Introduction: new insights on marriage and Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Introduction: new insights on marriage and Africa
Author:	Hunter, Mark
Year:	2016
Periodical:	Africa Today (ISSN 1527-1978)
Volume:	62
Issue:	3
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	marriage African studies
External link:	https://muse.jhu.edu/article/610767
Abstract:	In this introductory article, the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including transnational marriage, migration and polygamy in Africa. African studies have moved away from foregrounding marriage, partly because the subject has become associated with paradigms, particularly structural functionalism, that themselves have fallen from grace. A new generation of scholars has embraced fresh areas, most notably love and sexuality. Over the last twenty years, perhaps the most significant development has been the attempt by the HIV/AIDS industry to conceptualize and intervene in a discrete world of African sexuality. Along the way, some of the detail and richness of marriage has been lost, with important consequences. What this special issue offers is an insistence on detail within new frameworks, such as love and transnationalism, which can reinvigorate a theme that, even in its relative absence, remains vitally important to all. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]