Michael Bourdillon
Biographic Data
| ID | 648693 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Bourdillon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Bourdillon |
| SIGNATURE | BOURDILLON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zimbabwe |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 51 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 138 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 51 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Rights and Wrongs of Children's Work
Rights and Wrongs of Children's Work , authored by an interdisciplinary team of experts, incorporates recent theoretical advances and experiences to explore the place of labor in children's lives and development. This groundbreaking book considers international policies governing children's work and the complexity of assessing the various effects of their work. The authors question current child labor policies and interventions, which, even thoug…
Policy on Children's Work and Labour
Current international child labour policies emphasise removing children from work rather than improving their well‐being. Prohibited ‘child labour’ extends beyond work shown to be harmful, and work in poorer, majority‐world societies is particularly targeted. These policies ignore benefits that children can gain from work, and have been developed largely without the involvement of the children, families and communities most concerned, limiting ch…
The Joke Is on Us (At 34[3)]
Young entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa
Youth unemployment is a world-wide problem, particularly evident in developing countries, where even when economies grow and education systems expand, these are not matched by employment opportunit
Neglected dimensions of child well-being
Academic researchers on children should not ignore criteria for children's well-being. Starting from the observation that attempts at protection from harmful work has often damaged children's opportunities, the article argues that protection must be broader than simply protection from particular risks, and take in protection of opportunities. Moreover, researchers need to find ways to look beyond material and cognitive development to neglected ar…
Children's chances: How countries can move from surviving to thriving
Taking the long view: Temporal considerations in the ethics of children's research activity and knowledge production
Children are increasingly engaged in the research process as generators of knowledge, but little is known about the impacts on children's lives, especially in the longer term. As part of a study on children's mobility in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa, 70 child researchers received training to conduct peer research in their own communities. Evaluations at the time of the project suggested largely positive impacts on the child researchers: increas…
Introduction: Development, Children, and Protection
This paper introduces the special issue. It first places the protection of children in the context of development studies. It goes on to outline current international trends in the protection of children and raises questions about them. Finally, it introduces the papers in the issue and highlights how they speak to the questions raised. Introduction : développement, enfants et protection Cet article constitue l'introduction du numéro spécial. Il …
Concluding reflections: How Might We Really Protect Children
The articles contained in this issue present a panorama of good protective intentions gone awry. International or national policies presumed to benefit children appeared in field research to be ine
A Challenge for Globalised Thinking: How Does Children's Work Relate to Their Development
International standards on children's work generally assume that work is incompatible with schooling and hinders human capital formation. These standards are based on ideals which have matured in high-income countries, and are not necessarily appropriate for children everywhere. This article challenges the dichotomy between work and learning in children's lives. In practice, many children successfully combine work and school. Their work often com…
Children as Research Collaborators: Issues and Reflections from a Mobility Study in Sub‐Saharan Africa
This paper reflects on issues raised by work with children in an ongoing child mobility study in three sub‐Saharan African countries: Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. There are now 70 school pupils of varying ages involved in the project, but the paper is particularly concerned with the participation of those children 14 years and under. We examine the significant ethical issues associated with working with younger child researchers, and linked qu…
Doing it right?’: Working with young researchers in Malawi to investigate children, transport and mobility
This paper explores involving children in Malawi in research about young people, mobility and transport, respecting their rights of participation, education, and protection from exploitation. The Malawi study forms one component of a research project taking place in three sub-Saharan African countries. A foundation of the larger project was the conviction that children are experts on their own lives; therefore seeking children's views was essenti…
Re‐assessing minimum‐age standards for children's work
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to call for re‐thinking of the universal minimum‐age approach to problems of child labour. Design/methodology/approach The authors point out that there has been no serious policy analysis on universal minimum‐age approaches, and question common assumptions concerning such policies by reviewing available knowledge on the impact of work on children. Findings Available research does not support a presumption that…
Children and Work: A Review of Current Literature and Debates
Recent literature concerning work in the lives of children raises several contentious issues. This contribution starts with issues arising from conceptualizations of childhood: we need to understand the continuities between the various stages of childhood and the adult world, and see children as active agents in their own development. The article discusses discourse and terminology surrounding children's work; children's rights and their relation…
Children in development
Contemporary development studies have been attending to perspectives and strategies of people at the periphery of power as important actors in change. I argue that such an approach (which includes gendered actors) should extend to children, and show that they can be significant in development interventions. On the other hand, the participation of children in development processes highlights problems of competence that are intrinsic to interventio…
