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An edition of Questioning Misfortune (1997)

Questioning misfortune

the pragmatics of uncertainty in Eastern Uganda

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Cover of: Questioning misfortune by Susan Reynolds Whyte, Susan Reynolds Whyte
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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 5, 2025 | History
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An edition of Questioning Misfortune (1997)

Questioning misfortune

the pragmatics of uncertainty in Eastern Uganda

by

  • 1 Want to read

Some of the most interesting new ethnographics of experience highlight the indeterminate nature of life. Questioning misfortune is very much within this tradition. Based on a long-term study of adversity and its social causes in Bunyole, eastern Uganda, it considers the way in which people deal with uncertainties of life, such as sickness, suffering, marital problems, failure, and death. Divination may identify causes of misfortune, ranging from ancestors and spirits to sorcerers.

Sufferers and their families try out a variety of remedial measures, including pharmaceuticals, sorcery antidotes, and sacrifices. But remedies often fail, and doubt and uncertainty persist. Even the recent commercialization of biomedicine, and the peril of AIDS can be understood in terms of a pragmatics of uncertainty.

Publish Date
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Language
English
Pages
258

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Subjects

Religious life and customs Ethnology Social problems Social conditions Divination Medical anthropology Ethnology, uganda Uganda, social conditions Uganda, religion Anthropology Magic Ethnologie Anthropologie médicale Problèmes sociaux Conditions sociales Vie religieuse Anthropologie Magie Illusion (performing art) Social issues Brauch Religiöses Leben Medizin Tegenslag Nyoro (volk) Moeurs et coutumes

Places

Uganda Bunyole (District) Bunyole (Uganda : District)
Edition Availability
Cover of: Questioning Misfortune
Questioning Misfortune: The Pragmatics of Uncertainty in Eastern Uganda (Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology)
February 13, 1998, Cambridge University Press
Hardcover in English
Cover of: Questioning Misfortune
Questioning Misfortune: The Pragmatics of Uncertainty in Eastern Uganda (Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology)
February 13, 1998, Cambridge University Press
Paperback in English
Cover of: Questioning misfortune
Questioning misfortune: the pragmatics of uncertainty in Eastern Uganda
1997, Cambridge University Press
in English

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Book Details

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-251) and index.

Published in
Cambridge, New York
Series
Cambridge studies in medical anthropology ;, 4

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
306/.096761
Library of Congress
GN659.U3 W59 1997, GN659.U5 W59 1997

The Physical Object

Pagination
xiv, 258 p. :
Number of pages
258

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL664655M
ISBN 10
0521594022
LCCN
97010235
OCLC/WorldCat
36549001, 239073789
LibraryThing
1336665
Goodreads
3770650

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL2647449W

Source records

Excerpts

Some thirty years ago, Clifford Geertz declared that the problem of suffering, as a religious problem, is how to suffer, not how to avoid suffering (Geertz 1967:19).
added anonymously.

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