Wim Van Binsbergen
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 99965 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Wim Van Binsbergen |
| NOMBRES | Wim |
| APELLIDO | Van Binsbergen |
| FIRMA | VAN BINSBERGEN W |
| AFILIACIONES | African Studies Centre |
| VERIFICADO | No |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 29 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 162 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 28 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1979 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2018 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Religious Change in Zambia
Comparative Mythology. A Conference Report (Second Annual Conference of the International Association for Comparative Mythology (Iacm), Ravenstein, the Netherlands, August 19–21, 2008)
Anthropos , Seite 561 - 564
Rupture and Fusion in the Approach to Myth
On the basis of my engagement with myth over the decades, the present paper seeks to present some 'prolegomena' to the study of myth today. It does so, in the first place, by a short overview of philosophical contributions and implications of the study of myth. After formulating and discussing a possible definition of myth, the argument focuses on two complementary perspectives in the scholarly approach to myth: the objectifying perspective of ru…
Existential Dilemmas of a North Atlantic Anthropologist in the Production of Relevant Africanist Knowledge
An incomprehensible miracle' - Central African clerical intellectualism versus African historic religion
This piece seeks to address Mudimbe as one of the great creative cosmopolitan minds of our times. The abundance of autobiographical detail in his oeuvre allows me to situate him in a particular social and intellectual context. I read his oeuvre as a sustained attempt at autobiographical self-definition. I concentrate on Mudimbe's Tales of Faith (1997), and show this book to be an intellectual and spiritual autobiography disguised as a detached hi…
Situating Globality
Globalization and Virtuality
In response to the need for further conceptual development in the field of anthropological globalization studies, this article concentrates on the concept of virtuality, arguing that this constitutes one of the key concepts for a characterization and understanding of the forms of globalization in Africa. The article first defines virtuality and globalization and provisionally indicates their theoretical relationship. The problematic heritage of a…
Regional and Historical Connections of Four-Tablet Divination in Southern Africa
This paper examines a system of divination which is widespread in the Francistown area of Botswana and which features conspicuously in the area's various noncosmopolitan medical systems. The system involves the manipulation of four small rectangular or triangular tablets made out of wood, bone or ivory. A striking feature of the Francistown system is its fragmented and kaleidoscopic nature in terms of nomenclature, iconography and interpretative …
Aspects of democracy and democratisation in Zambia and Botswana
The current discussion on democratization in Africa tends towards Eurocentrism in that it pays insufficient attention to the analytical and methodological implications of cultural imperialism, localization, wrongly claimed universality, and the social price of relativism. Conceptually, formal constitutional democracy is only one variant of democracy among others, and besides, it is an item of political culture which has only relatively recently b…
Four-Tablet Divination as Trans-Regional Medical Technology in Southern Africa1
FOUR-TABLET DIVINATION AS TRANS-REGIONAL MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA1 BY WIM VAN BINSBERGEN (African Studies Centre, Leiden/Free University, Amsterdam Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, Wassenaar) 1. Introduction Within any cultural domain more or less demarcated in time and space, and endowed with meaning within that domain, divination might be defined as the entire set of procedures intended to acquire knowledge which is of a…
Four-Tablet Divination as Trans-Regional Medical Technology in Southern Africa
n\tThe forms of African divination which revolve around the use of a material apparatus, whose construction and application are more or less institutionalized and professionalized, constitute an important field of medical technology. This paper examines a system of divination revolving around four tablets, to which the author was introduced during fieldwork carried out in Francistown in northeast Botswana since 1988. First, it presents the main a…
Tears of Rain
Part 1 Tears of rain - ethnicity and history in central Western Zambia: 1. The contemporary point of departure: The Nkoya-speaking people and their chiefs - 1.1 The Nkoya 1.2. Nkoya subgroups and the recent process of their ethnic convergence the proliferation for the study of history 1.3. The major Nkoya chiefs and their political environment today the distant Lunda association chiefs, royal kin and headmen: the internal structure of the neo-tra…
Tears of Rain
Tears of Rain
Kazanga. Ethnicity in Africa between State and Tradition
The production of cultural forms at the interface between a rural-based tradition and the state is a familiar aspect of ethnicity in contemporary Africa. This paper seeks to identify some of the characteristics of thisprocess, whose products are too often misunderstood, and cherished, as 'authentic' forms of 'tradition'. Highlighting the role of ethnic brokers, of the modern mass media, and of a model of commoditifled 'performance ' as an aspect …
Recent Dutch and Belgian Approaches to Ethnicity in Africa
