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’The Men Seldom Suf...
’The Men Seldom Suffer a Woman to Sit Down’: The Historical Development of the Stereotype of the ‘Lazy African’
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- Rönnbäck, Klas, 1974 (author)
- Gothenburg University,Göteborgs universitet,Institutionen för ekonomi och samhälle, Ekonomisk historia,Department of Economy and Society, Economic History
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(creator_code:org_t)
- 2014-06-04
- 2014
- English.
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In: African Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0002-0184 .- 1469-2872. ; 73:2, s. 211-227
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Abstract
Subject headings
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- This article studies the historical development of the racist stereotype of the ‘lazy African’ in the early modern period, specifically looking at how Europeans explained the stereotype. Previous research has argued that the stereotype can be explained either by its function as way of justifying labour coercion such as slavery, or as a consequence of an idea of a ‘tropical exuberance’ in West Africa. In this article, it is argued that previous research on this topic largely has missed what perhaps was the most important factor, suggested already by Ester Boserup: that the gendered division of labour present in precolonial West Africa, which was unfamiliar to the European observers in many ways, was crucial for the rise of the stereotype.
Subject headings
- HUMANIORA -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)
- HUMANITIES -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)
Keyword
- West Africa
- work ethic
- stereotype
- slavery
- gender
- division of labour
Publication and Content Type
- ref (subject category)
- art (subject category)
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