The Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Bantu Comparisons

Record summary

Late nineteenth-century comparative folklore writers used reports from southern and central Africa to compare beliefs about ghosts, ancestors, witches, dreams and soul-loss with European traditions. These publications can provide identifiable references to African apparition motifs, but their importance is historiographical: they show how colonial-era scholars constructed cross-cultural categories. They should not be read as neutral records of events. A researcher should identify the specific article, author, informant and community, then compare the printed account with later Africanist scholarship and with the original missionary or administrative source.