Marion Grimberg M.A.

I work as an ethnologist within the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) “Human Differentiation” (research associate) and am affiliated with the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Before my position in Mainz, I studied Social and Cultural Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin (M.A.) and Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen (B.A.).

In the second phase of the CRC, I investigate the category “Pygmy” which emerged between Europe and Africa. I focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and work under the project leadership of Matthias Krings and Nico Nassenstein. In our project, we historically reconstruct the emergence of this category and ethnographically explore its present-day significance in everyday and discursive practices. I am particularly interested in contemporary engagements with the categories “Pygmy” and “Batwa” in the metropolitan context of Kinshasa, as well as their political use by state and non-state actors.

During the first phase of the CRC, I researched forms of human differentiation based on skin tone. I examined the meanings and value judgements attached to skin tones in Nigeria. This included an analysis of local skincare practices and the business with skin-lightening products. In Nigeria, the meanings and evaluations of skin tones extend beyond racialized categorizations. Rather, a wide range of meanings and values are attached to skin tone, which in turn significantly shape local distinctions related to gender, perceived attractiveness, class, status, nationality, ethnic affiliation, race, and spiritual potency.

Foto: Stephanie Füssenich