Child labour and education: A study from south-eastern Zimbabwe
This article looks at a system by which children contract to work for tea estates as a condition of attendance at their boarding schools. The children have very little free time and the conditions are harsh. Nevertheless, attendance at the school is by choice and the schools offer opportunities for many who would not otherwise get to school. They even offer some advantages to those children who have alternatives available. The interests of these …
The Shona Peoples: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Shona, with Special Reference to Their Religion
Studying Thy Neighbor: Reflections on Participation
In a recent article in Anthropology and Humanism, Ellen Badone (1995) raises, but does not pursue, an issue that has concerned me for some time. She points out that she reacted unfavorably to a healer who used techniques that Badone regarded as manipulative in her own culture. She suggests that difficulty in suspending disbelief points to an advantage in cultural distance in anthropological fieldwork. My suggestion is that we should learn another…
Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe
David Beach, M. F. C. Bourdillon, James Denbow, Martin Hall, Paul Lane, Innocent Pikirayi, Gilbert Pwiti, Thomas N. Huffman, Thomas N. Huffman, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 166 (Dec., 1997), pp. 125-143
Traditional Healers and Childhood in Zimbabwe
On the Theology of Anthropology: A response to Stephen Buckland
The Shona and Their Neighbours
African Traditional Religions in Religious Education: A Resource Book with Special Reference to Zimbabwe
Street children in Harare
After giving some general information about children working on the streets of Harare, the article discusses the way children live on the streets when the streets become their home. It gives some reasons for their being on the streets, describes how they organise themselves and how they earn a living, and comments on their values. The article goes on to point out that there are a variety of perspectives on where the problem of street children lie…
Anthropological Approaches To the Study of African Religions
This paper arose from a presentation to an I.H.A.R. conference on the study of religions in Africa. The paper looks at lessons that might be learned from social anthropologists for the study of African religions. I start by looking at problems in collecting data: there are the limitations of the observer's point of view, the pervasiveness of relations of power between observer and observed, and limitations even of the views of members of the soci…
Doing it right?’: Working with young researchers in Malawi to investigate children, transport and mobility
This paper explores involving children in Malawi in research about young people, mobility and transport, respecting their rights of participation, education, and protection from exploitation. The Malawi study forms one component of a research project taking place in three sub-Saharan African countries. A foundation of the larger project was the conviction that children are experts on their own lives; therefore seeking children's views was essenti…
On a Cognitive Theory of Religion
Children as Research Collaborators: Issues and Reflections from a Mobility Study in Sub‐Saharan Africa
This paper reflects on issues raised by work with children in an ongoing child mobility study in three sub‐Saharan African countries: Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. There are now 70 school pupils of varying ages involved in the project, but the paper is particularly concerned with the participation of those children 14 years and under. We examine the significant ethical issues associated with working with younger child researchers, and linked qu…
Street children in Harare
After giving some general information about children working on the streets of Harare, the article discusses the way children live on the streets when the streets become their home. It gives some reasons for their being on the streets, describes how they organise themselves and how they earn a living, and comments on their values. The article goes on to point out that there are a variety of perspectives on where the problem of street children lie…
Knowing the World or Hiding It: A Response to Maurice Bloch
Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe
David Beach, M. F. C. Bourdillon, James Denbow, Martin Hall, Paul Lane, Innocent Pikirayi, Gilbert Pwiti, Thomas N. Huffman, Thomas N. Huffman, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 166 (Dec., 1997), pp. 125-143
Children in development
Contemporary development studies have been attending to perspectives and strategies of people at the periphery of power as important actors in change. I argue that such an approach (which includes gendered actors) should extend to children, and show that they can be significant in development interventions. On the other hand, the participation of children in development processes highlights problems of competence that are intrinsic to interventio…
The Manipulation of Myth in a Tavara Chiefdom
IntroductionIn this paper we consider how a functional study can help us to understand the manipulation of myths. This is not to return to the functionalism of Radcliffe-Brown (1935) which sought to explain every social institution by showing how it helps to maintain the social structure. Rather we consider what the myth-maker is trying to do in recounting his stories, or the function these stories serve for the narrator. We are concerned with th…
Neglected dimensions of child well-being
Academic researchers on children should not ignore criteria for children's well-being. Starting from the observation that attempts at protection from harmful work has often damaged children's opportunities, the article argues that protection must be broader than simply protection from particular risks, and take in protection of opportunities. Moreover, researchers need to find ways to look beyond material and cognitive development to neglected ar…
Re‐assessing minimum‐age standards for children's work
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to call for re‐thinking of the universal minimum‐age approach to problems of child labour. Design/methodology/approach The authors point out that there has been no serious policy analysis on universal minimum‐age approaches, and question common assumptions concerning such policies by reviewing available knowledge on the impact of work on children. Findings Available research does not support a presumption that…
Symbols of Death: An Analysis of the Consciousness of the Karanga
