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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | White Power: Social-Structure Factors in Conversion to Christianity, Eastern Nigeria, 1921-1966 |
Author: | Ifeka-Moller, Caroline |
Year: | 1974 |
Periodical: | Canadian Journal of African Studies |
Volume: | 8 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 55-72 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | Christianity religious movements colonialism History and Exploration Religion and Witchcraft Ethnic and Race Relations Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/483874 |
Abstract: | The works of K. Burridge, A. Cohen, J.W. Fernandez illustrate the importance given by some sociologists, interested in religious change, to social-structural factors in the emergence of new religions. Others argue with C. Geertz, R. Horton and J.D.Y. Peel that since religion is above all a system of ideas and beliefs the cosmos, innovations of cultic practice must be explained as resulting from peoples' attempts to make intellectual sense of new and old thought systems. Aims of this paper: 1) to point to certain difficulties in the 'intellectualist' explanation of conversion to Christianity, and in particular in that put forward by Horton; 2) to show, by an analysis of a specific set of situations, the extent to which social structural factors contribute to differential rates of conversion to Christianity in eastern Nigeria. Sections: Horton's intellectualist theory - Horton's intellectualist theory: some problems - A social-structural approach - The general problem: differential rates of conversion to Christianity and to the Aladura Churches in Eastern Nigeria - Religious change in Onitsha Town: a test case - Conclusion. Ref., tab., map, French summary. |