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For decades the Falashas—the Black Jews of Ethiopia—have fascinated scholars. This collection of papers on the history, music, art, anthropology and current situation of the Ethiopean Jews has been written by the leading scholars in the field. ... Read more

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The Matopo Hills, an area of rugged and majestic hills in Zimbabwe, contain a staggering number of prehistoric rock paintings. Eighteen years of fieldwork in this area has produced a stunning collection of rock art images, many previously unpublished and probably unique to the Matopo region. These rock paintings are a unique record of hunter-gatherer society and provide insights into the relationship between hunter-gatherers and immigrant pastoralists, evidence that is generally lacking in the archaeology of the area. Well over one thousand painted panels have been closely observed and the illustrations presented here have been drawn from 124 separate sites. The exact copies have been produced using techniques that scrupulously avoid direct contact with the images and are the work of Janet Duff, a scientific illustrator. This method emphasises the importance of conservation and preservation which is also discussed extensively in the book. An evocative look at the work of a lost people, this study is intended to stimulate further research and interpretation of these incredible paintings. ... Read more

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The essays in this volume explore the seemingly familiar concepts of power, action, and human agency in African social systems and cosmologies. ... Read more

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One of the goals of experimental ethnography is to illuminate the unique historical, social and political situation of a people from their own multi-faceted perspectives. As part of the effort to reach this goal, ethnographers are learning to listen to what members of the society under study have to say about themselves and about their place in the world. This study argues that folklore - traditional aesthetic culture - is of central importance to the new ethnography. It is by becoming cultured in a people's traditional art forms that the ethnographer can come closest to an unmediated hearing of the individual voices of community members and to an understanding of how commmunity "affect" is shaped and shared rhetorically. She contends that traditional verbal art does more than reflect a culture from its members' points of view: it is one of the means by which members comment upon change, and recreate their culture. It is also a powerful resource through which they respond to the ethnographer and what the ethnographer represents.Drawing on over five years of field research conducted between 1967 and 1987, Webber offers insights into the community of Kelibia, a town on the northeastern coast of Tunisia, gained through the study of its folk communicative resources and especially through study of the hikayah, a colloquial Arabic verbal art genre that resembles the western genres of local history or personal experience narrative. She demonstrates that Kelibians draw upon hikayat to cope creatively with both the destabilizing and the energizing facets of centuries of frequent, rarely controlled or invited, contact with outsiders. ... Read more

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The Okiek people of Kenya's forested highlands have a long history of hunting, honey gathering, and trading with their Maasai and Kipsigis neighbors; several decades ago, they also began farming and herding. This book follows a traveling exhibition of anthropologist Corinne Kratz's photographs of the Okiek through showings at seven venues, including the National Museum in Nairobi and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Kratz tells the story of the exhibition--the stereotypes it sought to challenge, how commentaries by Okiek people were incorporated, and different ways that viewers in Kenya and the United States understood it. In addition to presenting wonderful images of a little-known people, this inviting book explores the exhibition medium itself, focusing on the complexities and possibilities of cultural representation.Walking a fine line between the photographic intimacy of a family album and the ethnographic distance of documentary photography, The Ones That Are Wanted reproduces the exhibition in full, with its vibrant color photographs, multilingual captions, and lively commentary. Throughout, Kratz incorporates insightful reflections on her changing involvement with the exhibition as anthropologist, photographer, and curator, and she provides perceptive discussions of such topics as photography in Kenya, stereotypes, and the post-1970s proliferation of the politics of representation.Keywords: Museum Studies, Cultural Studies ... Read more

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Great for Specialists!


The skinny: Buy if you're an ethnographer, anthropologist, or if you are visiting Niger. Otherwise, skip.

