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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Quantifying Conversion: A Note on the Colonial Census and Religious Change in Postwar Southern Mali
Author:Peterson, BrianISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:History in Africa
Volume:29
Pages:381-392
Language:English
Geographic terms:Mali
France
Subjects:religious conversion
population composition
colonialism
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Religion and Witchcraft
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172170
Abstract:The use of colonial census data on religious conversion in historical analysis is often fraught with methodological problems. What, at first glance, might appear to have been profound structural transformation of society may in part be illusions created by changes in the census apparatus, or data collection process, itself. In this paper, the author discusses how a colonial census was conducted and how local rural people were active agents in enumerating their own (official) identities. The author presents examples from the history of French colonial southern Mali during the postwar period arguing that the colonial census was a complex social and political process that must be 'deconstructed' if one is to make critical use of such State-generated numbers. Notes, ref.
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