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Title:Before the Presocratics: cyclicity, transformation, and element cosmology: the case of transcontinental pre- or protohistoric cosmological substrates linking Africa, Eurasia and North America
Editor:Binsbergen, Wim M.J. vanISNI
Year:2012
Periodical:Quest: An International African Journal of Philosophy (ISSN 1011-226X)
Volume:23-24
Issue:1-2
Pages:398
Language:English
Geographic terms:world
Zambia
Subjects:philosophy
cosmology
Nkoya
clans
intellectual history
Abstract:This special issue of 'Quest' presents an anti-hegemonic, anti-Eurocentric approach to long-range transcontinental philosophy from an African perspective. It calls into question the popular perception of the Presocratic philosophers as having initiated Western philosophy. The author's point of departure is the puzzling clan system of the Nkoya people of Zambia. Contents: 1. Introduction and theoretico-methodological orientation; 2. Inspiring data and transcontinental comparative method: case study I: The pre- and protohistory of mankala board-games and geomantic divination; 3. Case study II: the puzzling clan system of the Nkoya people of South Central Africa: a triadic, catalytic transformation cycle of elements in disguise?; 4. Long-range, transcontinental manifestations of a transformation cycle of elements; 5. The Presocratics in Western Eurasia: four immutable elemental categories as the norm throughout Western Eurasia for the last two millennia; 6. Exploring the long-range pre- and protohistory of element cosmologies: steps in the unfolding of human thought faculties; 7. Yi Jing and West Asia: a partial vindication of Terrien de Lacouperie; 8. Further discussion of transcontinental relationships with a view of assessing our overall Working Hypothesis; 9. Conclusion: diachronic varieties of the transformation cycle of elements, and their global distribution. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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