This ethnography is an academic upgrade to Stoller and Olke's In Sorcery's Shadow, which was their well-received memoir of Stoller's 10-year apprenticeship to a Songhay (Niger) sorcerers. Unlike the previous work of personal experience with more solitary sorcerers, Fusion of the Worlds attempts to show one spirit possession troupe's ability to operate in many different Songhay "worlds." That is, Stoller wants to show his readers how possession troupes often facilitate a variety of practices. These include the relationship between the individual and the group, remembering the past, engaging in political dialogue, relating Songhay religious practices with Islamic ones, and even negotiating rainfall. Possession troupes, like his from Tillaberi, Niger, are much, much more than performers--they are creating, maintaining, reflecting, identifying, mocking, celebrating, critiquing, and changing the Songhay world. Stoller claims they are fusing the world of the possession troupe and its performances with the rest of Songhay life. It is a mutually beneficial relationship, one which is actively and continually constructed by the troupe and its audience.

Stoller uses large sections of quotation, either from tape-recorder transcriptions or field notes, and he argues that this is really the best way to understand the Songhay. This may be true, but it makes appreciating Stoller's thesis much more difficult. The long sections of stories can be enjoyable, but it can also be laborious for those of us who many read this book without a desire to learn the intimate details of Songhay life. It delays academic discussions to privilege the many stories that help show the troupe's activities. This is fair in one sense, but it fails to provide a strong narrative thread for readers to follow. When Stoller has theoretical contributions, they are often short or delayed until the Epilogue. While some readers may be thankful for this, it was a more serious problem for me.

For instance, there are many useful implications of Stoller's suggestion that Songhay possession theater is much more than the framework for theatrical presentation of cultural history. However, when he argues that we should look to the "inner space" that is cultivated by these performances, readers should instantly recognize the cultural dilemma inherent in any interpretation he offers. Even as an initiate, the troupe's performances were never directed at him, and therefore the only access to the inner life of the Songhay is through language. Stoller musk ask, and his participants must answer him. Thus, the entire work is one of translation where Stoller does his best to make sure that his translation is recognizable to BOTH the Songhay (for accuracy) and his English-reading audience (for intelligibility). When he claims that more is going on inside, we should be aware that his translation has now moved into interpretation and theorizing. This isn't a bad thing--after all it is most scholars' goal to say something meaniningful--but it may mean that the very idea that possession might act as a "microcosm of Songhay culture" is closer to what an observer (and not a participant) would say.

Is this nitpicking? No. The integration of interpretation and transcriptions has been achieved with better results by others authors. If reading about poession is your thing, I encourage you to reader Stoller. However, if you want a BETTER book about possession, I encourage you to read Mama Lola instead.

Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn Updated and Expanded Edition (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society)

Fusion of the Worlds! Excellente!
I would just like to say that I am taking a class on Magic Religions and Witchcraft from Paul Stoller at the present time. He is very insightful when it comes to not only his teachings, but his writings as well. In the Fusion of the Worlds, there are things I have never learned about before, even being an Anthropology major. His way of describing certain aspects of spirit possession in detail as well as giving first hand experience stories give it more of a flair. If you are interested in learning something new, you should definetely open your mind to this!

The fusions
I am currently taking the anthropology class of Dr. Stoller (Magic, Religion & Witchcraft. He gave the class quite a few great books to read, including his. From reading his book, I learned what the title actually means: the social world, the one we live in & the world of the spirits. These are fused when the spirits leave their world and come in contact with ours by taking a medium's body, to transmite a message. Its the possesion of the body and mind, the fusion we cant see, while the medium sees the natural & supernatural. I recommend his book and his teachings!

