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Article published In:
Anthropology of Gesture
Edited by Heather Brookes and Olivier Le Guen
[Gesture 18:2/3] 2019
► pp. 261–280

Temporality, social interaction, and power in an anthropology of gesture

Cases from the pre-colonial Kongo Kingdom

| University of Pittsburgh

Current anthropological studies of gesture give extensive attention to communities of study from a synchronic perspective while also focusing on semantic, cognitive, and linguistic analyses of gesture. However, less well explored is how the uses and meanings of gestures can change over time within societies and the role of gesture in social interactions. In addition, individual, interpersonal, and societal level politics can also influence what gestures mean and how they are strategically used. This paper uses careful analysis of European missionary reports and trader accounts written in the late 17th and early 18th centuries to focus on shifting power relations in the pre-colonial era Kongo Kingdom in West Central Africa. Larger social transformations will be used to contextualize three key incidents where gestures were at the center of complex negotiations about meaning and power. The paper argues for gesture studies scholars to consider deep, contextual, and historically grounded examinations of gestures and the role they play in shaping relationships and societies.

Keywords: gesture, power, time, Africa, religion
Article outline
  • Introduction: Temporality, social relations, and power in an anthropology of gesture
  • Methods and sources
  • The Kongo culture area and the organization of the Kongo Kingdom
  • Embodiment in the Kongo Kingdom: Bimpampa as gestures of respect
  • Case study 1: Gestures, religion, and the expansion of Christianity
  • Case study 2: Gestures and ideas of race in the era of the slave trade
  • Case study 3: Gestures, religious movements, and challenges to missionary authority
  • Conclusion and implications for gesture studies
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 February 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.19021.cov
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