Publications

Bertelsen, Bjørn Enge

"The gender of law: politics, memory and agency in Mozambican community courts". I Rachel Sieder og John-Andrew McNeish (red.) Gender, Justice and Legal Pluralities. Latin American and African Perspectives. I serien "Law, Development and Globalization". London og New York: Routledge, pp. 82-108 (2013).

"'Entering the red sands'. The corporality of punishment and imprisonment in Chimoio, Mozambique." Journal of Southern African Studies, 37(3): 611-626 (2011).

"Securitisation of the social and state transformation from Iraq to Mozambique. Chapter in John-Andrew McNeish and Jon Harald Sande Lie (eds.), Security and development. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 84-98 (2010).

"Heart of darkness re-invented? A tale of Norwegian ex-soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo" Anthropology Today, 26(1): 8-12 [with Sindre Bangstad] (2010).

"‘Multiple sovereignties and summary justice in Mozambique. A critique of some legal anthropological terms.' Social analysis, 53(3): 123-147 (2009)

"Kolonialisme på portugisisk og norsk. Plantasjen Madal i Mosambik". Chapter in Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland and Knut Rio (eds) Kolonitid. Nordmenn på eventyr og big business i Afrika og Stillehavet. Oslo: Scandinavian Academic Press, pp. 249-274 (2009

Compte rendu / bokessay. Lars Buur, Steffen Jensen and Finn Stepputat (red.) "The security-development nexus. Expressions of sovereignty in Southern Africa". Lusotopie, 16(2):198-201 (2009).

Crisis of the state. War and social upheaval. New York: Berghahn Books [co-edited with Bruce Kapferer] (2009).

"Sorcery and death squads. Transformations of state, sovereignty, and violence in postcolonial Mozambique". In Bruce Kapferer and Bjørn Enge Bertelsen (eds) Crisis of the state. War and social upheaval. New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 210-240 (2009).

"The crisis of power and reformations of the state in globalizing realities". In Bruce Kapferer and Bjørn Enge Bertelsen (eds) Crisis of the state. War and social upheaval. New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 1-26 [with Bruce Kapfererer] (2009). 

"'Å dø her koster ikke noe'. Vold, rettsantropologi og suverenitet i det postkoloniale Mosambik". Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 18(3-4):280-295 (2007).

"Violence, sovereignty and tradition. Understanding death squads and sorcery in Chimoio, Mozambique. In Armando Marques Guedes and Maria José Lopes (eds) State and traditional law in Angola and Mozambique. Coimbra: Edições Almedina, pp. 201-261 (2007).

"Antropologien og staten. En innledning". Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 17(3-4):186-200 2006 [with Kjetil Fosshagen, Anette Fagertun and Inger Lise Teig] (2006).

"'It will rain until we are in power'. Floods, elections and memory in Mozambique. In Harri Englund and Francis B. Nyamnjoh (eds) Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa (Postcolonial Encounters Series). London and New York: Zed Books, pp. 169-191 (2004).

"'The traditional lion is dead'. The ambivalent presence of tradition and the relation between politics and violence in Mozambique. In Camille Goirand (ed.) Lusotopie 2003. Violence et politique dans les espaces lusophones. Paris: Éditions Karthala and Centre d'Étude d'Afrique Noire (CEAN), pp. 263-281 (2004).

Broch-Due, Vigdis

Violence and belonging. The quest for identity in post-colonial Africa (2005)
Modernisation in Africa has created new problems as well as new freedoms. Multi-party democracy, resource privatisation and changing wealth relationships have not always created stable and prosperous communities, and violence continues to be endemic in many areas of African life from civil war and political strife to violent clashes between genders, generations, classes and ethnic groups. Violence and Belonging: the quest for identity in post-colonial Africa explores the crucial formative role at violence in shaping peoples ideas about who they are in uncertain post-colonial contexts. As resources dwindle and wealth is contested, identities and ideas of belonging become a focal area of conflict and negotiation. Focusing on fieldwork from across the continent, case studies consider hew everyday violence ties iii with wider regional and political upheavals, and how individuals experience and legitimise violence in its different forms. The chapters also challenge the popular image of an African or ethnic violence I has is primordial, anarchic and primitive, arguing instead that violence, even in its most terrifying form, is integral to modern social, political and business interest. The Zimbabwean and Sudanese civil wars, Kenyan Kikuyu domestic conflicts, Rwandan massacres and South African Truth and Reconciliation processes are among the contexts explored.

