Social Anthropology Seminar - Professors Pnina & Richard Werbner - Monday 18th of November 2019
| Dates: | 18 November 2019 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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| Speaker: | Professors Pnina & Richard Werbner |
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Social Anthropology Seminar
Monday, 18th of November 2019
A Joint Seminar by Professors Pnina &
Richard Werbner – Keele University
A Case of Insult: Emotion, Law, and Witchcraft Accusations in a Village Customary Court in Botswana
Legal anthropologists have been slow to join the socio-legal debate about law and emotion, a movement responding to the counter-intuitive proposition that the law is ‘imbued with emotion’. As in the USA and Europe, in Botswana too, cases of public insults, frequently heard in Tswapong customary village courts, are emotionally charged, and this is particularly so in witchcraft insult hearings. Such insults, akin to hate crimes, are inchoate crimes that threaten public peace, kinship amity, and decency. Members of a customary court mobilise an elaborate moral lexicon from everyday life in their attempt not simply to ascertain the forensic facts, but to persuade offenders to regain their rational good sense, reach a self-conscious emotional balance, and recover spiritual calmness. The procedure culminates in a dialogue intended to restore public peace, elicit an apology or show of regret from the defendant and forgiveness from insulted plaintiffs.
Second Floor Boardroom 2.016 / 017
Arthur Lewis Building
Time 4:15 to 6:00pm
(Tea and coffee available outside the room from 4:00pm)
ALL WELCOME!
Speaker
Professors Pnina & Richard Werbner
Role: Seminar Speakers
Organisation: Keele University
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
2.016 / 017 - 2nd Floor Boardroom
Arthur Lewis Building
Manchester
