One of ten children born to a coal-mining family in Harlan County, Kentucky ("Bloody Harlan") in the turbulent 'Twenties, Audrey Richards Lowery was a prime example of the old saying, "Saturday's child must work for a living." From the time she was 11 years old, she worked to help feed her brothers and sisters, then to support herself and her twin sons---and often her husband as well. She experienced unbelievable hardships, even violence, but met life's vicissitudes with hard work, honesty, and love. She describes an era in Kentucky's history and a way of life that few people today can even imagine. She witnessed some of the frightening troubles that attended the founding of the miners' union. She gives details of a notorious sex murder committed by her brother-in-law, who continued to live with the family after spending only two years in prison. She goes on to tell about her life in Indiana, Tennessee, and Ohio and specifies names and places in those areas that will evoke memories for many readers.. Now an 86-year-old widow, legally blind and confined to a wheelchair, Audrey lives near her sons in Celina, Ohio, but still maintains her indomitable spirit and her sense of humor. Her story is surprising...sometimes SHOCKING...yet ultimately inspiring, and will entertain you to the end. The book is written in her own words; you'll be amazed and amused by the way she tells it!
This book is an established classic A pioneering achievement and laid the groundwork for a sociological theory of nutrition Audrey Richards work is beginning to enjoy a revival in anthropological study and awareness of her importance is growing
Audrey Richards (1899-1984) was a leading British anthropologist of the twentieth century and the first woman president of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Based on fieldwork conducted at a time when the discipline was dominated by male anthropologists, Chisungu: A Girl’s Initiation Ceremony Among the Bemba of Zambia is widely hailed as a classic of anthropology and African and gender studies. Underpinned by painstaking research carried out by Richards among the Bemba people in northern Zambia in the 1930s, Chisungu focuses on the initiation ceremonies for young Bemba girls. Pioneering the study of women’s rituals and challenging the prevailing theory that rites of passage served merely to transfer individuals from one status to another, Richards writes about the incredibly rich and diverse aspects of ritual that characterised Chisungu: its concern with matriliny; deference to elders; sex and reproduction; the birth of children; ideas about the continuity between past, present and future; and the centrality of emotional conflict. On a deeper level, Chisungu is a crucial work for the role it accords to the meaning of symbolism in explaining the structure of society, paving the way for much subsequent understanding of the role of symbolic meaning and kinship. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new foreword by Jessica Johnson and an introduction by Jean La Fontaine.
This reprint of a study by Dr. Audrey Richards (1899-1984) describes the living conditions of the Bemba of North-Eastern Rhodesia, with special reference to the effects of migrant labour on the social and economic life of a mainly agricultural society. Although primarily concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of food, and with conditions of labour and standards of living, the book gives a vivid picture of the social structure of the Bemba - their political organisation and the functions of the chief, systems of land-tenure, kinship groupings, and the whole complex of economic, social, and magico-religious factors which arise in any community. The book has been widely recognised as an authoritative study particularly among economists and anthropologists.
The force of hunger in shaping human character and social structure has been largely overlooked. This omission is a serious one in the study of primitive society, in which starvation is a constant menace. This work remedies this deficiency and opens up new lines of anthropological inquiry. The whole network of social institutions is examined which makes possible the consumption, distribution, and production of food-eating customs, as well as the religion and magic of food-production.
In this study Dr Audrey Richards describes the living conditions of the Bemba of North-Eastern Rhodesia, with special reference to the effects of migrant labour on the social and economic life of a mainly agricultural society. Although primarily concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of food, and with conditions of labour and standards of living, the book gives a vivid picture of the social structure of the Bemba - their political organisation and the functions of the chief, systems of land-tenure, kinship groupings, and the whole complex of economic, social, and magico-religious factors which arise in any community. The book has been widely recognised as an authoritative study particularly among economists and anthropologists.
What does "TRIBALISM" mean in the modern world? How does it affect the formation of political parties and the competition for office in the central governments of developing countries? What are the difficulties in modernizing local government and rural agricultural in countries where there are marked differences in language and political organization between different groups? The author examines the special political and economic problems which face the new East African states of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, taking Uganda, where she lived for five years, as a case study. Her final chapter describes the forces making for national consciousness and a sense of national identity in modern Africa, and the part played by the elite in these movements.
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