Description
Book SynopsisExplores how anthropology can come to terms with "colonial library" and begin to develop an ethnographic practice that transcends politics of Africa's imperial past. This book develops a model of critical agency, focusing on a variety of language genres in Africa situated in rituals that transform socio-political relations.
Trade Review"A counterintuitive rereading of classic anthropological texts from the colonial archive, Beyond Words proposes a brilliant solution to one of the most pressing intellectual/political issues in African studies today. Responding to trenchant critiques of anthropology's complicity with colonialism and Eurocentric thought, Apter argues that these texts - of Dogon cosmological reflection, of Tswana praise poetry - be reread as critical reflection on power and authority, as vernacular criticism that was history-making rather than history-erasing and politics-averse." - Charles Piot, Duke University"
