In the Belly of History: Memory, Forgetting, and the Hazards of Reproduction

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Periodical article

Title:	In the Belly of History: Memory, Forgetting, and the Hazards of Reproduction
Author:	Straight, Bilinda
Year:	2005
Periodical:	Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:	75
Issue:	1
Pages:	83-104
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	memory Samburu sexuality Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556718
Abstract:	This paper examines the intertwined issues of memory and forgetting, focusing particularly on the question of precisely how, and by what social mechanisms, forgetting is accomplished. The author discusses how collective and individual forms of forgetting are central to Bourdieu's notion of the habitus, commenting that the habitus is a living paradox, foreclosing (unimagined perhaps because unimaginable) possibilities and opening others only when moments of improvised reflection intervene. Moreover, the systems of the habitus enact a forgetting of the strange, the marginal, the in-between, and even the singular and the autobiographical. The author explores these issues through the juxtaposition of formalized, collective Samburu (Kenyan pastoralists) memory forms and the illicit sexual practices that underworld them. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]