van Beek, een antropoloog uit Utrecht, die nu als hoogleraar antropologie van de religie werkt in Tilburg en aan het Afrika-Studiecentrum in Leiden. Zijn studieterrein is Afrika, vooral Kameroen en... Show morevan Beek, een antropoloog uit Utrecht, die nu als hoogleraar antropologie van de religie werkt in Tilburg en aan het Afrika-Studiecentrum in Leiden. Zijn studieterrein is Afrika, vooral Kameroen en Mali. Deze memoires zien terug op een leven dat bijna een halve eeuw vervlochten is geweest met twee samenlevingen in die landen, de Kapsiki et de Dogon. Het is daaom het relaas van een dubbelleven, zowel in Nederland als in Afrika, maar ook een dubbelleven in twee verschillende Afrikaanse culturen, waar in beide gevallen een intense relatie mee is opgebouwd. Van Beeks Afrikaanse levensverhaal is verweven met deze twee gemeenschappen, hun dagelijkse leven, hun kleine en grote rituelen, en vertelt van smeden, huwelijken en maskers, en van de diepe indruk die hun prachtige begrafenisgezangen op hem maakten. Hier voeden dood en leven elkaar door de indrukwekkende wijze waarop deze mensen een boeiend bestaan weten te realiseren in een moeilijke omgeving. Dit is het Afrika van de dorpsgemeenschap, beleefd en beschreven van binnenuit, een Afrika van gewone mensen die tot ons spreken doordat zij een antropoloog de kans hebben gegeven voor een dubbelleven. Thuis in Afrika is thuiskomen bij onszelf.[2e Gewijzigde druk; oorspronkelijke uitgave: 2015] Show less
The rich corpus of material produced by anthropologists of the Rhodes Livingstone Institute (RLI) in Lusaka has come to dominate our understanding of Zambian societies and Zambia's past. The RLI... Show moreThe rich corpus of material produced by anthropologists of the Rhodes Livingstone Institute (RLI) in Lusaka has come to dominate our understanding of Zambian societies and Zambia's past. The RLI was primarily concerned with the sociocultural effects of migrant labour. This paper argues that the anthropologists of the RLI worked from within a paradigm that was dominated by the experience of colonial conquest in South Africa. RLI anthropologists transferred their understanding of colonial conquest in South Africa to the Northern Rhodesian situation, without ever truly analysing the manner in which colonial rule had come to be established in Northern Rhodesia. As such the RLI anthropologists operated within a flawed understanding of the past. The paper argues that a historical paradigm of colonial conquest that was applicable to the South African situation came to be unquestioningly applied to the Northern Rhodesian situation. It concludes that current historiography dealing with the colonization of Zambia between 1890 and 1920 is seriously flawed and needs to be revised. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
The author describes his experiences while repeating ethnographic research carried out by Marcel Griaule among the Dogon of Mali in the 1940s/1950s, and the work of one of Griaule's most important... Show moreThe author describes his experiences while repeating ethnographic research carried out by Marcel Griaule among the Dogon of Mali in the 1940s/1950s, and the work of one of Griaule's most important followers, Germaine Dieterlen. Griaule's 'Dieu d'eau' (1948) was a revelation at the time of its first publication: never before had the secrets of an African society been exposed so clearly in order to show a native philosophy on a par with what the Athenian and Indian civilizations had offered to humanity. However, the present author shows that Griaule fell into a trap: a combination of strong and overtly expressed personal convictions, with a position of authority backed by a colonial presence on his part, and on the Dogon side a small circle of crucial and creative informants, a clear courtesy bias and some monetary realism. The fact that there are no creation stories among the Dogon, at least not in the Griaulean sense, is crucial in this restudy. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
This chapter reviews the history of anthropology in Namibia, focusing on the work of Guenther Kurt F. Wagner, who was appointed as Assistant Government Anthropologist for South West Africa in 1949... Show moreThis chapter reviews the history of anthropology in Namibia, focusing on the work of Guenther Kurt F. Wagner, who was appointed as Assistant Government Anthropologist for South West Africa in 1949. Wagner's unpublished work, 'Ethnographic survey of the Windhoek district' (1951), shows that Windhoek was not occupied by antagonistic tribes in the 1950s. The study echoes Brigitte Lau's work on southern Namibia which, in contrast to the work of Heinrich Vedder, argues for an understanding of Namibian history which emphasizes cooperation instead of conflict. A new look at Wagner's work shows that in the urban area of Windhoek in the 1950s, there was more unity among the city's black inhabitants than an initial glance would seem to imply. Wagner's work is of particular relevance in Namibia today, where ethnic tension appears to be on the increase. An African Renaissance will be impossible if ethnic tensions do no decrease. Bibliogr., notes. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
The translation of anthropological data into ethnography is a fuzzy process which all ethnographers go through. The process starts with the methodologies and techniques used in the field to gather... Show moreThe translation of anthropological data into ethnography is a fuzzy process which all ethnographers go through. The process starts with the methodologies and techniques used in the field to gather data. These are used to get a grip on and order an often very chaotic reality. Through the process of analysis and description this ordering continues. The assumption behind this type of research is that people and societies can be understood as objects of knowledge. The author offers some insight into the process of gathering data and its translation into ethnography, using her own experiences in dryland Mali among Fulbe cattle keepers. She concludes that anthropologists should leave more room in their fieldwork for the nonordered realities, for moments of silence. They should get rid of the theoretical and descriptive models and terminology that are very common in anthropology but that make the translation of the experienced practice, emotions, etc. in an ethnographic text very difficult. Show less
