African Indigenous Religions And Disease Causation ─ From Spiritual Beings to Living Humans

This comparative and historical study focuses on religious aspects of disease etiologies among five, systematically selected, African peoples: the San, Maasai, Sukuma, Kongo and Yoruba. Westerlund (history of religions, Sodertorn U. College, Stockholm) highlights the differences between and the plurality within the religions and cultures of the selected peoples, as well as their processes of change. Drawing on European mission archives, among other primary sources, Westerlund covers a period of about 100 years, from the late 19th century to the late 20th century, and offers an analysis of the gradual shift in these cultures from an emphasis on spiritual beings to living humans as agents of disease. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

David Westerlund, Ph.D. (1980) in the History of Religions, Stockholm University, is Professor of the Study of Religions at Sodertorn University College in Stockholm. He has published extensively on religions in Africa and the West, including the recent Sufism in Europe and North America (2004), which he has edited.