Editorial Footnotes

Cultural Anthropology has published a number of articles on time, including Clara Han’s “Symptoms of Another Life: Time, Possibility, and Domestic Relations in Chile’s Credit Economy” (2011), Joceyln Chua’s “Making Time for the Children: Self-Temporalization and the Cultivation of the Antisuicidal Subject in South India” (2011), and Danny Kaplan’s “The Songs of the Siren: Engineering National Time on Israeli Radio” (2009).

Cultural Anthropology has also published articles on religion and politics. See for example, Juan M. Obarrio’s “Remains: To Be Seen. Third Encounter Between State and “Customary” in Northern Mozambique” (2010), Michael M. J. Fischer’s “The Rhythmic Beat of the Revolution in Iran” (2010), and Kenneth M. George’s “Ethics, Iconoclasm, and Qur’anic Art in Indonesia” (2009).

Additional Works by Mike McGovern

2011 Making War in Côte D'ivoire. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

2011 "Popular Development Economics—an Anthropologist Among the Mandarins." Perspectives on Politics. 9.2: 345-355.

2011 "Writing About Conflict in Africa: Stakes and Strategies." Africa: the Journal of the International African Institute. 81.2: 314-330

2010 "This is Play: Popular Culture and Politics in Côte d'Ivoire" In Makhulu, A.-M., B. Buggenhagen and S. Jackson eds. Hard Work, Hard Times: Ethnographies of Volatility and African Being-in-the-World. Berkeley: University of California Press.

2009 “Proleptic Justice: The Threat of Investigation as a Deterrent to Human Rights Abuses in Côte d'Ivoire” In Clarke, K. and M. Goodale, eds. Justice in the Mirror. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2009 “Chasing Shadows in the Dunes: Islamist Practice and Counterterrorist Policy in West Africa’s Sahara-Sahel Zone” In Smith, Malinda, ed. Africa, 9/11, and the War on Terror. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

2008 “Liberia: The Risks of Rebuilding a Shadow State” In Call, Charles ed. Building States to Build Peace. Boulder: Lynne Reiner.

Questions for Classroom Discussion

1. According to Jane Guyer what is "punctuated time"? How is McGovern utilizing the concept in his article?

2. What are the politics of autochotony in Côte d'Ivoire?

3. How is McGover making sense of the linke between President Laurent Gbagbo and the US Christian right?

4. How are political actors giving "global dimensions to [the] local conflicts" of Côte d'Ivoire? What possibly motivates this framing? How productive it is?

5. Discuss Côte d'Ivoire's history of non-orthodox Christian practice.

6. How is the concept of purity deployed in McGovern's analysis? Is there a connection between the concept of purity and "turning back the clock" or being "born again"? Why or why not?

7. Is religion the source of division in Ivorian politics?

Related Readings

Asad, Talal. On Suicide Bombing. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

Chauveau, Jean-Pierre. La question fonci`ere en Cˆote d’Ivoire et le coup d’Etat, Ou: Comment remettre `a z´ero le compteur de l’Histoire. Working Paper. London: International Institute for Environment and Development, 2001.

Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Routledge, 1984 [1966].

Elliott, Justin. "Why the Christian Right is Backing a Despot." Salon.com, 2011. http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/30/ivory_coast_christian_right_ gbagbo, accessed June 10, 2011.

Geschiere, Peter. The Perils of Belonging: Autochthony, Citizenship, and Exclusion in Africa and Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Guyer, Jane. "Prophecy and the Near Future: Thoughts on Maroeconomic, Evangelical, and Punctuated Time." American Ethnologist 34.3(2007):409–421.

Mamdani, Mahmood. Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror. New York: Pantheon, 2009.

Piot, Charles. Nostalgia for the Future: West Africa after the Cold War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Warner, Michael. Publics and Counterpublics. Cambridge: Zone, 2005.