Mensah Adinkrah
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 117916 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Mensah Adinkrah |
| PRENOMES | Mensah |
| SOBRENOME | Adinkrah |
| ASSINATURA | ADINKRAH M |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Central Michigan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1689-7329 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 24 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 125 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 25 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1999 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2023 |
| ÍNDICE H | 6 |
Suicide in an Akan Language Novel
Suicide in fiction can promote insights into perceptions of, and attitudes about suicide ideation and behavior in a society. This article uses the novel Aku Sika as a case in point. Aku Sika is a novel set in Ghana in the 1950s. A young married woman attempts to end her life to avoid imminent disgrace. The king’s youngest wife, Aku, plots to commit suicide in response to rivalry and evil machinations of the king’s senior-most wife, S?kyeraa. Aku …
Beliefs about ghosts among the Akan of Ghana
As a thanatologist who specializes in mortuary beliefs and rites in Ghana, I frequently come across information on Akan cultural beliefs about ghosts, as well as individual or personal stories of ghost encounters. Yet, there has been virtually no academic inquiry into the topic. Between January and February 2015, I listened to four consecutive weekly radio programs focusing primarily on ghosts on a commercial radio station in Ghana. The programs …
Anti-suicide themes in popular Ghanaian music
The current article presents the results of a content analysis of a popular Ghanaian gospel song with anti-suicide themes and lyrics that have great potential to prevent suicidal behavior among listeners. The analysis was conducted against a backdrop of public intimations that suicide rates in the country were rising. The results of the analysis show that several lines in the lyrical text implore the listener to resist suicide while offering mess…
Gendered mourning
Death is the commonest, incomprehensible, and inescapable reality confronting humanity in all nations and cultures. However, cultures vary in their conceptions of death, grieving and mourning rituals. Among the Akan of Ghana, mourning and funeral obsequies are essential cultural and spiritual practices. In this article, we draw insights from our reflective lived experiences and critical literature review to explore mourning and death rituals amon…
Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana
We Will All Go, But What We All Seek Is Good Death”
Thanatologists who have researched mortuary beliefs and practices from around the world posit that many societies differentiate between good and bad deaths. The current study utilized in-depth interviews with 30 Akan culture experts to investigate what the Akan ethnic group of Ghana considers to be good death. The results show that Akan good death is natural harmonious death that occurs at advanced age. The deceased would also have experienced a …
If you die a bad death, we give you a bad burial
This article describes features of bad deaths and their associated mortuary rituals among the Akan of Ghana. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 Akan cultural experts. In Akan culture, bad deaths are associated with brief, perfunctory mortuary rituals. There is no washing, keeping of wake over the body, nor any presentation of grave goods, and no bidding of farewell to the decedent. Every effort is made to expunge the de…
Crash-landings of flying witches in Ghana
Crash-landings are a recurrent theme in Ghanaian witchcraft discourse. In the society's witchcraft lore, these are inadvertently aborted flights of maleficent witches en route to secret nocturnal witches' assemblies or to carry out diabolical deeds. While those accused of being witches who have crash-landed invariably face severe mistreatment, no study has systematically explored this purported phenomenon. In this article, I describe the results …
Characteristics of Elderly Suicides in Ghana
A major gap in the extant research literature on suicide in Ghana is lack of a systematic study of patterns and trends in elderly suicides. To address the lack of scholarship on the topic, this exploratory, descriptive study presents the results of an epidemiological analysis of 40 media-reported suicides involving persons aged 60 years and older during the 2005-2016 period. Key findings are that the vast bulk of elderly persons who died by suici…
Patricides and Step-Patricides in Ghana
Suicide and Mortuary Beliefs and Practices of the Akan of Ghana