Guns and Rain: Taking Structural Analysis Too Far
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study of an East African Mission at the Grassroots
Concluding reflections: How Might We Really Protect Children
The articles contained in this issue present a panorama of good protective intentions gone awry. International or national policies presumed to benefit children appeared in field research to be ine
Taking the long view: Temporal considerations in the ethics of children's research activity and knowledge production
Children are increasingly engaged in the research process as generators of knowledge, but little is known about the impacts on children's lives, especially in the longer term. As part of a study on children's mobility in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa, 70 child researchers received training to conduct peer research in their own communities. Evaluations at the time of the project suggested largely positive impacts on the child researchers: increas…
Religion and Authority in a Korekore Community
Opening ParagraphIn her lucid and persuasive Henry Myers Lecture on 'The power of rights' (Man, 1977), Professor La Fontaine argues that since the Gisu themselves cite transition from one status to another as the purpose of their initiation rites, this transformation cannot logically explain them. Taking up Maurice Bloch's idea that religion is concerned with inequality and hierarchy (1974; 1977), La Fontaine argues convincingly that the explanat…
Traditional Healers and Childhood in Zimbabwe
Anthropological Approaches To the Study of African Religions
This paper arose from a presentation to an I.H.A.R. conference on the study of religions in Africa. The paper looks at lessons that might be learned from social anthropologists for the study of African religions. I start by looking at problems in collecting data: there are the limitations of the observer's point of view, the pervasiveness of relations of power between observer and observed, and limitations even of the views of members of the soci…
An Overture to Social Anthropology
Oracles and Politics in Ancient Israel
Children's chances: How countries can move from surviving to thriving
Value and Values in Evolution
Religion and Ethics in Korekore Society 1
The Korekore people are members of the Shona-speaking cluster of peoples, and are situated in the extreme north-east of Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe. In this paper, I use mainly data I collected during two years of intensive field research from I969 to 1971, supported by four years of less intensive contact with the communities among whom I had lived. I shall also be drawing a little on data collected by Kingsley Garbett among related communities in the ea…
The Manipulation of Myth in a Tavara Chiefdom
IntroductionIn this paper we consider how a functional study can help us to understand the manipulation of myths. This is not to return to the functionalism of Radcliffe-Brown (1935) which sought to explain every social institution by showing how it helps to maintain the social structure. Rather we consider what the myth-maker is trying to do in recounting his stories, or the function these stories serve for the narrator. We are concerned with th…
The American Children of Krsna: A Study of the Hare Krsna Movement
Oracles and Politics in Ancient Israel
Knowing the World or Hiding It: A Response to Maurice Bloch
Anthropology and the Old Testament
In Habit: An Anthropological Study of Working Nuns
Religion and Ethics in Korekore Society 1
The Korekore people are members of the Shona-speaking cluster of peoples, and are situated in the extreme north-east of Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe. In this paper, I use mainly data I collected during two years of intensive field research from I969 to 1971, supported by four years of less intensive contact with the communities among whom I had lived. I shall also be drawing a little on data collected by Kingsley Garbett among related communities in the ea…
Religion and Ethics in Korekore Society
Religion and Authority in a Korekore Community
Opening ParagraphIn her lucid and persuasive Henry Myers Lecture on 'The power of rights' (Man, 1977), Professor La Fontaine argues that since the Gisu themselves cite transition from one status to another as the purpose of their initiation rites, this transformation cannot logically explain them. Taking up Maurice Bloch's idea that religion is concerned with inequality and hierarchy (1974; 1977), La Fontaine argues convincingly that the explanat…
Technology, Tradition and the State in Africa
An Overture to Social Anthropology
Value and Values in Evolution
On a Cognitive Theory of Religion
The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight
Sacrifice
Christianity and Wealth in Rural Zimbabwe
Pluralism and Problems of Belief / Pluralisme et problèmes de croyance
Bourdillon Michael F.C. Pluralism and Problems of Belief / Pluralisme et problèmes de croyance.. In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions, n°54/1, 1982. pp. 21-42
Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self
This article introduces a special issue of Man dedicated to indigenous psychologies. It argues for the importance of anthropological studies of the self and personhood, challenging Western psychological assumptions about the universality of individualistic conceptions of self. The authors suggest that understanding indigenous concepts of self requires examining their embeddedness within specific social and cultural contexts, including kinship sys…
Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study of an East African Mission at the Grassroots
The Drunken King, Or, the Origin of the State
Guns and Rain: Guerrillas & Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe
The Operational Zone 1. Guerrillas and Mediums 2. The People and the Land Part II. The Lions of Rain 3. The Land and the Dead 4. The Great Spectacle of the Past 5. The Valley of Affines 6. The Country of Kin Part III. The Sons of the Soil 7. The Coming of the Guerrillas 8. The Legitimacy of Resistance 9. From Chiefs to Guerrillas 10. The Politics of Tradition Part IV. To Zimbabwe and Beyond 11. The Ancestors and the Party 12. The Ancestors and th…
Teaching the Anthropology of Religion
Religion, Magic and Witchcraft in Africa
Guns and Rain: Taking Structural Analysis Too Far
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Fourth International Ethnography of Childhood Workshop
Sociology (30 works) · Political science (23 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Anthropology (13 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (13 works) · History (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works)