Anthropologist at the Zoo

Reflections on my work at the Werribee Open Range Zoo published in Popular Anthropology.

The Yao Muslims

My PhD thesis published online by DSpace@Cambridge.


The African Muslim minority in Malawi has been identified with
 one particular linguistic group, the Yao. The dissertation
 begins with the problem of their conversion and adherence to
 Islam in the face of seemingly adverse circumstances. In
 exploring-solutions to this problem the emergence of a Yao
 identity is outlined and the politics of conversion are
 described. The narrative then moves on to the transformations of
 the Yao Muslims in the hundred years since their conversion. A
 model of religious change is developed that attempts to account
 for both the dynamics of change and the contemporary situation
 of Islam in southern Malawi. The Yao Muslims are shown to be
 divided into three competing and sometimes hostile factions that
 are termed the Sufis, the sukuti or 'quietist' movement and the
 new reformists. The appearance of these movements and their
 interaction with one another is described in relation to the
 questions of identity and religious practice. The model proposes
 a three phase scheme of Islamic change (appropriation and
 accommodation followed by internal reform and then the new
 reformist movement) that is defined in part by the relationship
 of the Yao Muslims to writing and the Book. It is suggested that
 a certain logic of transformation is endogenous to Islam as a
 religion of the Book and that the scripturalist tendencies of
 the reformist movement give it an advantage over the followers
 of Sufi practices, especially in the context of modern systems
 of communication and education. The general approach is that of
 an historical anthropology, linking notions of structured change
 to anthropological concerns with ritual and practice. The
 analysis concludes by raising questions about the nature of
 religious change in the context of an increasingly volatile
 world system and the place of the anthropology of religion in
 the understanding of modernity.