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The Afterlife Is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa
When a new baby arrives among the Beng people of West Africa, they see it not as being born, but as being reincarnated after a rich life in a previous world. Far from being a tabula rasa, a Beng infant is thought to begin its life filled with spiritual knowledge. How do these beliefs affect the way the Beng rear their children?In this unique and engaging ethnography of babies, Alma Gottlieb explores how religious ideology affects every aspect of Beng childrearing practices—from bathing infants to protecting them from disease to teaching them how to crawl and walk—and how widespread poverty limits these practices. A mother of two, Gottlieb includes moving discussions of how her experiences among the Beng changed the way she saw her own parenting. Throughout the book she also draws telling comparisons between Beng and Euro-American parenting, bringing home just how deeply culture matters to the way we all rear our children.All parents and anyone interested in the place of culture in the lives of infants, and vice versa, will enjoy The Afterlife Is Where We Come From."This wonderfully reflective text should provide the impetus for formulating research possibilities about infancy and toddlerhood for this century." — Caren J. Frost, Medical Anthropology Quarterly “Alma Gottlieb’s careful and thought-provoking account of infancy sheds spectacular light upon a much neglected topic. . . . [It] makes a strong case for the central place of babies in anthropological accounts of religion. Gottlieb’s remarkably rich account, delivered after a long and reflective period of gestation, deserves a wide audience across a range of disciplines.”—Anthony Simpson, Critique of Anthropology
436 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 23, 2020
An anthropology of infancy. Some quotes so far:
- "As peasant do elsewhere, the Beng people of Cote d'Ivoire live double lives. Put crudely, they lives of material poverty combined with spiritual and social wealth. An astonishing gap exists between the material deprivation that Beng people suffer in their moment-to-moment existence-- an existence marked by a grueling work schedule for most people most of the year, fueled by an insufficient quantity of protein, vitamins, minerals, and often sheer calories-- and their religion...as for their social ties, suffice it to say here that whenever we discussed the quality of daily life in the US while in Bengland, my Beng friends always expressed sympathy for the level of loneliness that they perceived-- often accurately-- to characterize urban, postmodern lives. " (xvii)
- "while I was pregnant I became increasingly distrubed that in my native country adults....simply don't see children very often....American society segregates people by age quite systematically...youth are seperated from each other by increments of merely a year beginning as early as one or two years old if they start at day care. " (5)
- "that from the time children become competent walkers...they are somewhat able to fend for themselves. " (12)
- "I explained to Dieudonne that I had informally noticed that Beng infants seem to be passed around quite a lot- far more than occurs in my own country...he was shocked when I compared them with the American custom of confining an infant to the care of a single individual. " (21)
- "many non-Western peoples take a more relative or contextual approach to locating the end of one stage and the beginning of the next...the Lahu people of Southwest China assert that children inhabit the 'red and naked' stage...until they can walk confidently and, more importantly, speak with some degree of self-expression....resist specifying the duration of the .. stage" (44)
- "the Ifaluk maintain that young children remain mindless for their first five or six years" (44)
- "The Chewa, or Cewa, of Malawi extend the postuterine but pre-infant stage farther...first three months beyond the womb constitute an in-between stage...at the end of the three-month period does the small being become what we might comfortably call an infant....At three months Chewa parents traditionally had sexual intercourse while the soon-to-be-infant lay on the wife's chest." (45)
- Interesting observation that being multi-lingual is sometimes a sign of being powerless-- you need to learn to speak your own language and the langues of those who surround and rule you...
- "The Beng consider themselves pacifists insofar as it is taboo to the Earth spirits they worship to commit homicide with physical weapons...Beng reaction to military aggression has typically been to retreat. Living partly in and partonly on the edge of the tropical rain forest, the Beng have availed themselves of their intimate knowledge of that forest to flee into the deep woods when under threat of attack. " (65)
- "One of the commonest causes for villagers, especially mothers, to consult diviners,...is to discover the reason or cure for their own or their children's illnesses." (67)
- "A dual descent system of clans crosscuts these households, with each individual holding life membership in both a matriclan and a patriclan" (70)
- "in these villages, virtually every mother is a full-time farmer. Women and men both work hard...to produce the varied foodstuffs that make up the diet...most men readily acknowledge that women work even harder than they do. Women are full-time farmers year-round."
