Kwame Gyekye was a Ghanaian philosopher, and this academic book, published by Cambridge University Press, examines Akan concepts of person, mind and destiny as a work of philosophy engaging directly with Akan language and thought, not as an outside ethnography of it. Its strength is that Gyekye writes from within the linguistic and cultural tradition he analyzes while using the tools of academic philosophy, letting him test popular claims about African thought against the actual conceptual vocabulary of the Akan language. Its limit is scope, it is a philosophical study of one specific West African people's conceptual scheme, not a general survey of African religious thought as a whole, so it should not be extended to other African traditions without a separate source for those.
Facts
Citation
AuthorKwame Gyekye
PublisherCambridge University Press
Publication Year1987
URLhttps://archive.org/details/essayonafricanph0000gyek_n3h5
Source Typebook
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Kwame Gyekye's standard scholarly philosophical account, published by Cambridge University Press, of Akan religion and cosmology. NotesStandard philosophical account of Akan religion and cosmology.
Claims Backed By This Source (70 claims)
This source backs 70 claims across the atlas. As facts: 41 well-attested. As cited relationships: 13 holds. Plus 16 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Deities, 17 claims: 10 well-attested, 4 holds, 3 general references.
- Articles, 11 claims: 11 well-attested.
- Cultures, 8 claims: 3 well-attested, 3 holds, 2 general references.
- Religions, 8 claims: 6 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
- Adinkra Symbols, 4 claims: 2 holds, 2 general references.
- Doctrines, 3 claims: 1 holds, 2 general references.
- Historical Figures, 3 claims: 3 general references.
- Rituals, 3 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Subcategories, 3 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Languages, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
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