Books
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Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance
To read and reread Jean Comaroff’s Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance today, more than two decades after its publication, is to be reminded of what historical anthropology can be, and to confront what it seems no longer capable of being. Rosalind Morris
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Violence and the Law in Post Colonies:
These essays describe the interplay between the global preoccupation with criminal violence, most volubly expressed in the post colonies, and the complex, ambivalent ways police play into that preoccupation, feeding it to claim a sovereign right to violence in enforcing the law.
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Picturing a Colonial Past:
These spectacular photographs reveal a much more complex Schapera than his writings allow and provide a more complete and aesthetically charming supplement to his work. Robert James Gordon
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Zombies and Frontiers in the Age of Neoliberalism
In this book, the Comaroffs chart the dramatic rise in occult economies in Postcolonial South Africa.
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Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa
In the best tradition of the rethinking genre of anthropological critiques, John and Jean Comaroff and this volume’s eight contributors brilliantly review the notion of civil society — largely developed and utilized by non-anthropologists – from both theoretical and ethnographically grounded perspectives. Philip Leis
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Modernity and its Malcontents
This is an exciting but also frightening collection of articles. The central issue is how people in postcolonial Africa try to come to grips with ‘modernity’ – its premises and disappointments. Peter Geschiere, (formerly) University of Leiden, Journal of Religion in Africa.
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Ethnography and the Historical Imagination
Ethnography and the Historical Imagination is a tour de force of the ethnographic enterprise and attempts to locate ethnography squarely within the boundaries of the broader historical contexts which have shaped the discipline of anthropology in all its manifestations. Joseph R. Manyoni
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Ethnicity, Commodity, In/corporation
This stunning new collection traces myriad extensions and analogs of ethnocommodities within contemporary late capitalism, while courageously exploring the limits of the model in places where the economic logic of ethnic distinction is muddled by pan-regional identities, nation-branding, and economies of violence. Sasha Newell
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The Politics of Custom
Classic and Contemporary Themes in African Studies, Colonialism, Decoloniality, Ethnicity, Identity, Postcoloniality, RaceThe Politics of Custom is an incisive and original investigation of the stubbornly persistent role played by traditional authorities in modern Africa. Featuring a stellar cast of contributors and a superb synthetic introduction by the editors, this book is a major contribution that will appeal to a broad audience. James Ferguson
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Of Revelation and Revolution, Vol. 2
Colonialism, Decoloniality, Ethnicity, Identity, Postcoloniality, Race, Religion and Spiritual EconomiesThis second volume is a tour de force. As in Volume 1, the Comaroffs explore the ways in which consciousness is ‘made and unmade,’ and the relationship between culture, consciousness, and ideology. The argument is a brilliant and sustained demonstration of the complexities and unanticipated outcomes of the colonial encounter for both sides. It is…
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Of Revelation and Revolution, Vol. 1
Colonialism, Decoloniality, Ethnicity, Identity, Postcoloniality, Race, Religion and Spiritual EconomiesThe Comaroffs achieve an extraordinary double combination; they are coauthors of a book which also marries the fascination of erudition with beautiful prose. This is a scholarly work that reads with the grace of imaginative literature. Original and wonderful, rising on the horizon of ideas that inform our present, it is certainly one of my…
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Law and Disorder in the Postcolony
Colonialism, Crime, Decoloniality, Justice, Law, Lawfare, Legal Theology, Postcoloniality, PunishmentThis provocative book is critically important reading for anyone seeking to understand the economic and political transformations of the current period in both the global South and North. Sally Engel Merry
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Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism
For the Comaroffs, capitalism at the end of the millennium is also millenarian capitalism. Globalization can be thought of as an economic process radically addressing the nature of labour and provoking responses that highlight the occult or spectral power of the global economy. Roger Bastion
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Theory from the South
Classic and Contemporary Themes in Anthropology, Colonialism, Decoloniality, Postcoloniality, Themes in Social Theory and MethodJean and John Comaroff put forward their case in the strongest possible terms, and they do so with flair, eloquence, and brilliance: that Africa in particular and the global South more broadly are in the vanguard of world history, generative of global futures and theory to match. This is a book that will be debated…
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Ethnicity, Inc.
Ethnicity, Inc. is a thought-provoking and novel commentary on this widely recognizable phenomenon and offers an important contribution to the classical anthropological themes of ethnicity, culture, and globalization… Elizabeth Hull
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The Truth About Crime
Crime, Enchantment of Modernity, Justice, Late Capitalism, Law, Lawfare, Legal Theology, Neo/Liberalism, PunishmentThe Truth About Crime offers a powerful account about crime, policing, and the modern state. The book is a “criminal anthropolgy” that guides the reader towards understanding what precisely is different or new about crime and punishment in modern societies. Dolly Kikon