Possesion beyond watching the exorcist
Stoller does an excellent job explaining the various types of possesion ceremonies among the Songhay culture. It's fascinating to picture how the spirits of the outside world can enter a mediums body to basicallycommunicate with the people of Songhay regarding good and bad thingsoccuring within the community. These people turn to the spirit world turnrecieve help with settling disputes, having a good harvest in the future,venting their hate for colonialism,etc. But, not only does Stoller do agood job of explaining these various types of spirits, but he also does awonderful job of interpreting many fascinating ceremonies that he attended.You feel like your actually there, witnessing a spirit taking over amedium's body. I am currently a student of Stoller's, and it was ourassignment to read this book. I liked it very much I am continuing myreasearch of spirit-possesion in the future to learn all I can about asubject that's so intriguing. Stoller's book is awesome! ... Read more

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Despite a quarter century of "nation building," most African states are still driven by ethnic particularismcommonly known as "tribalism." The stubborn persistence of tribal ideologies despite the profound changes associated with modernization has puzzled scholars and African leaders alike. The bloody hostilities between the tribally-oriented Zulu Inkhata movement and supporters of the African National Congress are but the most recent example of tribalism's tenacity. The studies in this volume offer a new historical model for the growth and endurance of such ideologies in southern Africa. ... Read more

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The Fortunes of WangrinAmadou Hampaté Bâ [note special accents on the "e" in Hampate and "a" Ba not correctly reproduced here -- see ms.]Translated by Aina Pavolini Taylor with an Introduction by F. Abiola Irele

Winner of the Grand Prix Litteraire de l'Afrique Noire

"I think this is perhaps the best African novel on colonialism and it draws very richly on various modes of oral literature." -- Ralph Austen, University of Chicago

"It is a wonderful introduction to colonial rule as experienced by Africans, and in particular, to the rule of African middlemen." -- Martin A. Klein, University of Toronto

"The Fortunes of Wangrin is not only a wonderful novel by one of Africa's most renowned intellectuals, it is also literally filled with information about French colonization and its impact on traditional African societies, African resistance and collaboration to colonization, the impact of French education in Africa, and a host of other subjects of interest." -- Francois Manchuelle, New York University

Wangrin is a rogue and an operator, hustling both the colonial French and his own people. He is funny, outrageous, corrupt, traditional, and memorable. Bâ's book bridges the chasm between oral and written literature. The stories about Wangrin are drawn from oral sources, but in the hands of this gifted writer these materials become transformed through the power of artistic imagination and license.

The Fortunes of Wangrin is a classic in Franchophone African literature.

Amadou Hampaté Bâ was a distinguished Malian poet and scholar of African oral tradition and precolonial history.

Aina Pavolini Taylor is an independent translator with wide experience of Africa, now living and working in Italy.

F. Abiola Irele is a professor in the Department of Black Studies at Ohio State University.

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The Life of a Scoundrel, Schemer, and Gentleman
Don't be put off by the truly terrible cover, this prize-winning novel by Malian author Ba is an entertaining masterpiece of African literature. Originally published in French in 1973, the book won the "Grand Prix Litteraire de L'Afrique Noire", and is a vivid window into colonial French West Africa circa 1905-25. In a nutshell, what makes the book so special is that Ba refuses to allow his protagonist to be a defenseless victim of colonialism, but paints a complicated portrait in which the protagonist is the engineer of his own rise, and his own downfall.

The story is essentially a biography of Wangrin, a noble-born West African boy sent to a French colonial "hostage school" for the sons of chiefs and other African notables. There, his quick mind and facility with French takes him to the top of the class and sets him on a path of prosperity. He enters the service of the colonial administration as a schoolteacher, but soon machinates his way into a clerkship, and eventually into a position as all-powerful, indispensable interpreter. (One of the novel's many comments on French colonial rule comes via the role of the interpreter, who, although ostensibly an aide to the French officer in charge of a region, was the only person who knew everything that was going on.)

The story charts Wangrin's gradual rise to power, as he craftily maneuvers his way, all the while making the most of his position to enrich himself. Wangrin is very much a trickster character, however, unlike many portrayals of colonial lackeys, his rise in status and wealth comes solely at the expense of the powerful and rich. Never in the story does Wangrin take advantage of the poor or destitute -- quite the opposite, he is a munificent bestower of alms and largesse. These battles with other Africans for influence and wealth go a long way toward dispelling the framework of colonizer vs. colonized. In Wangrin's world, the colonial rulers are essentially very powerful pieces in the chess game of his life. Which is not to suggest that the institution of colonialism isn't severely criticized in the course of the book -- topics coming in for special derision include the requirements for forced menial labor, the practice of taking native sexual partners, and the possibility of unchecked cruelty. That said, the story also provides plenty of examples of administrators being careful to act within certain boundaries lest they be censured.

