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Christian Mind and Worldly Matters

Religion and Materiality in Nineteenth-century Gold Coast

Research Centre Religion and Society, University of Amsterdam

In anthropological studies of the impact of missions in the non-Western world, Protestant missions' alleged claim that material matters were just 'outward things' subordinate to 'inward faith' has eschewed closer examin ation. This paper investigates a 19th-century German Protestant mission's actual and alleged attitudes towards materiality under the conditions of colonialism among the Ewe, as well as the tensions arising between mis sionaries and African converts about the role of materiality in life in general and consumption in particular. Examining the role missionary materializa tions played in conversion processes and investigating tensions between mis sionaries and converts about the proper relationship between 'civilization' and 'salvation', the paper shows that so-called worldly matters mattered much more than Protestant missionary rhetorics were prepared to acknow ledge. Missions played a crucial role not only in the 'development' of the colony but also in the making of modern consumers. Tensions between mis sionaries and Ewe converts reveal that actually Christian identity itself was to a large extent produced through the consumption of Western commodi ties

Key Words: colonial mission • consumption and religion • Ewe • Gold Coast

Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 2, No. 3, 311-337 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/135918359700200303


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