Nächste Veranstaltungen des CRCS

Ancestors and the Postcolony. Memory, spirits and healing

Dr. Katharina Wilkens
 

Ancestors, including ancestor spirits, have often been described as a vital part of African religions, whether indigenous, Afro-American, Christian, or Islamic. As with other features of religion, communication with ancestors has not diminished according to (old-school) modernization theory but has thrived. Katharina Wilkens is currently at the beginning of a research project that investigates the ways ancestral rituals are being adapted to a globalized, postcolonial, migratory, and Black Atlantic world. Ranging from the rekindling of sacrificial rituals to ancestor spirits after a period of Pentecostal demonization to video tutorials posted by black botanica shopkeepers in the US explaining how to build ancestor shrines in your home: a common theme among these contemporary practices concerns the restoration of lineages ruptured by the incursion of colonialism and slavery. Wilkens argues that memorative practices, embodied history and postcolonial healing are all at work while people are redefining the boundaries of kinship across time and space.

Dr. Katharina Wilkens ist Religionswissenschatlerin und Ethnologin und seit 2023 Akademische Rätin am Institut für Religionswissenschaft an der Universität Tübingen.