The papers in the present special issue of Afrika Focus are discussed from a comparative and theoretical perspective, which highlights the shortcomings of current approaches to African ethnicity on two counts: the assumption that ethnicity is a colonial creation, and the over-emphasis on political manipulation. The papers here presented suggest that there is a case for a re-assessment of the limits to ethnic manipulation, and the exploration of t…
Recent Dutch and Belgian Approaches to Ethnicity in Africa
The papers in the present special issue of Afrika Focus are discussed from a comparative and theoretical perspective, which highlights the shortcomings of current approaches to African ethnicity on two counts: the assumption that ethnicity is a colonial creation, and the over-emphasis on political manipulation. The papers here presented suggest that there is a case for a re-assessment of the limits to ethnic manipulation, and the exploration of t…
Kazanga – Ethnicité en Afrique Entre État et Tradition
Kazanga – Ethnicity in Africa Between State and Tradition The production of cultural forms at the interface between a rural-based tradition and the state is a familiar aspect of ethnicity in contemporary Africa. This paper seeks to identify some of the characteristics of this process, whose products are too often misunderstood, and cherished, as ‘authentic’ forms of ‘tradition’. Highlighting the role of ethnic brokers, of the modem mass media, an…
Tears of Rain
Tears of Rain
Becoming a Sangoma
work experiences (but deriving its primary inspiration not from field-work per se but from a more general personal quest, one leg of which forms the subject of the present paper).In my next, and much more extensive, Zambian field-work I was again drawn to the study of ecstatic religion, but while I was deeply involved with a family of cult leaders and adepts, and sponsored several sessions for that family's junior women, my personal ritual partic…
Becoming a Sangoma
BECOMING A SANGOMA: RELIGIOUS ANTHROPOLOGICAL FIELD-WORK IN FRANCISTOWN, BOTSWANA 1 BY WIM VAN BINSBERGEN (Free University, Amsterdam and African Studies Centre, Leiden) 1. Introduction In my ongoing research into the urban therapeutic scene in Fran- cistown, a rapidly growing town in northeastern Botswana, I set out to contrast (van Binsbergen 1990a) the symbolic and organiza- tional features of two dominant religious expressions: churches of th…
Old Modes of Production and Capitalist Encroachment
The Land As Body
Although neo-Marxism informed the author's fieldwork on the therapeutic effectiveness of rituals among the Manjaks of northwestern Guinea-Bissau, the explanatory value of materialist models turned out to be limited. Far from collapsing under the impact of capitalism because of migrant labor to Senegal and France, Manjak society retains an intact symbolic order. Migrants continue to interpret their physical and mental disorders in local terms and …
Old Modes of Production and Capitalist Encroachment
Becoming a Sangoma
work experiences (but deriving its primary inspiration not from field-work per se but from a more general personal quest, one leg of which forms the subject of the present paper).In my next, and much more extensive, Zambian field-work I was again drawn to the study of ecstatic religion, but while I was deeply involved with a family of cult leaders and adepts, and sponsored several sessions for that family's junior women, my personal ritual partic…
Becoming a Sangoma
BECOMING A SANGOMA: RELIGIOUS ANTHROPOLOGICAL FIELD-WORK IN FRANCISTOWN, BOTSWANA 1 BY WIM VAN BINSBERGEN (Free University, Amsterdam and African Studies Centre, Leiden) 1. Introduction In my ongoing research into the urban therapeutic scene in Fran- cistown, a rapidly growing town in northeastern Botswana, I set out to contrast (van Binsbergen 1990a) the symbolic and organiza- tional features of two dominant religious expressions: churches of th…
Globalization and Virtuality
In response to the need for further conceptual development in the field of anthropological globalization studies, this article concentrates on the concept of virtuality, arguing that this constitutes one of the key concepts for a characterization and understanding of the forms of globalization in Africa. The article first defines virtuality and globalization and provisionally indicates their theoretical relationship. The problematic heritage of a…
The Land As Body
Although neo-Marxism informed the author's fieldwork on the therapeutic effectiveness of rituals among the Manjaks of northwestern Guinea-Bissau, the explanatory value of materialist models turned out to be limited. Far from collapsing under the impact of capitalism because of migrant labor to Senegal and France, Manjak society retains an intact symbolic order. Migrants continue to interpret their physical and mental disorders in local terms and …
Chiefs and the State in Independent Zambia
Zambia is among the few African countries where chiefs occupy an honorable position at the national level, and where a House of Chiefs is established, complementary to Parliament. This paper examines the relationship between chiefs and the central government on the basis of an analysis of newspaper articles from the 'Zambia Daily Mail' and the 'Times of Zambia' over the period 1 February 1972 to 1 February 1973. Attention is paid to the various i…
Tears of Rain
Regional and Historical Connections of Four-Tablet Divination in Southern Africa
This paper examines a system of divination which is widespread in the Francistown area of Botswana and which features conspicuously in the area's various noncosmopolitan medical systems. The system involves the manipulation of four small rectangular or triangular tablets made out of wood, bone or ivory. A striking feature of the Francistown system is its fragmented and kaleidoscopic nature in terms of nomenclature, iconography and interpretative …
