Christianity, Islam, and Orisa-Religion: Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction

J.D.Y. Peel

book: Christianity, Islam, and Orisa-Religion

Open Access Published by University of California Press 2015

Christianity, Islam, and Orisa-Religion

Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction

J.D.Y. Peel

Volume 18 in the series The Anthropology of Christianity

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780520961227

Overview
Contents

About this book

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s open access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

The Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria are exceptional for the copresence among them of three religious traditions: Islam, Christianity, and the indigenous orisa religion. In this comparative study, at once historical and anthropological, Peel explores the intertwined character of the three religions and the dense imbrication of religion in all aspects of Yoruba history up to the present. For over 400 years, the Yoruba have straddled two geocultural spheres: one reaching north over the Sahara to the world of Islam, the other linking them to the Euro-American world via the Atlantic. These two external spheres were the source of contrasting cultural influences, notably those emanating from the world religions. However, the Yoruba not only imported Islam and Christianity but also exported their own orisa religion to the New World. Before the voluntary modern diaspora that has brought many Yoruba to Europe and the Americas, tens of thousands were sold as slaves in the New World, bringing with them the worship of the orisa.

Peel offers deep insight into important contemporary themes such as religious conversion, new religious movements, relations between world religions, the conditions of religious violence, the transnational flows of contemporary religion, and the interplay between tradition and the demands of an ever-changing present. In the process, he makes a major theoretical contribution to the anthropology of world religions.

Author / Editor information

Peel J.D.Y. :

J.D.Y. Peel (1941-2015) died shortly before this book went to press. He was professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. This is his last major work.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Abbreviations Appearing in the Text and Notes Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
Part I
1. History, Culture, and the Comparative Method: A West African Puzzle Open Access Download PDF	17
2. Two Pastors and Their Histories: Samuel Johnson and C. C. Reindorf Open Access Download PDF	38
3. Ogun in Precolonial Yorubaland: A Comparative Analysis Open Access Download PDF	52
4. Divergent Modes of Religiosity in West Africa Open Access Download PDF	71
5. Postsocialism, Postcolonialism, Pentecostalism Open Access Download PDF	88
Part II
6. Context, Tradition, and the Anthropology of World Religions Open Access Download PDF	105
7. Conversion and Community in Yorubaland Open Access Download PDF	125
8. Yoruba Ethnogenesis and the Trajectory of Islam Open Access Download PDF	150
9. A Century of Interplay Between Islam and Christianity Open Access Download PDF	172
10. Pentecostalism and Salafism in Nigeria: Mirror Images? Open Access Download PDF	192
11. The Three Circles of Yoruba Religion Open Access Download PDF	214
Glossary of Yoruba and Arabic Terms Appearing in the Text and Notes Open Access Download PDF	233
Notes Open Access Download PDF	235
Index Open Access Download PDF	289

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 310

eBook

Published: November 27, 2015
ISBN: 9780520961227