Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-singers

Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-singers PDF Author: Wyatt MacGaffey
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813933862
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Colonial anthropology and historical reconstruction -- Drum chant and the political uses of tradition -- Tindanas and chiefs : ethnography -- Chiefs and tindanas : making 'nam' -- Tamale : the Dakpema, the Gulkpe'Na, the Bugulana, and the law of the land -- Chiefs in the national arena.

Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-singers

Chiefs, Priests, and Praise-singers PDF Author: Wyatt MacGaffey
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813933862
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Colonial anthropology and historical reconstruction -- Drum chant and the political uses of tradition -- Tindanas and chiefs : ethnography -- Chiefs and tindanas : making 'nam' -- Tamale : the Dakpema, the Gulkpe'Na, the Bugulana, and the law of the land -- Chiefs in the national arena.

The Kongo Kingdom

The Kongo Kingdom PDF Author: Koen Bostoen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108474187
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
A unique and forward-thinking book that sheds new light on the origins, dynamics, and cosmopolitan culture of the Kongo Kingdom from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

Islam, Power, and Dependency in the Gambia River Basin

Islam, Power, and Dependency in the Gambia River Basin PDF Author: Assan Sarr
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1580465692
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
An original, rigorously researched volume that questions long-accepted paradigms concerning land ownership and its use in Africa.

Masquerades in African Society

Masquerades in African Society PDF Author: Walter E. A. Van Beek
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1847013430
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Explores the dynamics of African masquerades and mask performances on the continent, linking performative expressions to societal characteristics. What is the meaning of masks and masquerades in African traditions and how can we understand their role in rituals and performances? Why do we find masks in some African regions and not in others, and what does this 'mask habitat' say about the general dynamics of masquerades in Africa? Though masks are among the most famous art icons of Africa, exploration of their uses and the way in which they articulate social characteristics of African societies has been underexamined. This book takes an anthropological perspective on the phenomenon of masquerades on the African continent to show how mask rituals are an integral part of African indigenous religions and societies, and are informed by and linked to specific types of social and ecological conditions. Having established the commonalities of mask rituals and a mask typology, the authors look at the varieties of mask performances and the types of rituals in which masks function in rites of passage and in rituals of gender, power, and identity. The following chapters focus on different types of rituals featuring masks, from initiation and death ceremonies to secrecy, kingship, law and war. With its broad examination of the use of masks on the continent, from Angola to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, this well illustrated book will stand as an authoritative study of the use of masks, of interest not only to those in African Studies but to anthropologists and ethnographers worldwide.

Evil in Africa

Evil in Africa PDF Author: William C. Olsen
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253017505
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
William C. Olsen, Walter E. A. van Beek, and the contributors to this volume seek to understand how Africans have confronted evil around them. Grouped around notions of evil as a cognitive or experiential problem, evil as malevolent process, and evil as an inversion of justice, these essays investigate what can be accepted and what must be condemned in order to evaluate being and morality in African cultural and social contexts. These studies of evil entanglements take local and national histories and identities into account, including state politics and civil war, religious practices, Islam, gender, and modernity.

Ifá Divination, Knowledge, Power, and Performance

Ifá Divination, Knowledge, Power, and Performance PDF Author: Jacob K. Olupona
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 025301896X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
This landmark volume compiled by Jacob K. Olupona and Rowland O. Abiodun brings readers into the diverse world of Ifá—its discourse, ways of thinking, and artistic expression as manifested throughout the Afro-Atlantic. Firmly rooting Ifá within African religious traditions, the essays consider Ifá and Ifá divination from the perspectives of philosophy, performance studies, and cultural studies. They also examine the sacred context, verbal art, and the interpretation of Ifá texts and philosophy. With essays from the most respected scholars in the field, the book makes a substantial contribution toward understanding Ifá and its role in contemporary Yoruba and diaspora cultures.

The Political Economy of Everyday Life in Africa

The Political Economy of Everyday Life in Africa PDF Author: Wale Adebanwi
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1847011659
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Multi-disciplinary examination of the role of ordinary African people as agents in the generation and distribution of well-being in modern Africa.

The Gods are not Jealous

The Gods are not Jealous PDF Author: Rahman Yakubu
Publisher: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt
ISBN: 3374071996
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Rahman Yakubu critiques the notion that Islam and Christianity in Africa have been benevolent to African Traditional Religion (ATR) in their interreligious encounter. Rather, he argues that ATR plays an active and central role in creating a peaceful interreligious space in Africa. Using an ethnographic study of rituals in the rites of passage among Dagomba Muslims, Christians and adherents of ATR of Ghana, the author concludes that Dagomba religio-culture has influenced not only the identity of adherents of the two faiths, but also the relations between them. This book proposes that, for a constructive negotiating of religious identity and peaceful interreligious existence, Traditional Religions should be considered an equal partner in interreligious dialogue.

Undesirable Practices

Undesirable Practices PDF Author: Jessica Cammaert
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803286961
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
Undesirable Practices examines both the intended and the unintended consequences of “imperial feminism” and British colonial interventions in “undesirable” cultural practices in northern Ghana. Jessica Cammaert addresses the state management of social practices such as female circumcision, nudity, prostitution, and “illicit” adoption as well as the hesitation to impose severe punishments for the slave dealing of females, particularly female children. She examines the gendered power relations and colonial attitudes that targeted women and children spanning pre- and postcolonial periods, the early postindependence years, and post-Nkrumah policies. In particular, Cammaert examines the limits of the male colonial gaze and argues that the power lay not in the gaze itself but in the act of “looking away,” a calculated aversion of attention intended to maintain the tribal community and retain control over the movement, sexuality, and labor of women and children. With its examination of broader time periods and topics and its complex analytical arguments, Undesirable Practices makes a valuable contribution to literature in African studies, contemporary advocacy discourse, women and gender studies, and critical postcolonial studies.

The Routledge Handbook of Law and the Anthropocene

The Routledge Handbook of Law and the Anthropocene PDF Author: Peter D. Burdon
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000873528
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Law and the Anthropocene provides a critical survey into the function of law and governance during a time when humans have the power to impact the Earth system. The Anthropocene is a “crisis of the earth system.” This book addresses its implications for law and legal thinking in the twenty-first century. Unpacking the challenges of the Anthropocene for advocates of ecological law and politics, this handbook pursues a range of approaches to the scientific fact of anthropocentrism, with contributions from lawyers, philosophers, geographers, and environmental and political scientists. Rather than adopting a hubristic normativity, the contributors engage methods, concepts, and legal instruments in a way that underscores the importance of humility and an expansive ethical worldview. Contributors to this volume are leading scholars and future leaders in the field. Rather than upholding orthodoxy, the handbook also problematizes received wisdom and is grounded in the conviction that the ideas we have inherited from the Holocene must all be open to question. Engaging such issues as the Capitalocene, Gaia theory, the rights of nature, posthumanism, the commons, geoengineering, and civil disobedience, this handbook will be of enormous interest to academics, students, and others with interests in ecological law and the current environmental crisis.