Further reading about Mafia Island

Publications by Pat Caplan about Mafia Island, 1969-2017

1969: “Cognatic Descent Groups on Mafia Island, Tanzania” Man 4, 3: 419-31

1975 Choice and Constraint in a Swahili Community: Property, Hierarchy and Cognatic Descent on the East African Coast Oxford University Press/International African Institute (162 pp.)

1976: “Boys’ circumcision and girls’ puberty rites among the Swahili of Mafia Island Tanzania” Africa 46, 1: 21-33 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1159090

1978 “The Swahili of Chole Island, Tanzania” in A. Sutherland (ed.) Face Values BBC/RAI: 140-75

1981: “Development Policies in Tanzania: Some Implications for Women” in The Journal of Development Studies 17, 3: 98-108 (also published in N. Nelson (ed.) African Women in the Development Process Frank Cass, 1981)

1982 “Gender, Ideology and Modes of Production on the East African coast” in J. de Vere Allen (ed.) From Zinj to Zanzibar: History, Trade and Society on the Coast of East Africa Franz Steiner Verlag: 29-43

1983 “Women’s Property, Islamic Law and Cognatic Descent” in R. Hirschon (ed.) Women and Property, Women as Property Croom Helm: 23-43

1989: “Perceptions of gender stratification” Africa September: 196-208

1992a Editor (with F. le Guennec‑Coppens) Les Swahili entre Afrique et Arabie Paris: Karthala (216pp.)

1992b “Socialism from above; the view from below” in Peter Forster (ed.) Tanzanian Peasantry: Economy in Crisis Gower Press l992: 103-23 (also as “Socialism from above in Tanzania: the view from below” in ASA volume  Socialism in Anthropological Theory and Local Practice ed. Chris Hann. Routledge, l993: 77-91)

1993b “Learning Gender: field‑work in a Tanzanian coastal village, l965‑85” in Gendered Fields ed. D. Bell, P. Caplan and W. Karim. Routledge: 168-81.

1995a. Food, Health and Fertility Further Investigated with Particular Reference to Gender: a Report on Fieldwork on Mafia Island, Tanzania, June-August 1994. Report present to the Tanzania National Scientific Research Council, July 1995 (38pp.)

1995b “Law and custom: marital disputes on Mafia Island, Tanzania” in P. Caplan (ed.) Understanding Disputes: the Politics of Law.  Berg Press. pp. 203-22.

1995c ‘”Children are our wealth and we want them”: a difficult pregnancy on Mafia Island, Tanzania’ in D. Bryceson (ed.) Women Wielding the Hoe: Lessons from Rural Africa for Feminist Theory and Development Practice Berg Press, 1995.

1995d “‘In my office we don’t have closing hours: Gendered household relations in a Swahili village in northern Mafia Island” in Colin Creighton and Cuthbert Omari (eds.) Gender, Family, and Household in Tanzania Avebury, 1995, pp. 118-38.

1995e ‘Monogamy, polygyny or the single state? Changes in marriage in a Tanzanian coastal village, 1965-94.’ in C. Creighton ed. Gender, Family and Household in Tanzania vol. II Avebury Press.

1997 African Voices, African Lives: Personal Narratives from a Swahili Village London and New York: Routledge (266 pp.)

1998 ‘Experiencing old age on Mafia Island, Tanzania’ in M. Aguilar (ed.) Social Models of Gerontocracy in Africa Lawrenceville, N.J.: African World Press.

1998 ‘La vie politique en mutation d’un village cotier de la Tanzanie’ in F. le Guennec-Coppens and David Parkin Autorite et Pouvoir chez les Swahili. Paris: Karthala, IPRA, Nairobi. pp. 77-97.

1999 ‘Where have all the young girls gone? Gender and sex ratios on Mafia Island, Tanzania’ in Agrarian Economy, State and Society in Contemporary Tanzania ed. P. Forster and S. Maghimbi. Avebury Press.

  1. ‘Monogamy, Polygyny or the single state? Changes in marriage patterns in a Tanzanian coastal village, 1965-94.’ in C. Creighton and C.K. Omari Gender, Family and Work in Tanzania Ashgate, Aldershot, Burlington USA, Singapore, Sydney
  2. ‘Struggling to be modern: recent letters from Mafia Island’. In P. Caplan and F. Topan (eds.) Swahili Modernities. Lawrenceville, NJ.: Africa World Press.
  3. ‘But the coast, of course, is quite different’: academic and local ideas about the East African littoral’ Journal of Eastern African Studies vol.1 no. 2. 305-320. July.
  4. ‘Between socialism and neo-liberalism: Mafia Island, Tanzania, 1965-2004’. Review of African Political Economy no. 114: 679-94. http://dx.doi.org1080/03056240701819541
  5. ‘Freud in Minazini? Consulting a Swahili diviner’, Utafiti, 7, 2, Dar es Salaam
  6. ‘Understanding modernity/ies on Mafia Island, Tanzania: the idea of a moral community’. In Kjersti Larsen (ed.) Knowledge, Renewal and Religion: repositioning and changing ideological and material circumstances among the Swahili on the East African Coast. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.
  7. A ‘clash of civilizations’ on Mafia Island? The story of a dance festival. Anthropology Today 27, 2, 18-21.
  1. ‘Changing Swahili cultures and identities in a globalising world: an approach from anthropology’ Swahili Forum 20. (http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~afrika/swafo/) 31-47. (http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~afrika/swafo/
  2. Monograph. Mikidadi ya Mafia: Maisha ya mwanaharikati na historia ya Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: Muki na Nyota. (Mikidadi book in Swahili) http://www.africanbookscollective.com/search-results?form.keywords=Mikidadi and http://www.mkukinanyota.com/product/mikidadi-wa-mafia

2013-4. ‘An anthropologist among the film-makers: A cautionary tale’. Part 1. The politics of production in Anthropology Today Dec. 2013, 29, 6: 23-6. Part 2. The politics of circulation in Anthropology Today Feb. 2014, 30,1: 15-19

  1. ‘Engaging in ‘engaged’ anthropology: some pitfalls in a development consultancy’. Anthropology in Action: 21 3, winter. 3-11.
  2. ‘Two weddings in northern Mafia – changes in women’s lives since the 1960s’ in Gendered Lives in the Western Indian Ocean edited by Erin Stiles and Katherine Daly Thompson. Indian Ocean Studies Series at Ohio University Press. pp. pp. 85-116
  3. Mikidadi: a Tanzanian Life: Individual biography and national history. London, Sean Kingston
  4. ‘Sustainable development? Controversies over prawn farming on Mafia Island, Tanzania’. Conservation and Society vol. 14, issue 4 http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2016;volume=14;issue=4;spage=330;epage=344;aulast=Caplan;type=0
  5. ‘Life in Swahili villages on the East African coast’ in Stephanie Wynne-Jones and Adria Laviolette (eds.) The Swahili World. London and New York: Routledge.
  6. ‘’It’s not Islamic! Changing views about what it means to be a good Muslim on Mafia Island, Tanzania’ in Iain Walker (ed.) Contemporary Issues in Swahili Ethnography. London and New York: Routledge.

Films and archives

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