Reviews for Contingent Lives: Fertility, Time, and Aging in West Africa

The average rating for Contingent Lives: Fertility, Time, and Aging in West Africa based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-02-22 00:00:00 Eddie G Update This is a view I hadn't considered before, and maybe it doesn't apply to fundamentalists, but the view has to come from somewhere. I was watching that show Sister Wives on tv. The fourth wife said that she didn't want to marry just a man, she wanted to marry a family and friends. She said she didn't want to be the first wife because she would have the agony of jealousy when the second one came in. She didn't want to be the second who would have to live with that. She wanted to be a third or fourth, where it had all settled down. *** I've read several books on the practice of polygamy by Fundamentalist Mormons, but none were as good as this book. It is a very detailed account of the philosophy and lifestyle of these people, the original Mormons. The subjugation of women, not as low as Muslim women, but still below any other group of women in the West, is evident. Not just from their almost non-position in the religion - they are just vessels to produce bodies for waiting souls - but also because they are essentially slave labour. The husbands in these polygamous families detailed in the book are away working arriving home with meagre amounts of money (the bulk of it was donated to missionary and other church work), and expecting the up to 9 wives and 58 children to support themselves and produce spare agricultural produce to sell. Wives have to give their consent to a husband taking more wives, but if they aren't informed, well.... Husbands play favourites, living with the wife they are in love with, deny sex except for procreation (unless, it is hinted, you are a favourite), and have a fine old time of life with the promised reward of becoming gods on their own planets after death. Only men can be so elevated and this godhead status is almost guaranteed if he marries a 'quorum' of seven wives and has fifty children (who could support 58 people? This is where the slave labour comes in, endless work for no personal reward). A woman's reward is that is she is very, very good, sweet and obedient then her husband will pull her through 'the veil' of death and ennoble her to be a goddess on his very own planet. If she is a bad woman, not sweet, obedient or uses birth control or tries to frustrate her husband in his duty of marrying many women, then she will burn in hell for all eternity. Nice. I understand that the rule of polygamy was abandoned when a condition for statehood of Utah was that polygamy be banned although the US courts had long ruled it to be illegal. I do have difficulty with a religion whose founder was a convicted conman and whose revelations (and those of his high-status co-religionists) benefit men, make use of women and whose beliefs are very hard to sustain 'gods on other planets' in today's world. When those religions then change their own absolutely sacred laws,perhaps the most essential one, because it is expedient to do so, I have a hard time seeing how anyone could actually believe in it and adhere to its principles. I also have a hard time in wondering how present LDS Mormons can accept the watering-down of the religion knowing it was done to appease the government, and side-lining of those who still follow it. This book does nothing to make me more positive and understanding. But then faith never required evidence, and facts that don't fit can always be explained away in any religion or set of beliefs. That said, I respect people because of their actions and sometimes because of what they say, not because of what they believe - I'm not the thought-police. And I'm aware that my own existentialist philosophy isn't held in any high esteem by those who have other beliefs. The book is a relevation of what it actually meant to be a polygamist wife. Highly recommended. Original review 8 Dec 2009, updated 6 Sept 2013

Review # 2 was written on 2012-02-14 00:00:00 Anthony Vallant Fascinating train wreck of a story, but my feminist sensibilities had a hard time allowing the author to lead such a life. She turned down a chance a real love to do what she thought god wanted. Strike one. Followed "signs" to lead her into what she knew would be a life of submission and silence. Strike two. Any children would also be prey. Strikes three, four, and five. At the hands of men, she had decades full of heartbreak, broken promises, charismatic bullies and endless suffering under the pretense of it all being god's command. Religious brainwashing, faith, call it what you will, is not an excuse - for all of her yelling and screaming she didn't try to help herself until it was almost too late. I just couldn't summon sympathy for her and was at times disgusted with her alternating tales of strength and weakness - "refused" to allow her husband another wife? Well, he did it anyway and she accepted it. Children malnourished because this husband was off working, marrying, etc. elsewhere? Oh well, she'll just beg and borrow food instead of holding the man who kept her helpless accountable. This ain't no "Big Love". Compelling book, but the author? Well, she just pissed me off.