000			03252cam a22003253u 4500
001			76362
003			UtSlPG
005			20260610134752.0
006			m
007			cr n
008			260607r20251882utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d
040			_aUtSlPG
041		7	_aen _2iso639-1
050		4	_aDT
100	1		_aMacdonald, Duff, _d1850-1929
245	1	0	_aAfricana; or, the heart of heathen Africa, Volume 1 (of 2)
264		1	_aSalt Lake City, UT : _bProject Gutenberg, _c2025
300			_a1 online resource : _bmultiple file formats
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_acomputer _bc _2rdamedia
338			_aonline resource _bcr _2rdacarrier
500			_aRelease date is 2025-06-23
508			_aPeter Becker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
520			_a"Africana; or, the heart of heathen Africa, Volume 1 (of 2) : Native customs…." by Rev. Duff Macdonald is an ethnographic and missionary account written in the late 19th century. It sets out to systematize the beliefs, practices, and social life of East Central African peoples from close field observation, especially around Blantyre and Lake Nyasa. The volume surveys religion, law, family life, arts, language, and governance through a missionary lens, aiming to inform and reform Christian mission methods while introducing readers to largely undocumented customs. The opening of the work explains the author’s purpose: to record customs before mission contact alters them, and to caution against missionaries assuming civil authority. He details the pitfalls of gathering reliable data—European bias in questions, “polite” answers from informants, interpreter and idiom traps (especially yes/no and before/after), and the distortions caused by note‑taking—then argues for the value of such study to psychology, ethnology, and the science of religion. Early chapters sketch first impressions: scant dress, heavy tattooing and lip rings, ubiquitous weapons, round smoke‑filled huts with rats, a predictable climate, maize porridge and beer, generous hospitality, light division of labor, and the local mosaic of Wayao, Machinga, Anyasa, Angulu, and Magololo chiefs; travel on winding footpaths, formal salutations, and women’s inferior status. Arts include ironworking, basketry, bark cloth, pottery, and simple music; “learned” roles blend herbalist and diviner, with witchcraft trials by poison and widespread charms. A rich oral literature—conundrums, sung tales with refrains, and word‑play chains—features animal fables and origin stories (pots, houses, death, monkeys). The theology section begins by defining spirit (lisoka, msimu, mulungu), treating the spirits of the dead as the operative gods, worshiped at verandah trees, bedsides, or mountain tops, and known through answered prayers. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534			_pOriginally published: _cLondon: Simpkin, Marshall & co., 1882
653			_aMissions -- Africa, East
653			_aAfrica, East -- Social life and customs
856	4		_uhttps://archive.org/details/africana01macd
856	4	0	_uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76362
999			_c117087 _d117087