Epilogue
Knowing the power of agency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4603151 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard P Werbner, Richard Werbner (0000-0002-3493-6742, University of Manchester, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 323-329 |
| Publication date | 1988-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03057078808708177 |
| OpenAlex | W2032144788 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 3 |
Wyatt MacGaffey's paper shows that in looking upon Kongo min'kisi the European gaze turned the subjective phenomena into inert objects, at most of interest in the relations between a subject and the objects. The actual dynamics of min'kisi, the subject to subject relations fundamental for BaKongo themselves, were largely irrelevant for the misrecognition of min 'kisi as art or ethnographic curiosities. It was simply upon the basis of their own moral judgements that some scholars imputed to BaKongo a forced distinction between min 'kisi as 'spirits' and as 'objects'. The logic which Europeans thus applied to their knowledge of min'kisi was an egalitarian commodity logic by which things reproduce things and even persons. By contrast, BaKongo applied a different logic. The reproduction of the self among them was through the invoking of other persons, not things, and importantly, within a spiritual hierarchy of being. Nevertheless, for BaKongo, too, adapting min'kisi to change, especially change in the very nature of personal agency, meant a reduction in the elaborateness of min 'kisi composition and also, to some extent, a reduction in their
Agency (philosophy · Political science · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2025 (21) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |