W. E. A. van Beek

Annette M. Schmidt

Africa is a 'theme park' for Western tourists to experience untouched wilderness, untamed nature, and truly 'authentic' cultures, where the hosts, too, are part of a discourse about the 'other' and ourselves, about wildness, danger and roots.

Cultural Dynamics of Tourism

African Hosts & Their Guests

Philip Nel

Paulus Gijsbertus Johannes Post

The fundamental changes in society and culture are forcing us to reconsider the position of sacred space, and to do this within the broader context of ritual and religious dynamics and what is called a 'spatial turn'. This collection of studies on sacred space concerns itself with both perspectives by exploring place-bound dynamics of the sacred in Africa and Europe. Cultural dynamics, identities and ownership, and contestations are very much interrelated. The essays and cases show that, via these contested fields, identities are always at stake.

Space and Ritual Dynamics in Europe and Africa

Sacred Spaces and Contested Identities

Walter E. A. van Beek draws on over four decades of extensive fieldwork to offer an in-depth study of the religion of the Kapsiki/Higi, who live in the Mandara Mountains on the border between North Cameroon and Northeast Nigeria. Concentrating on ritual as the core of traditional religion, van Beek shows how Kapsiki/Higi practices have endured through the long and turbulent history of the region. Kapsiki rituals reveal a focus on two fundamental concepts: dwelling and belonging. Van Beek examines their sacrificial practices, through which the Kapsiki show a complex and pervasive connection with the Mandara Mountains, as well as the character of their relationships among themselves and with outsiders. Van Beek also explores their rituals of belonging, rites of passage which take place from birth through initiation and marriage - and even death, with the tradition of the ''dancing dead,'' when a fully decorated corpse on the shoulders of a smith ''dances'' with his mourning kinsmen. The Dancing Dead is the result of the author's lifelong study of the Kapsiki/Higi. It gives a unique description of the rituals in an African traditional religion based not upon ancestors, but on a completely relational thought system, where in the end all rituals are integrated into one major cycle.

Ritual and Religion Among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and Northeastern Nigeria

The Dancing Dead

Wil G. Pansters

Mario Fumerton

Essays in Honour of Arie de Ruijter

Meeting Culture

Philip M. Peek

From crab divination in the Cameroon (front cover) to friction oracles in the Congo Basin, from reading cast objects in Mozambique to spirit possession in Cote d'Ivoire, from Sudanese ebony diviners to South African Xhosa healers (below), divination systems throughout Africa serve their communities by resolving problems and answering questions. Divination helps people chart a course in life by a deeper underÂ­standing of past and present. This important collection reveals the extraordinary diversity and complexity of African divination systems, focusing on self-knowledge, social reality, and on intercultural and historical relations. Walter E.A. van Beek is Professor of Anthropology of Religion at Tilburg University, Netherlands. Philip M. Peek is Professor Emeritus at Drew University, USA.

W. E. A. van Beek

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