Materiality, morality and masculinities in the social transformations of war in Angola

Spall, John and Abranches, Maria (2022) Materiality, morality and masculinities in the social transformations of war in Angola. Men and Masculinities, 25 (2). pp. 195-212. ISSN 1552-6828

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Abstract

In this article we use men’s changing investments in desired material objects as a window into the changing moralities underpinning masculinities in the wake of Angola’s civil war. Drawing on participant observation and life history interviews with middle-aged men working in informal commerce in the city of Huambo, we examine the roles of land, houses, and cars in the construction of different styles of masculinity. We argue that analyzing differences among men’s investments in these objects provides useful insights into how men construct multireferential masculinities in a contested postcolonial, postwar context in which questions of gendered cultural hegemony are contentious and complex. These masculinities map onto competing, yet overlapping, sets of moral values that rework preexisting gendered cultural forms and practices to cope with the social and economic consequences of the war and to express aspirations for disparate modernities.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding: The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in Portugal (PTDC/AFR/114738/2009), by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP-070-10F), and by DEVCo at the University of East Anglia, UK (DEV72RI).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	africa,anthropology,ethnography,fatherhood,hegemonic masculinity,identity,marriage,religion,war,gender studies,history,sociology and political science,literature and literary theory ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3318
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Life Course, Migration and Wellbeing Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Migration Research Network
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	13 Jan 2021 00:54
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 07:38
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/78166
DOI:	10.1177/1097184X20986836

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