{"title":"Susan Rasmussen","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the captivating world of Susan Rasmussen, where heartfelt narratives and compelling characters await. Perfect for readers seeking stories of resilience, hope, and the enduring power of the human spirit. Browse her collection now.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"persons-of-courage-and-renown-book-susan-rasmussen-9781498582575","title":"Persons of Courage and Renown","description":"This book explores culture, memory, and creativity in acting and plays in Tamajaq-speaking, Muslim, semi-nomadic Tuareg society in northern Mali. Rasmussen analyzes how Tuareg actors negotiate cultural memory and encounters in communities, caught historically and currently between political violence and precarious peace.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49731511681297,"sku":"NGR9781498582575","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51687976927505,"sku":"NIN9781498582575","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52663750394129,"sku":"NLS9781498582575","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1498582575.jpg?v=1759401381"},{"product_id":"neighbors-strangers-witches-and-culture-heroes-book-susan-rasmussen-9780761861485","title":"Neighbors, Strangers, Witches, and Culture-Heroes","description":"This book examines alleged “superhuman” powers predominantly associated with smith\/artisans in five African societies. It discusses their ritual and social roles, mythico-histories, symbols surrounding their art, and changing relationships between these specialists and their patrons. Needed but also feared, these smith\/artisans work in traditionally hereditary occupations and in stratified but negotiable relationships with their rural patron families. Many of them now also work for new customers in an expanding market economy, which is still characterized by personal, face-to-face interactions. Rasmussen maintains that a framework integrating anthropological theories of witchcraft, alterity, symbolism, and power is fundamental to understanding local accusations and tensions in these relationships. She also argues that it is critical to deconstruct and disentangle guilt, blame, and envy—concepts that are often conflated in anthropology at the expense of falsely accused “witch” figures. The first portion of this book is an ethnographic analysis of smith\/artisans in Tuareg society, and draws on primary source data from this author’s long-term social\/cultural anthropological field research in Tuareg (Kel Tamajaq) communities of northern Niger and Mali. The latter portion of the book is a cross-cultural comparison, and it re-analyzes the Tuareg case, drawing on secondary data on ritual powers and smith\/artisans in four other African societies: the Amhara of Ethiopia, the Bidan (Moors) of Mauritania, the Kapsiki of Cameroon, and the Mande of southern Mali. In the concluding analysis, there is discussion of similarities and differences between these cases, the social consequences of ritual knowledge and power in each community, and their wider implications for anthropology of religion, human rights, and African studies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50359835296017,"sku":"CIN0761861483G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52151312023825,"sku":"NLS9780761861485","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0761861483.jpg?v=1759399919"},{"product_id":"those-who-touch-book-susan-rasmussen-9780875806105","title":"Those Who Touch","description":"A twenty-five-year veteran of field research in Niger and Mali, anthropologist Susan J. Rasmussen examines the female-dominated practice of herbalism in the seminomadic Muslim communities of Tuareg. Medicine women, known as tinesmegelen, diagnose by touch and treat their patients—mostly women and children—with leaves, bark, and roots from trees associated with ancestral spirits. In addition to healing, they relate oral traditions, offer marital counseling, protect patients against potential domestic violence, and practice divination.   By earning the trust of nearly twenty medicine women over the course of her fieldwork, Rasmussen is able to provide an in-depth profile of these healers and their beliefs. The women come from diverse backgrounds, many of noble origins. Whereas they must be mothers, most do not practice their profession fully until their post-childbearing years. Rasmussen traces the mythical-historical origins of female herbalism and the initiation process for entering the profession. Significantly, she investigates the powerful relationships between medicine women and various authorities: Islamic leaders, state officials, and the medical staff of nongovernment clinics.   Rasmussen draws the reader into this fascinating world of medicine women through interviews, guided conversations, life histories, illustrative case studies, and, most importantly, the words of the healers and their patients. As a participant-observer, she shares her own experiences with descriptions of the treatments she herself received. Then, moving from a focused analysis to a broader contextual frame, she addresses central questions in anthropology about gender, knowledge, and the interface between religion and medicine.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51009019183377,"sku":"NIN9780875806105","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53176824463633,"sku":"GOR012566975","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0875806104.jpg?v=1761390729"},{"product_id":"neighbors-strangers-witches-and-culture-heroes-book-susan-rasmussen-9780761865926","title":"Neighbors, Strangers, Witches, and Culture-Heroes","description":"This book examines alleged “superhuman” powers predominantly associated with smith\/artisans in five African societies. It discusses their ritual and social roles, mythico-histories, symbols surrounding their art, and changing relationships between these specialists and their patrons. Needed but also feared, these smith\/artisans work in traditionally hereditary occupations and in stratified but negotiable relationships with their rural patron families. Many of them now also work for new customers in an expanding market economy, which is still characterized by personal, face-to-face interactions. Rasmussen maintains that a framework integrating anthropological theories of witchcraft, alterity, symbolism, and power is fundamental to understanding local accusations and tensions in these relationships. She also argues that it is critical to deconstruct and disentangle guilt, blame, and envy—concepts that are often conflated in anthropology at the expense of falsely accused “witch” figures. The first portion of this book is an ethnographic analysis of smith\/artisans in Tuareg society, and draws on primary source data from this author’s long-term social\/cultural anthropological field research in Tuareg (Kel Tamajaq) communities of northern Niger and Mali. The latter portion of the book is a cross-cultural comparison, and it re-analyzes the Tuareg case, drawing on secondary data on ritual powers and smith\/artisans in four other African societies: the Amhara of Ethiopia, the Bidan (Moors) of Mauritania, the Kapsiki of Cameroon, and the Mande of southern Mali. In the concluding analysis, there is discussion of similarities and differences between these cases, the social consequences of ritual knowledge and power in each community, and their wider implications for anthropology of religion, human rights, and African studies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52151700422929,"sku":"NLS9780761865926","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780761865926.jpg?v=1759402506"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-susan-rasmussen.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}