The materialization of well-being among Yoruba-Nigerians in London

• Main Author: Botticello, Julie Ann
• Published: University College London (University of London) 2009
• Subjects: 362.89
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.570314

The two main sites of research are in south London: one, the street market stall of a Yoruba woman and her extended social networks; the other, an independent Yoruba Pentecostal church, its leaders and members. The individual chapters draw comparisons between the market and the church, focussing on the practices undertaken and materials used to achieve physical, spiritual and social well-being, where well-being is conceptualized through the idiom of circulation. Physical health is considered by examining external material agents and their various properties for improving physical circulation and their social benefits. After, money, gifts and services, and their uses in creating useful (i.e.: reciprocal) social networks are explored as are the effects these exchange relations have on the capacity of individuals to realize themselves within a community. Exchange relations with God are addressed next, wherein exchanges are undertaken to gain a better quality of life, and to become members of a conceptual Kingdom whose power and dominion is beyond that of any nation. Lastly, children are considered, both in their mediating roles between their forebears and the resources they wish to access, and in their own right as agents who create relations for themselves, which impinge upon their identification and wellbeing as persons. This thesis shows that Yoruba Nigerians in London attain well-being by both reaffirming and expanding their identities, through the circulation of transnational goods, practices and ideas.