Commodity Fetichismo The Holy Spirit,and the turn to Pentecostal and African Independent Churches in Central Mozambique

Pentecostal and African Independent Churches have rapidly spread throughout central Mozambique in the aftermath of war and in the midst of a recent structural adjustment program that has hastened commoditization of community life and intensified local inequalities. This extraordinary expansion signals a shift away from reliance on “traditional” healers to treat persistent afflictions believed to have spiritual causes. Survey data and illness narratives collected from recent church recruits and local residents during research in 2002 and 2003 in the city of Chimoio reveal that healers have increased fees and tailored treatments to clients searching for good fortune in ways that have alienated many other help seekers in this changing social environment. While traditional healing has been celebrated in the international health world, community attitudes are less generous; many healers are increasingly viewed with suspicion because of their engagement with malevolent occult forces to foment social conflict, competition, and confrontation for high fees. Church healing approaches offer free and less divisive spiritual protection reinforced by social support in a new collectivity. One vital source of church popularity derives from pastors' efforts to tap the already considerable community anxiety over rising healer fees and their socially divisive treatments in an insecure environment.     

Chikotsa--secrets, silence, and hiding: social risk and reproductive vulnerability in central Mozambique

In this article, I examine pregnancy narratives and patterns of reproductive health seeking among women of fertile age in central Mozambique. I map the interplay between gendered economic marginalization, maternal risk perceptions, and pregnancy management strategies. By interpreting my data in light of Shona illness theories, I illuminate the ways that embodied experiences of reproductive vulnerability, risk perceptions, and social inequalities are linked: women attribute the most serious maternal complications to human- or spirit-induced reproductive threats of witchcraft and sorcery. This construction of reproductive vulnerability as social threats related to material and social competition significantly influences prenatal health seeking. Data reveal the structural and cognitive gap between biomedical constructions of risk and lay social threat perceptions. Plural health care systems are strategically utilized by women seeking to minimize both social and biological harm. On-the-ground ethnography shows that maternal health initiatives must take this plurality into full and accommodative account to achieve viable improvements in reproductive care and outcomes.     

Converting the Spirit Spouse: The Violent Transformation of the Pentecostal Female Body in Maputo,Mozambique

This article discusses the forceful transformation of the female body in Brazilian Pentecostalism in urban Mozambique and argues for an understanding of Pentecostal conversion as embodying spiritual warfare. Presenting the case of avenging spirits, such as the spirit spouse, it explores how spirits interfere in women's new socio-economic positions and intimate relationships. Pentecostal women learn to stay in control of their body under guidance of the Holy Spirit and a ‘violent’ war against the spirit spouse unfolds. The prevalence of ‘violence’ implies that we should critically question a perception of conversion as bringing healing and harmony.     

Effervescence and Ephemerality: Popular Urban Uprisings in Mozambique

This article analyses the large-scale popular urban uprisings that shook Mozambican cities on 1 and 2 September 2010, following the government's announcement of successive rises in the price of public transport fares and basic commodities. Using ethnographic material from the city of Chimoio and the capital Maputo, the following work highlights the organisational character of the ‘strikes’ (greves), as the popular uprisings were called, and explores them as a new form of organising political discontent. Comparing them to other historical and contemporary popular uprisings, this article argues that the strikes violently and rhizomically generated ephemeral and egalitarian forms of political authority and order that simultaneously confronted, replicated and undercut the aspects of Mozambican statehood. Deploying Durkheim's notion of effervescence, the work further argues that the creative fervour, multisemic aspects and festive character of the popular uprisings need to be recognised; thus, this analysis challenges the reductive labelling of these events as ‘riots’ or ‘food riots’.     

Condom social marketing, Pentecostalism, and structural adjustment in Mozambique: a clash of AIDS prevention messages

Despite significant debate about the efficacy, ideology, and ethics of the method, condom social marketing (CSM) has become the dominant approach to AIDS education in many sub-Saharan African countries. However, critics have charged that social marketing (SM) distracts from the structural determinants of health-related behavior and excludes genuine community participation. This article argues that the diffusion of SM techniques in Africa is not driven by demonstrated efficacy but is attributable to the promotion of privatization and free markets in the structural adjustment era across the region. The CSM experience in a central Mozambican community reveals the dangers of using the method at the expense of community dialogue and participation to confront the AIDS epidemic. The advertising campaign developed to sell condoms has clashed with Pentecostal and Independent Churches, now a majority of the population, that have expanded rapidly across the region spreading a contrasting message about sexuality and risky behavior.     

