Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Texts and Contexts
3. Translation, Exoticism, Banality
4. Tradition and Trade
5. Complexity, Astonishment and Power: The Personhood of Objects
6. Nkondi: Minkisi to Kill People Swiftly
7. Composition and Powers of an Nkondi Called Mbola
8. Life and Death: Objecthood of Persons
9. Lutete's Chiefs
10. Reflections and Extensions
Appendix

Promotional Information

A brilliant commentary on the political culture of the BaKongo of Lower Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo) by a well-known anthropologist.

About the Author

Wyatt MacGaffey, formerly John R. Coleman Professor of Social Sciences at Haverford College, has published extensively on African social structure, history, art, religion, and politics. His books include Custom and Government in the Lower Congo (1970), Religion and society in Central Africa (1986), and Astonishment and Power (1993; with Michael D. Harris). IN 1994 he was awarded a Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.