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Anthropology of the Afro-Atlantic World
Stephan Palmié
University of Chicago
Spring, 2004
Although originally pioneered, more than three generations ago, by scholars
and critics such as C.L.R. James, Eric Williams, W.E.B. DuBois, or Walter
Rodney, the concept of an “Atlantic World” has only recently
come to prominence in Anthropology. In the past decade, however, students
of Africa and the Americas have increasingly begun to phrase their inquiries
in terms transcending entrenched geographical divisions of labor within the
social sciences. More reminiscent, perhaps, of Fernand Braudel´s Mediterranean
with its multiple spatial frontiers and layered temporalities, than of traditional
anthropological conceptions of “culture areas” or regions, the
post-Columbian Atlantic is emerging as a distinct focus of analysis: a historically “dense” field
of shifting power relations, trans-societal interaction and cultural exchange
that defies many of the foundational fictions of our discipline. At the same
time, students of the African Diaspora have begun to dismantle the theoretically
naive linear models of cultural transmission from Africa to the New World
that, until very recently, governed the field of African American anthropology,
while some Africanists are now arguing for a view of the continent itself
as deeply enmeshed in complex, and -- as of now – far from adequately
understood dynamics of Atlantic scope.
Parts of this course will be devoted to a concise introduction to some of
the major theoretical antecedents of, current positions within, and controversies
surrounding the new “Atlantic” anthropology of Africa and its
New World diasporas. After this, we will concentrate on a number of recent
monographs and/or major articles exemplifying the promises and pitfalls of
theoretical conceptions and methodological procedures that attempt to go
beyond mere transregional comparison, and aim at analytically situating specific
ethnographic or historical scenarios within an integrated perspective on
an "Afro-Atlantic World". Questions we will raise include, but
are not limited to the following: to what extent can or do these new approaches
go beyond mere structural perspectives such as e.g. world systems theory?
How do they articulate with, or shed new light on our current concerns with
globalization, transnationalism, multi-sited ethnographies, and similar attempts
to broaden the scope of anthropological inquiry? How does an analytical focus
on the Atlantic region as an historical field integrating Europe, Africa
and the Americas reflect on theories of modernity? And what promise do Atlantic
approaches hold for a revitalization of African-American anthropology, a
field long mired in ultimately sterile debates about cultural origins? The
temporal frame will range from the early modern period to the present, and
case studies will be drawn from all continents involved.
Students will be responsible for at least two in-class oral presentations
outlining and critiquing a monograph and/or a number of articles assigned
for the session in question. In the first half of the course these will be
drawn from the reading list. In the second half of the course, students who
tackle a monograph have the option of assigning parts of the book and/or
supplementary readings to the class. In addition, students are encouraged
to suggest additional or alternative readings. The grade will be based on
oral presentations, regular participation in discussions, and a final paper
of no less than 20 pages. The paper can either take the form of a review
and critique of pertinent theoretical and ethnographic literature, or explore
a specific problem on the basis of the student´s own prior or current
research.
Syllabus
4/2 Session 1 – Terminological and Conceptual Issues: What Is a “World”,
and What Makes It Afro-Atlantic?
Readings:
Edwin Ardener.1989. “Social Anthropology and Population” in:
Chapman, Malcolm (ed.) The Voice of Prophecy and Other Essays. Oxford: Blackwell
Paul Gilroy.1993. The Black Atlantic (ch. 1). Cambridge: Harvard UP.
Edmund Gordon and Mark Anderson. 1999. “The African Diaspora: Towards
an Ethnography of Diasporic Identification” Journal of American
Folklore 112:282-296.
Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Redicker. 1991. "The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors,
Slaves, and the Atlantic Working Class in the Eighteenth Century" Journal
of Historical Sociology 3.
George Shepperson. 1968. “The African Abroad or the African Diaspora” in:
Terence O. Ranger (ed.) Emerging Themes in African History. London.
