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Accumulation: wealth and belief in Asante history: II the twentieth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

T. C. McCaskie
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Extract

In Part I of this article (McCaskie, 1983a) I discussed the relationship between accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante to the close of the nineteenth century. In this concluding part I analyse these and cognate themes in the twentieth century. I remain wedded to the approach outlined in detail in Part I; an attempt to locate action and motive within a cognitive or ‘intellectualist’ framework. But this article is more episodic and less directly narrative than its predecessor. There are reasons for this change of stylistic gear.

Résumé

Accumulation, richesse et croyance dans l'histoire de l'Asante: II Le vingtième siècle

Cet article fait suite à celui paru dans L'Afrique 53 (1), 1983, 23–43. Il traite des attitudes de l'Asante envers l'accumulation, la richesse et la croyance au vingtième siècle. L'importance méthodologique reste la même; une tentative de réconciliation entre les vues ‘anthropologiques’ et ‘historiques’ du passé; un effort d'utilisation de l'hypothélique’ et du ‘conjoncturel’ vers la création d'une histoire authentique et intellectuelle détachée du positivisme et un aperçu des méthodes dont les Africanistes pourraient tenter une analyse du cognitif. Cependant, en ce qui concerne la présentation, cet article diffère du précédent. Il est épisodique dans la mesure où il se concentre sur une série de développements explicatifs cruciaux. Ce point reflète l'incroyable richesse de l'histoire sociale achantie du vingtième siècle ainsi que l'absence relative d'érudition s'y rapportant. Les deux articles doivent être lus dans le contexte d'un certain nombre d'autres écrits publiés par l'auteur. Pris dans leur ensemble, ceux-ci tentent de définir et d'analyser certains des paramètres fondamentaux de la pensée achantie. Sous cette approche, existe le souci fondamental selon lequel l'historiographie africaniste aurait négligé la pensée et les idées èn faveur de l'élaboration d'une ‘narration’ chronologique descriptive. En un mot, le but de l'auteur est de déterminer la position de la pensée, de la croyance et de la sensibilité indigène au coeur de l'histoire africaine.

Type
Akan social history
Information
Africa , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 3 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1986

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