Conspicuous Redistribution: Men, Money, and Intimacy in Nigeria

“Conspicuous Redistribution: Men, Money, and Intimacy in Nigeria” 

Daniel Jordan Smith

Brown University

 

In contemporary Nigeria, the performance of masculinity requires money. Yet the need to have and spend money sits uneasily with widely shared values regarding intimacy and sociality. Drawing on his recent book about masculinity in Nigeria, in this talk Professor Daniel Jordan Smith proposes and explores the concept of conspicuous redistribution as means to understand Nigerian men’s behavior as they navigate the complex geometry of money and intimacy in their everyday lives. 

 

Daniel Jordan Smith is Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence and professor and chair of anthropology at Brown University. Smith conducts research in Nigeria focusing on a range of issues, including population processes, political culture, kinship, gender, and health. He won the 2008 Margaret Mead Award for his first book, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria (Princeton University Press, 2007), and the 2015 Elliott P. Skinner Award for his second book, AIDS Doesn’t Show Its Face: Inequality, Morality, and Social Change in Nigeria (University of Chicago Press, 2014). His most recent book is To Be a Man Is Not a One-Day Job: Masculinity, Money, and Intimacy in Nigeria (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

 

Co-sponsors: Africana Studies, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies and Department of Sociology & Anthropology