Bøker av Jan Vansina

Originally published in 1973, this book reconstructs the political and economic organization and the social life of the Tio kingdom at the end of the 19th century by means of a critical synthesis of documentary and ethnographic data.

Vansina, a historian and anthropologist best known for his insights into oral tradition and social memory, draws on his own memories and those of his siblings to reconstruct daily life in Belgium during World War II.

Highlighting a region in central Congo called Kuba, the author provides not only accounts of colonial administrators, missionaries and traders, but also but the varied voices of a colonized people. Vansina uncovers the history revealed in local news, customs, gossip, and even dreams, as related by African villagers through archival documents, material culture and oral interviews.

The renowned anthropologist Daryll Forde advocated comparative anthropological studies. This work argues that Forde's criticisms apply despite both Forde's considerable intellectual legacy and an exponential increase in available information. It challenges the scholarship of sociologists and anthropologists.