Akan society has traditionally held a negative and condemnatory view of suicide. Evidence of this is reflected in the lack of public mourning, brevity of the grieving period, and denial of proper burial rites and funeral obsequies for the suicide. Furthermore, because suicide is regarded as an abomination against the living, the departed ancestors, as well as the gods of the land, the political authorities of the land must be notified immediately…
Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana
Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana
Witchcraft violence is a feature of many contemporary African societies. In Ghana, belief in witchcraft and the malignant activities of putative witches is prevalent. Purported witches are blamed for all manner of adversities including inexplicable illnesses and untimely deaths. As in other historical periods and other societies, in contemporary Ghana, alleged witches are typically female, elderly, poor, and marginalized. Childhood socialization …
Intimate Partner Femicide–Suicides in Ghana
The present study investigated the scope, nature, and determinants of intimate partner femicide-suicides (IPFS) that occurred in Ghana during 1990 to 2009. All 35 reported cases of intimate partner homicide-suicides with female homicide victims that occurred during the study period were extracted from a major Ghanaian daily newspaper. Findings indicate that offenders were of lower socioeconomic background and tended to be older than their victims…
Better dead than dishonored
Patterns of Female Suicidal Behavior in Ghana
The suicidal behavior of African females is a rarely explored topic. The present study is a descriptive analysis of fatal and nonfatal female suicidal behavior in Ghana. Patterns of both fatal and nonfatal female suicidal behavior recorded by the Ghana Police Service during 2006-2008 are examined and described in depth. The data show that during the 3-yr. period, there were 11 fatal and 4 nonfatal suicidal acts by females, out of the total 243 fa…
Witchcraft Themes in Popular Ghanaian Music
Music has a vital role in all societies, serving as a major conduit for the transmission of cultural values, beliefs, and norms. To investigate music's role in the acquisition, dissemination, and perpetuation of Akan witchcraft ideology in Ghana, West Africa, this article explores the representation of witchcraft in highlife and gospel music through the example of three songs. Critical analysis of the song lyrics, transcribed from audio‐cassette …
Spousal homicides in contemporary Ghana
Women who kill their husbands
Homicide by wives against husbands is a largely unexplored subject in lethal violence research. The paucity of information on the phenomenon is particularly acute in the non‐Western world where scholarly research is virtually nonexistent. The specific goal for this article, then, was to provide additional insights into the issue by investigating wife‐to‐husband killings that occurred in Ghana, a non‐Western society, during 1990–2005. In line with…
Husbands Who Kill Their Wives
This article addresses the current lack of research on uxoricides in non-Western societies by examining the phenomenon in Ghana, West Africa. Analysis of data from the 60 husband-wife killings reported in a national daily newspaper reveals that jealousy and suspicion of infidelity overwhelmingly provided the basis for wife murders. The findings also indicate that assailants and victims were of low socioeconomic background and the murders predomin…
Vigilante homicides in contemporary Ghana
Witchcraft Accusations and Female Homicide Victimization in Contemporary Ghana
The goal of this article is to enhance awareness of witchcraft-related femicides. In Ghana, stereotypes abound of elderly women as witches. In some instances, suspicions or accusations of witchcraft are followed by lethal or nonlethal assault of the supposed witch. This article examines witch beliefs in Ghana and analyzes 13 incidents of homicide committed against women accused of witchcraft during 1995 to 2001. The author presents a genderbased …
Patriarchal Family Ideology and Female Homicide Victimization in Fiji
Despite the burgeoning scholarship on femicide, there has been surprisingly little empirical investigation of the phenomenon in non-Western societies. This study addresses this empirical lacuna by focusing on female homicide victimization in Fiji, a non-Western society. Homicide data spanning an 11 -year period are analyzed for nature, scope and trends. The findings demonstrate that femicides in Fiji are associated with entrenched patriarchal ide…
Female-perpetrated spousal homicides The case of Fiji
Uxoricide in Fiji
Prior research has demonstrated a close relationship between patriarchy and female homicide victimization. This study examines this uxoricide-patriarchy connection in a non-Western society, Fiji. It is demonstrated that most cases of uxoricide among Fiji Indians emanate from husbands' attempts to enforce traditional sexual mores enshrined in a rigidly patriarchal society. The data suggest that rancorous confrontations between husbands and wives o…
