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2667:7 [2016/03/14 15:34] – Ryan Schram (admin)2667:7 [2021/06/29 02:27] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
  
-20 April 2016+26 April 2017
  
 Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/2667/7 Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/2667/7
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   to spread Christianity, for its own sake, and for reasons of   to spread Christianity, for its own sake, and for reasons of
   establishing a common language with other people for purposes of   establishing a common language with other people for purposes of
-  cooperation and trade.+  cooperation and trade. And slavery. Converts to Christianity in many 
 +  cases became slaves, and vice versa, often with the permission of 
 +  local elites.
 * It was not until the 19th century when European Protestant missions * It was not until the 19th century when European Protestant missions
   came. In this case they were working in the shadow of   came. In this case they were working in the shadow of
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   very prominent churches in southern Africa, called apostolic   very prominent churches in southern Africa, called apostolic
   churches (see Engelke 2007).   churches (see Engelke 2007).
 +
 +## Questions and answers ##
 +
 +* What are some research questions we can ask about Johane Masowe and Masowe Apostolic Churches?
 +  * A good research question will have more than one answer, and each answer will need an argument to explain why it is right.
 +* What are some possible answers, or thesis statements, that we can pose in response to these questions?
 +
 +
 +
 +## The origins of Pentecostalism ##
 +
 +The Asuza Street Revival, led by William Seymour, 1906-1909: 
 +
 +> Men and women would shout, weep, dance, fall into trances, speak and 
 +> sing in tongues, and interpret their messages into English. In true 
 +> Quaker fashion, anyone who felt "moved by the Spirit" would preach 
 +> or sing. There was no robed choir, no hymnals, no order of services, 
 +> but there was an abundance of religious enthusiasm. (Synan 1997: 98) 
 + 
 +
 +
 +## How Pentecostalism differs from other holiness churches ##
 +
 +* The receipt of Pentecost, or a baptism of the Spirit.
 +* Very loose organization, and very egalitarian. Anyone can preach or
 +  minister.
 +* Many small churches, often completely independent, communicating
 +  through various media.
 +* Use of mass media, including films, radio and television, from very
 +  early on.
 +
 +## The global movement of Pentecostalism ##
 +
 +* Spreads through grass-roots networks. 
 +* Paradoxically both world-making and world-breaking (Robbins 2004).
  
  
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 Pentecostal, are really just variations on a theme. The concepts Pentecostal, are really just variations on a theme. The concepts
 scholars bring to them are different. scholars bring to them are different.
 +
 +## Witchcraft and sorcery ##
 +
 +Many cultures throughout the world find invisible causes for otherwise
 +material, physical events, like illness, death and misfortune. Let's
 +call any kind of belief of this nature *magic*.
 +
 +E. E. Evans-Pritchard, an anthropologist who studied the people who
 +live in what is today South Sudan, has been very influential in
 +helping anthropologists think about magic in social terms.
 +
 +## Key points about witchcraft and sorcery ##
 +
 +Some key points:
 +
 +* Witchcraft is mentioned every day, and invoked to explain any number of bad things, from minor incidents to death. "Witchcraft is not less anticipated than adultery" (which is also common) (Evans-Pritchard 1976 [1937]: 19).
 +* Witchcraft belief coexists with reason and logic. When the granary collapsed on top of a person, and people saw that termites had eaten away the posts, they reasoned that termites made the granary fall, but a witch made sure it fell on that person at that time (Evans-Pritchard 1976 [1937]: 22).
 +* Witchcraft doesn't explain everything: when people commit certain acts, like lying and adultery, they cannot claim that they have been bewitched (ibid.: 26). Similarly, sickness that results from breaking a taboo is not caused by a witch (ibid.: 28).
 +* Witchcraft comes from an organ; one is born a witch, and one inherits from the mother and mother's brother. Sorcery by contrast is learned. "A witch performs no rite" (ibid.: 1). 
 +* If someone's witchcraft causes death, then the witch is killed in vengence (ibid.: 5). 
 +
 +## Witchcraft and sorcery beliefs are common ##
 +
 +Many societies have very similar beliefs. We can speak of these beliefs as forming a package, because they often go together too.
 +
 +Some key variations:
 +
 +* Is the witch an "insider" or an "outsider"?
 +* Is the witch typically male or female?
 +* Is witchcraft always unintented or just covert?
 +
 +## Witchcraft: a gold mine for social theory ##
 +
 +Social anthropologists loved talking about witchcraft and sorcery. It seemed a perfect test case for their ideas about social function:
 +
 +* Witchcraft and sorcery functions in relation to ideas about egalitarianism. Only equals bewitch each other (Fortune 1932).
 +* Witchcraft is a way of mediating social conflicts (Nadel 1952).
 +* Witchcraft is a collective representation of deviance itself, the "standardized nightmare" of the society (Wilson 1951: 313).
 +
 +Witchcraft exist in an equilibrium, and is part of a process of
 +maintaining social equilibrium.
 +
 +## Witchcraft has not gone away ##
 +
 +People have long debated the persistence and growth of these beliefs in the postcolonial period. 
 +
 +Some, like Comaroff and Comaroff (1999), argue that they are not a belief in magic at all, but a diagnosis of the real workings of neoliberal global capitalism in Africa. 
 +
 +
  
 ## References ## ## References ##
  
-Engelke, Matthew. 2007. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an +Comaroff, Jean, and John L. Comaroff. 1999. “Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction: Notes from the South African Postcolony.” American Ethnologist 26 (2): 279–303. doi:10.1525/ae.1999.26.2.279.
-African Church. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.+
  
-Meyer, Birgit. 2004. "Christianity in Africa: From African Independent +Engelke, Matthew. 2007. A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.
-to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches." Annual Review of Anthropology 33 +
-(1): 447–74. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143835.+
  
 +Evans-Pritchard, E. E., and Eva Gillies. 1976. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. Abridged edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  
 +Fortune, R. F. 2013. Sorcerers of Dobu: The Social Anthropology of the Dobu Islanders of the Western Pacific. Routledge.
  
 +Meyer, Birgit. 2004. “Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches.” Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (1): 447–74. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143835.
  
 +Nadel, S. F. 1952. “Witchcraft in Four African Societies: An Essay in Comparison.” American Anthropologist 54 (1): 18–29. doi:10.1525/aa.1952.54.1.02a00040.
  
 +Robbins, Joel. 2004. "The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic
 +Christianity." Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (1):
 +117–43. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093421.
  
 +Synan, Vinson. 1997. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic
 +Movements in the Twentieth Century. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
 +Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
  
 +Wilson, Monica Hunter. 1951. “Witch Beliefs and Social Structure.” American Journal of Sociology 56 (4): 307–13.
  
  
2667/7.1457994844.txt.gz · Last modified: 2016/03/14 15:34 by Ryan Schram (admin)