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An “impossible” transmission: Youth religious memories in Guinea–Conakry
Author(s) -
Berliner David
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.2005.32.4.576
Subject(s) - islam , agency (philosophy) , cultural transmission in animals , sociology , new guinea , transmission (telecommunications) , gender studies , anthropology , history , ethnology , social science , archaeology , genetics , biology , electrical engineering , engineering
Memory, persistence, and cultural transmission are hot topics in anthropology today. Contributing to an increasing anthropological interest in youth agency, in this article I invite readers to look at youth as a crucial site for understanding issues of religious memory and cultural transmission. In the past five decades, Bulongic people (Guinea–Conakry) have undergone significant religious changes caused by the introduction of Islam, which has led to the official disappearance of pre‐Islamic rituals. In this article, I explore how young Bulongic remember a pre‐Islamic past that they have never experienced. I argue that, to understand how they assimilate and perpetuate this religious heritage, one must examine the subtle processes of intergenerational transmission through which their memories are dynamically shaped.