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Rebirth
Author(s) -
Kilimo Miriam Jerotich
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
anthropology and humanism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1548-1409
pISSN - 1559-9167
DOI - 10.1111/anhu.12262
Subject(s) - kinship , ideology , ethnic group , character (mathematics) , sociology , daughter , gender studies , christianity , theme (computing) , everyday life , aesthetics , anthropology , epistemology , politics , philosophy , religious studies , political science , law , geometry , mathematics , computer science , operating system
Summary This piece is a mediation on how kinship bonds transcend death. The main character is a dead woman who periodically appears to her daughter over the course of the latter’s life. I developed this piece by drawing on the religious beliefs of my ethnic group, the Marakwet of Kenya. I show how Marakwet beliefs about death have been shaped by the adoption of Christianity, the result of missionization during British colonial rule in the country. Hence, the characters in the story straddle these two worlds, which not only shapes how they view death but also their everyday lives. A key theme of the story is the desire to have children, and I show how religious ideologies shape the understanding of the ability to have children and the loss of children.