Jan Vansina (1929–2017)
Autore di Oral tradition as history
Sull'Autore
Belgium-born and educated, Jan Vansina is known internationally for his many contributions to social anthropology and to African history. Currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he received his Ph.D. in modern history from the University of Leuven in 1957, during which time mostra altro he was a research scholar at the International Center for African Research in Belgium. That same year he became director of the center, a position he held for the next several years. After serving for some time as professor of history and anthropology, he joined the University of Wisconsin at Madison as the Vilas Research Professor. He has held concurrent positions as visiting lecturer at the University of Lovanium, Leopoldville, and at Northwestern University and as visiting professor and then professor at the University of Lovanium, Kinshasha. Vansina is one of the foremost pioneers in the development of techniques and methods in the history of culture that employ the use of oral traditions in the search for the African past. Although he was not the first scholar to use oral traditions in African history, he was the first scholar to evolve a rational methodology---one that has become the standard adopted by Africanists in many disciplines for using oral data. The evolution of Vansina's rational methods for the most effective use of oral traditions is reflected in his many publications, the most recent of which is Paths in the Rainforest: Towards a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa (1990). In this work he has successfully resolved a question that has long perplexed historians of Africa---how the Bantu peoples passed from their origins in the Niger-Benue region through the great tropical rainforests of Zaire to the savanna lands to the south, where they proliferated throughout eastern, central, and southern Africa. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno
Opere di Jan Vansina
Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa (1990) 45 copie
Les Tribus Ba-Kuba et les Peuplades Apparentées. Part I / Central Africa Belgian Congo (2017) 4 copie
Esquisse de grammaire bushong 3 copie
The Historian in Tropical Africa: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Fourth International African Seminar at the… (2020) 1 copia
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome canonico
- Vansina, Jan
- Altri nomi
- Vansina, J.
- Data di nascita
- 1929-09-14
- Data di morte
- 2017-02-08
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- Belgium
- Luogo di nascita
- Antwerp, Belgium
- Luogo di morte
- Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
- Luogo di residenza
- Madison, Wisconsin, USA
- Istruzione
- Catholic University of Leuven (Doctorate|History|1957)
- Attività lavorative
- historian
anthropologist
professor - Relazioni
- Newbury, David (doctoral student)
Vansina, Dirk (vader) - Organizzazioni
- University of Wisconsin–Madison
Utenti
Recensioni
Kingdoms of the Savanna di Vansina J
Zambia
This book has now become something of a classic, and I bought it for background in teaching Africa in a world history class. It attempts to trace the history of the Bantu expansion in, roughly speaking, the western Congo basin [primarily by relying on deduction from the comparative dating of languages in the Western Bantu group. When originally written, it was challenging the then still popular view that the people of the rainforest had no meaningful history, not just because they lacked written records but also because their culture was assumed to have been static for millennia. Vansina has, I think, been successful I persuading many scholars that it is worthwhile to try to study the past history of social developments in the region, particular the Bantu expansion, but I gather from reading other articles than not everyone agrees with his particular reconstruction.… (altro)
1 
antiquary | Jul 8, 2015 |
antiquary | Jul 8, 2015 | 
Theoretische uiteenzetting over de mondelinge overlevering, sterk gericht op Afrika.
I was a bit surprised by the methodological emphasis of this book, its focus is clearly on how historians should make use of oral traditions. I was expecting more generalizations about oral traditions, how they arise and how they are transmitted. Its a well written and clearly argued book, but I don't think it offers much to people who aren't active practitioners of oral historiography.
1 thcson | 1 altra recensione | Jun 23, 2010 |
thcson | 1 altra recensione | Jun 23, 2010 | Liste
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Statistiche
- Opere
- 19
- Utenti
- 349
- Popolarità
- #68,500
- Voto
- 3.6
- Recensioni
- 6
- ISBN
- 59
- Lingue
- 3