New Directions in Ethnography

Political Oratory and Cartooning An Ethnography of Democratic Processes in Madagascar "Insightful, detailed, and substantial, this book has much to say to students of language and followers of politics, not to mention those of us passionate about both and how they interact." Virginia R. Dominguez, Gutgsell Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "Why don't more people write books like this? Jennifer Jackson's brilliant insights on Malagasy cartooning, oratory, and political culture are not only a breath of fresh air for the anthropological study of political language, but a genuinely creative contribution to the study of global democracy." David Graeber, Goldsmiths, University of London Called kabary in the island nation of Madagascar, political oratory jostles with political cartoon satire in competing for public attention and shaping opinion. The apparent simplicity of these modes of political commentary conceals nuanced subtleties, which inform the constantly evolving landscape of politics. Linguistic anthropologist Jennifer Jackson offers an original semiotic analysis of the formative social role played by these narratives in Madagascar's polity. Though political orators and cartoonists rarely come face to face, their linguistic skirmishing both reflects and informs the political process, deploying rhetorical devices that have significant impacts on the vernacular political culture, its language and publics. This new ethnography examines the dynamic interplay between past and new forms of oratory and satire and their effects in social, religious, class, and transnational contexts. Jackson assesses how far they mirror the vicissitudes of political agency and authority, especially under the leadership of President Marc Ravalomanana. The author shows how democracy must be understood as historically contingent, bound in a local and global accretion of social and economic relations, and always mediated by language.

A rich and engrossing account of 'sexual outlaws' in the Hausa-speaking region of northern Nigeria, where Islamic law requires strict separation of the sexes and different rules of behavior for women and men in virtually every facet of life. • The first ethnographic study of sexual minorities in Africa, and one of very few works on sexual minorities in the Islamic world • Engagingly written, combining innovative, ethnographic narrative with analyses of sociolinguistic transcripts, historical texts, and popular media, including video, film, newspapers, and song-poetry • Analyzes the social experiences and expressive culture of 'yan daudu (feminine men in Nigerian Hausaland) in relation to local, national, and global debates over gender and sexuality at the turn of the twenty-first century • Winner of the 2009 Ruth Benedict Prize in the category of "Outstanding Monograph"

Transcultural Teens provides readers with a window onto the cultural and linguistic creativity of the housing projects, or cités, that ring Paris, showing how young people of Algerian Arab origins play with language in fascinating ways that subvert commonly held notions of intercultural animosity. • Provides solid, real-world evidence in the often-abstracted theoretical debate on globalization and transnationalism • Offers detailed data on linguistic practices that is more focused than generalized anthropological studies • Includes the experiences of French-Algerian adolescent girls who remain largely absent from academic and popular discourse • Reveals the cultural richness and diversity of a population that is stigmatized and marginalized in a national context