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consumption, prostitution, and reproduction: the poetics of sweetness in bori
Author(s) -
MASQUELIER ADELINE
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1995.22.4.02a00120
Subject(s) - sweetness , reproduction , consumption (sociology) , possession (linguistics) , poetics , sociology , aesthetics , gender studies , social science , psychology , taste , philosophy , biology , linguistics , poetry , ecology , neuroscience
In this article I explore the semantics of sweetness among the Hausaphone Mawri of Niger. I show how the various configurations of sweetness meaningfully unify the contexts of prostitution, spirit possession, and obstetrics for some Mawri struggling to make sense of changing social realities. These interrelated experiences of production and reproduction in turn provide an idiom for expressing concretely the temptations of consumer culture and the dangers of uncontrolled consumption in contemporary Niger.