1. Maternal incest as moral panic: envisioning futures without fathers in the South African lowveld.
- Author
-
Niehaus I
- Subjects
- Criminals education, Criminals history, Criminals legislation & jurisprudence, Criminals psychology, Family Relations ethnology, Family Relations legislation & jurisprudence, History, 21st Century, Humans, Nuclear Family ethnology, Nuclear Family history, Nuclear Family psychology, Single-Parent Family ethnology, Single-Parent Family psychology, Social Class history, South Africa ethnology, Unemployment history, Unemployment psychology, Family Health ethnology, Incest economics, Incest ethnology, Incest history, Incest legislation & jurisprudence, Incest psychology, Morals, Parent-Child Relations ethnology, Parent-Child Relations legislation & jurisprudence, Social Problems economics, Social Problems ethnology, Social Problems history, Social Problems legislation & jurisprudence, Social Problems psychology, Socioeconomic Factors history
- Abstract
During 2008, rumours about revolting incestuous encounters between sons and their mothers circulated in the Bushbuckridge municipality of the South African lowveld. This article views these rumours as expressing moral panic, paying particular attention to the historical contexts of their emergence and circulation, and to their temporal orientation. I locate these rumours in the periphery of South Africa's de-industrialising economy, marked by increased unemployment and criminality among men and by a growing prominence of women-headed households. They express a regressive temporalisation and pessimistic vision, not of development, progress and civilisation, but rather of deterioration and de-civilisation. Through the alleged act of incest, sons who engage in crime usurp the authority of fathers who once produced value in strategic industries and mines. As such the rumours envision a dystopia marked by the 'death of the father' and chaotic disorder without morality and law.
- Published
- 2010
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