Aspects of democracy and democratisation in Zambia and Botswana
The current discussion on democratization in Africa tends towards Eurocentrism in that it pays insufficient attention to the analytical and methodological implications of cultural imperialism, localization, wrongly claimed universality, and the social price of relativism. Conceptually, formal constitutional democracy is only one variant of democracy among others, and besides, it is an item of political culture which has only relatively recently b…
Recent Dutch and Belgian Approaches to Ethnicity in Africa
The papers in the present special issue of Afrika Focus are discussed from a comparative and theoretical perspective, which highlights the shortcomings of current approaches to African ethnicity on two counts: the assumption that ethnicity is a colonial creation, and the over-emphasis on political manipulation. The papers here presented suggest that there is a case for a re-assessment of the limits to ethnic manipulation, and the exploration of t…
Anthropological Fieldwork
Old Modes of Production and Capitalist Encroachment
Rupture and Fusion in the Approach to Myth
On the basis of my engagement with myth over the decades, the present paper seeks to present some 'prolegomena' to the study of myth today. It does so, in the first place, by a short overview of philosophical contributions and implications of the study of myth. After formulating and discussing a possible definition of myth, the argument focuses on two complementary perspectives in the scholarly approach to myth: the objectifying perspective of ru…
Four-Tablet Divination as Trans-Regional Medical Technology in Southern Africa1
FOUR-TABLET DIVINATION AS TRANS-REGIONAL MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA1 BY WIM VAN BINSBERGEN (African Studies Centre, Leiden/Free University, Amsterdam Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, Wassenaar) 1. Introduction Within any cultural domain more or less demarcated in time and space, and endowed with meaning within that domain, divination might be defined as the entire set of procedures intended to acquire knowledge which is of a…
Kazanga – Ethnicité en Afrique Entre État et Tradition
Kazanga – Ethnicity in Africa Between State and Tradition The production of cultural forms at the interface between a rural-based tradition and the state is a familiar aspect of ethnicity in contemporary Africa. This paper seeks to identify some of the characteristics of this process, whose products are too often misunderstood, and cherished, as ‘authentic’ forms of ‘tradition’. Highlighting the role of ethnic brokers, of the modem mass media, an…
Anthropological Fieldwork
Old Modes of Production and Capitalist Encroachment
Chiefs and the State in Independent Zambia
Zambia is among the few African countries where chiefs occupy an honorable position at the national level, and where a House of Chiefs is established, complementary to Parliament. This paper examines the relationship between chiefs and the central government on the basis of an analysis of newspaper articles from the 'Zambia Daily Mail' and the 'Times of Zambia' over the period 1 February 1972 to 1 February 1973. Attention is paid to the various i…
Old Modes of Production and Capitalist Encroachment
Lykota lya Bankoya
W. Van Binsbergen — Likota lya Bankoya : mémoire, mythe et histoire. Malgré les défauts de son approche, ceux qui ont été mis en évidence par Vansina (1983), le structuralisme de De Heusch constitue une inspiration durable pour l'historiographie africaine. Dans la même veine, cet article propose une méthode structuraliste pour dissocier les éléments historiques d'un récit apparemment mythique de l'évolution des relations de genre, celui qui est c…
Old Modes of Production and Capitalist Encroachment
The Land As Body
Although neo-Marxism informed the author's fieldwork on the therapeutic effectiveness of rituals among the Manjaks of northwestern Guinea-Bissau, the explanatory value of materialist models turned out to be limited. Far from collapsing under the impact of capitalism because of migrant labor to Senegal and France, Manjak society retains an intact symbolic order. Migrants continue to interpret their physical and mental disorders in local terms and …
Becoming a Sangoma
work experiences (but deriving its primary inspiration not from field-work per se but from a more general personal quest, one leg of which forms the subject of the present paper).In my next, and much more extensive, Zambian field-work I was again drawn to the study of ecstatic religion, but while I was deeply involved with a family of cult leaders and adepts, and sponsored several sessions for that family's junior women, my personal ritual partic…
Becoming a Sangoma
BECOMING A SANGOMA: RELIGIOUS ANTHROPOLOGICAL FIELD-WORK IN FRANCISTOWN, BOTSWANA 1 BY WIM VAN BINSBERGEN (Free University, Amsterdam and African Studies Centre, Leiden) 1. Introduction In my ongoing research into the urban therapeutic scene in Fran- cistown, a rapidly growing town in northeastern Botswana, I set out to contrast (van Binsbergen 1990a) the symbolic and organiza- tional features of two dominant religious expressions: churches of th…
Kazanga. Ethnicity in Africa between State and Tradition
The production of cultural forms at the interface between a rural-based tradition and the state is a familiar aspect of ethnicity in contemporary Africa. This paper seeks to identify some of the characteristics of thisprocess, whose products are too often misunderstood, and cherished, as 'authentic' forms of 'tradition'. Highlighting the role of ethnic brokers, of the modern mass media, and of a model of commoditifled 'performance ' as an aspect …
