Religion(s) in Africa(s): Concepts, Practices, Transformations 3102-FER-RIA

It offers a careful revision of certain categories – such as fetishism, animism, traditional religion – historically used to apprehend (indigenous) religion(s) in Africa(s). Through a focus on chosen key topics: divination, possession or sacrifice, for example, it examines selected yet representative classic and novel approaches (evolutionist perspective, symbolic anthropology, French Africanist school, material turn, pragmatic and existential anthropology, etc.) of African religious practices and representations. It is not designed to provide a systematic survey of such practices and representations, it does not aim to address them systematically in their infinite variety. Rather, it ambitions to contribute to a better understanding of their common points and their historical and current transformations.