ANIMALS AND ANCESTORS An Ethnography BRIAN MORRIS

ANIMALS AND ANCESTORS

An Ethnography

by Brian Morris

Berg (Oxford International); about 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches; 287 pages

2000 Softcover FIRST edition in NEW condition.

No dustjacket as issued.

Ever since the emergence of human culture, people and animals have co-existed in close proximity. Humans have always recognized both their kinship with animals and their fundamental differences, as animals have always been a threat to humans’ well-being. The relationship, therefore, has been complex, intimate, reciprocal, personal, and -- crucially -- ambivalent. It is hardly surprising that animals evoke strong emotions in humans, both positive and negative.

The book gives a new insight into Malawian culture, bringing together the fruits of the long-term field research work of the author, and the published documents of many specialists of Malawian culture. Morris examines carefully their material, shows lacks and misleadings, and proposes interpretations that seem to better express the cultural reality. He maintains proper distance to the empirical material, therefore, his book is very instructive for the researchers in African studies.

This companion volume to Morris' important earlier work, The Power of Animals, is a sustained investigation of the Malawi people’s sacramental attitude to animals, particularly the role that animals play in life-cycle rituals, their relationship to the divinity and to spirits of the dead. How people relate to and use animals speaks volumes about their culture and beliefs. This book overturns the ingrained prejudice within much ethnographic work, which has often dismissed the pivotal role animals play in culture, and shows that personhood, religion, and a wide range of rituals are informed by, and even dependent upon, human-animal relations.

B&w photos, glossary, extensive bibliography, index.

Thank you and good luck!