M F C Bourdillon
Biographic Data
| ID | 101091 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M F C Bourdillon |
| GIVEN NAMES | M F C |
| FAMILY NAME | Bourdillon |
| SIGNATURE | BOURDILLON M F C |
| AFFILIATIONS | 1University of Zimbabwe |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 87 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Children in development
Contemporary development studies have been attending to perspectives and strategies of people at the periphery of power as important actors in change. I argue that such an approach (which includes gendered actors) should extend to children, and show that they can be significant in development interventions. On the other hand, the participation of children in development processes highlights problems of competence that are intrinsic to interventio…
Child labour and education: A study from south-eastern Zimbabwe
This article looks at a system by which children contract to work for tea estates as a condition of attendance at their boarding schools. The children have very little free time and the conditions are harsh. Nevertheless, attendance at the school is by choice and the schools offer opportunities for many who would not otherwise get to school. They even offer some advantages to those children who have alternatives available. The interests of these …
The Shona Peoples: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Shona, with Special Reference to Their Religion
Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe
David Beach, M. F. C. Bourdillon, James Denbow, Martin Hall, Paul Lane, Innocent Pikirayi, Gilbert Pwiti, Thomas N. Huffman, Thomas N. Huffman, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 166 (Dec., 1997), pp. 125-143
Traditional Healers and Childhood in Zimbabwe
On the Theology of Anthropology: A response to Stephen Buckland
The Shona and Their Neighbours
African Traditional Religions in Religious Education: A Resource Book with Special Reference to Zimbabwe
Street children in Harare
After giving some general information about children working on the streets of Harare, the article discusses the way children live on the streets when the streets become their home. It gives some reasons for their being on the streets, describes how they organise themselves and how they earn a living, and comments on their values. The article goes on to point out that there are a variety of perspectives on where the problem of street children lie…
Anthropological Approaches To the Study of African Religions
This paper arose from a presentation to an I.H.A.R. conference on the study of religions in Africa. The paper looks at lessons that might be learned from social anthropologists for the study of African religions. I start by looking at problems in collecting data: there are the limitations of the observer's point of view, the pervasiveness of relations of power between observer and observed, and limitations even of the views of members of the soci…
Fourth International Ethnography of Childhood Workshop
Symbols of Death: An Analysis of the Consciousness of the Karanga
Guns and Rain: Taking Structural Analysis Too Far
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Guns and Rain: Guerrillas & Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe
The Operational Zone 1. Guerrillas and Mediums 2. The People and the Land Part II. The Lions of Rain 3. The Land and the Dead 4. The Great Spectacle of the Past 5. The Valley of Affines 6. The Country of Kin Part III. The Sons of the Soil 7. The Coming of the Guerrillas 8. The Legitimacy of Resistance 9. From Chiefs to Guerrillas 10. The Politics of Tradition Part IV. To Zimbabwe and Beyond 11. The Ancestors and the Party 12. The Ancestors and th…
Teaching the Anthropology of Religion
Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study of an East African Mission at the Grassroots
The Drunken King, Or, the Origin of the State
Christianity and Wealth in Rural Zimbabwe
Pluralism and Problems of Belief / Pluralisme et problèmes de croyance
Bourdillon Michael F.C. Pluralism and Problems of Belief / Pluralisme et problèmes de croyance.. In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions, n°54/1, 1982. pp. 21-42
Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self
This article introduces a special issue of Man dedicated to indigenous psychologies. It argues for the importance of anthropological studies of the self and personhood, challenging Western psychological assumptions about the universality of individualistic conceptions of self. The authors suggest that understanding indigenous concepts of self requires examining their embeddedness within specific social and cultural contexts, including kinship sys…
The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight
Sacrifice
An Overture to Social Anthropology
Value and Values in Evolution
On a Cognitive Theory of Religion
On a Cognitive Theory of Religion
Street children in Harare
After giving some general information about children working on the streets of Harare, the article discusses the way children live on the streets when the streets become their home. It gives some reasons for their being on the streets, describes how they organise themselves and how they earn a living, and comments on their values. The article goes on to point out that there are a variety of perspectives on where the problem of street children lie…
Knowing the World or Hiding It: A Response to Maurice Bloch
Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Symbolism in Ancient Zimbabwe
David Beach, M. F. C. Bourdillon, James Denbow, Martin Hall, Paul Lane, Innocent Pikirayi, Gilbert Pwiti, Thomas N. Huffman, Thomas N. Huffman, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 166 (Dec., 1997), pp. 125-143
Children in development
Contemporary development studies have been attending to perspectives and strategies of people at the periphery of power as important actors in change. I argue that such an approach (which includes gendered actors) should extend to children, and show that they can be significant in development interventions. On the other hand, the participation of children in development processes highlights problems of competence that are intrinsic to interventio…
The Manipulation of Myth in a Tavara Chiefdom
IntroductionIn this paper we consider how a functional study can help us to understand the manipulation of myths. This is not to return to the functionalism of Radcliffe-Brown (1935) which sought to explain every social institution by showing how it helps to maintain the social structure. Rather we consider what the myth-maker is trying to do in recounting his stories, or the function these stories serve for the narrator. We are concerned with th…
