Social Organisation, Identity & Belonging in a Malian Village. : Aspects of social organisation and identity in Blendio, a village situated in the Southern part of Mali.

Abstract

In this thesis, I study aspects of social organisation and identity in Blendio, a village situated in the Southern part of Mali. I am concerned with questions of difference, sameness, exchange, and issues of belonging. I explore how people produce and reproduce social relationships and identities in selected ethnographic contexts. Villagers spend most of their time and effort in the domestic- and in the wider economic sphere. I study the organisation of labour and the transfers of resources between individuals and units. Identities and relationships are produced through work and exchange. Kinship, descent, gender, and age are main organising principles in the village. The household is the basic unit in everyday production and consumption. The recruitement to the customary political units follow rules of primogeniture and patrilineal descent. Clan-, caste-, and ethnic identities are also transmitted through lines of descent. The village s social landscape is complex. People create sameness and difference in many ways. Villagers identify themselves and others in terms of clan-, caste-, and ethnic affiliation. Simultaneously, matrimonial alliances, joking relationships, religious- and regional identities create integration between members of different categories.