It is Wangrin's mastery of both the colonial and the native languages, traditions, laws, and beliefs that allows him to blossom. This adaptability is also evident in his personal blending of Islam and animism (a fluidity of belief still common in West Africa), that the book does a wonderful job of displaying. And yet it is this adaptability which is his ultimate undoing. In a sequence rich in meaning, he is speeding at night in his European sports coupe along a road built by forced labor, only to run over and kill a python. His imprudent use of this modern foreign luxury machine has killed a creature that is taboo to him, and it the physical representation of the spirit of a nearby lake, portending his fall. Similarly, his rapid descent into alcoholism and poverty comes at the hands of a beautiful European woman -- the message couldn't get much clearer!

On the whole, the translation is very readable, although at times it can be a little clunky due to having to try and capture all the various traditional allusions, formal and informal speech patterns, and nuances of meaning. Still, the rhythms are much more fluid and enjoyable than many translations of African literature. There are numerous annotations explaining elements throughout the book, and it's rather annoying that the publisher has done them as endnotes rather than footnotes, since one essentially has to keep flipping back and forth. The characters all come alive, especially the titular hero, who is perhaps best captured by the following quote from a foe: "Wangrin is a scoundrel of the first order and a most skillful schemer but paradoxically he is also a gentleman." His story should be read by anyone with an interest in French colonialism, West Africa, or African literature in general. And oh yes, Ba claims the whole thing is true. ... Read more

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Based on the largest collection of southeastern African art outside of South Africa, this book focuses on the pastoral and nomadic distinctiveness of southern African art. The objects illustrated and cataloged include walking and fighting sticks, milking pails, headrests, wooden food platters, snuff containers, and the ornamental and useful adornments that double as combs and snuff spoons. How these personal objects that saw practical daily use were enmeshed in a complex network of spiritual and symbolic associations is clearly described. A visual feast and an important textual reference, this book will appeal to historians, artists, and collectors alike. ... Read more

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In 2001 the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights established a Working Group on Indigenous Populations/ Communities (WGIP); in February of 2006 the working group undertook a mission to the Republic of Niger. This is the report from the mission. The report gives an account of meetings held with government authorities, civil society organiations, indigenous communities, and other stakeholders. It describes the situation of the indigenous populations in the Republic of Niger, and it makes recommendations to the government, civil society organiations, and the international community. The report is published in both English and French.

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Sacred Waters focuses on the arts, rituals, and religions associated with Mami Wata deities in Africa and the African diaspora. Mami Wata, pidgin English for Mother Water, is a beautiful, seductive water spirit who brings wealth and good fortune to those she favors. Practices associated with winning her favor, widespread in West Africa and the Black Atlantic diaspora, are explored in 46 rich and perceptive essays by an international group of scholars and practitioners. This book addresses the diversity of belief and practice, audiences, gender, reception, hybridity, commodification, globalization, dispersal, and religious mutation of Mami Wata rituals. It includes more than 129 images and a supplemental DVD featuring nearly 500 images, several photographic essays, and film clips of performances/rituals, and music. As the first volume to probe the depth and scope of water deity arts and cultures, Sacred Waters is a definitive resource and landmark reference tool for readers in a wide range of academic disciplines. ... Read more

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Product Overview
The product I received was in excellent condition as stated.It came in a plastic wrapping which helped perserve the book.My only concern is I didn't recieve the book in the timeframe I anticipated.Luckily my class didn't call for the book early in the semester so it hasn't interfered with my class. ... Read more