4/9 Session 2 – Structural Perspectives
Readings:
Fernand Braudel. The Mediterranean (vol. 1 Ch. 3 opening paragraphs and sections
1 and 3); Walter Rodney. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (at least ch. 1);
C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins (1962 edition, "Appendix");
Dale Tomich "Spaces of Slavery, Times of Freedom: Rethinking Caribbean
History in World Perspective" Comparative Studies of South East
Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 17, 1997, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, "Motion
in the System: Coffee, Color, and Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Saint-Domingue" Review 3, 1982;
Frederick Cooper "What is the Concept of Globalization Good for? An
African Historian´s Perspective" African Affairs 100, 2001.
Optional: Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery
4/16 Session 3 – The Foundational Debates: From the Herskovits/Frazier
Debate to Mintz and Price and Their Critics
Readings:
Melville J. Herskovits. 1966. The New World Negro (“Problem, Method,
and Theory in Afroamerican Studies”, “The Ahistorical Approach
to Afroamerican Sytudies: A Critique”)
Michael G. Smith. 1965. The Plural Society in the British West Indies (ch.
3 “A Framework for Caribbean Studies”, section “Afroamerican
research”)
Andrew Apter. 1991. “Herskovits’ Heritage: Rethinking Syncretism
in the African Diaspora” Diasporas 1
Sidney W. Mintz and Richard Price. 1992. The Birth of African American
Culture. Boston: Beacon Press.
Paul E. Lovejoy 1997. "The African Diaspora: Revisionist Interpretations
of Ethnicity, Culture, and Religion under Slavery" Studies in the
World History of Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation 2, (www.h-net.msu.edu/~slavery/essays/esy970love.html);
Philip D. Morgan 1997. "The Cultural Implications of the Atlantic Slave
Trade: African Regional Origins, American Destinations and New World Developments" Slavery
and Abolition 18;
Optional:
Ira Berlin. 1996. "From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles
and the Origins of African-American Society in Mainland North America" William
and Mary Quarterly 53
John K. Thornton. 1994. “The Role of Africans in the Atlantic Economy,
1450-1650: Modern Africanist Historiography and the World-Systems Paradigm” Colonial
Latin American Historical Review 3
4/23 Session 4 -- Atlantic Modernities and the Occidentalist Legacy
Readings:
Susan Buck-Morss. 2000."Hegel and Haiti" Critical Inquiry 26, 2000
Michel-Rolph Trouillot.1995. Silencing the Past. Boston (ch.3)
Joan Dayan.1998. Haiti, History and the Gods. Berkeley (chs. 3 and 4);
Herman Bennett. 2000. “The Subject in the Plot: National Boundaries
and the History of the Black Atlantic” African Studies Review 43:101-124.
Jacqueline Nassy Brown. 2000. “Enslaving History: Narratives on Local
Whiteness in a Black Atlantic Port” American Ethnologist 27:340-370.
William Pietz. "The Problem of the Fetish" parts I-IIIa Res vol.
9, 1985, pp. 5-17, vol. 12, 1987, pp. 23-45, vol. 16, 1988, pp.105-123.
Optional:
Stephan Palmié. 2002. Wizards and Scientists (“Introduction”)
Aimé Cesaire. 1972. Discourse on Colonialism. New York 1972;
Luis Salas-Molins. Les Misères des Lumières: Sous la Raison,
l`outrage. Paris 1992
4/30 Session 5 – African Origins?
Readings:
David Chioni Moore. 1998. “African Philosophy vs. Philosophy of Africa:
Continental Identities and Traveling Names for the Self” Diasporas 7:321-350.
Jean-Loup Amselle. 1993. "Anthropology and Historicity" History
and Theory Beiheft 32
Charles Piot. 2001. “Atlantic Aporias: Africa and Gilroy’s Black
Atlantic” South Atlantic Quarterly 100:155-170.
J. Lorand Matory. 1999. "The English Professors of Brazil: On the Diasporic
Roots of the Yoruba Nation" Comparative Studies in Society and History 41.
