Jane Parish j.a.e.parish@keele.ac.uk
Mining morals, muck and Akan gold in New York City
Parish, Jane
Authors
Abstract
Among Akan spirit preachers at shrines in New York, gold and gold weights are at the centre of the creation of new moral topographies in a fluid and contested context. In a get-rich-quick New York marketplace, the preachers appeal to an understanding of gold that is contained within Akan values and ethical codes surrounding economic responsibility and social obligation. Remaking Manhattan's ethical geographies from the standpoint of a transnational Akan morality, occult narratives offer a different reading that links the moral dirt of the landfill sites of Manhattan with that of the rivers and forests polluted by cyanide, sulphuric acid and other mining chemicals in Obuasi, Ghana, a centre of gold mining. The paper plots a map of muck and morals as shrine discourses about gold provide a critical commentary on the moral conventions of wealth creation, accumulation and desire among a diasporic community.
Citation
Parish, J. (2015). Mining morals, muck and Akan gold in New York City. Anthropology Southern Africa, 68(3-4), 290-301. https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2015.1100520
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Aug 17, 2015 |
Publication Date | Dec 18, 2015 |
Journal | Anthropology Southern Africa |
Print ISSN | 2332-3256 |
Publisher | National Inquiry Services Centre |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 68 |
Issue | 3-4 |
Pages | 290-301 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2015.1100520 |
Keywords | Akan spirit preachers, Ghana, gold, New York, transnationalism, wealth |
Publisher URL | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2015.1100520 |
Files
jpar_asa_2015.pdf
(185 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You might also like
The Cosmology of Economy: West African Witchcraft, Finance and the Futures Market
(2018)
Journal Article
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The ritual moment of social death
(2018)
Journal Article
Uncanny objects and the fear of the familiar: Hiding from Akan witches in New York City
(2017)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Keele Repository
Administrator e-mail: research.openaccess@keele.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search