John M. Janzen
Encyclopedia
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
since the 1960s and has dedicated much of his career to providing a better understanding of African society. Janzen’s knowledge of the Kikongo language and his intermittent visits to the lower Congo
Zaire
The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...
region between 1964 and 1982 have paved the way for a contextual understanding of the roots of Western Equatorial Africa
Equatorial Africa
Equatorial Africa is an ambiguous term that is sometimes used to refer to tropical Africa, or the region of Sub-Saharan Africa traversed by the equator....
n approaches to sickness and healing, combining African and Western derived biomedical therapies. While his fieldwork in the lower Congo region has been very important in shaping him as an anthropologist, Janzen’s research has expanded to include other African countries such as Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
, Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, and Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, among many others. His work over the years has provided society as a whole with a comprehensive and holistic approach to health and healing, and has led to award winning publications, which have gained international attention. Along with his research on African society, Janzen has been conducting research on Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
society and culture, and is an active member of the Kansas Mennonite community. Besides being a native speaker of English, Dr. John M. Janzen is also fluent in Kikongo, standard High German, and Plautdietsch
Plautdietsch
Plautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, was originally a Low Prussian variety of East Low German, with Dutch influence, that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia, today Polish territory. The word is another pronunciation of Plattdeutsch, or Low German...
of the Vistula delta region, French, and some Arabic. He is the former director of the Kansas African Studies Center at the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
, and is currently a professor of medical and socio-cultural anthropology at the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
. He continues to carry out research on African health and healing, as well as on Mennonite society to the present.
Biography
John Janzen’s ancestral origins stem from Western Europe. His ancestors, having been passionate Mennonites who did not believe in war, were persecuted for their strong views against participation in the military. Fleeing Western Europe in the 16th century, they settled in the Lowlands of the Vistula River on the Southern shores of the Baltic SeaBaltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, They lived in Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
until the early 19th century, when his maternal ancestors relocated to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. From 1870 to 1880, Janzen’s ancestors migrated to the United States and settled in Central Kansas.
John M. Janzen was born to Hilda Gertrude Neufeldt and Louis Abraham Janzen on October 28, 1937, in the town of Newton
Newton, Kansas
Newton is a city in and the county seat of Harvey County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 19,132. Newton is located north of Wichita and is included in the Wichita metropolitan statistical area...
in Central Kansas. He is the second of four children, and one of three boys in his family. Growing up on a farm in Newton, John’s responsibilities included feeding the chickens and calves, milking the cows, and working the fields with horses and tractors.
Janzen’s parents, his mother a nurse, and his father a farmer-stockman, both had a very high regard for education and always encouraged their children to make the most of their potential. When Janzen began his Master’s studies, his father sent him off with one piece of advice, "If you begin graduate study, try for a PhD." So from early on, Janzen was encouraged to pursue a higher education, and had the support of his family to help him through it. For most of his undergraduate career, however, Janzen continued to return home for the summers to help out with the family farm.
He is currently married to Reinhild Kauenhoven and has three children.
Undergraduate education
Janzen attended high school in the nearby town of Elbing, KansasElbing, Kansas
Elbing is a city in Butler County, Kansas, United States. It is named after the city Elbląg in northern Poland, formerly Prussia. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 229.-History:...
at Berean Academy. Upon graduation from high school, he attended Bethel College
Bethel College (Kansas)
Bethel College is a private college affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is located on the edge of the Flint Hills and the vast wheat fields of south central Kansas in the town of North Newton...
in North Newton
North Newton, Kansas
North Newton is a city in Harvey County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,759. The city of Newton is located next to the city, but it not part of North Newton. North Newton is home of Bethel College, which has approximately 500 students.-Geography:North...
for four years. Here he met his future wife, Reinhild Kauenhoven, a then student-colleague from Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
, Germany. After his second year in school, Janzen joined the PAX program of the Mennonite Central Committee
Mennonite Central Committee
The Mennonite Central Committee is a relief, service, and peace agency representing 15 Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Amish bodies in North America. The U.S. headquarters are in Akron, Pennsylvania, the Canadian in Winnipeg, Manitoba.-History:...
that took him to Africa for two years of service in lieu of joining the U.S. military. During this time, Janzen worked on projects involving education, and helped in the construction of a hospital in the late colonial setting of the South Savannah of Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
. It was during this time that Janzen became interested in learning more about Africa. Returning home, Janzen received encouragement from a professor of sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, also a fellow colleague classmate who studied the Kurds of Iraq and continued graduate work in anthropology, to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology. to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
. He graduated from Bethel College in 1961 with a bachelor’s degree in Social Science and Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and was accepted to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
as a graduate student in anthropology.
Graduate education
Janzen spent his first year in an intensive study of Arabic and Islamic social and political thought with Mushin Madhi, a political philosopher, at the Oriental InstituteOriental Institute, Chicago
The Oriental Institute , established in 1919, is the University of Chicago's archeology museum and research center for ancient Near Eastern studies.- History and purpose:James Henry Breasted built up the collection of the Haskell Oriental Museum...
in Chicago. Madhi, a highly educated Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
originally from Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, specialized in medieval Islamic political thought including the work of Averroes
Averroes
' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...
, Avecinna, Ibn Tufayl, and Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
. His work further motivated Janzen to pursue a career in ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
and anthropology.
The following year, John Janzen received a grant from the French government to attend the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
(Sorbonne) from which he received a certificate of African Studies
African studies
African studies is the study of Africa, especially the cultures and societies of Africa .The field includes the study of:Culture of Africa, History of Africa , Anthropology of Africa , Politics of Africa, Economy of Africa African studies is the study of Africa, especially the cultures and...
in 1963. His stay in a predominantly Structuralist
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
and Marxist France influenced Janzen’s ideology and led him to the belief that material existence shapes societies and ideas. Janzen rejected the notion of a solely symbolic anthropology
Symbolic anthropology
Symbolic anthropology is the study of cultural symbols and how those symbols can be interpreted to better understand a particular society. It is often viewed in contrast to cultural materialism. According to symbolic anthropologists, the scientific method does not concern human behavior nor...
. This experience would resurface in his later works on African health and healing. John returned home to complete his graduate studies and finish his Master’s thesis titled: Towards a History of Cultural Revitalization among the Bakongo: 1880-1925. John received an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in May 1964, and began his PhD at the University of Chicago soon after. John also married his undergraduate love, Reinhild Kauenhoven, the same year. She has since then provided John with a strong sense of support, accompanied him during his fieldwork in the lower Congo, and eventually, co-authored two books with him.
Between 1964 and 1966, John traveled to the lower Congo region where he examined the social and political organization, economic development, religion, health, and patterns of health care seeking among the Kongo people
Kongo people
The Bakongo or the Kongo people , also sometimes referred to as Kongolese or Congolese, is a Bantu ethnic group which lives along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire to Luanda, Angola...
s. Here, Janzen’s research took on a historical perspective, as he used the pre-colonial, colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
, and post-colonial mercantile trade of the 16th to late 19th centuries to illustrate how the trade contributed to shaping Kongo perceptions of health, suffering, and healing from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. Janzen returned home in 1966 to complete his dissertation titled: Elemental Categories, Symbols, and Ideas of Association in Kongo-Manianga Society. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in June 1967.
Professional life
Janzen returned to Newton, KansasNewton, Kansas
Newton is a city in and the county seat of Harvey County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 19,132. Newton is located north of Wichita and is included in the Wichita metropolitan statistical area...
and began teaching as an assistant professor at Bethel College from 1967-1968. In 1969, however, Janzen received the Social Science Research Council
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
Post-Doctoral Fellowship and returned to the lower Congo/Zaire region to complete a study on Kongo therapeutics. He began teaching as an assistant professor at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in 1969. It was here that Janzen was first exposed to semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
. He looked for ways to connect materiality with ideas and symbols in a continuum, and looked into the work of Victor Turner
Victor Turner
Victor Witter Turner was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage...
