What Has Religion Studies in Africa Been Up To?
What Has Religion Studies in Africa Been Up To?

Author: Jaco Beyers

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-04-05

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1532668058

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The purpose of the book is to provide a collection of perspectives from various parts of Africa on what scholars in religion studies are currently engaged with, whether it refers to topics or methodology. Each chapter is written from the perspective of a scholar working within a particular context on a particular theme or topic related to religion studies. Several methodologies have been implemented in each contribution to the book. Each contribution applies a different methodology for the purpose of investigating a specific topic or research theme. In general, the majority of the contributions follow a method of critical literature review as applied to a specific field. The book is not intended to provide an exhaustive list of all possible topics and themes addressed in current research in Africa. From a decolonized perspective, the book gives voice to African scholars who exhibit their scholarly work as related to religion studies. Topics addressed include curriculum design and pedagogical approaches in teaching religion studies, the relation between religion and culture in an African context, religion and health, religion and gender, interreligious relations in Africa, religion and ecology, and religion and mission.

The African Studies Companion
The African Studies Companion

Author: Hans Zell

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 863

ISBN-13: 9004502157

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Published in dual print and electronic formats, this is a new edition of a much acclaimed reference source that brings together a wide range of sources of information in the African studies field, covering both print and electronic sources. It evaluates the best online resources, the major general reference tools in print format, current bibliographies and indexing services, biographical, cartographic, statistical and economic resources, as well as film and video resources. Additionally, there are separate sections on African studies library collections and repositories throughout the world, a directory of over 250 African studies journals; listings of news sources, profiles of publishers active in the African studies field, dealers and distributors of African studies materials, African studies societies and associations, major African and international organizations, donor agencies and foundations, awards and prizes in African studies, electronic mailing lists and discussion forums, and more.

Materializing Colonial Encounters
Materializing Colonial Encounters

Author: François G. Richard

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-09-19

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1493926330

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This volume investigates the material production and expression of colonial experiences in Africa. It combines archaeological, historical, and ethnographic sources to explore the diverse pathways, practices, and projects constructed by Africans in their engagement with the forces of colonial modernity and capitalism. This volume is situated in ongoing debates in archaeological and anthropological approaches to materiality. In this respect, it seeks to target archaeologists interested in the conceptual issues provoked by colonial enfoldments. It is also concerned with increasing the visibility of relevant African archaeological literature to scholars of colonialism and imperialism laboring in other fields. This book brings together an array of junior and senior scholars, whose contributions represent a rich sample of the vibrant archaeological research conducted in Africa today, blending conceptual inspiration with robust fieldwork. The chapters target a variety of cultural, historical, and colonial settings. They are driven by a plurality of perspectives, but they are bound by a shared commitment to postcolonial, critical, and material culture theories. While this book focuses on western and southern Africa – the sub-regions that boast the deepest traditions of historical archaeological research in the continent – attention was also placed on including case-studies from traditionally less well-represented areas (East African and Swahili coasts, Madagascar), whose material pasts are nevertheless essential to a wider comprehension of variability and comparability of ‘modern’ colonial conditions. Consequently, this volume lends a unique wide-ranging look at African experiences across the tangle of imperial geographies on the continent, with case-studies focusing on Anglophone, Francophone, and Dutch-speaking contexts. This volume is an exciting opportunity to present this work to wider audiences and foster conversations with a wide community of scholars about the material fashioning of colonial life, relations, and configurations of power.

The Paralysis of Analysis in African American Studies
The Paralysis of Analysis in African American Studies

Author: Stephen Ferguson II

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-09-21

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 1350368962

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Stephen C. Ferguson II provides a philosophical examination of Black popular culture for the first time. From extensive discussion of the philosophy and political economy of Hip-Hop music through to a developed exploration of the influence of the postmodernism-poststructuralist ideology on African American studies, he argues how postmodernism ideology plays a seminal role in justifying the relationship between corporate capitalism and Black popular culture. Chapters cover topics such as cultural populism, capitalism and Black liberation, the philosophy of Hip-Hop music, and Harold Cruse's influence on the “cultural turn” in African American studies. Ferguson combines case studies of past and contemporary Black cultural and intellectual productions with a Marxist ideological critique to provide a cutting edge reflection on the economic structure in which Black popular culture emerged. He highlights the contradictions that are central to the juxtaposition of Black cultural artists as political participants in socioeconomic struggle and the political participants who perform the rigorous task of social criticism. Adopting capitalism as an explanatory framework, Ferguson investigates the relationship between postmodernism as social theory, current manifestations of Black popular culture, and the theoretical work of Black thinkers and scholars to demonstrate how African American studies have been shaped.

