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Crafting Early African Histories with Jan Vansina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2018

David L. Schoenbrun
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Abstract:

The introduction explores the ways in which Jan Vansina wrote Africa’s earlier history. It argues that he overturned paradigmatic knowledge in part through policing boundaries between disciplines, but always in search of new knowledge. The boundaries enclosed different kinds of labor in producing evidence about the past. Each kind of labor teaches the scholar something about place, responsibility, and imagination. These afterlives of working in Africa informed Vansina’s interdisciplinarian publishing strategies, shape-shifting them into the imaginative, and prompting new generations of scholars to chart their own paths.

Résumé:

Cette introduction explore les différentes manières utilisées par Jan Vansina pour écrire l’histoire ancienne de l’Afrique. Elle montre que, tout en continuant sa quête de nouveaux savoirs, Vansina a bouleversé connaissances et paradigmes en redéfinissant les frontières entre les disciplines. Ces nouvelles frontières définissaient le contour de différents types de méthodologie dans la production de savoirs sur le passé. Chaque type de méthodologie enseigne ainsi au chercheur quelque chose sur le lieu, la responsabilité et l’imagination. Ces dimensions supplémentaires de son travail en Afrique ont éclairé les stratégies de publication interdisciplinaires de Vansina, en les rendant créatives, incitant ainsi les nouvelles générations de chercheurs à tracer leur propre voie.

Type
Jan Vansina Remembered
Information
History in Africa , Volume 45 , June 2018 , pp. 99 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

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