The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics

The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics PDF

Author: Karin Barber

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-12-20

Total Pages: 25

ISBN-13: 1139467522

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What can texts - both written and oral - tell us about the societies that produce them? How are texts constituted in different cultures, and how do they shape societies and individuals? How can we understand the people who compose them? Drawing on examples from Africa and other countries, this original study sets out to answer these questions, by exploring textuality from a variety of angles. Topics covered include the importance of genre, the ways in which oral genres transcend the here-and-now, and the complex relationship between texts and the material world. Barber considers the ways in which personhood is evoked, both in oral poetry and in written diaries and letters, discusses the audience's role in creating the meaning of texts, and shows textual creativity to be a universal human capacity expressed in myriad forms. Engaging and thought-provoking, this book will be welcomed by anyone interested in anthropology, literature and cultural studies.

A History of African Popular Culture

A History of African Popular Culture PDF

Author: Karin Barber

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-01-11

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1107016894

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A journey through the history of African popular culture from the seventeenth century to the present day.

Publics and Counterpublics

Publics and Counterpublics PDF

Author: Michael Warner

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-07-06

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 1942130635

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Publics and Counterpublics revolves around a central question: What is a public? The idea of a public is a cultural form, a kind of practical fiction, present in the modern world in a way that is very different from other or earlier societies. Like the idea of rights, or nations, or markets, it can now seem universal. But it has not always been so. Publics exist only by virtue of their imagining. They are a kind of fiction that has taken on life, and very potent life at that. Publics have some regular properties as a form, with powerful implications for the way our social world takes shape; but much of modern life involves struggles over the nature of publics and their interrelation. There are ambiguities, even contradictions in the idea of a public. As it is extended to new contexts and media, new polities and rhetorics, its meaning can be seen to change, in ways that we have scarcely begun to appreciate. By combining historical analysis, theoretical reflection, and extended case studies, Publics and Counterpublics shows how the idea of a public works as a formal device in modern culture and traces its implications for contemporary life. Michael Warner offers a revisionist account at the junction of two intellectual traditions with which he has been associated: public-sphere theory and queer theory. To public-sphere theory, this book brings a new emphasis on cultural forms, and a new focus on the dynamics of counterpublics. To queer theory, it brings a new way of seeing how queer culture (among other examples) is shaped by the counterpublic environment.

Print Culture and the First Yoruba Novel

Print Culture and the First Yoruba Novel PDF

Author: Isaac Babalọla Thomas

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-05-25

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 9004229159

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This volume presents an edition and translation of I.B. Thomas's pioneering work, "The Life-Story of Me, Segilola", first published as a series of realistic letters to a local Lagos newspaper in 1929-30, but now acclaimed as the first Yoruba novel.

A Public Missiology

A Public Missiology PDF

Author: Gregg Okesson

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2020-04-21

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1493422383

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How can Christians witness to the complexity of our world? Gregg Okesson shows that local congregations are the primary means of public witness in and for the world. As Christians move back and forth between their churches and their neighborhoods, workplaces, and other public spaces, they weave a thick gospel witness. This introduction to public missiology explains how local congregations can thicken their witness in the public realms where they live, work, and play. Real-life examples from around the world help readers envision approaches to public witness and social change.

The Weight of the Past

The Weight of the Past PDF

Author: M. Lambek

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-30

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1349730807

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In The Weight of the Past , Michael Lambek explores the complex ways that history shapes, constrains, and enables daily life. Focusing on ritual performances of spirit mediumship in a multifaceted religious landscape, Lambek's analysis reveals the multiple ways that Sakalava 'bear' history. In Mahajanga, Madagascar, to bear history is at once a weighty obligation, a creative re-birthing, a scrupulous cultivation, and an exuberant performance of the past. To bear history is to serve and to suffer it, but also to be informed, enlightened, and sanctified. Royal ancestors emerge in spirit mediums to comment on the present from multiple voices and generate a refracted, ironic historical consciousness. This book describes the division of labour, creative production (poiesis), and ethical practice (phronesis) entailed in imagining, embodying, and serving the past. It is at once a vivid ethnography of Sakalava life and a significant intervention in anthropological debates on culture and history, structure and practice, advocating a theoretical approach informed by Aristotelian categories of understanding. Ethnographically rich and engagingly written, this book will be essential reading for courses in the anthropology of religion, ritual, or historical consciousness.

The Resonance of Unseen Things

The Resonance of Unseen Things PDF

Author: Susan Lepselter

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2016-03-03

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0472052942

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An interdisciplinary study of how conspiracy theories and stories persist and resonate among different Americans

Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past

Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past PDF

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-08-13

Total Pages: 537

ISBN-13: 9004380183

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Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past outlines new directions in the historiography of West Africa. Its chapters explore new trends across regional and disciplinary fields with a focus on how political conjunctures influence source production and circulation.

A Companion to African Literatures

A Companion to African Literatures PDF

Author: Olakunle George

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2021-03-22

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 1119058171

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Rediscover the diversity of modern African literatures with this authoritative resource edited by a leader in the field How have African literatures unfolded in their rich diversity in our modern era of decolonization, nationalisms, and extensive transnational movement of peoples? How have African writers engaged urgent questions regarding race, nation, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality? And how do African literary genres interrelate with traditional oral forms or audio-visual and digital media? A Companion to African Literatures addresses these issues and many more. Consisting of essays by distinguished scholars and emerging leaders in the field, this book offers rigorous, deeply engaging discussions of African literatures on the continent and in diaspora. It covers the four main geographical regions (East and Central Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa), presenting ample material to learn from and think with. A Companion To African Literatures is divided into five parts. The first four cover different regions of the continent, while the fifth part considers conceptual issues and newer directions of inquiry. Chapters focus on literatures in European languages officially used in Africa -- English, French, and Portuguese -- as well as homegrown African languages: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, and Yoruba. With its lineup of lucid and authoritative analyses, readers will find in A Companion to African Literatures a distinctive, rewarding academic resource. Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students in literary studies programs with an African focus, A Companion to African Literatures will also earn a place in the libraries of teachers, researchers, and professors who wish to strengthen their background in the study of African literatures.

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