Cultural Transmission and Material Culture
Cultural Transmission and Material Culture

Author: Miriam T. Stark

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2022-07-12

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 081654929X

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How and why people develop, maintain, and change cultural boundaries through time are central issues in the social and behavioral sciences in generaland anthropological archaeology in particular. What factors influence people to imitate or deviate from the behaviors of other group members? How are social group boundaries produced, perpetuated, and altered by the cumulative outcomeof these decisions? Answering these questions is fundamental to understanding cultural persistence and change. The chapters included in this stimulating, multifaceted book address these questions. Working in several subdisciplines, contributors report on research in the areas of cultural boundaries, cultural transmission, and the socially organized nature of learning. Boundaries are found not only within and between the societies in these studies but also within and between the communities of scholars who study them. To break down these boundaries, this volume includes scholars who use multiple theoretical perspectives, including practice theory and evolutionary traditions, which are sometimes complementary and occasionally clashing. Geographic coverage ranges from the indigenous Americas to Africa, the Near East, and South Asia, and the time frame extends from the prehistoric or precontact to colonial periods and up to the ethnographic present. Contributors include leading scholars from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Together, they employ archaeological, ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological,experimental, and simulation data to link micro-scale processes of cultural transmission to macro-scale processes of social group boundary formation, continuity, and change.

Material Explorations in African Archaeology
Material Explorations in African Archaeology

Author: Timothy Insoll

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 0199550069

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How people engaged with materials such as clay or stone, why people dug features such as pits, why they decorated their bodies, or treated their dead in certain ways, were all meaningful in the African past. However, these are subjects that have been generally neglected by archaeologists working in Africa until recently. Material Explorations in African Archaeology examines materiality in African archaeology by exploring concepts of material agency and material engagement and entanglement in relation to their manifest presence in persons, animals, objects, substances, and contexts. It investigates the magnificent and complex world of past African materiality by considering a range of case studies. These include, for example, why standing stones were erected, the potential meanings of bodily alteration practices such as scarification and dental modification, and why, recurrently, Africans in the past gave ritual importance to objects, materials, and locations thought of as exotic or different. Adopting a multidisciplinary focus, the volume draws not only on archaeology but also, among other areas, ethnography and history, discussing themes such as bodies, landscape, healing and medicine, and divination, as well as concepts such as memory and biography, transformation, and metaphor and metonym.

A Problem of Presence
A Problem of Presence

Author: Matthew Engelke

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2007-05-21

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0520940040

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The Friday Masowe apostolics of Zimbabwe refer to themselves as "the Christians who don’t read the Bible." They claim they do not need the Bible because they receive the Word of God "live and direct" from the Holy Spirit. In this insightful and sensitive historical ethnography, Matthew Engelke documents how this rejection of scripture speaks to longstanding concerns within Christianity over mediation and authority. The Bible, of course, has been a key medium through which Christians have recognized God’s presence. But the apostolics perceive scripture as an unnecessary, even dangerous, mediator. For them, the materiality of the Bible marks a distance from the divine and prohibits the realization of a live and direct faith. Situating the Masowe case within a broad comparative framework, Engelke shows how their rejection of textual authority poses a problem of presence—which is to say, how the religious subject defines, and claims to construct, a relationship with the spiritual world through the semiotic potentials of language, actions, and objects. Written in a lively and accessible style, A Problem of Presence makes important contributions to the anthropology of Christianity, the history of religions in Africa, semiotics, and material culture studies.

African Folklore
African Folklore

Author: Philip M. Peek

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-03-01

Total Pages: 1509

ISBN-13: 1135948720

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Written by an international team of experts, this is the first work of its kind to offer comprehensive coverage of folklore throughout the African continent. Over 300 entries provide in-depth examinations of individual African countries, ethnic groups, religious practices, artistic genres, and numerous other concepts related to folklore. Featuring original field photographs, a comprehensive index, and thorough cross-references, African Folklore: An Encyclopedia is an indispensable resource for any library's folklore or African studies collection. Also includes seven maps.