- "Adults regularly send boys and girls throughout the village as messengers. Young girls learn very early...to help their mothers with cooking, washing laundry, and carrying head loads." (72)
- "In precolonial times, men hunted regularly, catching such forest game" (72)
- "As peasant do elsewhere, the Beng people of Cote d'Ivoire live double lives. Put crudely, they lives of material poverty combined with spiritual and social wealth. An astonishing gap exists between the material deprivation that Beng people suffer in their moment-to-moment existence-- an existence marked by a grueling work schedule for most people most of the year, fueled by an insufficient quantity of protein, vitamins, minerals, and often sheer calories-- and their religion...as for their social ties, suffice it to say here that whenever we discussed the quality of daily life in the US while in Bengland, my Beng friends always expressed sympathy for the level of loneliness that they perceived-- often accurately-- to characterize urban, postmodern lives. " (xvii)
- "while I was pregnant I became increasingly distrubed that in my native country adults....simply don't see children very often....American society segregates people by age quite systematically...youth are seperated from each other by increments of merely a year beginning as early as one or two years old if they start at day care. " (5)
- "that from the time children become competent walkers...they are somewhat able to fend for themselves. " (12)
- "I explained to Dieudonne that I had informally noticed that Beng infants seem to be passed around quite a lot- far more than occurs in my own country...he was shocked when I compared them with the American custom of confining an infant to the care of a single individual. " (21)
- "many non-Western peoples take a more relative or contextual approach to locating the end of one stage and the beginning of the next...the Lahu people of Southwest China assert that children inhabit the 'red and naked' stage...until they can walk confidently and, more importantly, speak with some degree of self-expression....resist specifying the duration of the .. stage" (44)
- "the Ifaluk maintain that young children remain mindless for their first five or six years" (44)
- "The Chewa, or Cewa, of Malawi extend the postuterine but pre-infant stage farther...first three months beyond the womb constitute an in-between stage...at the end of the three-month period does the small being become what we might comfortably call an infant....At three months Chewa parents traditionally had sexual intercourse while the soon-to-be-infant lay on the wife's chest." (45)
- Interesting observation that being multi-lingual is sometimes a sign of being powerless-- you need to learn to speak your own language and the langues of those who surround and rule you...
- "The Beng consider themselves pacifists insofar as it is taboo to the Earth spirits they worship to commit homicide with physical weapons...Beng reaction to military aggression has typically been to retreat. Living partly in and partonly on the edge of the tropical rain forest, the Beng have availed themselves of their intimate knowledge of that forest to flee into the deep woods when under threat of attack. " (65)
- "One of the commonest causes for villagers, especially mothers, to consult diviners,...is to discover the reason or cure for their own or their children's illnesses." (67)
- "A dual descent system of clans crosscuts these households, with each individual holding life membership in both a matriclan and a patriclan" (70)
- "in these villages, virtually every mother is a full-time farmer. Women and men both work hard...to produce the varied foodstuffs that make up the diet...most men readily acknowledge that women work even harder than they do. Women are full-time farmers year-round."
- "Adults regularly send boys and girls throughout the village as messengers. Young girls learn very early...to help their mothers with cooking, washing laundry, and carrying head loads." (72)
- "In precolonial times, men hunted regularly, catching such forest game" (72)
January 5, 2016
One of my favourite ethnographies read for university so far. An incredibly interesting approach to childhood in Beng society and also the study of childhood within anthropology. Gottlieb's touches on some interesting topics up for discussion within anthropology and offers some wonderful insight into them. Highly recommend this to any anthropology students.
December 31, 2017
Re read this for a class I am teaching. I loved it the first time and even more now.
November 2, 2013
This book was fantastic!! I truly enjoyed reading about how babies are perceived in Beng. We should treat are babies the same way. A great read if you are interested in childcare.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews