Racializing teenage pregnancy : ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’ in the South African scientific literature
- Macleod, Catriona I, Durrheim, Kevin
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Durrheim, Kevin
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6260 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007878
- Description: The signifiers, ‘race’, ‘culture’ or ‘ethnicity’ are utilized in the teenage pregnancy literature (1) to highlight ‘differences’ in adolescent sexual and reproductive behaviour and (2) as explanatory tools. When ‘white’ teenagers are the focus of research, psychological explanations are usually invoked, while for ‘black’ teenagers, explanations are socio-cultural in nature. In this paper, we explore how, through a process of racialization, the psycho-medical literature on teenage pregnancy in South Africa contributes to the entrenchment of ‘race’, ‘culture’ and ‘ethnicity’ as fixed, ‘natural’ signifiers. We utilize Derrida’s notion of différance, together with Phoenix and Woollett’s adaptation – ‘normalized absence/pathologized presence’ – to indicate how ‘black’ people are cast as the Other, the pathologized presence which relies on the normalized absent trace, ‘whiteness’, for definition. We analyse how the notions of ‘tradition’ and ‘culture’ are deployed to sanitize or disguise the underlying racializing project. ‘Black’ is exoticized and rendered strange and thus open to scrutiny, monitoring and intervention. ‘Culture’ and ‘tradition’ appeal to the myth of origin, thus providing pseudo-historical explanations which essentialize and naturalize racialized collectivities. , Rhodes University
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
Racializing teenage pregnancy : ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’ in the South African scientific literature
- Authors: Macleod, Catriona I , Durrheim, Kevin
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6260 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007878
- Description: The signifiers, ‘race’, ‘culture’ or ‘ethnicity’ are utilized in the teenage pregnancy literature (1) to highlight ‘differences’ in adolescent sexual and reproductive behaviour and (2) as explanatory tools. When ‘white’ teenagers are the focus of research, psychological explanations are usually invoked, while for ‘black’ teenagers, explanations are socio-cultural in nature. In this paper, we explore how, through a process of racialization, the psycho-medical literature on teenage pregnancy in South Africa contributes to the entrenchment of ‘race’, ‘culture’ and ‘ethnicity’ as fixed, ‘natural’ signifiers. We utilize Derrida’s notion of différance, together with Phoenix and Woollett’s adaptation – ‘normalized absence/pathologized presence’ – to indicate how ‘black’ people are cast as the Other, the pathologized presence which relies on the normalized absent trace, ‘whiteness’, for definition. We analyse how the notions of ‘tradition’ and ‘culture’ are deployed to sanitize or disguise the underlying racializing project. ‘Black’ is exoticized and rendered strange and thus open to scrutiny, monitoring and intervention. ‘Culture’ and ‘tradition’ appeal to the myth of origin, thus providing pseudo-historical explanations which essentialize and naturalize racialized collectivities. , Rhodes University
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
Radiocarbon dates and the Late Quaternary palaeogeography of the Province of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Lewis, Colin A
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6693 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006728
- Description: A total of 193 dates are listed from the Eastern Cape. Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers existed in the Drakensberg prior to the rigours of cold climatic conditions after ca. 22,000 BP. These uplands were reoccupied under more favourable climatic conditions after ca. 12,600 BP but were apparently abandoned between ca. 6000 BP and 3000 BP. Hunter-gatherer occupation throughout the Holocene is indicated at lower altitudes, with in-migration of pastoralists ca. 1800 BP in the Fish River area, and with Iron Age farmers entering coastal districts and adjacent river valleys from ca. 1400 BP. Sand dunes accumulated in the Holocene adjacent to the Indian Ocean. Flood plain development in the early Holocene was succeeded by incision of rivers in the later Holocene. Flood plain deposition began again in the Southern Drakensberg ca. 1000 BP. Palynological studies evidence marked climatic oscillations around the Late Glacial/Holocene boundary, with apparent stability at high altitude subsequent to 2700 BP.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: Lewis, Colin A
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6693 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006728
- Description: A total of 193 dates are listed from the Eastern Cape. Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers existed in the Drakensberg prior to the rigours of cold climatic conditions after ca. 22,000 BP. These uplands were reoccupied under more favourable climatic conditions after ca. 12,600 BP but were apparently abandoned between ca. 6000 BP and 3000 BP. Hunter-gatherer occupation throughout the Holocene is indicated at lower altitudes, with in-migration of pastoralists ca. 1800 BP in the Fish River area, and with Iron Age farmers entering coastal districts and adjacent river valleys from ca. 1400 BP. Sand dunes accumulated in the Holocene adjacent to the Indian Ocean. Flood plain development in the early Holocene was succeeded by incision of rivers in the later Holocene. Flood plain deposition began again in the Southern Drakensberg ca. 1000 BP. Palynological studies evidence marked climatic oscillations around the Late Glacial/Holocene boundary, with apparent stability at high altitude subsequent to 2700 BP.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
South Africa's `Rainbow People', national pride and optimism: a trend study
- Authors: Dickow, H , Moller, Valerie
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7114 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1010747
- Description: Since the first democratic elections of 1994, South Africans are popularly known as the ‘rainbow people'. The paper reports the acceptance of the rainbow as political symbol of unity among the diverse people of South Africa at three times: Immediately after the 1994 elections, two years later in 1996, and five years later in 1999 after the second general elections. The database for the study are responses to items placed with a syndicated national survey conducted countrywide. The public discourse on the rainbow is reviewed through personal interviews with a panel of 25 elites contacted in the run-up to the second general elections. The researchers revisit conclusions based on the earlier results (Møller, Dickow and Harris, 1999). The third round of research finds that the appeal of the rainbow as political symbol has waned but is still inclusive of all groups in society. Projections of national pride have shifted from the rainbow as symbol of unity and reconciliation to other icons of achievement such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme and prowess in sport. Support for the political symbolism of the rainbow is positively associated with happiness, life satisfaction and optimism. Lack of a focus of national pride is associated with pessimism. Results support the conclusion reached earlier that belief in the `rainbow nation' ideal boosts optimism and promotes happiness during South Africa's transition to a stable democracy, thereby preventing alienation among the losers under the new political dispensation. Linkages between acceptance of the rainbow symbol, subjective well-being and optimism are discussed in the light of the socio-political changes which have taken place in South Africa since democracy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: Dickow, H , Moller, Valerie
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7114 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1010747
- Description: Since the first democratic elections of 1994, South Africans are popularly known as the ‘rainbow people'. The paper reports the acceptance of the rainbow as political symbol of unity among the diverse people of South Africa at three times: Immediately after the 1994 elections, two years later in 1996, and five years later in 1999 after the second general elections. The database for the study are responses to items placed with a syndicated national survey conducted countrywide. The public discourse on the rainbow is reviewed through personal interviews with a panel of 25 elites contacted in the run-up to the second general elections. The researchers revisit conclusions based on the earlier results (Møller, Dickow and Harris, 1999). The third round of research finds that the appeal of the rainbow as political symbol has waned but is still inclusive of all groups in society. Projections of national pride have shifted from the rainbow as symbol of unity and reconciliation to other icons of achievement such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme and prowess in sport. Support for the political symbolism of the rainbow is positively associated with happiness, life satisfaction and optimism. Lack of a focus of national pride is associated with pessimism. Results support the conclusion reached earlier that belief in the `rainbow nation' ideal boosts optimism and promotes happiness during South Africa's transition to a stable democracy, thereby preventing alienation among the losers under the new political dispensation. Linkages between acceptance of the rainbow symbol, subjective well-being and optimism are discussed in the light of the socio-political changes which have taken place in South Africa since democracy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
Terracettes and active gelifluction terraces in the Drakensberg of the Province of Eastern Cape, South Africa: a process study
- Authors: Kück, K M , Lewis, Colin A
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6688 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006706
- Description: Terracettes and turf-banked terraces exist at Tiffindell Ski Resort in the Drakensberg of the Province of the Eastern Cape at altitudes between 2750 m and 2880 m on slopes of between 15°and 26°. Ice lenses and interstitial ice exist within turf-banked terraces in winter. During post-winter thaws, soil moisture reaches saturation in at least the upper part of the regolith in which turf-banked terraces occur. These terraces move downslope under the influence of gelifluction (which is essentially a combination of frost creep and solifluction). Terracettes appear to move as a result of frost creep, processes associated with needle ice, and slope wash. Both turf-banked terraces and terracettes are part of the periglacial environment and are active under present climatic conditions at Tiffindell.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: Kück, K M , Lewis, Colin A
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6688 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006706
- Description: Terracettes and turf-banked terraces exist at Tiffindell Ski Resort in the Drakensberg of the Province of the Eastern Cape at altitudes between 2750 m and 2880 m on slopes of between 15°and 26°. Ice lenses and interstitial ice exist within turf-banked terraces in winter. During post-winter thaws, soil moisture reaches saturation in at least the upper part of the regolith in which turf-banked terraces occur. These terraces move downslope under the influence of gelifluction (which is essentially a combination of frost creep and solifluction). Terracettes appear to move as a result of frost creep, processes associated with needle ice, and slope wash. Both turf-banked terraces and terracettes are part of the periglacial environment and are active under present climatic conditions at Tiffindell.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
The new moral order and racism in South Africa post 11 September 2001
