This paper is based on the interviews that the author carried out between 2005 and 2006 on the Nholowemwizana custom in Plumtree, Zimbabwe. Here the author deploys the concept of cultural violence following the peace ...This paper is based on the interviews that the author carried out between 2005 and 2006 on the Nholowemwizana custom in Plumtree, Zimbabwe. Here the author deploys the concept of cultural violence following the peace researcher Johan Galtung, who suggested speaking of cultural violence as aspects of culture that can be used to justify or legitimize direct or structural violence, and may be exemplified by religion and ideology, language and art, empirical science and formal science （Galtung, 1969, pp. 167-191）. Using the example of the Nholowemwizana custom among the Kalanga people, the paper will highlight the extent to which women in this society have been exposed to cultural, gender based violence and direct sexual violence. However literature on Nholowemwizana is scarce in Zimbabwe. As such the paper will borrow from literature on cultural violence in general. The paper also acknowledges the fact that not all culture is violent, and that in some certain aspects of culture that permit gender based violence especially in African societies. The starting point for this paper is the question of what role cultural arguments have played in the abuse of women through the Nholowemwizana custom.展开更多
文摘This paper is based on the interviews that the author carried out between 2005 and 2006 on the Nholowemwizana custom in Plumtree, Zimbabwe. Here the author deploys the concept of cultural violence following the peace researcher Johan Galtung, who suggested speaking of cultural violence as aspects of culture that can be used to justify or legitimize direct or structural violence, and may be exemplified by religion and ideology, language and art, empirical science and formal science （Galtung, 1969, pp. 167-191）. Using the example of the Nholowemwizana custom among the Kalanga people, the paper will highlight the extent to which women in this society have been exposed to cultural, gender based violence and direct sexual violence. However literature on Nholowemwizana is scarce in Zimbabwe. As such the paper will borrow from literature on cultural violence in general. The paper also acknowledges the fact that not all culture is violent, and that in some certain aspects of culture that permit gender based violence especially in African societies. The starting point for this paper is the question of what role cultural arguments have played in the abuse of women through the Nholowemwizana custom.