Stephan Palmié. 1995. “Against Syncretism: Africanizing and
Cubanizing Discourses in North American orisa-Worship” in: Fardon,
Richard (ed.) Counterworks. London: Routledge 1995
Henry Drewal. 1988. “Mermaids, Mirrors, and Snake Charmers: Igbo Mami
Wata Shrines” African Arts 21
-----. 2002. “Mami Wata and Santa Marta: Imag(in)ing Selves and Others
in Africa and the Americas” in: Paul Landau and Deborah Kaspin (eds.)
Images of Empire. Berkeley.
Wyatt MacGaffey. 1999. "Kongo Ethnicity" South Atlantic Quarterly 98
Optional:
J.D.Y Peel. 1990. “The Pastor and the Babalawo: The Interaction
of Religions in Nineteenth Century Yorubaland” Africa 60:338-369.
A.I. Asiwaju.1976. “Political Motivation and Oral Historical Traditions
in Africa: The Case of Yoruba Crowns, 1900-1960" Africa 46:113-127.
J. Lorand Matory.2001. “The ‘Cult of Nations’ and the Ritualization
of Their Purity” South Atlantic Quarterly 100:171-214.
Peter Caron. 1997. "´Of a Nation Which the Others do not Understand´:
Bambara Slaves and African Ethnicity in Colonial Louisiana, 1718-60" Slavery
and Abolition 18
5/7 Session 6 – Case Studies: Ritual and the Historical
Imagination in Sierra Leone
Readings:
Rosalind Shaw. 2002. Memories of the Slave Trade. Chicago UP.
5/14 Session 7 – Case Studies: Religious Regimes and Mystical
Entrepreneurs Over the Long Ndyuka Twentieth Century
Readings:
H.U.E. Thoden van Velzen and W. Van Wetering. 1975. “On the Political
Impact of a Prophetic Movement in Surinam” in: W.E.A. van Beek and
J.H. Scherer (eds.) Explorations in the Anthropology of Religion: Essays
in Honor of Jan van Baal. The Hague.
Chris de Beet and H.U.E. Thoden van Velzen. 1977. “Bush Negro Prophetic
Movements: Religions of Despair?” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en
Volkenkunde 133
H.U.E. Thoden van Velzen and W. van Wetering. 1983 “Affluence, Deprivation
and the Flowering of Bush Negro Religious Movements” Bijdragen
tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde 139
H.U.E. Thoden van Velzen. 1990. “The Maroon Insurgency: Anthropological
Perspectives on the Civil War in Suriname” in: Gary Brana-Shute (ed.)
Resistance and Rebellion in Suriname: Old and New. Williamsburg, VA.
Bonno Thoden van Velzen. 1994. “Priests, Mediums and Guerrillas in
Suriname” in: Jojada Verrips (ed.) Transactions: Essays in Honor
of Jeremy Boissevain. Amsterdam.
Optional:
Bonno Thoden van Velzen. 1977. “Bush Negro Regional Cults:
A Materialist Interpretation” in: Richard Werbner (ed.) Regional
Cults.
London.
H.U.E. Thoden van Velzen. 1978 “The Origins of the Gaan Gadu Movement
of the Bush Negroes of Surinam” Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 52.
5/ 21 Session 8 – Haiti in the West Atlantic System
Readings:
Nina Glick-Schiller and Georges Eugene Fouron. 2001. Georges Woke Up
Laughing.
Durham.
Paul Farmer. 1992. Aids and Accusation. Berkeley.
Optional:
Elizabeth McAlister. 2002. Rara! Berkeley.
OR
Session 8 – Jamaica Jubilee
Readings:
Iain McCalman. 1986 "Anti-Slavery and Ultraradicalism in Early Nineteenth
Century England: The Case of Robert Wedderburn" Slavery and Abolition 7
W.F. Elkins. 1977. Street Preachers, Faith Healers, and Herb Doctors
in Jamaica, 1890-1925. New York.
Ken Post. 1970. “The Bible As Ideology: Ethiopianism in Jamaica,
1930-38" in: Christopher Allen and C.W. Johnson (eds.) African
Perspectives. Cambridge 1970
Charles Carnegie. 2002. Postnationalism Prefigured (chapter 6). New Brunswick.
