Illuminating the Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston: Visionary, Architect, and Anthropologist of Africana Religious Subjectivities

Zora Neale Hurston's legacy as an anthropologist lies in the corpus and methodology of her research on Africana religions. Hurston's attention to Africana religious subjectivities highlights the methodological challenges of employing anthropology as a discipline to study Africana religious...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Africana religions
Main Author: Burnett, Diana (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: The Pennsylvania State University Press [2016]
In: Journal of Africana religions
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Hurston, Zora Neale 1891-1960 / Anthropology / Methodology / Afro-American syncretism
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
BS Traditional African religions
CA Christianity
KBQ North America
TK Recent history
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Zora Neale Hurston's legacy as an anthropologist lies in the corpus and methodology of her research on Africana religions. Hurston's attention to Africana religious subjectivities highlights the methodological challenges of employing anthropology as a discipline to study Africana religious subjectivities. In this article, I will focus specifically on (1) the difficulties of working with and in a colonial discipline to produce knowledge, (2) the navigation of insider/outsider status in Africana religious communities, and (3) the expectation of reporting findings to academic and state institutions. I will argue that Hurston's work on Africana religions pioneered the future direction of the field. Through a deep interrogation of Hurston's work in Tell My Horse, The Sanctified Church, and Mules and Men, we witness her dexterity as a transnational ethnographer, using transdiscplinary registers to foreground critical analytical, contextual, and methodological epistemologies by which to approach the study of Africana religious subjectivities.
ISSN:2165-5413
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Africana religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.4.2.0253