Egress and Regress: Pentecostal Precursors and Parallels in Northern Mozambique

Based on fieldwork among the Makhuwa of northern Mozambique, this essay explores how non-Pentecostal models of transformation shape a people's manner of relating to Pentecostalism. Radical change has long been constitutive of Makhuwa history and subjectivity. Yet Makhuwa patterns of change, commonly conceived in terms of movement, entail regress as much as egress – circular mobilities that disrupt linear teleologies. State administrators and Pentecostal missionaries attempt to reform local inhabitants by, respectively, ‘sedentarising’ and ‘converting’ them. Deploying their historical proclivity towards mobility, those among whom I worked appear simultaneously eager to partake in resettlement schemes and reluctant to remain settled by them. I argue that their ambivalence towards Pentecostal churches and teachings, in particular, challenges two prevailing assumptions within anthropological studies of Christianity: that discontinuity is definitive, and that it is exceptional to Pentecostalism.     

Subsistence hunting and conservation issues in the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique

Ethnozoological research was conducted to gather information on the hunting activities and their relevance for the subsistence of local people in 8 villages around the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique. Two series of data were gathered by questionnaires to: (a) 510 householders from eight villages located in the outskirts of the Reserve; (b) 10 hunters from the village of Gile, the main centre of the study area. Several hunting techniques were recorded: spears, nets, traps (including gin-traps) and wildfires, while the use of guns did not appear relevant. The importance of subsistence hunting for local people was underlined by the high percentage of respondents who declared that they usually conduct this activity and sell bushmeat. The proportion of hunters per village was related to the village size but not to its geographical location of villages and the household composition. A positive relationship existed between the proportion of hunters, crop production and fishing activities, indicating that hunting is part of an integrated system of subsistence activities. Most animals harvested were mammals (89.5%, of which 46.7% were ungulates) and most were captured within the Reserve (96%). A higher percentage of animals was sold (56%), representing a relevant income source for the villagers. Small animals were mainly captured by traps during solitary hunting, medium-sized animals in collective net hunting; larger prey were captured by gin-traps adopted by both solitary and collective hunting. In the diet of the local people wild animals represented a higher protein source than domestic animals.     

Pathogenic enteric Escherichia coli in children with and without diarrhea in Maputo, Mozambique

A study was conducted on the circulation of potentially diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in two groups of children, both under the age of seven. The first group (548 children) suffered from mild diarrhea and attended the Xipamanine Health Center of Maputo, in Mozambique. The second group (380 children) included randomly chosen, asymptomatic, children from the same population. A total of 503 E. coli strains were isolated from the two groups of children (n=375 and 128, respectively). All E. coli strains were genotypically and phenotypically screened. The presence of virulence-associated genes was assessed by a set of multiplex PCR specific for st and lt genes of enterotoxic Escherichia coli (ETEC), eae and bfpA genes of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), stx(1) and stx(2) of enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), ial of enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC) and the species-specific gene uidA. Adhesion and citotoxicity of isolated E. coli were evaluated in vitro on different cell cultures. A total of 37 isolates harbored virulence-associated genes: 18 were classified as ETEC, (15 from symptomatic, and three from asymptomatic children), 16 as EPEC (respectively, 13 and 3) and three EIEC in the symptomatic group. No stx(1) or stx(2) genes, associated with enterohemorrhagic E. coli were found. On the basis of the adhesion pattern on HeLa cells, 167 E. coli were classified as diffusely adhering, (125 in patients and 42 in controls) and 67 as enteroaggregative, (50 and 17, respectively). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report in the literature on the circulation of potentially diarrheagenic E. coli in Mozambique.     

