African GeniusOhio University Press, 1 gen 2005 - 384 pagine The African Genius presents the ideas, social systems, religions, moral values, arts, and metaphysics of a range of African peoples. Basil Davidson points toward the Africa that might emerge from an ancient civilization that was overlaid and battered by colonialism, then torn apart by the upheaval of colonialism’s dismantlement. Davidson disputes the notion that Africa gained under colonialism by entering the modern world. He sees, instead, an ancient order replaced by modern dysfunction. Davidson’s depiction of the sophisticated “native genius” that has carried Africans through centuries of change is vital to an understanding of modern Africa as well. |
Sommario
PART TWO SOCIAL CHARTERS | |
Founding Ancestors | |
The Balance with Nature | |
PART FOUR MECHANISMS OF CHANGE | |
From Elders to Kings | |
The Nature of Kingship | |
Conquest and Clientage | |
Trade and Islam | |
Power Rank and Privilege | |
The Crisis Opens | |
PART FIVE THE DELUGE AND TODAY | |
A Moral Order | |
Age Sets | |
Secret Societies | |
PART THREE STRUCTURES OF BELIEF | |
A Science of Social Control | |
Of Witches and Sorcerers | |
UpsideDown People | |
Explanation and Prediction | |
The Danger Within | |
Useful Magic | |
Answers to Anxiety | |
Art for Lifes Sake | |
The Dynamics of Reality | |
From a Guerrilla Diary | |
The Great Transition | |
The Kings Resist | |
Twilight of the Old Gods | |
New Redeemers | |
The Modern Context | |
The Masses React | |
Epilogue AFRICAN DESTINIES | |
Acknowledgements | |
Notes and References | |
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