BOOK REVIEW

Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa.

Abstract

This paper is about the ethnography, Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Dettwyler. This is a book review and an analysis of the contents of the book. Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa

Introduction

Ethnography is a qualitative variety of research design used to explore cultural beliefs and reflects the knowledge of life of a specific cultural group. It was initially used for socio-cultural anthropology, but now become a famous method in other fields of communication studies, sociology, and history. It studies people, various ethnic groups, and their ethnic development, i.e. ethnogenesis, resettlement, social welfare and their material and spiritual backgrounds. It is used for gathering data on specific societies and their cultures. The information is gathered through observation, questionnaires, and interviews (Wolcott, 1999). Ethnography describes the nature and characteristics of those who are observed, example is the work of Dettwyler (Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa).

Social anthropologists have a high value due to their ethnographic research and collection of ethnographic information. The ethnography is a written material about a particular culture. Ethnographers study culture and its variations through their fieldwork. It is a specific type of observational evidence, which provides information of a particular society and culture. The study involves spending at least one year in that culture, living with the people to learn about their life. Ethnographers observe to understand the behavior and thought pattern of that community (Wolcott, 1999).

Discussion

Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa Review

This book is about the West African nation of Mali, the writer demonstrates about the condition of children in that particular region. The socio-economic conditions in that region are deteriorating day by day. 172 children out of 1000 die due to homicide, wars, malnutrition, drowning, and accidents. It is highest mortality rate for children in the world.

In the West African, the causes of death to children are not the same as the rest of the regions of world; it also includes malaria, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and schistosomiasis, and other communicable diseases, which are unique to this region.

Malaria occurs in the young children and causes 33% of all febrile diseases during the rainy season in Mali. In 1998, most of children got infection of schistosomiasis. About 50% of the children in rural Mali got this infection. Schistosomiasis is a parasite, abundantly found in Africa, and infects humans; its intermediated host ...