Background
MacGaffey, Wyatt was born on January 8, 1932 in England. Son of Crichton and Jean (Guthrie) MacG.
(MacGaffey provides the first systematic study of the reli...)
MacGaffey provides the first systematic study of the religion of the BaKongo people of Central Africa. The work concentrates mainly on nineteenth-century Kongo religion and its changes in the twentieth century, with some reference to the sixteenth century. As an anthropologist, MacGaffey is particularly concerned to explore the interaction between sociopolitical change and the framework of Kongo ritual. MacGaffey's investigation begins with an examination of the relationship between religion and cosmology. This section will be of particular interest to historians of religion. In the second part of the book, the author stresses the priority of ritual over myth in a nonliterate religion. He then shows how the basic structures of Kongo religion have remained virtually unchanged. He discusses the continuing vitality and primacy of the indigenous cosmology, particularly as it manifests itself through popular Christian movements in the twentieth century, such as Kimbanguism. Chapter 9 is particularly enlightening with its account of healing and affliction, and popular conceptions of prophet and magician and chief and witch. MacGaffey's book is important, not just because it provides another much-needed study of an African religion but also because it throws much light on indigenous knowledge and experience and our access to and apprehension of this. BaKongo theory and symbolism are not found in any standardized theology but in ritual contexts, which constitute a "systematization of experience, a theory of the world" (p. 89). MacGaffey rightly argues that nonliterate religion should be understood in its own terms, that is holistically, and as a structure of values and relationships such as the living and the dead, time and space, animate and inanimate. In short, MacGaffey's carefully researched work, with its challenging historical dimension, provides substantive data and food for thought for both historians of religion and anthropologists alike - ROSALIND HACKETT
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MacGaffey, Wyatt was born on January 8, 1932 in England. Son of Crichton and Jean (Guthrie) MacG.
Bachelor, Cambridge University, 1954. Master of Arts, Cambridge University, 1957. Doctor of Philosophy, University of California at Los Angeles, 1967.
Teacher, Darrow School, New Lebanon, New York, 1958-1959; senior research associate, American U., Washington, 1959-1962; assistant professor to professor anthropology, Haverford College, Pennsylvania, 1967-1981; John R. Coleman professor social science, Haverford College, Pennsylvania, since 1981.
(MacGaffey provides the first systematic study of the reli...)
Served in the United States Army, 1955-1957. Fellow Royal Anthropological Institute. Member International African Institute, African Studies Association.
Married Janet Innes, January 17, 1958. Children– Neil, Andrew, Margret.
