Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte

Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte PDF Author: Michael Lambek
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442638613
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
On the East African island of Mayotte, Islam co-exists with two other systems of understanding and interpreting the world around its inhabitants: cosmology and spirit-mediumship. In a witty, evocative style accessible to both the specialist and non-specialist reader, Michael Lambek provides a significant contribution to writing on African systems of thought, on local forms of religious and therapeutic practice, on social accountability, and on the place of explicit forms of knowledge in the analysis of non-western societies. The "objectified" textual knowledge characteristic of Islam and of cosmology is contrasted with the "embodied" knowledge of spirit possession. Lambek emphasizes the power and authority constituted by each discipline, as well as the challenge that each kind of knowledge presents to the others and their resolution in daily practice. "Disciplines" are defined as an organized body of practitioners or adepts, a concept precise and useful when applied to the contexts of Lambek's own research and equally so in the study of comparable environments elsewhere. Essential reading for those interested in the comparative study of Islamic societies, Lambek's argument directly contributes to the main anthropological arguments of the day concerning the social and cultural basis of systems of knowledge and ethnographic strategies for depicting them.

Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte

Knowledge and Practice in Mayotte PDF Author: Michael Lambek
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442638613
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
On the East African island of Mayotte, Islam co-exists with two other systems of understanding and interpreting the world around its inhabitants: cosmology and spirit-mediumship. In a witty, evocative style accessible to both the specialist and non-specialist reader, Michael Lambek provides a significant contribution to writing on African systems of thought, on local forms of religious and therapeutic practice, on social accountability, and on the place of explicit forms of knowledge in the analysis of non-western societies. The "objectified" textual knowledge characteristic of Islam and of cosmology is contrasted with the "embodied" knowledge of spirit possession. Lambek emphasizes the power and authority constituted by each discipline, as well as the challenge that each kind of knowledge presents to the others and their resolution in daily practice. "Disciplines" are defined as an organized body of practitioners or adepts, a concept precise and useful when applied to the contexts of Lambek's own research and equally so in the study of comparable environments elsewhere. Essential reading for those interested in the comparative study of Islamic societies, Lambek's argument directly contributes to the main anthropological arguments of the day concerning the social and cultural basis of systems of knowledge and ethnographic strategies for depicting them.

Talk and Practical Epistemology

Talk and Practical Epistemology PDF Author: Jack Sidnell
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027253859
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Drawing on the methods of conversation analysis and ethnography, this book sets out to examine the epistemological practices of Indo-Guyanese villagers as these are revealed in their talk and daily conduct. Based on over eighty-five hours of conversation recorded during twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork, the book describes both the social distribution of knowledge and the villagers' methods for distinguishing between fact and fancy, knowledge and belief through close analyses of particular encounters. The various chapters consider uncertainty and expertise in advice-giving, the cultivation of ignorance in an attempt to avoid scandal, and the organization of peer groups through the display of knowledge in the activity of reminiscing local history. An orienting chapter on questions and an appendix provide an introduction to conversation analysis. The book makes a contribution to linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis and cross-cultural pragmatics. The conclusion discusses the implications of the analysis for current understanding of practice, knowledge and social organization in anthropology and neighboring disciplines.

Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge

Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge PDF Author: Peter Meusburger
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319219006
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
This book presents theoretical and methodical discussions on local knowledge and indigenous knowledge. It examines educational attainment of ethnic minorities, race and politics in educational systems, and the problem of losing indigenous knowledge. It comprises a broad range of case studies about specifics of local knowledge from several regions of the world, reflecting the interdependence of norms, tradition, ethnic and cultural identities, and knowledge. The contributors explore gaps between knowledge and agency, address questions of the social distribution of knowledge, consider its relation to communal activities, and inquire into the relation and intersection of knowledge assemblages at local, national, and global scales. The book highlights the relevance of local and indigenous knowledge and discusses implications for educational and developmental politics. It provides ideas and a cross-disciplinary scientific background for scholars, students, and professionals including NGO activists, and policy-makers.

Investigating Local Knowledge

Investigating Local Knowledge PDF Author: Paul Sillitoe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429581246
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Originally published in 2004. Local knowledge reflects many generations of experience and problem solving by people around the world, increasingly affected by globalizing forces. Such knowledge is far more sophisticated than development professionals previously assumed and, as such, represents an immensely valuable resource. A growing number of governments and international development agencies are recognizing that local-level knowledge and organizations offer the foundation for new participatory models of development that are both cost-effective and sustainable, and ecologically and socially sound. This book provides a timely overview of new directions and new approaches to investigating the role of rural communities in generating knowledge founded on their sophisticated understandings of their environments, devising mechanisms to conserve and sustain their natural resources, and establishing community-based organizations that serve as forums for identifying problems and dealing with them through local-level experimentation, innovation, and exchange of information with other societies. These studies show that development activities that work with and through local knowledge and organizations have several important advantages over projects that operate outside them. Local knowledge informs grassroots decision-making, much of which takes place through indigenous organizations and associations at the community level as people seek to identify and determine solutions to their problems.

