Land conflict, murder, and the rise of “timeless culture” and girl blaming (Samburu, Kenya)

The paper examines youthful practices in the Samburu pastoralist age set system as they evolved into tropes of warrior girlfriends inciting masculine violence. Through a close examination of a well-publicized Kenyan court case surrounding the suspicious death in 1931 of Theodore Powys, a British set...

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Main Author: Bilinda Straight
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative 2020-01-01
Series:Ateliers d'Anthropologie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/12553
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author Bilinda Straight
author_facet Bilinda Straight
author_sort Bilinda Straight
collection DOAJ
description The paper examines youthful practices in the Samburu pastoralist age set system as they evolved into tropes of warrior girlfriends inciting masculine violence. Through a close examination of a well-publicized Kenyan court case surrounding the suspicious death in 1931 of Theodore Powys, a British settler, this paper documents the shaping of a discourse about feminine agency and masculine bravado among the youth that eventuated in harsh state-sponsored collective punishment of a pastoralist Samburu community. Colonial officers and European settlers strategically deployed Samburu youth “culture” in the form of girls’ sexuality and young men’s martial role in the tense, globally significant milieus of land policy and conflict in ways that persist in the twenty-first century. Thus, girls’ sexuality has had political implications that far exceed the lives of individual girls.
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spelling doaj-art-44103d4c21094ae8bdb644ad68e682012025-01-30T13:42:11ZfraLaboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie ComparativeAteliers d'Anthropologie2117-38692020-01-014710.4000/ateliers.12553Land conflict, murder, and the rise of “timeless culture” and girl blaming (Samburu, Kenya)Bilinda StraightThe paper examines youthful practices in the Samburu pastoralist age set system as they evolved into tropes of warrior girlfriends inciting masculine violence. Through a close examination of a well-publicized Kenyan court case surrounding the suspicious death in 1931 of Theodore Powys, a British settler, this paper documents the shaping of a discourse about feminine agency and masculine bravado among the youth that eventuated in harsh state-sponsored collective punishment of a pastoralist Samburu community. Colonial officers and European settlers strategically deployed Samburu youth “culture” in the form of girls’ sexuality and young men’s martial role in the tense, globally significant milieus of land policy and conflict in ways that persist in the twenty-first century. Thus, girls’ sexuality has had political implications that far exceed the lives of individual girls.https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/12553conflictKenyayouthgenderlandpastoralists
spellingShingle Bilinda Straight
Land conflict, murder, and the rise of “timeless culture” and girl blaming (Samburu, Kenya)
Ateliers d'Anthropologie
conflict
Kenya
youth
gender
land
pastoralists
title Land conflict, murder, and the rise of “timeless culture” and girl blaming (Samburu, Kenya)
title_full Land conflict, murder, and the rise of “timeless culture” and girl blaming (Samburu, Kenya)
title_fullStr Land conflict, murder, and the rise of “timeless culture” and girl blaming (Samburu, Kenya)
title_full_unstemmed Land conflict, murder, and the rise of “timeless culture” and girl blaming (Samburu, Kenya)
title_short Land conflict, murder, and the rise of “timeless culture” and girl blaming (Samburu, Kenya)
title_sort land conflict murder and the rise of timeless culture and girl blaming samburu kenya
topic conflict
Kenya
youth
gender
land
pastoralists
url https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/12553
work_keys_str_mv AT bilindastraight landconflictmurderandtheriseoftimelesscultureandgirlblamingsamburukenya