- Painter, D, Macleod, Catriona I
- Authors: Painter, D , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6215 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006266
- Description: In this paper we argue that globalisation imposes on ‘developing’ countries more than an economic order; they find themselves with the moral imperative to align themselves with the West against its Others, increasingly portrayed as Islamic fundamentalists. The 11 September terror attacks in the United States of America have pushed this process to a new level, with the attacks represented as no less than a barbaric attack on ‘civilisation’. Through an analysis of a newspaper article reporting on the disciplining of a Muslim woman in for wearing an Osama Bin Laden t-shirt to work in South Africa, we indicate how this moral representation of the 11 September events and the Islamic Other have unique local effects. In South Africa it creates yet more possibilities for racialising practices to continue without being framed in explicitly racial terms. We further reflect on the implications of these events, and the complex interplay of the global and the local they demonstrate, for critical psychology in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: Painter, D , Macleod, Catriona I
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6215 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006266
- Description: In this paper we argue that globalisation imposes on ‘developing’ countries more than an economic order; they find themselves with the moral imperative to align themselves with the West against its Others, increasingly portrayed as Islamic fundamentalists. The 11 September terror attacks in the United States of America have pushed this process to a new level, with the attacks represented as no less than a barbaric attack on ‘civilisation’. Through an analysis of a newspaper article reporting on the disciplining of a Muslim woman in for wearing an Osama Bin Laden t-shirt to work in South Africa, we indicate how this moral representation of the 11 September events and the Islamic Other have unique local effects. In South Africa it creates yet more possibilities for racialising practices to continue without being framed in explicitly racial terms. We further reflect on the implications of these events, and the complex interplay of the global and the local they demonstrate, for critical psychology in South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
The registration of generic topical corticosteroid formulations in South Africa: a report
- Haigh, John M, Smith, Eric W
- Authors: Haigh, John M , Smith, Eric W
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6368 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006068
- Description: [From the text]Topical corticosteroid formulations are used widely for a variety of skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. The most commonly used formulation types are cream, ointment, lotion and scalp application, with some mousse formulations being released recently onto the market for scalp application. The type of formulation used depends on the condition being treated. Dry lesions are normally treated with ointments and wet lesions with creams. Cosmetically, cream formulations are more acceptable as they can be rubbed in, thus leaving no residual oiliness. Scalp applications have to be less viscous to allow the formulation to pass through the hair and contact the scalp. Occlusion with plastic wrapping hydrates the stratum corneum and facilitates the passage of the corticosteroid through this barrier to the basal layer where the therapeutic effect is required.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: Haigh, John M , Smith, Eric W
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6368 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006068
- Description: [From the text]Topical corticosteroid formulations are used widely for a variety of skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. The most commonly used formulation types are cream, ointment, lotion and scalp application, with some mousse formulations being released recently onto the market for scalp application. The type of formulation used depends on the condition being treated. Dry lesions are normally treated with ointments and wet lesions with creams. Cosmetically, cream formulations are more acceptable as they can be rubbed in, thus leaving no residual oiliness. Scalp applications have to be less viscous to allow the formulation to pass through the hair and contact the scalp. Occlusion with plastic wrapping hydrates the stratum corneum and facilitates the passage of the corticosteroid through this barrier to the basal layer where the therapeutic effect is required.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
The role of quality of life surveys in managing change in democratic transitions: the South African case
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Dickow, H
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7115 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1010748
- Description: The South African Quality of Life Project has tracked subjective well-being, life satisfaction and happiness, since the early eighties at the national level. In most democratic countries around the globe, the average citizen says he or she is satisfied with life in general. In South Africa this is not the case. Since the early 1980s, the trend study shows up disparities between one sector of the South African population that is satisfied with life in general and various aspects of life and another sector that is very dissatisfied. Generally, the better-off report higher levels of satisfaction and happiness than the worse-off. The most plausible explanation for the South African quality-of-life constellation is the huge gap in living standards between rich and poor, a legacy of the apartheid era, which discriminated against blacks and to a lesser extent against Indian and coloured people. Euphoria following on the first democratic elections in