The author points out that Malians expect white people to speak French, so being able to speak Bambara gave her an advantage. What role does speaking the language play in research like the author's? And Seytou, and girls named Aminata, Rookia, Oumou, and Fanta.' (7) The author also says that about 20 Bambara lineages make up most family names - so identifying research subjects by both first and family names would still lead to confusion. She points out that: 'Every family with many children will have boys named Moussa ('Moses'), Amadou, Muhammad.

The second reason was because of the limited different names given to Malian children. The author decided to use numbers to identify research subjects for two reasons. Why did she use numbers instead of names for the people? This means his immunity is lower than most people, and he would therefore be too prone to disease to survive well in West Africa. Her young son Peter (then aged 4) also suffers from the genetic disorder Down syndrome. because her husband had a permanent full-time job and could not take six months off to join her in Mali. Why did she leave part of her family behind in the U.S.A.ĭettwyler left her husband and four-year-old son in the U.S.A. In the 1989 study, Dettwyler also examined for the first time whether intestinal parasites contributed to poor growth in Malian children.

Her questions included: Did malnourished children catch up in growth and did this happen in middle or late childhood? Were severely malnourished children permanently affected? Had any children from the first study died? Did the best nourished children in her first study continue to be taller and heavier and did they survive better than less well nourished children or became more malnourished in later childhood? Why, with malnutrition and poor growth common in childhood, were so many Malians were tall and well built? The author also wanted to visit new families and acquire data on them, as well as conducting detailed interviews about infant feeding beliefs and practices.

What were the author's research questions?ĭuring 1989, the author wanted to follow up on children from her research in 1981-1983 to compare their growth and nutritional status between studies. It charts events in the book and aspects of the work of this physical anthropologist in the field of child nutrition in Mali during 1989 as an assistant professor of nutritional anthropology.ĭiscussion questions on Dancing Skeletons - Life and Death in West Africa This paper reviews the book Dancing Skeletons - Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine A Dettwyler. Dancing Skeletons - Life and Death in West Africa

Dancing skeletons katherine dettwyler