The Spirit of the Laws in Mozambique.

Juan Obarrio made his first research trip to the country in 2000, when the Mozambican state reversed the ban on the customary, a juridico-political reform recognizing so-called traditional authorities and incorporating them into contemporary local governance and development projects. Insofar as it is an anthropology of the state, his study eschews dichotomous views of the state and society, arguing a Foucauldian position that the state is a relation rather than a structural apparatus. At the same time state agents and development-aid donors see custom and customary authorities - through which traditional spirituality is manifested - as key components of a distinctly local form of democratization and decentralization. [Extracted from the article]