From Water to Wine: Becoming Middle Class in Angola
© 2020
From Water to Wine explores how Angola has changed since the end of its civil war in 2002. Its focus is on the middle class—defined as those with a house, a car, and an education—and their consumption, aspirations, and hopes for their families. It takes as its starting point "what is working in Angola?" rather than "what is going wrong?" and makes a deliberate, political choice to give attention to beauty and happiness in everyday life in a country that has had an unusually troubled history.
Each chapter focuses on one of the five senses, with the introduction and conclusion provoking reflection on proprioception (or kinesthesia) and curiosity. Various media are employed—poetry, recipes, photos, comics, and other textual experiments—to engage readers and their senses. Written for a broad audience, this text is an excellent addition to the study of Africa, the lusophone world, international development, sensory ethnography, and ethnographic writing.
Product Details
- Series: Teaching Culture: UTP Ethnographies for the Classroom
- World Rights
- Page Count: 256 pages
- Illustrations: 13
- Dimensions: 6.0in x 0.7in x 9.0in
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Reviews
"There are many experimental forms of ethnography, but here is one written by a digital native for digital natives. It is the first ethnography I am aware of that one inhabits the way one inhabits the Internet—fast paced, disjointed, multi-modal, jumping scales from deeply personal to meta-commentary. Few scholars today could pull this off so effortlessly, though no doubt more and more will try. This could be, and in my mind should be, an effective model for how it is done."
Daniel J. Hoffman, University of Washington"From Water to Wine demystifies social science research for twenty-first-century students by showing the ‘receipts’ that will ‘trip us out of our eyes’ and alienate us from our stereotypes and cognitive biases. Auerbach is committed to an ethic of revelation—insisting that the audience witness the experiences and materials that inform her work. The result is a creatively conceived text that is about the emergent Angolan middle class, but also about the author’s journey using ethnography to navigate the textures of race, class, color, power, and privilege across six countries and three continents."
Abena Ampofoa Asare, Stony Brook University -
Author Information
Jess Auerbach is a post-doctoral scholar at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. -
Table of contents
List of Images
Acknowledgments
Interview Report
PrefaceProprioception
Introduction: Where Petrol Is Cheaper than Water: Life in Capitalismo selvagem
The Back Story
Representing “Africa”?
On Making Sense in the Writing
What the Book Is Actually About
How the Research Was Done
How to Read This Book
Core ConceptsInterlude: A Brief History of Angola
Illustrated by Elinor DriverSmell
1. The Smell of Success: Perfume, Beauty, Sweat, Oil
Read with Your Nose
Conditioning the Air: Space and Control
Class, Perfume, Dream: Aspiration and AuthenticityInterlude: Recording Fieldwork
Notes
Objects
Structured Observations of SpaceTouch
2. Touch and the Tactile: The Textures of Scouting in Capitalismo selvagem
Seeing through the Skin
Making the Mafia
Stitching Pano Pants
Catching Slipping Children
Lighting the Fire as Service
Building the New Man
Choosing Appropriate T-Shirts
Practicing PeaceInterlude: Poems 1
Fatherhood
Radio Building
Seven Women
Buying Cloth
Fátima’s Mother, on Christmas Day 2013
The Cuban Help
The DriverTaste
3. Changing Tastes: Palates and the Possible
Recipes
The Man Who Made Cake, Dona Maria, and the Sushi Chef
Oral Histories: The Stories of Two LivesInterlude: Photo Essay 1: The Flavors of Peace
Interlude: Photo Essay 2: Choices and Consumption
Sound
4. Music, Fofoca, and the News: Sound, Space, and Orientation
Sound Readings: Spectrographs, Annotation, Language
Cold War Echoes: Higher Education, Ideology, and Contested DutiesInterlude: Poems 2
Estrelinha (Little Star)
Birds on Campus
João, Collapsing
Dona Maria Serving Soup
Dona Inês
Two Photographers
Cinema Church
Yoga TeacherInterlude: Photo Essay 3: Childhoods
Interlude: Photo Essay 4: Leisure
Sight
5. National Rebranding
The Selfie and the Other
National Rebranding: Guarantee Your Children a Better Past
Biopolitical Screens: Frames of Vision
Laughing on the Internet
Insta Lies or Insta Truths?
Fieldwork Ethics: Seven AfterimagesInterlude: Photo Essay 5: Art
Interlude: Photo Essay 6: Architecture
Curiosity
Conclusion: Attending the Beautiful in the Light of What We Know
Capitalismo selvagem in Uncertain Times
The Government Has Gone on Holiday, but Maybe João Lourenço Will Bring It Back
Practicing Peace ... AgainNotes
Indicative Bibliography
References
Index
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Subjects and Courses
