The digole came with independence

Reviewed by
SHERIDAN GRISWOLD
Correspondent

"Debility and the Moral Imagination in Botswana" is an unusual volume that will appeal to a wide variety of people with diverse interest. It is an historical study, but with strong ethnographic underpinnings and a grounding in public health issues. The author says of her approach, "Understanding histories of bodily misfortune requires that we integrate political economy and socials history with cultural and epistemological questions. Because the human body is the site of productive and reproductive labor, a source of ethnic and gender and generational identity, and a primary site for thought and experience, this integration is particularly important where questions of health and the human body are concerned" (page 22).