John L. Comaroff

Over the years John and Jean Comaroff have broadened the study of culture and society with their reflections on power and meaning. In their work on Africa and colonialism they have explored some of the fundamental questions of social science, delving into the nature of history and human agency, culture and consciousness, ritual and representation. How are human differences, constructed and institutionalized, transformed and (sometimes) effaced, empowered and (sometimes) resisted? How do local cultures articulate with global forms? How is the power of some people over others built, sustained, eroded, and negated? How does the social imagination take shape in novel yet collectively meaningful ways? Addressing' these questions, the essays in this volume--several never before published--work towards an "imaginative sociology," demonstrating the techniques by which social science may capture the contexts that human beings construct and inhabit. In the introduction, the authors offer their most complete statement to date on the nature of historical anthropology. Standing apart from the traditional disciplines of social history and modernist social science, their work is dedicated to discovering how human worlds are made, and signified, forgotten and remade.

Are postcolonies haunted more by criminal violence than other nation-states? The usual answer is yes. In Law and Disorder in the Postcolony, Jean and John Comaroff and a group of respected theorists show that the question is misplaced: that the predicament of postcolonies arises from their place in a world order dominated by new modes of governance, new sorts of empires, new species of wealth?an order that criminalizes poverty and race, entraps the?south? in relations of corruption, and displaces politics into the realms of the market, criminal economies, and the courts. As these essays make.

"Both liberal and Marxist theories predicted the withering away of nationalism; yet, in the late twentieth century, it has re-emerged as a major touchstone of conflict. While old theories have been discredited by facts, politicians, academics, journalists, and policy practitioners stumble along using outmoded ideas about the politics of identity."--BOOK JACKET. "This volume considers recent studies that move beyond primordialism and its antithesis, social constructivism, to search for new insights to illuminate the nature of nationalism and links to war. The authors also delve into the role of shared interests; the history of peoples, elites and states; political imperatives; propaganda; and psychological predispositions."--BOOK JACKET.

What role does ritual play in the everyday lives of modern Africans? How are so-called "traditional" cultural forms deployed by people seeking empowerment in a world where "modernity" has failed to deliver on its promises? Some of the essays in Modernity and Its Malcontents address familiar anthropological issues--like witchcraft, myth, and the politics of reproduction--but treat them in fresh ways, situating them amidst the polyphonies of contemporary Africa. Others explore distinctly nontraditional subjects--among them the Nigerian popular press and soul-eating in Niger--in such a way as to confront the conceptual limits of Western social science. Together they demonstrate how ritual may be powerfully mobilized in the making of history, present, and future. Addressing challenges posed by contemporary African realities, the authors subject such concepts as modernity, ritual, power, and history to renewed critical scrutiny. Writing about a variety of phenomena, they are united by a wish to preserve the diversity and historical specificity of local signs and practices, voices and perspectives. Their work makes a substantial and original contribution toward the historical anthropology of Africa.