at The University of Southern Mississippi

Dr. Jeffrey Kaufmann is a cultural anthropologist interested in ethnohistory and cultural ecology. His primary research area is Africa, with a focus on Madagascar, but he has begun ethnographic research in Mississippi. Dr. Kaufmann teaches the Human Experience, Cultural Anthropology, World Cultures, and Peoples and Cultures of Africa, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses in Ethnographic Field Methods, Ethnographic Fieldwork, Ecological Anthropology, Economic Anthropology, and the Seminar in Ethnology. He is also a member of the African Studies Program.

Ethnohistory: Dr. Kaufmann brings an array of materials into his Madagascar ethnohistorical studies. French, American, Mexican, and Malagasy documents, oral histories, and ethnographic testimonies have contributed to his research into human involvement with prickly pear cactus on Madagascar. He is planning to publish this project in a book on “cactus pastoralists.” He is also continuing to research the environmental history of prickly pear in worldwide comparative perspective since Columbus. Finally, his research agenda includes a new ethnohistory project into a fairly recent (1800s) massive migration of Tanosy people to southwest Madagascar following Merina conquest of the Tanosy homeland in the southeast part of the island.

Cultural ecology: Dr. Kaufmann contributes to a growing literature that connects, rather than separates, humans and nature. In his Madagascar research, he discovered that the success of prickly pear was as much a result of human actions, attitudes, and beliefs as it was natural (the soils and climate of the country suited to the cacti species introduced to the island in 1769). He also found that the diverse attitudes toward this plant are as much inscribed on the land itself as cultural and historical. He resists the oft-held notion that human actions are determined by an independent natural or physical environment. His research demonstrates how humans have helped form the landscapes they inhabit.

Mississippi ethnography: Dr. Kaufmann is interested in bringing a landscape approach to understanding how African-American populations in and around Hattiesburg construct their environments. This project began in summer 2003 as part of an “ethnography of a street” project (Mobile Street). He will expand his Mississippi research to an “ethnography of a farm” in the near future.

Recent publications

Kaufmann, J. C. (2006) “New Perspectives on Conservation in Madagascar,” guest editor, Conservation and Society 4(2): 179-324

Kaufman, J. C. (2006) “The Sad Opaqueness of the Environmental Crisis in Madagascar,” Conservation and Society 4(2): 179-193

Kaufmann, J. C. (2006) “Forests and Thorns: Conditions of Change Affecting Mahafale Pastoralists of Southwestern Madagascar,” (with S. Tsirahamba) Conservation and Society 4(2): 231-261

Kaufmann, J. C. (2004) "Prickly Pear Cactus and Pastoralism in Southwestern Madagascar," Ethnology 43(4): 345-361.

Kaufmann, J. C. (2003) "Making Kin of Historians and Anthropologists: Fictive Kinship in Fieldwork Methodology," History in Africa 30: 179-194 (with Annie Philippe Rabodoarimiadana)

Kaufmann, J. C. (2003) "Cactus Pastoralism. On Its Origin and Growth in Madagascar," Michigan Discussions In Anthropology, vol. 14, Lova/Inheritance: Past and Present in Madagascar, Zoe Crossland, Genese Sodikoff, and Will Griffin, eds. Pp. 104-126.

Kaufmann, J.C. (2002) The Informant as Resolute Overseer, History in Africa 29: 231-55.

Kaufmann, J.C. (2002) On Finding Madagascar Materials: The ELCA Region 3 Archives in Minnesota, History in Africa 29: 487-96.

Kaufmann, J.C. (2001) Emerging Histories in Madagascar, guest editor, Ethnohistory 48(1/2): 3-322.

Kaufmann, J.C. (2001) Introduction: Recoloring the Red Island, guest editor’s introduction, Ethnohistory 48(1/2): 3-11.

Kaufmann, J.C. (2001) La question des raketa: Colonial Struggles in Madagascar with Prickly Pear Cactus, 1900-1923, Ethnohistory 48(1/2): 87-121 [international winner of the American Society for Ethnohistory, Robert F. Heizer Prize].

Kaufmann, J.C. (2000) Forget the Numbers: The Case of a Madagascar Famine, History in Africa 27: 143-57.

Kaufmann, J.C. (2000) The Long Walk I. - Anthropology and Pastoral Nomads: An Interview with Anatoly M. Khazanov, Nomadic Peoples (n.s.) 4(1): 5-22.

Office: LAB 436
Phone: (601) 266-6810
Fax: (601) 266-6373
Email: jeffrey.kaufmann@usm.edu

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