Contradictions in modelling 'consciousness
Zimbabwean proletarians in the making
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4844765 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Angela Cheater (University of Zimbabwe, corresponding author), A P Cheater |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 291-303 |
| Publication date | 1988-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03057078808708175 |
| OpenAlex | W1970020775 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 14 |
I have long been uneasy about 'consciousness' as a concept in the social sciences. Too often, one person's 'consciousness', especially in the matter of cultural interpretation, is another's 'false consciousness'. In part, my unease derives from my own sceptical reaction to the societal practices with which I grew up in Southern Africa. 'Culture' in Southern Rhodesia was, and maybe in South Africa still is, consciously invoked by whites as a transparently 'ideological' concept, in political exhortations to protect white or 'European' or 'Christian' 'culture' against 'communism'. Today 'culture' is used similarly by black politicians, in their public rhetoric about 'our culture' and the necessity to preserve 'cultural traditions'. Our new politicians, however, go further than the colonial variety, in deliberately and consciously creating neo-traditional behaviour to 'preserve' that 'culture' (for example, in Zimbabwe's new 'culture houses' and airport receptions for visiting dignitaries). Their emphasis on traditional culture may, as van Binsbergen (1981:302)1 suggests, reflect the politicians' alienation from their cultural traditions, but in my view has more to do with political control. However, the views of 'custom' and 'tradition' held by the ordinary people among whom I have done research, have been much more ambivalent than those of African politicians, black or white. Sometimes, as I have recorded of two separate investigations,2 individuals may articulate an extremely hard-nosed 'consciousness' of tradition and custom, emphasising their individual and collective rights to ignore and replace customs when they see fit. Custom, in their view, is consciously negotiable through conflict
Aesthetics · Alienation · Consciousness · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Proletariat · Rhetoric · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Law · South African History and Culture
The Dynamics of Culture Change; An Inquiry Into Race Relations in Africa
Rationality and Relativism
The Relevance of Models for Social Anthropology
Reason and Morality
The Development of an African Working Class
Ideology and utopia
Strategy and Transaction in an African Factory
Structural Anthropology Volume II
The law of the land
Women and Their Participation in Commercial Agricultural Production
On the Study of Social Change
Strategy and Transaction in an African Factory
A marginal elite? African registered nurses in Durban, South Africa
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 1989 - 2009 (21) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |