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Program

Research Programs: Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars

Period of Performance

9/1/1970 - 5/31/1971

Funding Totals

$9,500.00 (approved)
$9,500.00 (awarded)

Symbolic Systems in West and Central Africa

FAIN: FB-10454-70

Wyatt MacGaffey
Haverford College (Haverford, PA 19041-1392)

ABSTRACT: Investigation and comparison of symbolic systems in West and Central Africa, taking the BaKongo of the Lower Congo as a point of departure. Some of the best recent anthropological studies of Africa have revealed the prevelance and importance of systems of thought underlying ritual, magic, healing, morality, and political attitudes. So far little has been done to establlish what constitutes a system, what are its boundaries and how to compare it to other systems. Fellow 1) make general analysis oif Kongo cosmology, religion, morality and 2) explore possibility of making forma comparisons between Kongo patterns and those of neighboring areas of Africa.