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- Title
Managing Ethnicity through the Body: Tattoo and Facial Scarification Ethnography among the Cameroon's Mbororo.
- Authors
Fernàndez, Cristina Enguita
- Abstract
This article examines facial scarification and tattooing, still present among the Mbororo people from Cameroon. Understanding the link between these disappearing body practices and ethnicity performances is the aim of my analysis, keeping in mind the stigma that surrounds the Mbororo who, in fact, live in vulnerable living conditions, because of the socio-political discrimination, which is also related to transhumance. However, it is interesting to point out that a discourse about Mbororo ethnic identity, in terms of citizenship and "indigenous" distinctiveness, is increasing around urban areas and among some Mbororo NGOs and other associations. So, the article tries to assess whether a gap between the "image" and the "practice" of the corporeal expression of being Mbororo actually exists, taking into account the management of the body as a means of reconstructing the parameters from which Mbororo ethnicity is being built redefined and performed in different terms.
- Subjects
ETHNICITY; SCARIFICATION (Body marking); BORORO (African people); TATTOOING; TRANSHUMANCE; MINORITIES
- Publication
Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies, 2014, Vol 6, Issue 10, p1
- ISSN
2066-8880
- Publication type
Article