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E-book
Author Twagira, Laura Ann, author.

Title Embodied engineering : gendered labor, food security, and taste in twentieth-century Mali / Laura Ann Twagira
Published Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, [2021]
©2021

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Description 1 online resource (xvii, 328 pages) : illustrations, maps
Series New African histories
New African histories series.
Contents Introduction -- Making the generous cooking pot, ca. 1890-1920 -- Body politics, taste matters, and the creation of the Office du Niger, ca. 1920-1944 -- "We farmed money" : re-shaping the Office and reclaiming taste -- Reengineering the Office : cooking with metal pots and threshing machines -- Rice babies and food aid : reengineering women's labor and taste during the Great Sahel Drought -- Conclusion
Summary "By advocating for an understanding of rural Malian women as engineers, Laura Ann Twagira rejects the persistent image of African women as subjects without technological knowledge or access and instead reveals a hidden history about gender, development, and improvisation. In so doing, she also significantly expands the scope of African science and technology studies. Using the Office du Niger agricultural project as a case study, Twagira argues that women used modest technologies (such as a mortar and pestle or metal pots) and organized female labor to create, maintain, and reengineer a complex and highly adaptive food production system. While women often incorporated labor-saving technologies into their work routines, they did not view their own physical labor as the problem it is so often framed to be in development narratives. Rather, women's embodied techniques and knowledge were central to their ability to transform a development project centered on export production into an environmental resource that addressed local taste and consumption needs"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-316) and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on August 13, 2021)
Subject Mali. Office du Niger.
SUBJECT Mali. Office du Niger fast
Subject Women in agriculture -- Mali
Agricultural development projects -- Mali
Agricultural processing -- Mali
Women -- Mali -- Economic conditions
Agricultural development projects
Agricultural processing
Women -- Economic conditions
Women in agriculture
Mali
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020050211
ISBN 0821447335
9780821447338