Andrew Apter
I received a BA in Philosophy (Yale '78) and a second BA in Social Anthropology (Cambridge University '80), followed by a PhD in Cultural Anthropology (Yale '87). I shifted to UCLA (history and anthropology departments) after teaching 14 years at the University of Chicago in anthropology (1989-2003). My work explores ritual, memory, and indigenous knowledge as well as colonial culture, commodity fetishism, and the political ontology of state spectacle. My first major research--a historical ethnography of Yoruba hermeneutics--informs my diasporic explorations of creolization, gender and sexuality in the Black Atlantic. I am currently rethinking Atlantic Slavery from the standpoint of spirit possession and commodity fetishism, a project blending historical and anthropological methodologies.
My four books to date are:
Black Critics and Kings: The Hermeneutics of Power in Yoruba Society (Chicago, 1992).
The Pan-African Nation: Oil and the Spectacle of Culture in Nigeria (Chicago, 2005).
Beyond Words: Discourse and Critical Agency in Africa (Chicago, 2007).
Oduduwa's Chain: Locations of Culture in the Yoruba Atlantic (Chicago, 2018).
I also co-edited (with Lauren Derby) Activating the Past: History and Memory in the Black Atlantic World (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010).
My current book project is entitled "History in the Dungeon: Atlantic Slavery and the Spirits of Capitalism," but I think it is still years from completion!
My four books to date are:
Black Critics and Kings: The Hermeneutics of Power in Yoruba Society (Chicago, 1992).
The Pan-African Nation: Oil and the Spectacle of Culture in Nigeria (Chicago, 2005).
Beyond Words: Discourse and Critical Agency in Africa (Chicago, 2007).
Oduduwa's Chain: Locations of Culture in the Yoruba Atlantic (Chicago, 2018).
I also co-edited (with Lauren Derby) Activating the Past: History and Memory in the Black Atlantic World (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010).
My current book project is entitled "History in the Dungeon: Atlantic Slavery and the Spirits of Capitalism," but I think it is still years from completion!
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