Politics of the Sacred Forest	p. 74
Trajectories
Mandinko Initiation: The Making of an Urban Locality	p. 97
Secrecy, Sacrilege and the State	p. 128
Traces
Masquerade of Migration	p. 155
The Art of Tradition	p. 173
Writing Secrecy	p. 185
Notes	p. 195
Bibliography	p. 205
Index	p. 217
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