Symbols of Death: An Analysis of the Consciousness of the Karanga
Guns and Rain: Taking Structural Analysis Too Far
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study of an East African Mission at the Grassroots
Religion and Authority in a Korekore Community
Opening ParagraphIn her lucid and persuasive Henry Myers Lecture on 'The power of rights' (Man, 1977), Professor La Fontaine argues that since the Gisu themselves cite transition from one status to another as the purpose of their initiation rites, this transformation cannot logically explain them. Taking up Maurice Bloch's idea that religion is concerned with inequality and hierarchy (1974; 1977), La Fontaine argues convincingly that the explanat…
Traditional Healers and Childhood in Zimbabwe
Anthropological Approaches To the Study of African Religions
This paper arose from a presentation to an I.H.A.R. conference on the study of religions in Africa. The paper looks at lessons that might be learned from social anthropologists for the study of African religions. I start by looking at problems in collecting data: there are the limitations of the observer's point of view, the pervasiveness of relations of power between observer and observed, and limitations even of the views of members of the soci…
An Overture to Social Anthropology
Oracles and Politics in Ancient Israel
Value and Values in Evolution
Religion and Ethics in Korekore Society 1
The Korekore people are members of the Shona-speaking cluster of peoples, and are situated in the extreme north-east of Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe. In this paper, I use mainly data I collected during two years of intensive field research from I969 to 1971, supported by four years of less intensive contact with the communities among whom I had lived. I shall also be drawing a little on data collected by Kingsley Garbett among related communities in the ea…
The Manipulation of Myth in a Tavara Chiefdom
IntroductionIn this paper we consider how a functional study can help us to understand the manipulation of myths. This is not to return to the functionalism of Radcliffe-Brown (1935) which sought to explain every social institution by showing how it helps to maintain the social structure. Rather we consider what the myth-maker is trying to do in recounting his stories, or the function these stories serve for the narrator. We are concerned with th…
The American Children of Krsna: A Study of the Hare Krsna Movement
Oracles and Politics in Ancient Israel
Knowing the World or Hiding It: A Response to Maurice Bloch
Anthropology and the Old Testament
In Habit: An Anthropological Study of Working Nuns
Religion and Ethics in Korekore Society 1
The Korekore people are members of the Shona-speaking cluster of peoples, and are situated in the extreme north-east of Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe. In this paper, I use mainly data I collected during two years of intensive field research from I969 to 1971, supported by four years of less intensive contact with the communities among whom I had lived. I shall also be drawing a little on data collected by Kingsley Garbett among related communities in the ea…
Religion and Ethics in Korekore Society
Religion and Authority in a Korekore Community
Opening ParagraphIn her lucid and persuasive Henry Myers Lecture on 'The power of rights' (Man, 1977), Professor La Fontaine argues that since the Gisu themselves cite transition from one status to another as the purpose of their initiation rites, this transformation cannot logically explain them. Taking up Maurice Bloch's idea that religion is concerned with inequality and hierarchy (1974; 1977), La Fontaine argues convincingly that the explanat…
An Overture to Social Anthropology
Value and Values in Evolution
On a Cognitive Theory of Religion
The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight
Sacrifice
Christianity and Wealth in Rural Zimbabwe
Pluralism and Problems of Belief / Pluralisme et problèmes de croyance
Bourdillon Michael F.C. Pluralism and Problems of Belief / Pluralisme et problèmes de croyance.. In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions, n°54/1, 1982. pp. 21-42
Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self
This article introduces a special issue of Man dedicated to indigenous psychologies. It argues for the importance of anthropological studies of the self and personhood, challenging Western psychological assumptions about the universality of individualistic conceptions of self. The authors suggest that understanding indigenous concepts of self requires examining their embeddedness within specific social and cultural contexts, including kinship sys…
Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study of an East African Mission at the Grassroots
The Drunken King, Or, the Origin of the State
Guns and Rain: Guerrillas & Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe
The Operational Zone 1. Guerrillas and Mediums 2. The People and the Land Part II. The Lions of Rain 3. The Land and the Dead 4. The Great Spectacle of the Past 5. The Valley of Affines 6. The Country of Kin Part III. The Sons of the Soil 7. The Coming of the Guerrillas 8. The Legitimacy of Resistance 9. From Chiefs to Guerrillas 10. The Politics of Tradition Part IV. To Zimbabwe and Beyond 11. The Ancestors and the Party 12. The Ancestors and th…
Teaching the Anthropology of Religion
Guns and Rain: Taking Structural Analysis Too Far
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Fourth International Ethnography of Childhood Workshop
Symbols of Death: An Analysis of the Consciousness of the Karanga
Anthropological Approaches To the Study of African Religions
This paper arose from a presentation to an I.H.A.R. conference on the study of religions in Africa. The paper looks at lessons that might be learned from social anthropologists for the study of African religions. I start by looking at problems in collecting data: there are the limitations of the observer's point of view, the pervasiveness of relations of power between observer and observed, and limitations even of the views of members of the soci…
Sociology (20 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Anthropology (11 works) · History (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Psychology (8 works) · African studies and sociopolitical issues (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · History (6 works)