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Beyond Rationalism

Beyond Rationalism

Bruce Kapferer

(2003)

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Abstract

This book seeks a reconsideration of the phenomenon of sorcery and related categories. The contributors to the volume explore the different perspectives on human sociality and social and political constitution that practices typically understood as sorcery, magic and ritual reveal. In doing so the authors are concerned to break away from the dictates of a western externalist rationalist understanding of these phenomena without falling into the trap of mysticism. The articles address a diversity of ethnographic contexts in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Americas.


"…Kapferer’s introduction is an intellectual tour de force, perhaps the most important rethinking of the problems of rationality that underlie the study of witchcraft and sorcery since Evans-Pritchard."  ·  American Anthropologist

"…teems with interesting theoretical insights, and all the chapters are particularly strong in delineating local meanings within the framework of broader processes."  ·  African Studies Review

"... shows that the discourses on 'occult economies' are multiple ... The presented essays are an excellent illustration of their variety of forms and constitute a valuable contribution to their understanding."  ·  Anthropos


Bruce Kapferer is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Adjunct Professor at James Cook University and Honorary Professor at University College London.


Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Title Page iii
Table of Contents v
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Chapter 2: Beyond Vodou and Anthroposophy in the Dominican-Haitian Boarderlands 31
Chapter 3: The Smell of Death: Theft, Disgust, and Ritual Practice in Central Lombok, Indonesia 75
Chapter 4: Sorcery, Modernity and the Constitutive Imaginary: Hybridising Continuities 105
Chapter 5: The Sorcerer as an Absented Third Person: Formations of Fear and Anger in Vanuatu 129
Chapter 6: Sorcerous Technologies and Religious Innovation in Sri Lanka 155
Chapter 7: Maleficent Fetishes and the Sensual Order of the Uncanny in South-West Congo 175
Chapter 8: Fantasy in Practice: Projection and Introjection, or the Witch and the Spirit-Medium 198
Chapter 9: The Discourse of 'Ritual Murder': Popular Reaction to Political Leaders in Botswana 215
Chapter 10: Strange Fruit: The South African Truth Commission and the Demonic Economies of Violence 234
Contributors 266
Indexes 268