Environmental Vibrio spp., isolated in Mozambique, contain a polymorphic group of integrative conjugative elements and class 1 integrons

Circulation of mobile genetic elements linked to drug resistance spread was studied in Vibrio strains isolated from surface urban water (river and sea) and shellfish samples in 2002-2003 in Maputo, Mozambique. Class 1 integrons and integrating conjugative elements (ICE) were investigated by PCR and mating experiments in strains of major health interest: 10 Vibrio cholerae, six Vibrio parahaemolyticus, two Vibrio alginolyticus and one Vibrio fluvialis. Resistance to at least two antibiotics (predominantly beta-lactams) was detected in all the strains, with additional resistances to sulfamethoxazole, spectinomycin, streptomycin and/or trimethoprim. Class 1 integrons contributed partially to the expression of drug resistance and were found in five isolates: four V. cholerae (blaP1 cassette, one strain also contained the dfrA15 cassette) and one V. alginolyticus (aadA2 cassette). ICEs, apparently devoid of resistance genes, were found in eight V. cholerae, three V. parahaemolyticus and one V. fluvialis isolates. A wide variability was observed by molecular characterization of ICEs. Five ICEs were included in the SXT/R391 family and seven ICEs were not classified. Our results indicate that the SXT/R391 family and related ICEs comprise a large class of polymorphic genetic elements widely circulating in environmental Vibrio strains in Africa, beside those evidently linked to drug resistance in clinical isolates.     

Believing Identity: Pentecostalism and the Mediation of Jamaican Ethnicity and Gender in England

Believing Identity: Pentecostalism and the Mediation of Jamaican Ethnicity and Gender in England. Nicole Rodriguez Toulis. New York: New York University Press, 1997.304 pp.     

Coral reefs in a high-latitude,siliciclastic barrier island setting: reef framework and sediment production at Inhaca Island,southern Mozambique

Inhaca Island (southern Mozambique) is located in a high-latitude setting along the seaward margins of the estuarine Maputo Bay and is subject to fluctuations in temperature and salinity, and high sedimentation and turbidity levels. Coral reefs are developed sporadically along the margins of intertidal channels, but framework development is severely restricted. Coral growth is bathymetrically limited (never exceeding 6-m depth), and framework accumulation is only present in the upper 1–2 m. Massive Porites sp. produce a basic reef structure, with other coral genera (mainly Acropora sp., Favia sp., Platygyra sp., Pocillopora sp., and Montipora sp.) colonizing available substrata. Sediment samples also indicate restricted carbonate sediment production, with siliciclastics (mainly quartz) a major sediment contributor (often >90%) and carbonate grain assemblages differing from those normally associated with lower-latitude reefs. Although corals, molluscs and coralline algae (including rhodoliths) represent dominant grain constituents, Halimeda is absent and there is a low diversity (four species identified) of benthic foraminifera (mainly Amphistegina sp.). Grain associations are therefore somewhat transitional in character, comprising elements of both tropical (chlorozoan) and temperate (foramol) grain assemblages. These patterns of reef and associated carbonate production emphasize the marginal character of these reef environments, which form one end member in a broad spectrum of marginal reef systems that are now being identified in a range of both high- and low-latitude settings.     

Gender,Violence and HIV: Women's Survival in the Streets

In this article I propose that genderinequality promotes – directly or indirectly –vulnerability to HIV as a consequence of amultidimensional violence (structural, symbolicand physical) experienced by injection drugusing (IDU) women in The Mission District (SanFrancisco). Given the female subordinated positionstipulated by the street ideology, I analyzehow drug dependence afforded by precariousstrategies of subsistence places IDU womenunder multiple dangers and threats. In thissetting, unequal gender relations are part of acomplex system of transactions in the streeteconomy and a way to reduce or increase theeveryday violence. Facing multiple dangers andrisks, some women adopt a subordinatedposition, some try to negotiate the conditionsof the exchanges and the others resist theexploitation. Finally, everyday violence under conditions ofgender inequality and scarcity of resourcesimposes a logic defined by the challenge ofsurvival under the threat of immediate dangers,which transform HIV into a secondary risk.     

The production‐ecological sustainability of cassava,sugarcane and sweet sorghum cultivation for bioethanol in Mozambique

We present an approach for providing quantitative insight into the production‐ecological sustainability of biofuel feedstock production systems. The approach is based on a simple crop‐soil model and was used for assessing feedstock from current and improved production systems of cassava for bioethanol. Assessments were performed for a study area in Mozambique, a country considered promising for biomass production. Our focus is on the potential role of smallholders in the production of feedstock for biofuels. We take cassava as the crop for this purpose and compare it with feedstock production on plantations using sugarcane, sweet sorghum and cassava as benchmarks. Production‐ecological sustainability was defined by seven indicators related to resource‐use efficiency, soil quality, net energy production and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Results indicate that of the assessed systems, sugarcane performed better than cassava, although it requires substantial water for irrigation. Targeted use of nutrient inputs improved sustainability of smallholder cassava. Cassava production systems on more fertile soils were more sustainable than those on less fertile soils; the latter required more external inputs for achieving the same output, affecting most indicators negatively and reducing the feasibility for smallholders. Cassava and sweet sorghum performed similarly. Cassava production requires much more labour per hectare than production of sugarcane or sweet sorghum. Production of bioethanol feedstock on cultivated lands was more sustainable and had potential for carbon sequestration, avoiding GHG emissions from clearing natural vegetation if new land is opened.     

