Christianity and Colonialism in South Africa Export

@article{citeulike:1769029, abstract = {Christian evangelists were intimately involved in the colonial process in southern Africa. This essay distinguishes two dimensions of their historical role, each associated with a different form of power. In the domain of formal political processes, of the concrete exercise of power, the effect of the nonconformist mission to the Tswana, as elsewhere in Africa, was inherently ambiguous. However, in the domain of implicit signs and practices, of the diffuse control over everyday meaning, it instilled the authoritative imprint of Western capitalist culture. But there was a contradiction between these dimensions: while the mission introduced a new world view, it could not deliver the world to go with it. And this contradiction, in turn, gave rise to various discourses of protest and resistance. [South Africa, Tswana, colonialism, Christianity, missionaries, power, domination and resistance, historical agency and cultural discourse]}, author = {Comaroff, Jean and Comaroff, John}, citeulike-article-id = {1769029}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/644583}, journal = {American Ethnologist}, keywords = {africa, christianity, colonialism, south}, number = {1}, pages = {1--22}, posted-at = {2007-10-15 07:02:02}, priority = {2}, title = {Christianity and Colonialism in South Africa}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/644583}, volume = {13}, year = {1986} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1769029 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1769029 N2 - Christian evangelists were intimately involved in the colonial process in southern Africa. This essay distinguishes two dimensions of their historical role, each associated with a different form of power. In the domain of formal political processes, of the concrete exercise of power, the effect of the nonconformist mission to the Tswana, as elsewhere in Africa, was inherently ambiguous. However, in the domain of implicit signs and practices, of the diffuse control over everyday meaning, it instilled the authoritative imprint of Western capitalist culture. But there was a contradiction between these dimensions: while the mission introduced a new world view, it could not deliver the world to go with it. And this contradiction, in turn, gave rise to various discourses of protest and resistance. [South Africa, Tswana, colonialism, Christianity, missionaries, power, domination and resistance, historical agency and cultural discourse] IS - 1 JF - American Ethnologist EP - 22 TI - Christianity and Colonialism in South Africa VL - 13 SP - 1 KW - africa KW - christianity KW - colonialism KW - south AU - Comaroff, Jean AU - Comaroff, John PY - 1986/// UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/644583 ER -