, who resolved the relation between materiality, consciousness, and ideas, without fixating on any one particular aspect. Janzen also began reading Roland Barth's books on semiotics and grew highly interested in the field.
In 1970, Janzen took a break from teaching and traveled to Europe where he spent a month in Sweden working on Lower Congo archival materials. He returned to his teaching position at McGill and remained there until 1972, when he received an offer as associate professor in socio-cultural anthropology and African studies from the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
. In 1974, Janzen published his first book titled: Anthology of Kongo Religion: Primary Texts from Lower Zaire (KU Publications 1974).
During his time at the University of Kansas, Janzen published the book, The Quest for Therapy in Lower Zaire (California, 1978), reissued in paperback as The Quest for Therapy: Medical Pluralism in Lower Zaire (1982), and in French translation as La Quête de la Thérapie au Bas-Zaïre (Karthala, 1995). This writing was based on Janzen’s Social Science Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship, as well as a two year seminar taught at McGill. The book, which examined the foundations of Equatorial African approaches to sickness and healing from African and Western derived biomedical therapies, received the Wellcome Medal and Award from the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is the world's longest established anthropological organization, with a global membership. Since 1843, it has been at the forefront of new developments in anthropology and new means of communicating them to a broad audience...
for anthropological research pertaining to medical issues. Eventually the previous series editor, Professor Charles Leslie of the University of California Press
University of California Press
University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, asked him to become editor of the Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care journal, a position he accepted.
While still teaching at the University of Kansas, Janzen received the Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
Fellowship for his study on the Western Equatorial African historic Lemba
Lemba
The Lemba or 'wa-Remba' are a southern African ethnic group to be found in Zimbabwe and South Africa with some little known branches in Mozambique and Malawi. According to Parfitt they are thought to number 70,000...
cult traces in Western European museums. Janzen’s research of the Lemba, which he described as a cult for elite men and women emphasizing alliance building through marriage, trade, and healing, led to the publication of his book, Lemba (1650–1930): A Drum of Affliction in Africa and the new World (1982). In his book, Janzen identifies the sickness of the Lemba as resulting from subordinate's envy of the mercantile elite’s wealth. The drum of affliction, a translation of the proto and pan-Bantu
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
word Ngoma, typically includes a mode of affliction, a network of those commonly afflicted, visitation on them by an ancestor or spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
who has experienced the same affliction, and ritual event that brings together healers, the commonly afflicted, and their families in rhythmic, song-dance, therapeutic activity. The drum of affliction paradigm had been explored earlier by Victor Turner’s work in the Southern Savannah.
His work on the Ngoma paradigm led to further exploration of the phenomenon by expanding his research into Central and Southern Africa. After receiving a KU sabbatical, a lectureship at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
, and a Senior Fulbright Research Fellowship
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
, Janzen traveled to much of the Eastern and Western Bantu areas of Africa, including Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...
in Tanzania, Kinshasa
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
in Western Zaire, Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
in South Africa, and Mbabane
Mbabane
-References:...
in Swaziland. His position as a lecturer at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
facilitated his access to information and contacts. He published Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa in 1992. Another aspect of Janzen’s work during this time, which was briefly mentioned in his book on the Lemba
Lemba
The Lemba or 'wa-Remba' are a southern African ethnic group to be found in Zimbabwe and South Africa with some little known branches in Mozambique and Malawi. According to Parfitt they are thought to number 70,000...
, was the tracing of Kongo culture to the New World.
Also dedicated to his research on the Mennonites, Janzen remained actively involved in Mennonite affairs. He organized a conference on the anthropology of Mennonite places of worship in the United States. Also, the recreation of ideas and institutions influenced Janzen’s work as an anthropologist, and motivated him to be involved in the Kauffman Museum located in North Newton, at Bethel College, by helping to raise money for the creation of a permanent exhibit. In 1991, Janzen and his wife, Reinhild, co-authored a book, which was the catalogue of a special exhibit at the museum, titled Mennonite Furniture: A Migrant Tradition 1766-1910. Janzen became heavily involved in Mennonite history during a 1989 sabbatical, when he and his wife traced the regions from the Netherlands to the Baltic Seacoast. Their research also took them to Russia in 1991, and Paraguay and Brazil in 1993.