The Declining Significance of Race in the twenty-first century: a retrospective assessment in the context of rising class inequality

No other book in modern sociology is so well known but yet so roundly dismissed as William J. Wilson's The Declining Significance of Race. Its major thesis is supported, however, by a great deal of credible and systematic evidence. Its historical analysis is notably informative and prescient in predicting rising class inequality. The Declining Significance of Race remains vitally important reading for enhancing our understanding of inequality in contemporary America.     

Predictors of elephant poaching in a wildlife crime hotspot: The Ruvuma landscape of southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique

Understanding the spatial distribution of elephant carcasses in relation to ecological characteristics and human activities is critical to developing targeted management strategies for reducing poaching. We employ a spatial modelling approach to quantify the relative contribution of multiple climatic, ecological, human and protected area management predictors of the number of elephant carcasses in a recognized poaching hotspot: the Ruvuma landscape of northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania. This includes the Niassa Reserve in the south and the Selous Game Reserve in the north. In Mozambique, the number of elephant carcasses is positively associated with State-managed protected areas such as Niassa Reserve, but particularly with environmental variables including low rainfall and high temperatures. In Tanzania, elephant carcasses are positively associated with community-managed sites. A strong focus on effective management of protected areas in the Ruvuma landscape is crucial to reducing the killing of elephants.     

Forest patch size and isolation as drivers of bird species richness in Maputaland,Mozambique

Aim To examine the response of forest‐dependent and generalist bird assemblages and feeding guilds to patch characteristics of forest fragments in the context of island biogeography and metapopulation theories in an area that supports high levels of species diversity and endemism. Location Dune, riverine, sand and swamp forest fragments in southern Mozambique’s Maputaland. Methods We recorded 20 forest‐dependent and 69 generalist bird species at 220 survey points in 30 forest fragments that ranged in size from 5 to 7432 ha and that were 100 to 5100 m apart. We used linear regressions to relate the number of species to forest fragment size, isolation, perimeter, fractal dimension, shape and core area for frugivores, insectivores, granivores, nectarivores, carnivores and omnivores separately for forest‐dependent and generalist bird assemblages. We tested for modality in occupancy frequency distributions of species in forest fragments and used the binary matrix temperature calculator to determine whether the assemblages had a nested structure separately for forest‐dependent and generalist bird species. Results The number of forest‐dependent and generalist bird species categorized into the feeding guilds varied independently from forest patch parameter values. Occupancy models showed a random distribution for forest‐dependent birds, and generalists had a unimodal distribution. Both the forest‐dependent and generalist bird assemblages had a non‐nested structure. The presence of eight rare forest‐dependent and four endemic bird species in 22 of the 30 fragments contributed to the non‐nested structure of these bird assemblages. Main conclusions Fragmented forests did not induce the expected responses of the forest bird assemblages in that the number of species was not explained by patch characteristics, nor could we find evidence for metapopulation dynamics. Non‐nestedness may be caused by the few rare and endemic species occupying forest fragments with a wide range of patch characteristics. Knowledge of the response of species to forest fragmentation can benefit conservation planning catering for rare and endemic species. Our study suggests that all forest fragments in the region may have to be included in a conservation network to complement existing landscape‐based plans to protect the region.     