Contributors: Jocelyn Alexander, Astrid Blystad, Vigdis Broch-Due, Harri Englund, John C. Galaty, Amrik Heyer, Sharon Elaine Hutchinson, Björn Lindgren, Jo Ann McGregor, Isak Niehaus, Johan Pottier, Fiona C. Ross and Kjetil Tronvoll.

Producing Nature and Poverty in Africa [co-edited with Richard A. Schroeder (Editor) (2001)
Development donors have supported thousands of environmental initiatives in Africa over the past quarter century. The contributors to this provocative new collection of essays assess these projects and conclude that environmental programs constitute one of the major forms of foreign and state intervention in contemporary African affairs. Drawing on case study materials from eight countries, the authors demonstrate clearly that environmental programs themselves often have direct and far-reaching consequences for the distribution of wealth and poverty on the continent.Individual essays in the collection theorize specific forms of environmental intervention; the degree of historical (dis)continuity that exists between contemporary and past environmental policies and practices; the effect environmental programs have had on localized systems of knowledge and regimes of value; the strategies of accumulation that have spun out of heavy donor and state investment in environmental programs; and the numerous social, cultural and political-economic dislocations these initiatives have produced in African environments all across the continent.

The Poor Are Not Us: Poverty and Pastoralism in Eastern Africa [co-edited with David M. Anderson] (2000)
Eastern African pastoralists often present themselves as being egalitarian, equating cattle ownership with wealth. By this definition “the poor are not us”: poverty is confined to non-pastoralist, socially excluded persons and groups. Exploring this notion means discovering something about self-perceptions and community consciousness, how pastoralist identity has been made in opposition to other modes of production, how pastoralists want others to see them and how they see themselves. This collection rejects the premise of pastoral egalitarianism and poses questions about the gradual creep of poverty, changing patterns of wealth and accumulation, the impact of diminishing resources on pastoral communities and the impact of external values of land, labor, and livestock.

Carved Flesh / Cast Selves : Gendered Symbols and Social Practices [co-edited with Tone Bleie] (1993)
This volume, the first comprehensive overview of Scandinavian cross-cultural research on gender issues in the English language, addresses fundamental analytical issues currently debated within international feminist anthropology and beyond. Offering examples from a wide range of ethnographic settings, the essays show that gender comprises far more than sexual relationships: it takes on political significance insofar as it influences the distribution of resources and access to public and domestic spheres, to knowledge and to power.

McNeish, John-Andrew

"The Millions Return: Democracy in Bolivia at the Start of the 21st Century". Special Edition. Bulletin of Latin American Research (BLAR), vol. 25, 2. [co-edoted with S. Lazar] (2006)

Indigenous Peoples and Poverty in International Perspective. Zed Books: London [co-edited with R. Eversole] (2005)
This books brings together two of today's leading concerns in development policy- the urgent need to prioritize poverty reduction and the particular circumstances of indigenous countries. The contributors analyse patterns of indigenous disadvantage worldwide, the centrality of the right to self-determination, and indigenous people's own diverse perspectives on deveopment. One overall conclusion that emerges is that both differences and commonalities must be recognised in any realistic study of indigenous poverty. The goals of this book is to contribute to academic debates on indigenous peoples and overty, and to international organisations' and NGOs' concrete responses to poverty amongst indigenous peoples. Also, by bringing together the experiences of diverse indigneous peoples in a comparative book, the authors hope to offer indigenous peoples, organisations and activists valuable practical insights from the experience of others.


"Poverty, Policy and “Sleight of Hand” in Bolivia and Latin America". Chapter in The Role of the State in Poverty Alleviation, Dean, H; Siquiera, J & Cimadamore, A (eds). CLACSO/CROP Series: Buenos Aires (2005)

"Piedras por el Camino: Refleciones sobre el Crisis y las Politicas de Pobreza en Bolivia". Chapter in Alvarez, S (ed) Trabajao y Produccion de Pobreza en LatinAmerica y el Caribe. CLACSO/CROP Series. CLACSO: Buenos Aires (2005).

"Globalisation and the Reinvention of Andean Tradition". Chapter in Latin American Peasants. Library of Peasant Studies 21. Frank Cass: London & New York (2002)

"Globalisation and the Reinvention of Andean Tradition: The Politics of Community and Ethnicity in Highland Bolivia. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 29, 3-4 (2002)