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This finely drawn portrait of a complex, polycultural urban community in Madagascar emphasizes the role of spirit medium healers, a group heretofore seen as having little power. These women, Leslie Sharp argues, are far from powerless among the peasants and migrant laborers who work the land in this plantation economy. In fact, Sharp's wide-ranging analysis shows that tromba, or spirit possession, is central to understanding the complex identities of insiders and outsiders in this community, which draws people from all over the island and abroad.Sharp's study also reveals the contradictions between indigenous healing and Western-derived Protestant healing and psychiatry. Particular attention to the significance of migrant women's and children's experiences in a context of seeking relief from personal and social ills gives Sharp's investigation importance for gender studies as well as for studies in medical anthropology, Africa and Madagascar, the politics of culture, and religion and ritual. ... Read more

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"the necessary and the unnecessary"
Up in the northwest part of Madagascar there's a region called the Sambirano which is highly fertile.The French developed plantations of coffee, cacao, and cashews there soon after they occupied the island in the late 19th century.As the local Sakalava did not fancy wage labor, many migrants from other parts of the great island appeared to take up both blue collar and white collar positions.After independence, and with the disappearance of the French, more people came from outside the area to work.Madagascar has one language, but several dialects, and there are many "ethnic" groups separated more by history and culture than by DNA.The outsiders who come to the town of Ambanja find it hard to assimilate into local society.Land ownership is problematic because a) a lot of land is owned by government corporations and cannot be sold to individuals and b) the local Sakalava own much of the rest.Being part of a social network is essential in many societies, all the more so in a poor one like Madagascar.Kinship is usually the basis of social networks in Madagascar, but migrants have no local kin.One way in which people may become part of such a network over time is through entering the fascinatingly complex system of spirit possession in various roles.It is largely women that can do this.Understanding inequality and powerlessness in society is vital to knowledge of health issues.Sharp, in a most interesting study, has detailed the nature of spirit possession (tromba) in the Sambirano region, its history, its various ramifications.She shows the connection between women, migration and power in a migrant society and relates it to health, both mental and physical.Her interest is not a narrow one; some 60% of Ambanja women have been possessed at one time or another.They are possessed by both royal spirits of the old Sakalava kings and by the spirits of popular folk heroes.To be tied to the local kings or heroes through tromba possession is to be assimilated in a way.Sometimes a woman can be considered to be married to the spirit which possesses her, thus truly a part of a kin group.The dispossessed (migrants in poor condition) slowly become possessed by local spirits and so begin to assimilate and improve their status.

I would say that anyone who is seriously interested in Madagascar has to read this book.Similarly, if you are a scholar of spirit possession as a phenomenon (and it exists all over the planet), you must read this book too.That said, it is not going to be an easy read !First of all, the style is hardcore academic with references scattered on every page instead of in footnotes.The author, as far as I can tell, is fluent in Malagasy, which is great, but we, the readers, are not much enlightened by the vast number of Malagasy words throughout the text, though I hasten to add that I think a few key terms are fair game.Secondly, I have this gut feeling that this was originally a thesis and got turned into a book.That is common and not a problem, but the style should vary.In a thesis you try to convince the supervisors that you know what you are talking about and you are familiar with the literature.You have collected a good amount of data and you can demonstrate links and connections.When you change to a book, you try to drop that tone and go for a wider, broader audience, for `the ages' if you will.You pare the "unnecessary" from the "necessary". This was not done.Lastly, though as I said, this is a useful, interesting study, I feel some kind of disconnect between the Sakalava royalty and the actual possessions which Sharp describes.She writes of Mampiary the cowherd, Be Ondry and Djao Kondry the boxers, Mbotimahasaky the prostitute, and so on.There are others, reputedly from Sakalava royal lineages, as "all spirits were royalty when they were alive", but the royal connection is curiously unstressed.The author claims that in this way past and present come together in the persons of the possessed, but I don't see that.It is more that local and outsider come together in that way.She makes this point too, very well.The other claim is not much substantiated.
The chapters about spirit possession of children, about evil spirits, and about the connection of foreign religions to tromba (Catholicism, Islam and Protestantism) are interesting.Overall, questions about style and direction arise, but there is no doubt that it's a useful addition to the literature.

