Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy in Indigenous African Religions PDF
Preview Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy in Indigenous African Religions
A R U T L U C CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of 2015 2015 Vol XII No 2 Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 2 ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro- mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in FY OG regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages Y O HL the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are PO OXI judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- LOSD A ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. HIN A OF PRE U L T AL NU RC U O J L A N O TI A N R E T N I ISBN 978-3-631-66790-3 www.peterlang.com CULTURA 2015_266790_VOL_12_No2_GR_A5Br.indd 1 27.10.15 KW 44 19:44 A R U T L U C CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of 2015 2015 Vol XII No 2 Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 2 ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro- mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in FY OG regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages Y O HL the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are PO OXI judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- LOSD A ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. HIN A OF PRE U L T AL NU RC U O J L A N O TI A N R E T N I www.peterlang.com CULTURA 2015_266790_VOL_12_No2_GR_A5Br.indd 1 27.10.15 KW 44 19:44 CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002 ISSN (Print): 1584-1057 Advisory Board Prof. Dr. David Altman, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile Prof. Emeritus Dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany Prof. Dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan Prof. Dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Prof. Dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines Prof. Dr. Marco Ivaldo, Department of Philosophy “A. Aliotta”, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy Prof. Dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA Prof. Dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina Prof. Dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA Prof. Dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France Prof. Dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy Prof. Dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain Prof. Dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Prof. Dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Prof. Dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain Prof. Dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy Prof. Dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania Prof. Dr. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University & Ghent University Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief: Co-Editors: Prof. dr. Nicolae Râmbu Prof. dr. Aldo Marroni Faculty of Philosophy and Social- Dipartimento di Lettere, Arti e Scienze Sociali Political Sciences Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy B-dul Carol I, nr. 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania [email protected] [email protected] PD Dr. Till Kinzel Executive Editor: Englisches Seminar Dr. Simona Mitroiu Technische Universität Braunschweig, Human Sciences Research Department Bienroder Weg 80, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University 38106 Braunschweig, Germany Lascar Catargi, nr. 54, 700107 Iasi, Romania [email protected] [email protected] Editorial Assistant: Dr. Marius Sidoriuc Designer: Aritia Poenaru Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Vol. 12, No. 2 (2015) Editor-in-Chief Nicolae Râmbu Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Cover Image: © Aritia Poenaru ISSN 2065-5002 ISBN 978-3-631-66790-3 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-06461-2 (E-Book) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-06461-2 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2015 All rights reserved. Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com CONTENTS Polycarp Ikuenobe 7 Cultural Dynamics, Moral Ignorance, and a Plausible Response to Immoral Acts Tomas Kačerauskas 27 Creative Society: Concepts and Problems Rubén Herce 45 Christopher Dawson on Spengler, Toynbee, Eliot and the notion of Culture Mahdi Dahmardeh 61 Language and Culture: Can we shape what the future holds? Weilin Fang 73 Anoixism and Its Idealistic Pursuit Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff 81 Evolution of Democracy. Psychological Stages and Political Developments in World History Alexandru Petrescu 103 Cultural – Philosophical Debate concerning the german Origin, the Specificity and the Evolution of the analytical Philosophy Mariana Momanu & Nicoleta Laura Popa 115 Nationalism and Europeanism in Education: A Critical Analysis of Alternatives Corneliu C. Simuţ 129 Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy in Indigenous African Religions Cristian Iftode 145 The Ethical Meaning of Foucault’s Aesthetics of Existence Gulbakyt Shashayeva & Zhakhan Z. Moldabekov 163 Hospitality in Kazakhstan: The Empire Sings Back 10.3726/266790_129 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(2)/2015: 129–144 Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy in Indigenous African Religions Corneliu C. Simuţ PhD Aberdeen University of Pretoria Hatfield | Lynwood | South Africa [email protected] Abstract. This paper is an attempt to offer a concrete contribution to the study of indigenous African religions and in particular to the support of creating a set of tra- ditions from whose perspective one could engage in the study of indigenous African religions as well as of African spirituality in general through the unifying theme of ecodomy. Defined in terms of a constructive process, ecodomy seeks to provide families and communities with a common element, that of ancestors, which is not only specific to African spirituality but also potentially capable of strengthening and improving the life of African people. Thus, this methodology based on working with ancestry as economy is applied to four distinct scholars and their specific ap- proaches to indigenous African religions: John S. Mbiti, who believes that ancestors have mainly social, not religious roles; Issiaka P. Lalèyê, for whom ancestors make a connection between the social and religious aspects of life; Jacob K. Olupona, who restricts ancestors to religion, and Israel Kamudzandu, in whose philosophy ances- tors can provide African societies with the possibility of moving beyond their indigenous religions into accepting other religious beliefs, such as those provided by Christianity. Keywords: ancestors, ecodomy, religion, African, family INTRODUCTION A very hot potato in the academic study of indigenous African religions these days appears to be the issue of methodology. While the heat of the said potato disseminates over culture, philosophy, and society, the interest of this paper remains circumscribed to the problematic of religion. Thus, in recent years, questions about the validity of studying indigenous African religions as a field on its own right began to surface especially with regard to the actual way in which these studies should be carried out. While it goes almost without question that indigenous African religions must move beyond the Colonial era, the issue of how to walk in that direction has not yet found a very firm response regardless of whether one has only African religions in mind or one, as 129 Corneliu C. Simuţ / Promoting Ancestry as Ecodomy Edward P. Antonio points out, also includes Christianity in the discus- sion (Antonio, 2006: 38-39). THE NEED FOR DECOLONIZATION Since colonial perspectives on indigenous African religions are presently seen by a significant number of African philosophers and religious scholars as imperialistic or, in the words of Kwasi Wiredu (2006: 291), as “an imposition,” and thus, quite rightly, faulty in their methodologies, moving beyond a colonial understanding of indigenous African religions seems to be bit more complex a process than it appears at first glance. Colonization imposed not only political but also cultural norms; this is why, Wiredu contends (2006: 291), the process of decolonization must attempt to create a way of thinking, a concrete philosophy which attempts to establish “definite modes of conceptualization” in full accordance with indigenous African ways of thinking devoid of Western concepts, patterns, and even languages (2006: 294). To take just one example: indigenous African spiritualities must find a way to renounce traditional Western dichotomies such as “the spiritual versus the physical, the supernatural versus the natural, the mystical versus the non- mystical, the religious versus the secular, being versus nothingness” (Wiredu, 2006: 294). In other words, Wiredu proposes that indigenous African thought must “go to the roots” in order to identify the compatibilies and incompatibilites between Western philosophy and African spirituality or, in religious terms, between Christianity as a religion and indigenous African religions (Wiredu, 2006: 296). At the same time, the decolonization of African spirituality presup- poses leaving behind Western philosophical ways of thinking or, in the words of Messay Kebede (2004: XII), “the emancipation of the African mind from the debilitating ascendancy of Western episteme”. It is within the same lines that Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013: 52) explains the need for decolonization which is seen as an attempt to obtain “episte- mological freedom” from European and American philosophies. This effort to decolonize African spirituality should focus not only on “secu- lar philosophy” but also on the “geo-political location of theology ... and scientific reason”. All aspects of the mind should be subject to decoloni- zation to the point that the African spirit finds a way to return to itself, 130
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