Theoretical Explorations in African Religion

Wim M. J. van Binsbergen (b. 1947) is Head of the Department of Political Science and History, African Studies Centre, Leiden. Jan Mathys (Matthew) Schoffeleers (b. 1928) is Professor of Religious Anthropology at the Free University, Amsterdam.

• 1 Introduction: Theoretical explorations in African religion 2 Perspectives on divination in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa 3 Towards a semantic approach to the principle of transformation: An analysis of two myths concerning the origin of circumcision among the Komo of Zaire 4 From waste-making to recycling: A plea for an eclectic use of models in the study of religious change 5 Religious pluralism: An ethnographic approach 6 Oral history and the retrieval of the distant past: On the use of legendary chronicles as sources of historical information 7 The historical interpretation of myth in the context of popular Islam 8 The consequences of literacy in African religion: The Kongo case 9 The argument of images: From Zion to the Wilderness in African churches 10 Religious studies and political economy: The Mwari cult and the peasant experience in Southern Rhodesia 11 Dini ya Msambwa: Rural rebellion or counter-society? 12 Prophets of God or of history? Muslim messianic movements and anti-colonialism in Senegal.