Christian Mind and Worldly Matters
Religion and Materiality in Nineteenth-century Gold Coast
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2391348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Birgit Meyer (0000-0003-4883-7937, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 311-337 |
| Publication date | 1997-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Material Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/135918359700200303 |
| OpenAlex | W2134352538 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 19 |
| References cited | 14 |
In anthropological studies of the impact of missions in the non-Western world, Protestant missions' alleged claim that material matters were just 'outward things' subordinate to 'inward faith' has eschewed closer examin ation. This paper investigates a 19th-century German Protestant mission's actual and alleged attitudes towards materiality under the conditions of colonialism among the Ewe, as well as the tensions arising between mis sionaries and African converts about the role of materiality in life in general and consumption in particular. Examining the role missionary materializa tions played in conversion processes and investigating tensions between mis sionaries and converts about the proper relationship between 'civilization' and 'salvation', the paper shows that so-called worldly matters mattered much more than Protestant missionary rhetorics were prepared to acknow ledge. Missions played a crucial role not only in the 'development' of the colony but also in the making of modern consumers. Tensions between mis sionaries and Ewe converts reveal that actually Christian identity itself was to a large extent produced through the consumption of Western commodi ties
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Christian faith · Civilization · Colonialism · Consumption (sociology · Environmental ethics · Faith · German · Identity (music · Materiality (auditing · Pietism · Political science · Protestantism · Sociology · Theology · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
Materialising Hygiene
Material Culture
Material Matters. The Basel Mission in West Africa and Commodity Culture around 1900
What Is Religion in Africa? Relational Dynamics in an Entangled World
Reclaiming tradition, fashioning citizenship
Introduction
Dr. Brown's Study
A Mighty Obstacle to the Gospel
An All-Consuming Subject? Women and Consumption in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-Century Western India
Pentecostalism, prosperity and popular cinema in Ghana
Built by angels? Towards a buildings archaeology context for the rock-hewn medieval churches of Ethiopia
Weaving a biblical text
Popular Ghanaian Cinema and ?African Heritage
Introduction
Missionary or Collector? The Case of George Brown
A Praxeological Approach to Subjectivation in a Material World
Christianity in Africa
There Is a Spirit in that Image
Transplanting institutional innovation
The romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism
Modernity An Ethnographic Approach
Imperial Eyes
Introduction
Globalization and Identity
A propos des études africaines en Russie
Priests and Power
Performing the Other
If You Are a Devil, You Are a Witch and, If You Are a Witch, You Are a Devil.' the Integration of 'Pagan' Ideas Into the Conceptual Universe of Ewe Christians in Southeastern Ghana1
Entangled objects
On the Category 'Civilised' in Liberia and Elsewhere
The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America
Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume 1
| Unique citing works | 19 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,68 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2023 (26) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 19 |