Recent developments in the study of African religious and cultural history and their relevance for the historiography of the diaspora

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Periodical article

Title:	Recent developments in the study of African religious and cultural history and their relevance for the historiography of the diaspora
Author:	Ranger, T.O.
Year:	1973
Periodical:	Ufahamu
Volume:	4
Issue:	2
Pages:	17-34
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:	diasporas African studies
Abstract:	The author begins with some critical remarks on Herkovits' 'The Myth of the Negro Past' in which some African 'survivals' are used to demonstrate that there must have been a powerful African element in slave culture in North America. It is not a safe assumption that these survivals demonstrate their superior vitality and centrality among the whole range of original African beliefs. The essential emphasis of a new historiography of slave society must be on the process by which the religious and cultural ideas of slaves interacted with each other, and with the ideas of their masters over decades. The key question is how African ideas played a very important role in all this change. Some contribution to answering this question can be made by the conclusions of the new historiography of African religion. Notes; ref.