April 1994, which registered equally high aggregate levels of happiness and life satisfaction among all sectors of the population, was short-lived. Under democracy, expectations “for a better life for all”, the election slogans for the 1994 and 1999 general elections, has risen. South Africa has one of the most enlightened constitutions, which guarantees basic human rights and supports advancement of the previously disadvantaged. As long as South Africans perceive barriers to accessing the material rewards of democracy, they do not see justice has been done. South Africa is currently grappling with problems common to other societies in transition to democracy. Since 1994, government programmes and policies have been devised to address the critical twin problems of poverty and inequality in society. The latest round of research for the South African Quality of Life Trends Project probes popular assessments of the policies and programmes aimed at improving the quality of life of ordinary South Africans. Interviews with a panel of 25 opinion leaders in the run-up to the June 1999 general elections were followed by a nationally representative opinion survey in October 1999. The paper outlines the role of social indicators in monitoring quality of life in South Africa and reports findings from the elite and rank-and-file surveys. Generally, the winners and losers in the new political dispensation see changes from a different perspective. The disadvantaged are more likely to have seen material gains and recommend increased delivery of services and opportunities for social mobility. The advantaged, who have mainly experienced non-material or no gains since 1994, are more likely to be pessimistic about the future. It is concluded that the groundswell of optimism will sustain the majority of South Africans who are still dissatisfied with life until their dreams of the good life are fulfilled.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: Moller, Valerie , Dickow, H
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7115 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1010748
- Description: The South African Quality of Life Project has tracked subjective well-being, life satisfaction and happiness, since the early eighties at the national level. In most democratic countries around the globe, the average citizen says he or she is satisfied with life in general. In South Africa this is not the case. Since the early 1980s, the trend study shows up disparities between one sector of the South African population that is satisfied with life in general and various aspects of life and another sector that is very dissatisfied. Generally, the better-off report higher levels of satisfaction and happiness than the worse-off. The most plausible explanation for the South African quality-of-life constellation is the huge gap in living standards between rich and poor, a legacy of the apartheid era, which discriminated against blacks and to a lesser extent against Indian and coloured people. Euphoria following on the first democratic elections in April 1994, which registered equally high aggregate levels of happiness and life satisfaction among all sectors of the population, was short-lived. Under democracy, expectations “for a better life for all”, the election slogans for the 1994 and 1999 general elections, has risen. South Africa has one of the most enlightened constitutions, which guarantees basic human rights and supports advancement of the previously disadvantaged. As long as South Africans perceive barriers to accessing the material rewards of democracy, they do not see justice has been done. South Africa is currently grappling with problems common to other societies in transition to democracy. Since 1994, government programmes and policies have been devised to address the critical twin problems of poverty and inequality in society. The latest round of research for the South African Quality of Life Trends Project probes popular assessments of the policies and programmes aimed at improving the quality of life of ordinary South Africans. Interviews with a panel of 25 opinion leaders in the run-up to the June 1999 general elections were followed by a nationally representative opinion survey in October 1999. The paper outlines the role of social indicators in monitoring quality of life in South Africa and reports findings from the elite and rank-and-file surveys. Generally, the winners and losers in the new political dispensation see changes from a different perspective. The disadvantaged are more likely to have seen material gains and recommend increased delivery of services and opportunities for social mobility. The advantaged, who have mainly experienced non-material or no gains since 1994, are more likely to be pessimistic about the future. It is concluded that the groundswell of optimism will sustain the majority of South Africans who are still dissatisfied with life until their dreams of the good life are fulfilled.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
The trade in medicinal plants in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Dold, Anthony P, Cocks, Michelle L
- Authors: Dold, Anthony P , Cocks, Michelle L
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6512 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005940
- Description: A study of the trade in medicinal plants in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa undertook to document the species traded, to determine the quantities harvested annually, and to assess the economic value of the trade. All the participants involved at the different levels of the trade were included in the survey, that is, informal street hawkers, owners of amayeza esiXhosa stores, traditional healers, and consumers of traditional medicines. In total, 282 questionnaires were administered in six urban centres. It was found that poorly educated black middle-aged women of low economic standing dominate the trade. A minimum of 166 medicinal plant species were traded at the study sites alone, providing 525 tonnes of plant material valued at approximately R27 million annually. Plants were harvested from a diverse range of vegetation types including Valley Thicket, Afromontane Forest, Coastal Forest and Moist Upland Grassland, the most frequently sold species differing significantly from those documented in similar studies in other regions. The Forest Biome was the vegetation type found to be most threatened by over-harvesting. Of the species documented, 93% were being harvested unsustainably and 34 species have been prioritised for conservation management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: Dold, Anthony P , Cocks, Michelle L