Relationship of Leptin Concentration to Gender,Menopause, Age,Diabetes, and Fat Mass in African Americans

This investigation was designed to determine the relationship of leptin concentration to gender, sex hormones, menopause, age, diabetes, and fat mass in African Americans. Participants included 101 African Americans, 38 men (mean age, 34. 2 ± 7. 4 years), 29 age-matched premenopausal women (mean age, 32. 6 ± 3. 7 years), and 36 postmenopausal women (mean age, 57. 8 ± 5. 9 years). The women were not taking exogenous sex hormones, and 12 subjects were diabetic. Percent body fat was calculated with the Siri formula, fat mass (FM) was calculated as weight x percent body fat, and Fat-free mass (FFM) was calculated as weight minus FM. Fasting plasma was assayed for leptin, estradiol, free testosterone, glucose, and insulin concentrations. The nondiabetics had an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The diabetics compared with the non-diabetics had a higher central fat index (^P=0. 04) but otherwise were similar to nondiabetics in all parameters measured. Body mass index, percent body fat, and FM were greater in women than men (p<0. 001). Leptin concentrations in men, premenopausal, and postmenopausal women were: 7. 51 ± 8. 5, 33. 9 ± 17. 3, 31. 4 ± 22. 3 ng/mL. Leptin/FM x 100 in the three groups were: 28. 9 ± 16. 1, 98. 65 ± 44. 9, 77. 1 ± 44. 5 ng/mL/kg. The gender difference in leptin concentration and leptin/FM was significant (p<0. 001), but the difference between premenopausal and postmenopausal women was not. In each group, weight, percent body fat, and FM were highly correlated with leptin concentration. Multiple regression analyses with leptin concentration as the dependent variable and age, diabetic status, percent body fat, weight, FM, FFM, estradiol, and free testosterone concentrations as independent variables demonstrated that the determinants of leptin concentration in men was weight only (R=0. 83,p<0. 001), in premenopausal women it was FM only (R=0. 57,P<0. 001), and in postmenopausal women it was weight only (R=0. 67, p<0. 001). With diabetics excluded, the multiple regression analysis was repeated with fasting insulin concentration and the area under the insulin curve during the OGTT included as independent variables. The results for this multiple regression analyses were the same as the first. Therefore, leptin concentration in African Americans is determined by gender and fat mass. Menopause, age, and diabetes do not affect leptin concentration.     

Initial excavation and dating of Ngalue Cave: A Middle Stone Age site along the Niassa Rift, Mozambique

Direct evidence for a systematic occupation of the African tropics during the early late Pleistocene is lacking. Here, we report a record of human occupation between 105-42 ka, based on results from a radiometrically-dated cave section from the Mozambican segment of the Niassa (Malawi/Nyasa) Rift called Ngalue. The sedimentary sequence from bottom to top has five units. We concentrate on the so-called “Middle Beds,” which contain a Middle Stone Age industry characterized by the use of the discoidal reduction technique. A significant typological feature is the presence of formal types such as points, scrapers, awls, and microliths. Special objects consist of grinders/core-axes covered by ochre. Ngalue is one of the few directly-dated Pleistocene sites located along the biogeographical corridor for modern human dispersals that links east, central, and southern Africa, and, with further study, may shed new light on hominin cave habitats during the late Pleistocene.     

The Purity of Spirit and the Power of Blood: A Comparative Perspective on Nation, Gender and Kinship in Cyprus

This article argues that the kinship relations of the national 'family' are not simply a direct appropriation of 'natural' kinship relations but involve a transformation of those relations that also takes into account some gendered image of the land as a member of that family. Using comparative research in the Turkish and Greek communities of Cyprus, I propose that what is centrally important in images of national kinship is the common substance that land and people are imagined to share. Moreover, this common substance is regarded as so 'natural' that it constitutes an important axiom that is central to understanding the logic of nationalisms.     

Botanical Knowledge and its Differentiation by Age,Gender and Ethnicity in Southwestern Niger

Indigenous knowledge is unevenly distributed. Individual knowledge level may be affected by many factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, profession, religious and cultural beliefs, abundance and usefulness of the species. This study documents indigenous knowledge of herbaceous and woody plant species of farmers and herders in southwestern Niger. Specifically, we examine the effects of age, gender, and ethnicity on knowledge of local vegetation. Results from the study showed that on average a higher proportion of woody species was identified by the respondents compared to herbaceous species. Both gender and ethnicity had a significant effect on the identification of herbaceous species but no effect on identification of woody species. Respondents in lower age group (10 to 30 years) identified lower number of species compared to other age classes. There seems to be a curvilinear relationship between age of respondents and number of plant species identified. Results from this study reaffirm the uneven distribution of indigenous knowledge within a given area due to social factors. The main challenge is how to incorporate these social differences in knowledge of native plant species into sustainable management and conservation of community natural resources.