Confronting Categorical Assumptions about the Power of Religion in Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Confronting Categorical Assumptions about the Power of Religion in Africa
Author:	Green, Maia
Year:	2006
Periodical:	Review of African Political Economy
Volume:	33
Issue:	110
Period:	December
Pages:	635-650
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	social research religion epistemology social change Religion and Witchcraft Politics and Government
External links:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240601119018 http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4D41A506386E676E128B
Abstract:	Religion and Africa are paired in the representational armouries of the social sciences, a pairing often proposed uncritically and without adequate reflection. The present author considers some of the reasons why religion and culture are commonly invoked to explain other social phenomena in African studies, and explores some of the repercussions of this kind of analysis. In arguing for an equivalence in analytical approaches to politics and culture within and outside Africa she calls for greater sensitivity to the political consequences of exceptionalism and for an increased commitment to sociological approaches which seek first to interrogate the categories of social organization locally, rather than assume them. Finally, the author explores some directions of categorical change in Tanzania, and the implications for religion. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]