Serah Shani

This book investigates the formation, configuration and consolidation of elites amongst Kenya’s Maasai. The Maasai ethnic group is one of the world’s most anthropologized populations, but research tends to focus on what appears to be their dismal situation, analysing how their culture hinders or challenges modern ideas of economic and political development. This book instead focuses on the Maasai men and women who rise to the position of elites, overcoming the odds to take on positions as politicians, professors, CEOs, and high-end administrators. The twenty-first century has seen new opportunities for progression beyond the social reproduction of family wealth, with NGOs, missionaries, tourists and researchers providing new sources of global capital flows. The author, who is Maasai herself, demonstrates the diverse local, national, and global resources and opportunities which lead to social mobility and elite formation. The book also shows how female elites have been able to navigate a patriarchal society in their journey to attaining and maintaining elite status. This book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of anthropology, political science, international development, sociology, and African studies.

This book investigates the formation, configuration and consolidation of elites amongst Kenya’s Maasai. The Maasai ethnic group is one of the world’s most anthropologized populations, but research tends to focus on what appears to be their dismal situation, analysing how their culture hinders or challenges modern ideas of economic and political development. This book instead focuses on the Maasai men and women who rise to the position of elites, overcoming the odds to take on positions as politicians, professors, CEOs, and high-end administrators. The twenty-first century has seen new opportunities for progression beyond the social reproduction of family wealth, with NGOs, missionaries, tourists and researchers providing new sources of global capital flows. The author, who is Maasai herself, demonstrates the diverse local, national, and global resources and opportunities which lead to social mobility and elite formation. The book also shows how female elites have been able to navigate a patriarchal society in their journey to attaining and maintaining elite status. This book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of anthropology, political science, international development, sociology, and African studies.

The field of anthropology provides rich insights into the world of people and cultures. But it also presents challenges for Christians in the areas of cultural relativism, evolutionary theory, race and ethnicity, forms of the family, governments and war, life in the global economy, the morality of art, and religious pluralism. Most significantly it raises questions regarding the truth and how we can know it. This book provides the opportunity to investigate such questions with both the informed understanding of anthropological theory and ethnography, and the larger framework and commitment of Christian biblical and theological studies. So equipped, readers are encouraged to investigate for themselves the depths and intricacies of topics in anthropology that are especially relevant for Christians. ""Studying the Image is a display of faithfulness, both to Christ and to science. Anthropology raises challenging and uncomfortable questions . . . Hiebert Meneses dives into the hard questions, and emerges not only with thoughtful answers, but guidelines for serious and diligent inquiry."" --Jenell Paris, Professor of Anthropology, Messiah College ""Eloise Meneses, a well-seasoned Christian and anthropologist, has produced an important book that addresses key issues in the social sciences that Christians often find quite vexing. Dr. Meneses doesn't try to present 'pat answers' but rather encourages the reader to think critically about these important issues from both anthropological and theological perspectives. A great addition to the field of Christian anthropology."" --Steve Ybarrola, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Asbury Seminary Eloise Meneses is Professor of Anthropology at Eastern University in the Philadelphia area. She is the author of Love and Revolutions: Market Women and Social Change in India (2007). She is also editor of the On Knowing Humanity Journal, and Director of the MA in Theological and Cultural Anthropology at Eastern.

Sub-Saharan African immigrants are emerging as the new model minority in the United States, excelling in education and social mobility. In African Immigrant Families in the United States: Transnational Lives and Schooling, Serah Shani examines the socioeconomic and cultural mechanisms behind their high levels of success. Shani explores the dynamics of Ghanaian transnational immigrants’ lives and portrays a complex relationship between class, context, beliefs, and cultural practices. This book is recommended for scholars of anthropology, sociology, education, and African studies.