Bwiti : an ethnography of the religious imagination in Africa / James W. Fernandez ; drawings by Renate Lellep Fernandez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fernandez, James W., author.

Contributor:

Fernandez, Renate Lellep, illustrator.

American Council of Learned Societies.

Series:

Princeton legacy library.

Princeton legacy library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fang (African people)--Religion.

Fang (African people).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiv, 731 p., [16] p. of plates ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1982]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

We cannot, the author argues, adequately understand the religious imagination without knowing the historical, social, and cultural matrices from which it arises. Accordingly, his book explores the Fang culture of Gabon as a set of contexts from which emerges the Bwiti religion. In addition to experience with missionary Christianity, Bwiti uses a great reservoir of images and ideas from its own past. Professor Fernandez analyzes how they are recreated into a compelling religious universe, an equatorial microcosm. Part I, a detailed ethnographic account of Fang culture after colonial encounter, addresses the attendant problems. The author discusses the European influence on the self-concept of the Fang, family life and kinship, and political and economic relationships. Part II analyzes in greater detail the religious implications of European administration and missionary efforts. In Part III the author shows how the malaise and increasing isolation of part of Fang culture achieve some assuagement of the Bwiti religion, which seeks a reconciliation of the past and present. James W. Fernandez is Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University and author of many studies in this discipline. Originally published in 1982.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Figures

List of Photographs

Preface and Acknowledgments

Linguistic Note

Entering into an Equatorial Microcosm

PART I. THE ROAD

1. Narratives of Fang-European Contacts, 1840-1910

2. Compositions of the Past

3. Extensions into Social Space and Time

4. Fang Incorporated in Built Space

5. Resource Distribution and Social Reciprocities

6. The Relations between the Sexes

7. Authority and Benevolence in the Life Cycle

8. Coming into Manhood

9. The Occult Search for Capacity

PART II. INTERPRETATIONS

10. Ritual at Work in Two Old Fang Cults

11. Reinterpretations of Mission

PART III. A PLEASURE DOME

12. Administered Morality and Moral Movement to a Fuller Self

13. The Origin and Re-creation of Gods and Men

14. The Dynamics of Bwiti in Space and Time

15. The Bwiti Chapel: Architectonics

16. The Corporation of Angels

17. The Path of Birth and Death: The Benevolence in the Liturgical Cycle

18. Equatorial Excursions: The Quest for Revitalizing Dreams and Visions

19. The Word in Bwiti

20. The Pleasure Dome Emergent

Afterword: The Suggestion of Coherence, The Impression of Momentum

Appendix I. Glossary of Key Terms

Appendix II. Sermon Texts

Appendix III. The MBiri Curing Societies

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Jun 2019)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781400844258

1400844258

9780691655239

0691655235

9780691656656

0691656657

9780691196282

0691196281

OCLC:

798792354