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Africana Studies Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Africana Studies

100 Maasai Women’S Perspectives On The Impact Of Female Genital Cutting On Social And Economic Wellbeing, Rebecca Vandekemp-Mclellan Nov 2020

100 Maasai Women’S Perspectives On The Impact Of Female Genital Cutting On Social And Economic Wellbeing, Rebecca Vandekemp-Mclellan

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

Interviews with 100 Maasai women in Narok District, Kenya, explored FGC, early marriage, and financial autonomy, among other topics. Respondents drew a telling picture of the significant social value that FGC holds for the Maasai communities in this study, namely, that FGC is an initiation ceremony that turns children into adults, and is an eligibility requirement for marriage and childbearing. Not only does circumcision create multiple opportunities for increased social status, but it also represents increases in economic security through its power to bring about marriage and reproduction. The overall perspectives of the women on the FGC procedure itself showed …


Archaeology Under The Blinding Light Of Race, Michael L. Blakey Oct 2020

Archaeology Under The Blinding Light Of Race, Michael L. Blakey

Arts & Sciences Articles

Racism is defined as a modern system of inequity emergent in Atlantic slavery in which “Whiteness” is born and embedded. This essay describes its transformation. The operation of racist Whiteness in current archaeology and related anthropological practices is demonstrated in the denigration and exclusion of Black voices and the denial of racism and its diverse appropriations afforded the White authorial voice. The story of New York’s African Burial Ground offers a case in point.


Kofifi/Covfefe: How The Costumes Of "Sophiatown" Bring 1950s South Africa To Western Massachusetts In 2020, Emma Hollows Jul 2020

Kofifi/Covfefe: How The Costumes Of "Sophiatown" Bring 1950s South Africa To Western Massachusetts In 2020, Emma Hollows

Masters Theses

This thesis paper reflects upon the costume design process taken by Emma Hollows to produce a realist production of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company’s musical Sophiatown at the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts in May 2020. Sophiatown follows a household forcibly removed from their homes by the Native Resettlement Act of 1954 amid apartheid in South Africa. The paper discusses her attempts as a costume designer to strike a balance between replicating history and making artistic changes for theatre, while always striving to create believable characters.


Hair: How Naturals Are Using Social Media To Reshape The Narrative And Visual Rhetoric Of Black Hair, Shari E. Drumond Apr 2020

Hair: How Naturals Are Using Social Media To Reshape The Narrative And Visual Rhetoric Of Black Hair, Shari E. Drumond

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Black women’s natural hair has been subject to both praise and scrutiny, though the latter is more common despite the steps taken towards inclusion and diversity. In the age of social media, members of the natural hair community have been able to voice and communicate ideas and issues that are specific to their discourse community. This study explores how the natural hair community uses social media, more specifically Instagram, to discuss the complex issues that surround natural hair including historicization, workplace bias, colorism, and social justice. Additionally, this study argues that natural hair is a form of visual rhetoric as …


Egyptian Textiles And Their Production: ‘Word’ And ‘Object’, Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert Mar 2020

Egyptian Textiles And Their Production: ‘Word’ And ‘Object’, Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert

Zea E-Books Collection

This volume presents the results of a workshop that took place on 24 November 2017 at the Centre for Textile Research (CTR), University of Copenhagen. The event was organised within the framework of the MONTEX project—a Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship conducted by Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert in collaboration with the Contextes et Mobiliers programme of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo (IFAO), and with support from the Institut français du Danemark and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Twelve essays are arranged in 4 sections: I. Weaving looms: texts, images, remains; II. Technology of weaving: study cases; III. Dyeing: terminology and …