Modernity and its malcontents : ritual and power in postcolonial Africa
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Modernity and its malcontents : ritual and power in postcolonial Africa
University of Chicago Press, 1993
- : cloth
- : paper
Available at 37 libraries
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Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto Universityアフリカ専攻
: paper389.4||Com98077457
Note
Papers presented at a conference held in the winter of 1990 at the University of Chicago
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
What role does ritual play in the everyday lives of modern Africans? How are so-called "traditional" cultural forms deployed by people seeking empowerment in a world where "modernity" has failed to deliver on its promises? Some of the essays in "Modernity and Its Malcontents" address familiar anthropological issues but treat them in fresh ways, situating them amidst the polyphonies of contemporary Africa. Others explore distinctly non-traditional subjects - among them the Nigerian popular press and soul-eating in Niger - in such a way as to confront the conceptual limits of Western social science. Addressing challenges posed by contemporary African realities, the authors subject such concepts as modernity, ritual, power and history to renewed critical scrutiny. They are united by a wish to preserve the diversity and historical specificity of local signs and practices, voices and perspectives. The contributors, all from the Africanist circle at the University of Chicago, are Adeline Masquelier, Deborah Kaspin, J. Lorand Matory, Ralph A. Austen, Andrew Apter, Misty L. Bastian, Mark Auslander and Pamela G. Schmoll.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction Jean and John Comaroff Part I: (Re)visions of Power, Ritual (Trans)formations Chapter 2: Narratives of Power, Images of Wealth: The Ritual Economy of Bori in the Market Adeline Masquelier Chapter 3: Chewa Visions and Revisions of Power: Transformations of the Nyau Dance in Central Malawi Deborah Kaspin Chapter 4: Government by Seduction: History and the Tropes of "Mounting" in Oyo-Yoruba Religion J. Lorand Matory Part II: Moral Economics, Modern Politics, Mystical Struggles Chapter 5: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft: An Essay in Comparative History Ralph A. Austen Chapter 6: Attinga Revisited: Yoruba Witchcraft and the Cocoa Economy, 1950-1951 Andrew Apter Chapter 7: Bloodhounds Who Have No Friends: Witchcraft and Locality in the Nigerian Popular Press Misty L. Bastian Chapter 8: "Open the Wombs!": The Symbolic Politics of Modern Ngoni Witchfinding Mark Auslander Chapter 9: Black Stomachs, Beautiful Stones: Soul-eating among Hausa in Niger Pamela G. Schmoll
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