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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 7 page summary and critique of Africa and the Disciplines (1993), a compilation of essays that argue that African research is not only vital to disciplines such as economics, history and politics, but that this research helped to form the substance of these disciplines as we know them today. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
7 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khafdis.rtf
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The view has been proposed that African cultures and history are just as significant as the study of any other culture and history, specifically European culture. The editors of Africa
and the Disciplines (1993) subscribe to all of the arguments promoting African study, but also offer a profound argument that has a unique perspective. Their compilation of essays presents
Africa as being "already lodged in the core of the modern university" (xii), that is, they argue that African study has served to shape the knowledge of many disciplines. Because
of this argument, the book is subdivided into two main sections. The first section deals with the disciplines in the social sciences and the second deals with the humanities.
The first essay is by Sally Falk Moore, "Changing perspective on a changing Africa: the work of anthropology." Moore argues that it is virtually impossible to train an anthropologist
without taking into account research performed in regards to African cultures. Moore points out that African research in social anthropology began in the nineteenth century (3). Moore traces the evolution
of this discipline in its early years and shows how African research played a central role in its development. The years from 1920 to 1960 were particularly significant for
anthropology and Moore states that "for at least the last two of these decades, the fieldwork done in Africa was central to the formulation of the major theoretical perspectives of
anthropology" (6). Moore then discusses British, French and American anthropological research during these decades within the overall framework of colonization, before addressing the period from 1960 to 1990, which was
a period in which Africa changed drastically. Moore reviews the major anthropological perspectives that originated during this time, such as the structuralism of Claude Levi-Strauss, and once more argues persuasively
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