Robert A. Hill.1981. "Dread History: Leonard P. Howell and Millenarian
Visions in Early Rastafari Religion in Jamaica" Epoché vol.
9, 1981 pp. 30-71
Kenneth Bilby. 1999. “Neither Here Nor There: The Place of ‘Community’ In
the Jamaican Religious Imagination” in: John Pulis (ed.) Religion,
Diaspora, and Cultural Identity. Amsterdam.
John Homiak. 1999. “Movements of Jah People: From Soundscapes to
Mediascapes” in: John Pulis (ed.) Religion, Diaspora, and Cultural
Identity. Amsterdam
Optional:
Diane Austin-Broos. Jamaica Genesis. Chicago 1997
5/28 Session 9 -- Afrotopia I: Verificationism, and the Specter of Authenticity
Readings:
Dickson Bruce. 1984. “Ancient Africa and the Early Black American Historians,
1883-1915" American Quarterly 36
Bruce Dain.. 1993. “Haiti and Egypt in Early Black Racial Discourse
in the United States" Slavery and Abolition 14.
Wilson Moses. 1998. Afrotopia (pp. 1-95)
Richard Price. 1990. “Ethnographic History, Caribbean Pasts” Working
Paper No.9, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Maryland.
David Scott. 1991. “That Event, This Memory: Notes Toward an Anthropology
of the African Diasporas in the New World” Diasporas 1:261-284
-----. 1999. Refashioning Futures (chapter 5 “An Obscure Miracle of
Connection”)
David Chioni Moore. 1995. “Routes: Alex Haley’s Roots and the
Rhetoric of Genealogy” Transition 64: 4-21.
Optional:
Christopher Steiner.1994. African Art in Transit. Cambridge.
6/4 Session 10 -- Afrotopia II: Paradoxes of (Pan-)Africanity
Readings:
George A. Shepperson "Ethiopianism: Past and Present" in C.G. Baeta
(ed.) Christianity in Tropical Africa. London 1968, pp. 249-264;
Tunde Adeleke. 1998. “Black Americans and Africa: A Critique of the
Pan-African and Identity Paradigms” The International Journal of
African Historical Studies, 31: 505-536.
Paul Gilroy. 2000. “Black Fascism” Transition 81/82: 70-91
Ibrahim Sundiata. 2000. “All Brothers and Sisters, All the Time” (www2.h-net.msu.edu)
Livio Sansone. 1999. “From Africa to Afro: Use and Abuse of Africa
in Brazil” SEPHIS-CODESRIA Lecture No. 3
Rita Laura Segato. 1998. “The Color-Blind Subject of Myth; Or, Where
to Find Africa in the Nation” Annual Reviews of Anthropology 27:129-151.
Stephan Palmié.. 2002. “The Color of the Gods: Notes on a Question
Better Left Unasked” in: Berndt Ostendorf (ed.) Transnational America.
Heidelberg.
Optional:
Kwame Anthony Appiah. 1992. In My Father’s House (chapters
1 and 2)
Michael Hanchard “Afro-Modernity: Temporality, Politics, and the African
Diaspora” Public Culture 11:245-268
BOOKS ON ORDER AT THE COOP:
Rosalind Shaw. 2002. Memories of the Slave Trade. Chicago: U. of Chicago
Press.
Michel-Rolph Trouillot. 1995. Silencing the Past. Boston: Beacon Press.
Joan Dayan. 1998. Haiti, History, and the Gods. Berkeley: UCP.
Robert A. Hill. 2001. Dread History. Chicago: Reasearch Associates School
Times Publications/Frontline Distributions Int’l Inc.
Optional:
Nina Glick-Schiller and Georges Eugene Fouron. 2001. Georges Woke Up
Laughing. Durham: Duke U.
Paul Farmer. 1992. Aids and Accusation. Berkeley: UCP.
Elizabeth McAlister. 2002. Rara! Berkeley: UCP.
Diane Austin Broos. 1997. Jamaica Genesis. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press
Stephan Palmié. 2002. Wizards and Scientists. Durham: Duke UP.
© 2001 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Created November 2002.