Ngecha

Description

Ngecha is the monumental and intimate study of modernization and nationalization in rural Africa in the early years following Kenyan independence in 1963, as experienced by the people of Ngecha, a village outside Nairobi. From 1968 to 1973 Ngecha was a research site of the Child Development Research Unit, a team that brought together Kenyan and non-Kenyan social scientists under the leadership of John Whiting and Beatrice Blyth Whiting.

The study documents how families adapted to changing opportunities and conditions as their former colony became a modern nation, and the key role that women played as agents of change as they became small-scale cash-crop farmers and entrepreneurs. Mothers modified the culture of their parents to meet the evolving national economy, and they participated in the shift from an agrarian to a wage economy in ways that transformed their workloads and perceptions of isolation and individualism within and between households, thereby challenging traditional family-based morals and obligations. Their children, in turn, experienced evolving educational practices and achievement expectations. The elders faced new situations as well as new modes of treatment. Completing this valuable record of a nation in transition are the long-term reassessments of the observations and conclusions of the research team, and a description of Ngecha today as viewed by Kenyans who participated in the original study.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Kenia
• Types of rural communities
• Biological anthropology
• Anthropology
• Kenya

Informations

• Publié par: Nebraska
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780803204188
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

NGECHA: A Kenyan Village in a Time of Rapid Social Change

edited by Carolyn Pope Edwards and Beatrice Blyth Whiting

University of Nebraska Press

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NGECHA A Kenyan Village in a Time of Rapid Social Change

e d i t e d b y Carolyn Pope Edwards and Beatrice Blyth Whiting

University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London

©  by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 

            - -    Ngecha : a Kenyan village in a time of rapid social change / edited by Carolyn Pope Edwards and Beatrice Blyth Whiting. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. --- (cloth : alkaline paper) . Rural development – Kenya – Ngecha. . Women in rural development – Kenya. . Rural women – Kenya – Ngecha. . Family – Kenya. . Kenya – Rural conditions – Case stud- ies..Edwards, Carolyn P..Whiting, Beatrice Blyth. .  .''– 

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List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments Opening: ‘‘New Dawn’’ . Background and Contexts Carolyn Edwards and Beatrice Whiting . The Village and Its Families Beatrice Whiting and Carolyn Edwards, with Ciarunji Chesaina, John Whiting, John Herzog, and Dorothy Herzog . The Historical Stage Beatrice Whiting, John Whiting, John Herzog, and Carolyn Edwards, with Arnold Curtis Interlude: ‘‘Let Women Be Supported’’ . Women as Agents of Social Change Beatrice Whiting . Changing Concepts of the Good Child and Good Mothering Beatrice Whiting, with Ciarunji Chesaina, Grace Diru, Jonah Ichoya, Priscilla Kariuki, Violet Nyambura Kimani, Irene Kamau, Rose Maina, Wanjiku Munge-Kagia, Jane Mwangi, John Whiting, Thomas Landauer, and Lynn Streeter . The Teaching of Values Old and New Ciarunji Chesaina . Aging and Elderhood Frances Cox, with Ndung’u Mberia

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. The University as Gateway to a Complex World Carolyn Edwards, with E. G. Runo and Ezra arap Maritim . Ngecha Today Violet Nyambura Kimani Closing: ‘‘Hope on the Horizon’’ Contributors Index

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       Fig. .. Kenya and its Central Province Fig. .. Section of land belonging to one of the largest of the sublineages in Ngecha Fig. .. Two homesteads in Ngecha, with genealogy of residents

           Chapter  Ngecha center Ngecha tinsmith’s shop Dressmaking Ngecha post office Mud-and-wattle and modern wooden rectangular houses Woman making a basket Naomi Muthoni in  Outdoor game at the Ngecha Nursery School Mother and baby bringing fodder for family cow Boy serving as nurse to younger sibling Young girls role-playing feminine activities Boy constructing car from pieces of wire

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Woman preparing mashed vegetables Father arriving home from work Chapter  Gichuru Harambee Secondary School Girls reciting at Ngecha Nursery School Chapter  Girl hauling empty water barrels Boy carrying water Women and children waiting to buy water Chapter  Boy helping care for his family’s livestock Chapter  Old man who had attended mission school Old woman with her grandchildren Older married couple Elderly man Chapter  The University of Nairobi in  Rural boarding school Chapter  Tigoni House Some women who participated in the – study Donkey-cart owner fetching water from the town borehole Homes Milk cows

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Table .. Comparison of Three Groups of Ngecha Households Selected for an Intensive Study of Family Life  Table .. Education of Men and Women in the Sample  Table .. Employment of Fathers in the Sample  Table .. Education of Men and Women in Ngecha  Table .. Description of Children Attending the Ngecha Nursery School in  and   Table .. Good and Bad Characteristics for Children  Table .. Relationship of Mothers’ Education to Their Choice of Valued Traits  Table .. Relationship of Fathers’ Education to Modernization and Mothers’ Choice of Valued Traits for Children  Table .. Indicators of Modernity in Ngecha  Table .. Relationship of Mothers’ Choice of Valued Traits with Modernity  Table .. Mothers’ Judgments of the Origin of Children’s Character Traits  Table .. Description of the  University Students  Table .. Interview Dilemma and Probing Questions 