Better dead than dishonored
Vigilante homicides in contemporary Ghana
Witchcraft Accusations and Female Homicide Victimization in Contemporary Ghana
The goal of this article is to enhance awareness of witchcraft-related femicides. In Ghana, stereotypes abound of elderly women as witches. In some instances, suspicions or accusations of witchcraft are followed by lethal or nonlethal assault of the supposed witch. This article examines witch beliefs in Ghana and analyzes 13 incidents of homicide committed against women accused of witchcraft during 1995 to 2001. The author presents a genderbased …
Husbands Who Kill Their Wives
This article addresses the current lack of research on uxoricides in non-Western societies by examining the phenomenon in Ghana, West Africa. Analysis of data from the 60 husband-wife killings reported in a national daily newspaper reveals that jealousy and suspicion of infidelity overwhelmingly provided the basis for wife murders. The findings also indicate that assailants and victims were of low socioeconomic background and the murders predomin…
Intimate Partner Femicide–Suicides in Ghana
The present study investigated the scope, nature, and determinants of intimate partner femicide-suicides (IPFS) that occurred in Ghana during 1990 to 2009. All 35 reported cases of intimate partner homicide-suicides with female homicide victims that occurred during the study period were extracted from a major Ghanaian daily newspaper. Findings indicate that offenders were of lower socioeconomic background and tended to be older than their victims…
Uxoricide in Fiji
Prior research has demonstrated a close relationship between patriarchy and female homicide victimization. This study examines this uxoricide-patriarchy connection in a non-Western society, Fiji. It is demonstrated that most cases of uxoricide among Fiji Indians emanate from husbands' attempts to enforce traditional sexual mores enshrined in a rigidly patriarchal society. The data suggest that rancorous confrontations between husbands and wives o…
If you die a bad death, we give you a bad burial
This article describes features of bad deaths and their associated mortuary rituals among the Akan of Ghana. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 Akan cultural experts. In Akan culture, bad deaths are associated with brief, perfunctory mortuary rituals. There is no washing, keeping of wake over the body, nor any presentation of grave goods, and no bidding of farewell to the decedent. Every effort is made to expunge the de…
Spousal homicides in contemporary Ghana
Female-perpetrated spousal homicides The case of Fiji
Women who kill their husbands
Homicide by wives against husbands is a largely unexplored subject in lethal violence research. The paucity of information on the phenomenon is particularly acute in the non‐Western world where scholarly research is virtually nonexistent. The specific goal for this article, then, was to provide additional insights into the issue by investigating wife‐to‐husband killings that occurred in Ghana, a non‐Western society, during 1990–2005. In line with…
Witchcraft Themes in Popular Ghanaian Music
Music has a vital role in all societies, serving as a major conduit for the transmission of cultural values, beliefs, and norms. To investigate music's role in the acquisition, dissemination, and perpetuation of Akan witchcraft ideology in Ghana, West Africa, this article explores the representation of witchcraft in highlife and gospel music through the example of three songs. Critical analysis of the song lyrics, transcribed from audio‐cassette …
Gendered mourning
Death is the commonest, incomprehensible, and inescapable reality confronting humanity in all nations and cultures. However, cultures vary in their conceptions of death, grieving and mourning rituals. Among the Akan of Ghana, mourning and funeral obsequies are essential cultural and spiritual practices. In this article, we draw insights from our reflective lived experiences and critical literature review to explore mourning and death rituals amon…
Crash-landings of flying witches in Ghana
Crash-landings are a recurrent theme in Ghanaian witchcraft discourse. In the society's witchcraft lore, these are inadvertently aborted flights of maleficent witches en route to secret nocturnal witches' assemblies or to carry out diabolical deeds. While those accused of being witches who have crash-landed invariably face severe mistreatment, no study has systematically explored this purported phenomenon. In this article, I describe the results …
Patricides and Step-Patricides in Ghana
Patriarchal Family Ideology and Female Homicide Victimization in Fiji
