Magister Artium - MA (Anthropology/Sociology)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10566/9286

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Browsing by Author "Boonzaier, Emile"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Checking the Kulcha: Local discourse of culture in the Kavango region of Namibia
    (University of Westen Cape, 2006) Akuupa, Michael Uusiku; Boonzaier, Emile
    This thesis makes an ethnographic contribution to the anthropological debates about the contested nature of ?culture? as a central term in the discipline. It examines discourses as tools that create, recreate, modify and transmit culture. The research was done in the town of Rundu in Kavango region, northeastern Namibia. In attempting to understand the local notions of culture this study focused on two main events: the Independence Day celebration on 21 March 2006 and a funeral that was held earlier in the month of January. During the study two particular media through which cultural ideas are negotiated, language and clothing were observed.
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    Cultural production and the struggle for authenticity : a Study of the Rastafarian student organization at the University of the Western Cape
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) Riddles, Alton; Boonzaier, Emile
    This thesis explores the precarious nature of authenticity as it manifested itself in the activities of H.I.M. Society, the Rastafarian student organization at the University of the Western Cape. Ethnographic research was conducted, to explore the above mentioned issue, which involved observation of various activities and in depth interviews. I also inquired about outsiders' perspectives on Rastafarianism and H.I.M. Society in particular. Authenticity, as it is conceived in this thesis, is about what a group of people deem culturally important. Three important ideas follow from this. The first is that not everyone in a group agrees on what is important. Put differently authenticating processes tend to be characterized by legitimizing crises. Therefore, secondly, social actors need to invest cultural ideas, objects and practices with authenticity. Lastly the authenticating processes are predicated on boundaries not necessarily as a means of exclusion but as fundamental to determining the core of cultural being and belonging
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    The production of local art for a global cultural market in contemporary Mozambique
    (University of the Western Cape, 2012) Matsinhe, Sebastiao Filipe; Boonzaier, Emile
    This thesis examines the production of commercial art in contemporary Mozambique. It explores the power relationship between local artists ? painters and sculptors ? and their patrons and brokers in the art market. This means, on one hand, that it looks at the artworks that have been produced during the late colonial period (1962 ? 1974) and the post-colonial periods (June 1975 - 2010) and relates this to the changing political landscape in Mozambique. On the other hand, the aim is to explore the artists? life histories, especially how their talent was first recognized, their art training (formal or otherwise), previous work experience, and the reasons for their current success (or lack thereof). This is done in order to see how and to what extent their artistic works have been influenced by external forces or actors. The power relationship existing between the art producers and their customers in the art markets in Mozambique is then related to the issue of globalisation. In this process, the study critically analyses who the actual art patrons of Mozambique art are and the extent to which Mozambican art is influenced by global forces. The focus is on a number of artists and the thesis examines their life histories specific to their art production in order to highlight the themes and trends of their art works. It was found that local art produced in Mozambique is not simply responding to local influences but also to global forces, of which the latter dominates. However, the study further reveals that while the art producers are influenced externally by their buyers, they (the art producers) have their own ways of manipulating their buyers in order to be able to sell their products. In other words, the artists have the power of mediating between local, personal influence and that of the patrons.