The Absence of the Missionary in African Ethnography, 1930-65
The Absence of the Missionary in African Ethnography, 1930-65
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传教士在非洲民族志中的缺席，1930-65 年
DOI：
10.2307/525128
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发表时间：
1992
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
J. Kirby
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. van der Geest;J. Kirby
几乎没有一个[非洲人]……在或多或少的程度上没有受到基督教传教士工作的影响，其中大多数由本土基督徒组成的有组织的社区在社会组织中发挥着不可或缺的作用。任何当代的社会研究都不能忽视这一要素、它所采取的形式以及它与它共存和相互作用的其他群体的关系。 Beattie 1953, 178 也许对非洲经验的任何方面的分析都比基督教传教活动更不客观。 Herskovits 1962, 204 当我真正在现场时，我发现很难不感到失望，因为我必须通过参加普通的荷兰归正教会仪式来研究 Kgatla 的宗教，而不是观看异教徒对祖先灵魂的祭祀。 Schapera 1938, 27 因此，传教士、殖民地管理者和英国征兵官员并不是我故事的真正组成部分。我现在明白这是一个错误。 Leach 1989, 4 越来越多的研究强调基督教传教士在非洲国家独立前发生的变革过程中发挥的重要作用。十五年前，一份参考书目列出了不少于 2,859 种有关热带非洲基督教的出版物，近年来其数量增长得更多（Ofori 1977）。历史学家和社会科学家都对这个问题产生了浓厚的兴趣（见 Etherington 1983）。但情况并非总是如此。
There is scarcely one [African people]…which has not been affected, to a greater or less extent, by the work of the Christian missions, and among most of them organized communities of native Christians play an integral part in the social organization. No contemporary social study can afford to neglect this element, the form it takes, and its relations with the other groups with which it co-exists and interacts. Beattie 1953, 178 There is perhaps no aspect of the African experience that has been analyzed with less objectivity than the Christian missionary effort. Herskovits 1962, 204 I found it difficult, when actually in the field, not to feel disappointed at having to study the religion of the Kgatla by sitting through an ordinary Dutch Reformed Church service, instead of watching a heathen sacrifice to the ancestral spirits. Schapera 1938, 27 Thus the missionaries and the colonial administrators and the British military recruiting officers were not really part of my story. I see now that this was a mistake. Leach 1989, 4 An increasing number of studies highlight the important role played by Christian missionaries in the processes of change that occurred in African countries before independence. Fifteen years ago a bibliography listed no fewer than 2,859 publications on Christianity in Tropical Africa and their number has grown even more considerably in recent years (Ofori 1977). Both historians and social scientists have taken a keen interest in this issue (see Etherington 1983). But it has not always been so.