The second edition of Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation is both an introduction to the cultures of Africa and a history of the interpretations of those cultures. Key essays explore the major issues and debates through a combination of classic articles and the newest research in the field.
The second edition of the popular reader Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation offers valuable new chapters showing the progress and continuity in the field of African studies. Forty five articles illustrate the dynamic processes by and through which scholars have described and understood African history and culture over the past several decades, and show how profoundly the ethnography of Africa has influenced the direction and development of anthropological and social theory. This new edition offers 14 new selections as well as two entirely new sections, "Conflict and Violent Transformations" and "Development, Governance, and Globalization," in which the authors reveal processes that have had a vital influence on the historical trajectory and the daily experience of African people in the modern world.
Selections include distinguished anthropologists, historians, philosophers, and Africanists. Collectively they show the multiplicity of voices in African studies, and reveal the interpenetration of ideas and concepts within and across disciplines, regions, and historical periods.