Despite the burgeoning scholarship on femicide, there has been surprisingly little empirical investigation of the phenomenon in non-Western societies. This study addresses this empirical lacuna by focusing on female homicide victimization in Fiji, a non-Western society. Homicide data spanning an 11 -year period are analyzed for nature, scope and trends. The findings demonstrate that femicides in Fiji are associated with entrenched patriarchal ide…
Uxoricide in Fiji
Prior research has demonstrated a close relationship between patriarchy and female homicide victimization. This study examines this uxoricide-patriarchy connection in a non-Western society, Fiji. It is demonstrated that most cases of uxoricide among Fiji Indians emanate from husbands' attempts to enforce traditional sexual mores enshrined in a rigidly patriarchal society. The data suggest that rancorous confrontations between husbands and wives o…
Female-perpetrated spousal homicides The case of Fiji
Patriarchal Family Ideology and Female Homicide Victimization in Fiji
Despite the burgeoning scholarship on femicide, there has been surprisingly little empirical investigation of the phenomenon in non-Western societies. This study addresses this empirical lacuna by focusing on female homicide victimization in Fiji, a non-Western society. Homicide data spanning an 11 -year period are analyzed for nature, scope and trends. The findings demonstrate that femicides in Fiji are associated with entrenched patriarchal ide…
Witchcraft Accusations and Female Homicide Victimization in Contemporary Ghana
The goal of this article is to enhance awareness of witchcraft-related femicides. In Ghana, stereotypes abound of elderly women as witches. In some instances, suspicions or accusations of witchcraft are followed by lethal or nonlethal assault of the supposed witch. This article examines witch beliefs in Ghana and analyzes 13 incidents of homicide committed against women accused of witchcraft during 1995 to 2001. The author presents a genderbased …
Vigilante homicides in contemporary Ghana
Women who kill their husbands
Homicide by wives against husbands is a largely unexplored subject in lethal violence research. The paucity of information on the phenomenon is particularly acute in the non‐Western world where scholarly research is virtually nonexistent. The specific goal for this article, then, was to provide additional insights into the issue by investigating wife‐to‐husband killings that occurred in Ghana, a non‐Western society, during 1990–2005. In line with…
Husbands Who Kill Their Wives
This article addresses the current lack of research on uxoricides in non-Western societies by examining the phenomenon in Ghana, West Africa. Analysis of data from the 60 husband-wife killings reported in a national daily newspaper reveals that jealousy and suspicion of infidelity overwhelmingly provided the basis for wife murders. The findings also indicate that assailants and victims were of low socioeconomic background and the murders predomin…
Witchcraft Themes in Popular Ghanaian Music
Music has a vital role in all societies, serving as a major conduit for the transmission of cultural values, beliefs, and norms. To investigate music's role in the acquisition, dissemination, and perpetuation of Akan witchcraft ideology in Ghana, West Africa, this article explores the representation of witchcraft in highlife and gospel music through the example of three songs. Critical analysis of the song lyrics, transcribed from audio‐cassette …
Spousal homicides in contemporary Ghana
Patterns of Female Suicidal Behavior in Ghana
The suicidal behavior of African females is a rarely explored topic. The present study is a descriptive analysis of fatal and nonfatal female suicidal behavior in Ghana. Patterns of both fatal and nonfatal female suicidal behavior recorded by the Ghana Police Service during 2006-2008 are examined and described in depth. The data show that during the 3-yr. period, there were 11 fatal and 4 nonfatal suicidal acts by females, out of the total 243 fa…
Better dead than dishonored
Intimate Partner Femicide–Suicides in Ghana
The present study investigated the scope, nature, and determinants of intimate partner femicide-suicides (IPFS) that occurred in Ghana during 1990 to 2009. All 35 reported cases of intimate partner homicide-suicides with female homicide victims that occurred during the study period were extracted from a major Ghanaian daily newspaper. Findings indicate that offenders were of lower socioeconomic background and tended to be older than their victims…
Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana
Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana
Witchcraft violence is a feature of many contemporary African societies. In Ghana, belief in witchcraft and the malignant activities of putative witches is prevalent. Purported witches are blamed for all manner of adversities including inexplicable illnesses and untimely deaths. As in other historical periods and other societies, in contemporary Ghana, alleged witches are typically female, elderly, poor, and marginalized. Childhood socialization …
