Title Transient workspaces : technologies of everyday innovation in Zimbabwe / Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga

Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2014] ©2014

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 296 pages) : illustrations Series Mobility studies Contents Prologue -- Introduction -- Guided mobility -- The professoriate of the hunt -- The coming of the gun -- Tsetse invasions -- The professoriate of the hunt and the Tsetse fly -- Poaching as criminalized innovation -- Chimurenga : the transient workspace of self-liberation -- The professoriate of the hunt and international ivory poaching -- Conclusions : transient workspaces in times of crisis Summary "In this book, Clapperton Mavhunga views technology in Africa from an African perspective. Technology in his account is not something always brought in from outside, but is also something that ordinary people understand, make, and practice through their everyday innovations or creativities -- including things that few would even consider technological. Technology does not always originate in the laboratory in a Western-style building but also in the society in the forest, in the crop field, and in other places where knowledge is made and turned into practical outcomes. African creativities are found in African mobilities. Mavhunga shows the movement of people as not merely conveyances across space but transient workspaces. Taking Indigenous hunting in Zimbabwe as one example, he explores African philosophies of mobilities as spiritually guided and of the forest as a sacred space. Viewing the hunt as guided mobility, Mavhunga considers interesting questions of what constitutes technology under regimes of spirituality. He describes how African hunters extended their knowledge traditions to domesticate the gun, how European colonizers, with no remedy of their own, turned to Indigenous hunters for help in combating the deadly tsetse fly, and examines how wildlife conservation regimes have criminalized African hunting rather than enlisting hunters (and their knowledge) as allies in wildlife sustainability. The hunt, Mavhunga writes, is one of many criminalized knowledges and practices to which African people turn in times of economic or political crisis. He argues that these practices need to be decriminalized and examined as technologies of everyday innovation with a view toward constructive engagement, innovating with Africans rather than for them." An account of technology in Africa from an African perspective, examining hunting in Zimbabwe as an example of an innovative mobile workspace. In this book, Clapperton Mavhunga views technology in Africa from an African perspective. Technology in his account is not something always brought in from outside, but is also something that ordinary people understand, make, and practice through their everyday innovations or creativities--including things that few would even consider technological. Technology does not always originate in the laboratory in a Western-style building but also in the society in the forest, in the crop field, and in other places where knowledge is made and turned into practical outcomes. African creativities are found in African mobilities. Mavhunga shows the movement of people as not merely conveyances across space but transient workspaces. Taking Indigenous hunting in Zimbabwe as one example, he explores African philosophies of mobilities as spiritually guided and of the forest as a sacred space. Viewing the hunt as guided mobility, Mavhunga considers interesting questions of what constitutes technology under regimes of spirituality. He describes how African hunters extended their knowledge traditions to domesticate the gun, how European colonizers, with no remedy of their own, turned to Indigenous hunters for help in combating the deadly tsetse fly, and examines how wildlife conservation regimes have criminalized African hunting rather than enlisting hunters (and their knowledge) as allies in wildlife sustainability. The hunt, Mavhunga writes, is one of many criminalized knowledges and practices to which African people turn in times of economic or political crisis. He argues that these practices need to be decriminalized and examined as technologies of everyday innovation with a view toward constructive engagement, innovating with Africans rather than for them Analysis SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/General SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/History of Technology ENVIRONMENT/General Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-279) and index Notes Print version record Subject Subsistence hunting -- Zimbabwe Poaching -- Zimbabwe Material culture -- Africa Technology transfer -- Africa Economic anthropology -- Africa POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture. Economic anthropology Material culture Subsistence hunting Poaching Technology transfer Africa Zimbabwe Genre/Form Electronic books Form Electronic book ISBN 9780262326155 0262326159 9781322151328 1322151326

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