Fires of gold : law, spirit, and sacrificial labor in Ghana / Lauren Coyle Rosen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coyle Rosen, Lauren, author.

Series:

Atelier (Oakland, Calif.) ; 4.

Atelier: ethnographic inquiry in the twenty-first century ; 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gold mines and mining--Political aspects--Ghana.

Gold mines and mining.

Gold mines and mining--Ghana--Religious aspects.

Ethnology--Ghana--Religious aspects.

Ethnology.

Gold mines and mining--Political aspects.

Ghana.

Physical Description:

ix, 213 pages : maps ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2020]

Summary:

"Fires of Gold is a powerful ethnography of the often shrouded cultural, legal, political, and spiritual forces governing the gold mining industry in Ghana, one of Africa's most celebrated democracies. Lauren Coyle Rosen argues that significant sources of power have arisen outside of the formal legal system to police, adjudicate, and navigate conflict in this theater of violence, destruction, and rebirth. These authorities, or shadow sovereigns, include the transnational mining company, collectivized artisanal miners, civil society advocacy groups, and significant religious figures and spiritual forces from African, Islamic, and Christian traditions. Often more salient than official bodies of government, the shadow sovereigns reveal a reconstitution of sovereign power-one that, in many ways, is generated by hidden dimensions of the legal system. Coyle Rosen also contends that spiritual forces are central in anchoring and animating shadow sovereigns as well as key forms of legal authority, economic value, and political contestation. This innovative book illuminates how the crucible of gold, itself governed by spirits, serves as a critical site for embodied struggles over the realignment of the classical philosophical triage: the city, the soul, and the sacred"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Artisanal miners and sacrificial laws

Spiritual sovereigns in the shadows

Pray for the mine

Fallen chiefs and divine violence

Effigies, strikes, and courts

Conclusion: out of the golden twilight?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Coyle Rosen, Lauren, Fires of gold

ISBN:

9780520343320

0520343328

9780520343337

0520343336

OCLC:

1155487210