Harrie Leyten, Objects with power

This research will deal with questions such as: how have (mostly European and American) anthropologists viewed objects with power since Tyler's theory of Animism in the 19th century? How have African anthropologists in the past decades reacted to these views? The same questions will be put with regard to (mostly European) missionaries who have been active in Africa since the middle of the 19th century: how have they viewed (in their perception: pagan) objects with power? How have African theologians in the past decades reacted to these views? Throughout the thesis emphasis will be laid on the way material culture has been described and interpreted in books on (traditional) African art. In this analysis the differences will be amplified between ethnographies from the colonial era and those of more recent times.

Harrie Leyten defended his dissertation at Tilburg University on 15 April 2015.