Jan Vansina

Jan Maria Jozef Emiel Vansina (born September 14, 1929 in Antwerp ; † February 8, 2017 ) was a Belgian ethnologist and historian . He studied medieval history in Leuven . His teachers included Albert de Meyer and Jozef Desmet , who were both students of the positivist Ernest Cauchie .

Vansina examined the oral-historical tradition ( oral history ) in sub-Saharan Africa - in particular about genealogies . He is considered to be one of the founders of American African studies and had a great influence on oral history research. In 1982 he was admitted to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1994 to the British Academy and in 2000 to the American Philosophical Society . Vansina, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison , died in February 2017.

Works

• Oral Tradition (1961, English translation 1965)
• Living with Africa, 1994
• Art history in Africa: an introduction to method (drawings by C. Vansina, London, Longman 1984).
• Kingdoms of the Savanna. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press 1966.
• Paths in the Rainforests. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
• Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom (Translated from the French by the author). Africa and the Diaspora series. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press 2004.
• How Societies Are Born: Governance in West Central Africa Before 1600. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 2004.
• Being Colonized: The Kuba Experience in Rural Congo, 1880-1960. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press 2004

Individual evidence

• Archives Jan Vansina , Royal Museum for Central Africa

1. ↑ According to his own statement, he is not an ethnologist, but a historian. See the blurb on Jan Vansina's autobiography 'Living with Africa' .
2. ↑ Johannes Fabian, Anthropology with an attitude. Stanford 2001, 72.
3. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed August 12, 2020 . 
4. ^ Trailblazing African History Scholar Jan Vansina Passes Away. University of Wisconsin – Madison, International Division, February 13, 2017, accessed February 15, 2017 .