Suicide and Mortuary Beliefs and Practices of the Akan of Ghana
Akan society has traditionally held a negative and condemnatory view of suicide. Evidence of this is reflected in the lack of public mourning, brevity of the grieving period, and denial of proper burial rites and funeral obsequies for the suicide. Furthermore, because suicide is regarded as an abomination against the living, the departed ancestors, as well as the gods of the land, the political authorities of the land must be notified immediately…
Patricides and Step-Patricides in Ghana
Characteristics of Elderly Suicides in Ghana
A major gap in the extant research literature on suicide in Ghana is lack of a systematic study of patterns and trends in elderly suicides. To address the lack of scholarship on the topic, this exploratory, descriptive study presents the results of an epidemiological analysis of 40 media-reported suicides involving persons aged 60 years and older during the 2005-2016 period. Key findings are that the vast bulk of elderly persons who died by suici…
Crash-landings of flying witches in Ghana
Crash-landings are a recurrent theme in Ghanaian witchcraft discourse. In the society's witchcraft lore, these are inadvertently aborted flights of maleficent witches en route to secret nocturnal witches' assemblies or to carry out diabolical deeds. While those accused of being witches who have crash-landed invariably face severe mistreatment, no study has systematically explored this purported phenomenon. In this article, I describe the results …
If you die a bad death, we give you a bad burial
This article describes features of bad deaths and their associated mortuary rituals among the Akan of Ghana. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 Akan cultural experts. In Akan culture, bad deaths are associated with brief, perfunctory mortuary rituals. There is no washing, keeping of wake over the body, nor any presentation of grave goods, and no bidding of farewell to the decedent. Every effort is made to expunge the de…
Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana
We Will All Go, But What We All Seek Is Good Death”
Thanatologists who have researched mortuary beliefs and practices from around the world posit that many societies differentiate between good and bad deaths. The current study utilized in-depth interviews with 30 Akan culture experts to investigate what the Akan ethnic group of Ghana considers to be good death. The results show that Akan good death is natural harmonious death that occurs at advanced age. The deceased would also have experienced a …
Suicide in an Akan Language Novel
Suicide in fiction can promote insights into perceptions of, and attitudes about suicide ideation and behavior in a society. This article uses the novel Aku Sika as a case in point. Aku Sika is a novel set in Ghana in the 1950s. A young married woman attempts to end her life to avoid imminent disgrace. The king’s youngest wife, Aku, plots to commit suicide in response to rivalry and evil machinations of the king’s senior-most wife, S?kyeraa. Aku …
Beliefs about ghosts among the Akan of Ghana
As a thanatologist who specializes in mortuary beliefs and rites in Ghana, I frequently come across information on Akan cultural beliefs about ghosts, as well as individual or personal stories of ghost encounters. Yet, there has been virtually no academic inquiry into the topic. Between January and February 2015, I listened to four consecutive weekly radio programs focusing primarily on ghosts on a commercial radio station in Ghana. The programs …
Anti-suicide themes in popular Ghanaian music
The current article presents the results of a content analysis of a popular Ghanaian gospel song with anti-suicide themes and lyrics that have great potential to prevent suicidal behavior among listeners. The analysis was conducted against a backdrop of public intimations that suicide rates in the country were rising. The results of the analysis show that several lines in the lyrical text implore the listener to resist suicide while offering mess…
Gendered mourning
Death is the commonest, incomprehensible, and inescapable reality confronting humanity in all nations and cultures. However, cultures vary in their conceptions of death, grieving and mourning rituals. Among the Akan of Ghana, mourning and funeral obsequies are essential cultural and spiritual practices. In this article, we draw insights from our reflective lived experiences and critical literature review to explore mourning and death rituals amon…
Sociology (18 obras) · Psychology (16 obras) · Medicine (14 obras) · Criminology (13 obras) · Political science (13 obras) · Law (11 obras) · Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse (10 obras) · Poison control (10 obras) · Suicide prevention (9 obras) · History (8 obras)