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Focussing on the mechanics of social change and the interaction between ethnic groups, cultures, structures and value systems the background questions of ecology, demography and history are also examined and the process of urbanization and rural revolution described. Trends in marriage and family life, education and religious ideas are also discussed and case studies from each country included. First published in 1974

Der Autor gibt in 14 Kapiteln einen prägnanten Überblick über die Sozialanthropologie Afrikas. Nach einer kurzen theoretischen Einführung zur Sozialanthropologie und den Methoden der Studie untersucht das Buch eine Vielzahl von Aspekten der afrikanischen Kultur: Religion, Symbolismus, Rituale, Gemeinschafts-, Ehe- und Familienleben, Bildende Künste. Beachtung wird auch dem soziokulturellen Wandel angesichts der Urbanisierung in Afrika geschenkt. (DÜI-Sbd)

Addresses the vital questions that will determine the face of African Christianity: AIDS, chronic unemployment, the plight of children, and the "deculturation" of the multitudes pouring into the cities of black Africa.

The rise & fall of a particular spirit-medium & his 'community of affliction' in Tanzania are studied & conclusions drawn for the ministry of Christian healing as currently practiced in the country. The community ministered successfully to the needs of the Kimbu people at a moment of uncertainty in their social development. It was an amalgam of old & new ideas, responding to the tradition of personalizing certain types of experience, but it disappeared during the villagization program of the mid-1970s, when social tensions & ambiguities were lessened or changed. Based on social-anthropological field work conducted in the area between 1964 & the time of the community's disappearance, participant observation & interviews of the medium & members of his community provide an understanding of their purposes & influence. Exorcism of evil spirits has acquired a new popularity in the Christian churches of Tanzania. In many cases its purpose & effect are comparable to the community of affliction studied. The personalization & demonization of everyday misfortunes & their repeated exorcism in a Christian rite is, in fact, a distortion of exorcism as it has developed in the Christian West, but there are disturbing precedents in the practices of medieval & early post-Reformation Christendom. Client-centered therapy may favor contemporary developments, but in the long-run this cannot be a static situation. The Christian healer is pledged to offer an experience of God's healing love in Jesus Christ that is also consistent with the promotion of modern medicine. It would be unfortunate to identify with what may be only an episode in the cultural & mental development of these Ru peoples. AA.