OxTalks is Changing
OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Gifting luck: The generativity of kin and action among Gbaya gold miners
This paper explores practices and conceptualisations of luck (‘desonti’) among Gbaya artisanal miners in Cameroon. It traces the emergence and transmission of luck through gift-giving and ritual relations with kin, notably children and ancestors, and how it animates the material and value transformations taking place in mining. In doing so, I consider how ‘luck’ blurs the analytical boundaries between exchange, ritual and technical acts to show how this generative, vital force is both produced through human action and renders it efficacious. Focusing on the unpredictable production of gold, I explore how Gbaya notions of ‘luck’ simultaneously express the limits of human agency whilst providing an alternative agentive framework through which uncertainty is negotiated.
Date:
4 November 2022, 15:15
Venue:
64 Banbury Road, 64 Banbury Road OX2 6PN
Speaker:
Rosalie Allain (University of Oxford)
Organising department:
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography
Part of:
Anthropology Departmental Seminar Series: Trinity 2024
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Kate Atherton
