Project Details
Projekt
Contemplation and social commitment. West African monasteries, transnational networks and alternative economies.
Applicant
Dr. Katrin Langewiesche
Subject Area
Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
African, American and Oceania Studies
African, American and Oceania Studies
Term
from 2015 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 271153266
Contemplation and social commitment. West African monasteries, transnational networks and alternative economies.The anthropological research carried out on Christianity in Africa has largely neglected the monastic life. The proposed project would like to draw attention to the fact that monasterial research not only throws light on little known aspects of Christianity in Africa, it can also make an important contribution to the understanding of the processes of social change and debates on globalization in African societies. At the core of the research project is a paradox: The contemplative orders aim to live in retreat from the norms of society. However, in order to be able to survive materially as a community, they successfully develop alternative economic forms, interact with their environment, and build transnational networks or integrate into them. This interaction is the focus of the research project. Based on the analysis of different religious orders in three West-African countries, it takes the form of anthropological studies on monastic networks, the monastic economy and social change in precise localized areas: Burkina Faso, Ghana and Senegal. These states were selected because they have a broad spectrum of religious landscapes: different forms of Islam, different types of evangelization, a different spread of Catholicism and also different forms of social pluralism and state tolerance. This cross-country analysis of the nuns or monks and the social-political contexts in which they operate, will uncover insights into social processes that have been hardly considered, such as new forms of economic activity. Contrary to a popular belief, that looks upon monasteries as tradition-bound restraining status quo institutions, this project will analyze their interaction with the modern society. Christian institutions in Africa have long been considered as propagators and symbols of modernity, such as schools or health facilities. Monasteries were not yet considered as places of a modern, if not capitalist type of economic activity. Contemporary monasteries in West Africa are examined in this project as places of testing alternative patterns of economy based on religious values. Can monasteries be interpreted as pioneers or model for sustainable development in African societies, at least in parts of society? This question summarizes what this project wants to pursue.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Austria, Burkina Faso, France, United Kingdom