Islamic and Caste Knowledge Practices among Haalpulaaren in Senegal

Islamic and Caste Knowledge Practices among Haalpulaaren in Senegal PDF Author: Roy Dilley
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474467733
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
The Mosque and the termite mound -- Ranks and categories: the emergence of a Haalpulaar social division of labour -- Historical origins and social pedigrees of craftsmen and musicians: genealogies of power and knowledge of the wild -- The white and the black: ideology and the rise to dominance of the Islamic clerics -- Accommodationist Sufi Islam and rites of passage: tensions and ambiguities -- The witch-hunter and the marabout: competing domains of knowledge and power -- The power of the word: the oral and the written -- Islamic reformers, Islamists and the Muslim community.

Concepts and Persons

Concepts and Persons PDF Author: Michael Lambek
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487539606
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
The Tanner Lectures are a collection of educational and scientific discussions relating to human values. Conducted by leaders in their fields, the lectures are presented at renowned institutions around the world, including the Universities of Oxford, Harvard, and Yale. In January 2019, University of Toronto’s Michael Lambek, professor, former Canada Research Chair, and member of the Royal Society of Canada, delivered the Tanner Lecture at the University of Michigan’s Department of Philosophy on the topic of "Concepts and Persons." As well as tracing his career in social and cultural anthropology, Lambek’s Tanner Lecture spoke on the intersection of anthropology and philosophy as a means of articulating the moral basis of human action. By elucidating where anthropology and philosophy might intersect, Lambek’s lecture is a profound examination of the human condition, and is beautifully captured in this publication. Concepts and Persons recounts the lecture as delivered at the prestigious event, the commentary of three distinguished respondents, and Lambek’s own response to that commentary. The book’s presentation of the lecture also includes a rich and layered set of notes that augment the lecture significantly, as well as additional clarification and thought that has developed since the event. Foreword Elizabeth Anderson, John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan Commentators Jonathan Lear, John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor at the Committee on Social Thought and in the Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago Sherry B. Ortner, Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology, UCLA Joel Robbins, Sigrid Rausing Professor of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University, and Fellow, Trinity College

The Ethical Condition

The Ethical Condition PDF Author: Michael Lambek
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022629224X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
"This volume contains a selection of my essays that attend ethnographically to ethical life, to the action entailed in becoming and being a person, and to the relationship of acts and persons to value. The essays address central questions of social theory from an assumption and by means of a demonstration of the pervasiveness of what I elaborate as ethical. The ethical in my vocabulary is not an object, not a distinct compartment of the social, so much as a force, dimension, or quality of human existence. To attend to the ethical is to look at social life in a certain way and to put it under a certain kind of description. Ignoring the ethical leaves ethnographicl description thin and risks caricature in place of social analysis"--Preface.

A Problem of Presence

A Problem of Presence PDF Author: Matthew Engelke
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520249046
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
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Muslim Diversity

Muslim Diversity PDF Author: Leif Manger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113681857X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The term 'local Islam' has been coined to describe local responses to the effects of globalisation in the Islamic world. All contributions to this volume present cases of 'local Islam' as well as discussing the term itself. But what all of this group of anthropologists and historians convey is a feeling of dissatisfaction with the very term. Their uneasiness relates to the conceptual problems arising from seeing Islam as either local or global. Rather, the authors argue in favour of a focus not on Islam but on the lives of Muslims, putting their lives into the context of complex historical developments. Ranging across much of the vast extent of the Islamic world - from West Africa and the Near East to China and Southeast Asia - the contributions deal with the effects of migration on local Islamic traditions in Bangladesh; conflicts between Muslim sects in Pakistan; the development of jihad in West Africa; the problem of maintaining a Muslim identity in China; how Javanese Muslims combine their Islamic faith with belief in a local Javanese spirit world; the comparison between urban- and rural-based Islam in Syria; and (in two studies from western Sudan) issues of belief and broader aspects of identity management in a multi-ethnic situation.

Rethinking the Anthropology of Islam

Rethinking the Anthropology of Islam PDF Author: Katja Föllmer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111341658
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
The contributions of this volume discuss the broad field of transformation processes in Muslim societies from different perspectives with various disciplinary approaches. Apart from methodological questions the authors investigate religious and social developments in Africa and the Near and Middle East while focusing e.g. on the production of meaning, negotiation of religious values and spaces, gendered agency, and debates of identity.