With Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) the soci0logist ?mile Durkheim formulated the most influential social-science theory of religion to date. Pivotal are the paired concepts ?sacred / profane?, the notion of ?collective representations?, and the hypothesis that through such religious symbols, society compels its members to venerate herself i.e. to submit to the social as an irreducible instance in its own right. Having grappled with this Durkheimian inheritance for half a century, the anthropologist of religion and intercultural philosopher Wim van Binsbergen in this book traces his own steps in confront_ing Durkheim's sacred, through theoretical criticism, through ethnographic application (to popular Islam in the segmentary social organisation of the highlands of Northwestern Tunisia), and by state-of-the-art long-range methods of linguistic and comparative mythological analysis. Thus, much to his surprise, he demonstrates the continued validity of Durkheim's insights in religion.

This book brings together fifteen essays investigating aspects of interculturality. Like its author, it operates at the borderline between social anthropology and intercultural philosophy. It seeks to make a contribution to intercultural philosophy, by formulating with great precision and painful honesty the lessons deriving from extensive intercultural experiences as an anthropologist. Its culminating section presents an intercultural philosophy revolving on the tenet 'cultures do not exist'. The kaleidoscopic nature of intercultural experiences is reflected in the diversity of these texts. Many belong to a field that could be described as "meta-anthropology", others are more clearly philosophical; occasionally they spill over into belles lettres, ancient history, and comparative cultural and religious studies. The ethnographic specifics supporting the arguments are diverse, deriving from various African situations in which the author has conducted participatory field research (Tunisia, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa).

This book makes a bold announcement for the beginning of a postethnophilosophical phase in modern African thought. It re-considers the question: “What is African philosophy,” and introduces a strategy for setting a broad and productive agenda for contemporary African philosophical thought.

These essays are an account of disease, health and healing practices on the African continent. The contributors all emphasize the social conditions linked to ill health and the development of local healing traditions, from Morocco to South Africa and from the precolonial era to the present.

Wisdom transcends knowledge but is only meaningful and relevant in context. This book explores the tensions and paradoxes associated with the ineffability of wisdom in a range of social and cultural contexts.

Elizabeth Colson is a giant of twentieth and twenty-first century social science scholarship. For sixty years (beginning in 1946), she has carried out regular and intensive anthropological research amongst one of central Africa's most important ethnic groups, the Tonga of Zambia and Zimbabwe. She is the author of an astonishing number of books and articles concerning virtually every aspect of Tonga life, including religion, law, marriage, education, and the impact of relocation. Colson has made important theoretical and comparative contributions as well. She has inspired, encouraged, and greatly influenced three generations of scholars studying the Tonga. Fourteen of those scholars, from disciplines including social and physical anthropology, history, political science, and education have contributed essays for this volume. In addition, Colson has written a concluding essay for this work in which she gives her reflections on her own and others' scholarship. This work sheds light on the Tonga's pre-colonial past; colonial transformations; religious and political life; gender relations; growing up and growing old; the consequences of resettlement; and much more. It is a major contribution to several strains of African studies.