Time and Change in African Traditional Thought
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3932052 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Newell S Booth (1Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1975 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 81-91 |
| Publication date | 1975-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/157006675x00058 |
| OpenAlex | W1982604578 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
It has been suggested that an important difference between persons, cultures or religions is to be found in their sense of time. Tell me how a man thinks of time and I will tell you kind of person he is. In western culture time seems to be thought of generally as a line extending equally into past and future, marked off in units of hours, days, years, and centuries. There appears to be some uncertainty as to whether time moves or whether we move through time; at any rate, there is agreement that in some sense we are headed toward future. Men plan, work and struggle in order that may be better than past. Some look for a future life, after death, or for an end of age when God's kingdom will be made manifest, while others have a more secular vision of a new world. While men may not agree as to what will bring, they at least agree that it is important and worth arguing over! In other cultures, however, there appears to be a rather different view of time. Dr. John Mbiti has stimulated considerable discussion by his suggestion that in African there is a strong sense of past and present but the is virtually absent .... 1 He supports this view with evidence from his own language, Kikamba. While it is possible to speak of a distant past, one can only speak of a limited future, stretching to about six months, and in any case, not beyond two years from NOW. 2 The Kikamba language, according to Mbiti, is not able to deal with a more distant future. A similar statement has been made about Kiluba, a language of southern Zaire
Aesthetics · African studies · Anthropology of religion · Epistemology · History of religions · Order (exchange) · Period (music) · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · African history and culture analysis · Anthropology · History · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,18 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2023 (31) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |