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Fresh contact in Tamatave, Madagascar: Sex, money, and intergenerational transformation
Author(s) -
Cole Jennifer
Publication year - 2004
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.2004.31.4.573
Subject(s) - transactional sex , agency (philosophy) , gender relations , power (physics) , sociology , structure and agency , gender studies , sex workers , balance (ability) , social science , demography , psychology , population , physics , quantum mechanics , research methodology , neuroscience
ABSTRACT In this article, I explore practices of transactional sex among young women in contemporary Tamatave, Madagascar. As young men remain suspended in part‐time jobs, young women have been able to embrace the possibilities offered by the informal sexual economy, which links Tamatave to France, RÉunion Island, and beyond as well as creating complex redistributions of resources within Tamatave, shifting the balance of power in gendered and generational relations. Drawing on Karl Mannheim's concept of “fresh contact,” I argue that a focus on the ways in which youthful practice refigures relations between generations works to complicate and nuance recent discussions of youth culture and youth agency.