The Possessed and the Dispossessed: Spirits, Identity, and
This deeply contextualized ethnography of possession deals with women, migration, and power as frames for both spirit possession and the construction of identity in the booming migrant town of Ambanja, in the Sambirano valley of northern Madagascar. The Malagasy word for thepossession experience is tromba, which refers as well to the royalancestral spirits of the Sakalava (the ethnic group under study), theinstitution of possession, and the spirit mediums themselves. Sharp isparticularly sensitive to issues of power and political agency, andexamines possession as a mode of political consciousness that is embeddedin religious experience. Possession among the Sakalava is highlyformalized, and spirits who are the agents of oracular possession are oftenpart of family inheritance. Thus, it is important to identify and namespirits, a phenomenon which is important elsewhere in Africa as well. Thisnaming provides a link with the local culture, including political andreligious traditions,as well as with the land itself. With the riseof "Malagasization" in the postcolonial period (following arevolt against the French in 1947), tromba possession has increased and thenumber and variety of tromba spirits has expanded. It is no accident, then,that the prestige and power of tromba spirits, suppressed by the French,has been enhanced. Perhaps because tromba rituals have been a primaryinstrument for preserving and interpreting the history of the island,Malagasization has brought the tromba spirits and institution closer to thecenters of Malagasy political authority and economic production. Indeed,the surprising power and prestige of the female tromba spirit mediums hasenabled them to dictate the direction of national economic developmentprojects. One of Sharp's observations is that contrary to the dominantassumptions in anthropology, Sakalava possession is not necessarily aprovince of the marginalized and weak. Though Malagasy women are chiched asweak or soft, while men are regarded as strong or hard, it is the womenwho, through their spirit voices, determine the pace and organization ofthe culture. Tromba mediums are also widely consulted healers who appear tohave an amicable and respectful relationship with other medicalpractitioners on the island. Tromba are not the only spirits onMadagascar. There is another category of volatile and unpredictable spirits(njarinintsy) responsible for negative, unwanted possession, as well as formass possession, largely of adolescent migrant girls, in the publicschools. In one instance documented by Sharp, a powerful healer (moasy) wasconsulted. He reported that the local ancestors were angry because theFrench paid no regard to the sacredness of the ancestral ground on whichthe school was built, moving and destroying tombs. The healer recommendedthe performance on the school grounds of a ceremony honoring the deceasedancestors, including the sacrifice of an ox. Following this performance,the possession diminished considerably. Another interesting feature of thisbook is that it addresses the topic of the interface of local possessionwith Christianity. The Protestant Church is dominant in much of Madagascar,and has highly developed forms of healing rituals and exorcisms, evensponsoring exorcism retreats. Sharp has demonstrated that the clientele,whom she calls the dispossessed, consists to a great extent of those whocannot cope with either the status or the multilayered identity of theSakalava defined through the dominant institution of tromba mediumship. In short, anyone with an interest in the phenomenon of spirit possessionwill learn quite a lot from this book. ... Read more

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The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has established a Working Group on Indigenous Populations / Communities that undertook a research and information visit to Libya in August 2005. From that visit this report was created, which gives an account of the meetings held with government authorities, civil society organiations, indigenous communities, and other stakeholders, it describes the situation of the indigenous populations in Libya and it makes recommendations to the Government. The report is published both in English and French.

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Customer Reviews (1)

For anyone who is really interested in Samoan language and culture
This is a marvelous book. It is in Samoan only, but even if you are just
a beginner it is great to have a real Samoan text that - unlike the
Samoan Bible - represents authentic Samoan culture and history.
And an added plus - it marks all the long vowels and glottal stops. ... Read more