{"product_id":"pathos-and-power-interdisciplinary-perspectives-on-widowhood-in-africa-past-and-present-9780821426432","title":"Pathos and Power: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Widowhood in Africa, Past and Present","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe collected essays in \u003ci\u003ePathos and Power\u003c\/i\u003e provide a critical exploration of widowhood in Africa through a series of historical and contemporary case studies. The book challenges a simplistic understanding of widowhood by highlighting how the experience varies according to age, class, race, religion, and geographic location. The contributors investigate how the category of widowhood can obscure or reveal various social dynamics while demonstrating the diversity of material, symbolic, and embodied circumstances faced by African widows. The volume considers the forces shaping the lives of widows by examining the structural and legal challenges they encounter, including discriminatory practices in social, economic, and political spheres. Through discussions of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial contexts, it explores the intersections of custom, law, patriarchy, and feminism while delving into the potentially liberatory opportunities that widowhood sometimes presents. The book also raises broader questions about gender, personhood, marriage, autonomy, and national identity, emphasizing how widowhood informs key conceptual debates in African studies. Editors Joanna Davidson and Benjamin N. Lawrance bring together scholars across such fields as anthropology, gender studies, history, law, and political science. The authors employ a range of methodologies, including archival research, ethnography, and storytelling, to illuminate widowhood in new and innovative ways. The volume's rich empirical studies and theoretical insights offer a valuable resource for scholars seeking to understand widowhood and its broader implications in African societies. CONTRIBUTORS Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf Fisayo Ajala Catherine E. Bolten Abbass Braham Mariana Candido Joanna Davidson Mariana Dias Paes Ramadan El-Khouli Casey Golomski Juelma Gomes de Matos Ngãla Benjamin N. Lawrance Kenda Mutongi Richard L. Roberts Enid Schildkrout Kate Skinner Wallace Teska Benjamin Twagira Sarah J. Zimmerman\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBenjamin N. Lawrance\u003c\/b\u003e is a professor of history and, by courtesy, law at the University of Arizona, where he teaches courses in history and law about Africa, slavery, migration, refugees, and asylum. He has published twenty books, including \u003ci\u003eAmistad's Orphans: An Atlantic Story of Children, Slavery, and Smuggling.\u003c\/i\u003e He is the emeritus editor in chief of the \u003ci\u003eAfrican Studies Review.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoanna Davidson\u003c\/b\u003e is an associate professor of anthropology at Boston University. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eSacred Rice: An Ethnography of Identity, Environment, and Development in Rural West Africa;\u003c\/i\u003e a coeditor of \u003ci\u003eOpting Out: Women Messing with Marriage around the World;\u003c\/i\u003e and the author of articles in journals such as \u003ci\u003eAmerican Ethnologist\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eAfrican Studies Review.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Ohio University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51648895451410,"sku":"9780821426432","price":40.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a7859a62-73e4-48a4-ab45-3e9d049e948c.jpg?v=1759837619","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/pathos-and-power-interdisciplinary-perspectives-on-widowhood-in-africa-past-and-present-9780821426432","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}