Recent Dutch and Belgian Approaches to Ethnicity in Africa
The papers in the present special issue of Afrika Focus are discussed from a comparative and theoretical perspective, which highlights the shortcomings of current approaches to African ethnicity on two counts: the assumption that ethnicity is a colonial creation, and the over-emphasis on political manipulation. The papers here presented suggest that there is a case for a re-assessment of the limits to ethnic manipulation, and the exploration of t…
Recent Dutch and Belgian Approaches to Ethnicity in Africa
The papers in the present special issue of Afrika Focus are discussed from a comparative and theoretical perspective, which highlights the shortcomings of current approaches to African ethnicity on two counts: the assumption that ethnicity is a colonial creation, and the over-emphasis on political manipulation. The papers here presented suggest that there is a case for a re-assessment of the limits to ethnic manipulation, and the exploration of t…
Kazanga – Ethnicité en Afrique Entre État et Tradition
Kazanga – Ethnicity in Africa Between State and Tradition The production of cultural forms at the interface between a rural-based tradition and the state is a familiar aspect of ethnicity in contemporary Africa. This paper seeks to identify some of the characteristics of this process, whose products are too often misunderstood, and cherished, as ‘authentic’ forms of ‘tradition’. Highlighting the role of ethnic brokers, of the modem mass media, an…
Tears of Rain
Tears of Rain
Tears of Rain
Part 1 Tears of rain - ethnicity and history in central Western Zambia: 1. The contemporary point of departure: The Nkoya-speaking people and their chiefs - 1.1 The Nkoya 1.2. Nkoya subgroups and the recent process of their ethnic convergence the proliferation for the study of history 1.3. The major Nkoya chiefs and their political environment today the distant Lunda association chiefs, royal kin and headmen: the internal structure of the neo-tra…
Tears of Rain
Tears of Rain
Aspects of democracy and democratisation in Zambia and Botswana
The current discussion on democratization in Africa tends towards Eurocentrism in that it pays insufficient attention to the analytical and methodological implications of cultural imperialism, localization, wrongly claimed universality, and the social price of relativism. Conceptually, formal constitutional democracy is only one variant of democracy among others, and besides, it is an item of political culture which has only relatively recently b…
Four-Tablet Divination as Trans-Regional Medical Technology in Southern Africa1
FOUR-TABLET DIVINATION AS TRANS-REGIONAL MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA1 BY WIM VAN BINSBERGEN (African Studies Centre, Leiden/Free University, Amsterdam Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, Wassenaar) 1. Introduction Within any cultural domain more or less demarcated in time and space, and endowed with meaning within that domain, divination might be defined as the entire set of procedures intended to acquire knowledge which is of a…
Four-Tablet Divination as Trans-Regional Medical Technology in Southern Africa
n\tThe forms of African divination which revolve around the use of a material apparatus, whose construction and application are more or less institutionalized and professionalized, constitute an important field of medical technology. This paper examines a system of divination revolving around four tablets, to which the author was introduced during fieldwork carried out in Francistown in northeast Botswana since 1988. First, it presents the main a…
Regional and Historical Connections of Four-Tablet Divination in Southern Africa
This paper examines a system of divination which is widespread in the Francistown area of Botswana and which features conspicuously in the area's various noncosmopolitan medical systems. The system involves the manipulation of four small rectangular or triangular tablets made out of wood, bone or ivory. A striking feature of the Francistown system is its fragmented and kaleidoscopic nature in terms of nomenclature, iconography and interpretative …
Globalization and Virtuality
In response to the need for further conceptual development in the field of anthropological globalization studies, this article concentrates on the concept of virtuality, arguing that this constitutes one of the key concepts for a characterization and understanding of the forms of globalization in Africa. The article first defines virtuality and globalization and provisionally indicates their theoretical relationship. The problematic heritage of a…
Situating Globality
An incomprehensible miracle' - Central African clerical intellectualism versus African historic religion
This piece seeks to address Mudimbe as one of the great creative cosmopolitan minds of our times. The abundance of autobiographical detail in his oeuvre allows me to situate him in a particular social and intellectual context. I read his oeuvre as a sustained attempt at autobiographical self-definition. I concentrate on Mudimbe's Tales of Faith (1997), and show this book to be an intellectual and spiritual autobiography disguised as a detached hi…
Sociology (21 obras) · Anthropology (17 obras) · Geography (13 obras) · History (13 obras) · Political science (13 obras) · African history and culture studies (12 obras) · African studies and sociopolitical issues (10 obras) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (9 obras) · Ethnic group (9 obras) · Philosophy (9 obras)