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6512 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005940
- Description: A study of the trade in medicinal plants in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa undertook to document the species traded, to determine the quantities harvested annually, and to assess the economic value of the trade. All the participants involved at the different levels of the trade were included in the survey, that is, informal street hawkers, owners of amayeza esiXhosa stores, traditional healers, and consumers of traditional medicines. In total, 282 questionnaires were administered in six urban centres. It was found that poorly educated black middle-aged women of low economic standing dominate the trade. A minimum of 166 medicinal plant species were traded at the study sites alone, providing 525 tonnes of plant material valued at approximately R27 million annually. Plants were harvested from a diverse range of vegetation types including Valley Thicket, Afromontane Forest, Coastal Forest and Moist Upland Grassland, the most frequently sold species differing significantly from those documented in similar studies in other regions. The Forest Biome was the vegetation type found to be most threatened by over-harvesting. Of the species documented, 93% were being harvested unsustainably and 34 species have been prioritised for conservation management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
Use of indigenous and indigenised medicines to enhance personal well-being: a South African case study
- Cocks, Michelle L, Moller, Valerie
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Moller, Valerie
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7106 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1010679
- Description: An estimated 27 million South Africans use indigenous medicines (Mander, 1997, Medicinal plant marketing and strategies for sustaining the plant supply in the Bushbuckridge area and Mpumalanga Province. Institute for Natural Resources, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa). Although herbal remedies are freely available in amayeza stores, or Xhosa chemists, for self-medication, little is known about the motivations of consumers. According to African belief systems, good health is holistic and extends to the person's social environment. The paper makes a distinction between traditional medicines which are used to enhance personal well-being generally and for cultural purposes, on the one hand, and medicines used to treat physical conditions only, on the other. Drawing on an eight-month study of Xhosa chemists in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, in 1996, the paper identifies 90 medicines in stock which are used to enhance personal well-being. Just under one-third of all purchases were of medicines to enhance well-being. Remedies particularly popular included medicines believed to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. The protection of infants with medicines which repel evil spirits is a common practice. Consumer behaviours indicate that the range of medicines available is increased by indigenisation of manufactured traditional medicines and cross-cultural borrowing. Case studies confirm that self- and infant medication with indigenous remedies augmented by indigenised medicines plays an important role in primary health care by allaying the fears and anxieties of everyday life within the Xhosa belief system, thereby promoting personal well-being.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Moller, Valerie
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7106 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1010679
- Description: An estimated 27 million South Africans use indigenous medicines (Mander, 1997, Medicinal plant marketing and strategies for sustaining the plant supply in the Bushbuckridge area and Mpumalanga Province. Institute for Natural Resources, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa). Although herbal remedies are freely available in amayeza stores, or Xhosa chemists, for self-medication, little is known about the motivations of consumers. According to African belief systems, good health is holistic and extends to the person's social environment. The paper makes a distinction between traditional medicines which are used to enhance personal well-being generally and for cultural purposes, on the one hand, and medicines used to treat physical conditions only, on the other. Drawing on an eight-month study of Xhosa chemists in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, in 1996, the paper identifies 90 medicines in stock which are used to enhance personal well-being. Just under one-third of all purchases were of medicines to enhance well-being. Remedies particularly popular included medicines believed to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. The protection of infants with medicines which repel evil spirits is a common practice. Consumer behaviours indicate that the range of medicines available is increased by indigenisation of manufactured traditional medicines and cross-cultural borrowing. Case studies confirm that self- and infant medication with indigenous remedies augmented by indigenised medicines plays an important role in primary health care by allaying the fears and anxieties of everyday life within the Xhosa belief system, thereby promoting personal well-being.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2002