| The Sex Thieves: The Anthropology of a Rumor Contributor(s): Bonhomme, Julien (Author), Horsfall, Dominic (Translator), Descola, Philippe (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0986132586 ISBN-13: 9780986132582 Publisher: Hau OUR PRICE: $34.65 Product Type: Paperback Published: November 2016 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - Social Science | Folklore & Mythology - Psychology | Human Sexuality (see Also Social Science - Human Sexuality) |
| Dewey: 301 |
| LCCN: 2016953267 |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.9" W x 8.9" (0.65 lbs) 192 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - African |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: While working in Africa, anthropologist Julien Bonhomme encountered an astonishing phenomenon: people being accused of stealing or shrinking the genitals of strangers on the simple occasion of a handshake on the street. As he soon discovered, these accusations can have dramatic outcomes: the "sex thieves" are often targeted by large crowds and publicly lynched. Moreover, such rumors are an extremely widespread practice, having affected almost half of the African continent since the 1970s. In this book, Bonhomme examines the story of the "penis snatcher," asking larger questions about how to account for such a phenomenon--unique in its spatial and temporal scale--without falling prey to the clich of Africa as an exotic other. Bonhomme argues that the public belief in sex thieves cannot be considered a superstition or form of mass hysteria. Rather, he brings to light multiple factors that explain the rumor's success and shows how the cultural dynamic can operate on a vast scale. Analyzing the rumor on both transnational and local levels, he demonstrates how it arises from the ambiguities and dangers of anonymity, and thus that it reveals an occult flipside to everyday social interaction. Altogether, this book provides both richly ethnographic and theoretical understandings of urban sociality and the dynamics of human communication in contemporary Africa and beyond. |
Contributor Bio(s): Descola, Philippe: - Philippe Descola holds the chair of anthropology and heads the Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale at the Collège de France. He also teaches at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. Among his previous books to appear in English are In the Society of Nature and The Spears of Twilight. |