Denigration of a Culture or Cultural Change in Malawi: The Kitchen Party

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Periodical article

Title:	Denigration of a Culture or Cultural Change in Malawi: The Kitchen Party
Author:	Kamlongera, C.F.
Year:	1986
Periodical:	Bulletin of the International Committee on Urgent Anthropological and Ethnological Research
Issue:	28-29
Pages:	53-65
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Malawi
Subjects:	girls' initiation Cultural Roles Marital Relations and Nuptiality Religion and Witchcraft
Abstract:	This paper looks at cultural change in Malawi by examining the way in which the girls' initiation ceremony has changed over the years. In particular it considers the 'Kitchen Party', a kind of initiation ceremony which has developed in the urban centres of Malawi since the late 1970s. On the basis of a discussion of the origin of the Kitchen Party, and of its aims, organization, procedures and structure, the paper shows how the ceremony combines aspects of traditional initiation rites with modern, notably Christian ideas. Notes, ref.