article
Christianity and Islam among the Mossi
American Anthropologist • 60 (6) (1) • Published In 1958 • Pages: 1102-1119
By: Skinner, Elliott P. (Elliott Percival).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article is a study of the history, methods and results of the attempts of Christians and Moslems to convert the pagan Mossi. Islam has the longest history in the area, first penetrating the Mossi territory in the 11th century, while Catholic missionaries arrived in 1900 and Protestant missionaries somewhat later. The Moslems have had the greatest success and the Protestants least. Christianity is looked upon with suspicion since it is the religion of the conquerors and since so many of its tenets are at variance with pagan beliefs. The tenets of Islam are much closer to Mossi beliefs and it is far more adaptable to these beliefs as well. However, the Mossi have shown great resistance to both religions and the great majority of them are still pagan. There is a tendency today towards a greater Moslemization of the populace and a declining status for Catholicism and Protestantism. Skinner was a Professor of Anthropology at New York University.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Missions
- Spirits and gods
- Cult of the dead
- Eschatology
- Congregations
- Religious intolerance and martyrs
- Gender status
- Conception
- History
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Mossi
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Timothy J. O'Leary ; 1959
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1955-1957
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1900-1957
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Burkina Faso
- NotesAdditional notes
- Elliott P. Skinner
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 1119)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 17015424
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Mossi (African people)