Economic change

Agrarian relations in Hooghly

Socio-cultural continuity and change

The social dynamics of population influx

Complex study

The chenchus of Nallama Al hills in Andhra Pradesh

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-114). / The use of ethnographic methods unravelled that families face multiple problems in managing the converging impact of TB, HIV/AIDS and food insecurity. The emerging themes in the conversations of many people; 'the food that nourishes the blood' and 'if there was no grant we would die of hunger' indicates that financial security and adequate nutrition are pivotally important for strengthening the immune response of people affected with TB and HIV illness. The fieldwork took place between October 2006 and September 2007 in Mbekweni Township, outside the Paarl district in the Western Cape.

This dissertation addresses the problem of the impact of a migratory wage-labour system on relations of production and of distribution in rural Lesotho. Some 200 000 of that country's 1,25 million people are oscillating labour migrants to South Africa, most of them men. Their earnings, remitted to their rural home communities, provide the primary means of subsistence for their families and others left behind. The study focusses on the diffusion of remittances and the rural differentiation to which this is related. It is argued that such differentiation is closely associated with the cyclical process of domestic development in rural Lesotho. Data is presented to demonstrate how differentials in wealth correspond, to a large extent, with phases in the domestic developmental cycle. The strategies of homestead building, a clear indicator of domestic development, are described in order to point to the correspondence between differentiation and the developmental cycle. The more general process of regional class formation is also recognized. The interconnectedness of the local elite and the national bureaucracy, which together form an incipient petty bourgeoisie, demonstrates the effect of class formation at the local level. Remittances are seen to form the basis for economic activity which occurs in rural Lesotho communities. Agriculture, for example, is found to have as much a distributive function as a productive one insofar as co-operation provides an avenue for the diffusion of wage-earnings derived from outside productive activity. The material means of reproduction thus come primarily from involvement in the southern African industrial economy. It is concluded, therefore, that the process of incorporation has reached a point at which the people of Lesotho form a stratum of the regional working class, and it is suggested that this may also be the case for the residents of other peripheral labour exporting areas in southern Africa.

Based on fieldwork done in the city centre of Cape Town over two months, coupled with multiple conversations that stem as far back as 2011, this dissertation explores the spirit of ambition and desire, known in Xhosa as 'imfuno'. Articulated as a unit of study, I explore the concept of imfuno and how it manifests itself in the social lives of a group of migrant labourers in Cape Town, particularly in a post-apartheid South Africa loaded with personal expectations, wants and needs. Drawing on theoretical models of covert strategy, politics of suffering and dynamics of social change, this thesis postulates that people's notions of themselves, their aspirations and life-goals are not only interconnected, but also can become driving forces that allow them to withstand and negotiate denigrating socio-economic conditions. Using Cape Town as a site of study, existing as a microcosm for the legacy of apartheid and the history of separation at large in South Africa, the thesis elaborated on notions of space, and how through examining the construction of space, claims of belonging and alterity are created. The way in which my informants were aware of this spatial planning in the city, and were able to strategize around for the purpose of finding meaning and self-actualization, forms a thematic filament in this monograph. Throughout the discussion is the idea of existing in a social system that informants clearly acknowledge as oppressive in light of recent political shifts. Each of the four chapters elaborates of the multi-contextual presence of imfuno, and how it expands and contracts as social actors' expectations mutate as larger macro structures play a role. Like many other post-colonial monographs by anthropologists such as Bank(2011), this dissertation takes a observes and analyses 'classic' works in migration studies and argues for a fluid, constantly changing discourse around the migration and mobility field in anthropology.

This dissertation explores documented and undocumented Zimbabwean migrant women's experiences in accessing public health services in South Africa. It unpacks migrant women's vulnerability and subsequent coping strategies they improvise against the shocks and stresses they face. Data in this study was collected over two and a half months using qualitative anthropological techniques. I used key informant interviews, unstructured interviews, life-histories and focus group discussions. The data was analysed using Chabal's (2009) model of ‗suffering and surviving'. Findings in this study reveal that Zimbabwean migrant women in South Africa are excluded from accessing public health services, despite them being accommodated in policy frameworks and the South African Constitution. The excluded women improvise various strategies in accessing health services. In coping with exclusion, they use strategies such as marriage, social capital, local institutions and indigenous knowledge. These strategies act as safety nets in times of health shocks and stresses for both women and their unborn and born children. In terms of indigenous knowledge, women depend on traditional medicines from traditional midwives. In some cases they consult spiritual healers as a strategy of anticipating danger and coping with various health ailments. Vulnerable women also utilise their linking capital and receive assistance from local institutions such as NGOs. On the horizontal level, they invest in bonding capital as a coping strategy to deal with health challenges. Furthermore, excluded women's horizontal relationships in civic informal institutions, such as money rotating clubs and burial societies, reduce their vulnerability to exclusion and help them fortify their resilience.