Performing mariage mondial through social media

Abstract

This chapter builds upon previous ethnographic work to analyze social media posts of wedding celebrations and to explore the ways that young people in urban Guinea are continuing, augmenting, and transforming the social significance of an adult rite of passage central to the meaning of gender success in Malinké culture. This chapter also addresses the ways that participation in these activities reveal emerging patterns of family dynamics as marriage arrangements are transformed, with daughters and wives positioned within a "techno-/media-scape" of a global economy of consumption and profit opportunities. Interviews with women within the research reveal the emergence of consumer-based business opportunities for personal augmentation, including maquillage (cosmetics), hairdressing, and religiously observant couture. Through analysis of social networks, and emerging "technologies of the self" found within marriage announcements posted to social media, this chapter elaborates on how economic successes are contingent on cumulative effects at the intersectionality of gender, religion, age, and an individual's marital position to open or constrain access to markets.

Department(s)

Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.1007/978-3-030-73415-2_4

Keywords

Africa women studies, Economic anthropology, Guinea gender studies, Intersectionality, Malinké, Mariage mondial, Social media

Publication Date

5-27-2021

Journal Title

Africa and the Diaspora Intersectionality and Interconnections

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