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72647-01 - Seminar: Living with the Dead: Ancestors in African History 3 CP

Semester fall semester 2024
Course frequency Once only
Lecturers Julia Tischler (julia.tischler@unibas.ch, Assessor)
Content Death has long been a key concern in historical and ethnographic writing on African societies. Social anthropologists have researched funeral practices, which are often more elaborate than in the Europe and North America. Moreover, Africans have been described as living more closely with the dead, with ancestors playing a key role in decision-making processes. While the supposedly more accepting and “healthy” approaches to death and the dead have been contrasted with the sanitized and privatized attitudes prevailing in the global north, African societies have equally been affected by demographic change, urbanization, industrialization, and the rise of biomedicine. We will explore shifting meanings of death, funeral and mourning practices (including the vibrant funeral “industry”), and particularly the role of the dead for the world living, through the spreading of Christianity and colonial rule to the rise of the modern postcolonial nation.
Bibliography Rebekah Lee and Megan Vaughan (2008), “Death and Dying in the History of Africa since 1800,”, Journal of African History, 49 (2008), pp. 341-59.

John Parker (2021), In My Time of Dying: A History of Death and the Dead in West Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

 

Admission requirements Für Masterstudierende sowie fortgeschrittene Bachelorstudierende der Geschichte mit abgeschlossener Grundstufe (Nachweise: drei Proseminare, drei Proseminararbeiten). Die Teilnehmer:innenzahl ist auf 25 beschränkt. Bei Überbelegung werden Studierende der Geschichte bevorzugt zugelassen.
Language of instruction English
Use of digital media No specific media used

 

Interval Weekday Time Room
wöchentlich Monday 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3

Dates

Date Time Room
Monday 16.09.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 23.09.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 30.09.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 07.10.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 14.10.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 21.10.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 28.10.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 04.11.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 11.11.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 18.11.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 25.11.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 02.12.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 09.12.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Monday 16.12.2024 14.15-16.00 Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3
Modules Modul: Areas: Afrika (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective)
Modul: Aufbau Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Bachelor's degree subject: History)
Modul: Epochen der europäischen Geschichte: Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective)
Modul: Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Master's degree subject: History)
Modul: Sachthemen der Ethnologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology)
Modul: Spezialisierung «Geschichte und Polititsche Bildung» (Master's Studies: Subject-Specific Teaching and Learning)
Modul: Theory and General Anthropology (Master's degree subject: Anthropology)
Module: Fields: Knowledge Production and Transfer (Master's degree program: African Studies)
Module: Fields: Media and Imagination (Master's degree program: African Studies)
Module: Fields: Public Health and Social Life (Master's degree program: African Studies)
Assessment format continuous assessment
Assessment details Aktive Teilnahme.
Assessment registration/deregistration Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required
Repeat examination no repeat examination
Scale Pass / Fail
Repeated registration no repetition
Responsible faculty Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch
Offered by Departement Geschichte

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