Creating Illegitimacy

Negotiating Relations and Reproduction within Christian Contexts in Northwest Namibia

Bibliographic Data

ID5016380
AuthorsJulia Pauli (0000-0003-0533-5873, Institute of Social AnthropologyHamburg UniversityEdmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Flügelbau West (ESA W), 20146 HamburgGermany, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume42
Issue4
Pages408-432
Publication date2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700666-12341233
OpenAlexW2079235104
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited18

The stigmatization of children born out of wedlock is not yet common in the rural community of Fransfontein, Northwest Namibia. Comparable to other regions of southern Africa, the birth of a child is very much valued and welcomed regardless of the parent's marital status, and out-of-wedlock births are very widespread. However, these perceptions are gradually changing. During Sunday mass in the local Protestant church the term /ai-/gôas(b), 'sin child', is increasingly being used to name children originating from extramarital affairs of wealthy married men. This moral discourse is sustained by elite men's wives, who fear their husbands' out-of-wedlock children will place claims on their husbands' wealth. The central aim of the paper is to understand these emerging moral evaluations and discuss their implications as well as creations of novel Christian spaces and new forms of distinction and exclusion

Elite · Negotiation · Perception · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · International Human Rights and Reproductive Law · Law · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Social Psychology

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