Africanisms

Abstract

Abstract This essay attempts to chart the career of the concept of ‘Africanisms’ in the anthropology and history of the African Diaspora in the Americas. After surveying the origins of the concept, I focus on the role of Melville J. Herskovits’ highly influential mobilisation of the concept, its major mid-20th century critiques, and a highly influential late 20th century reaction to the terms of these debates. I will conclude by indicating how Africanist historians have come to repurpose this concept around the turn of the millennium, and how more recent scholarship might indicate the end of its usefulness as an analytical category.