Janzen’s work on African healing continued to expand when in 1994–1995, he was asked to travel to the post-genocide Great Lakes
African Great Lakes
The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes and the Rift Valley lakes in and around the geographic Great Rift Valley formed by the action of the tectonic East African Rift on the continent of Africa...
Region of Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Zaire/Congo. This led to another book; "Do I Still have a Life? Voices from the Aftermath of War in Rwanda and Burundi" published in 2001. The book, based on many interviews, is a comparison of the actions of ordinary people and leaders in several communes in Rwanda and Burundi, leading up to, and following, the war and genocide.
His work at the University of Kansas soon developed into a concentration on African Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology
Medical anthropology is an interdisciplinary field which studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives...
, involving work with war, trauma
Physical trauma
Trauma refers to "a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident." It can also be described as "a physical wound or injury, such as a fracture or blow." Major trauma can result in secondary complications such as circulatory shock, respiratory failure and death...
, healing, semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
, socio-cultural anthropology and medical anthropology. During this time, Janzen published another great work titled: The Social Fabric of Health: An Introduction to Medical Anthropology (2002). From 2000 to 2003, Janzen received grants from the Department of Education for his work with the African Studies Center at the University of Kansas totaling over 1 million dollars. He also received the Jeffrey’s Social Sciences & Humanities Research Achievement Award from the University of Kansas in 2003. Dr. John Janzen has been invited to prestigious universities such as Harvard and the Medizinische Universitaet in Vienna as a distinguished guest lecturer. Over the years, he has published numerous works in scholarly journals distributed across the world, and has published on issues ranging from Mennonite architecture to Ngoma healing in Africa.
Conclusion
John M. Janzen's contributions to the field of Anthropology are extensive. His lifelong commitment to creating a better understanding of African health and healing has been groundbreaking, and has continued to be an inspiration for many anthropologists through the years. His work serves as a foundation and a reference for all future efforts in African anthropology. A dedicated anthropologist, Mennonite, Africanist, professor, adviser, and intellectual, Janzen’s imprint on the pages of history will never be forgotten.Selected awards and grants
1969 Social Science Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Kongo therapeutics;1978 Wellcome Medal and Award, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, for anthropological research and publication pertaining to medical issues—Quest for Therapy;
1979 Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, Western Equatorial African historic Lemba cult, traces in Western European museums;
1980 National Science Foundation, for Research Planning International Conference on "Causality and Classification in African Medicine," Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England;
1982-3 Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, Zaire, Swaziland, Tanzania, ngoma healing;
1985-2006 Numerous PhD student fellowships from Fulbright, NIH, NSF, and SSRC to sponsor dissertation research on health and healing in Africa and elsewhere.
2000-3 Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant for African Studies Center University of Kansas, $618,000;
2003 Balfour Jeffreys Social Sciences & Humanities Research Achievement Award, U. of Kansas.
2004 Visiting Lecturer: Harvard University & Medizinische Universitaet Vienna
2004 Kansas Humanities Council: New African Immigrants project, $8,000.
2006-10 U.S. Dept. of Education NRC Grant for Kansas African Studies Center, $912,000.
2006-10 U.S. Dept. of Education Foreign Language & Area Study, $512,000.
2006 Longview Foundation, for KASC; "teaching Africa and the Middle-East in the Great Plains;" curricular modules for secondary schools & on-line Con't Ed. graduate course, $20,000.
Publications
(Books)1974 Anthology of Kongo Religion: Primary Texts from Lower Zaire. KU Publ. in Anthropology # 5, Lawrence. 163 pp. (with Wyatt MacGaffey)
1978 The Quest for Therapy in Lower Zaire. Berkeley & London. University of California Press, 267 pp. (with collab. Wm. Arkinstall) Paperback edition, 1982.
1979 The Social History of Disease and Medicine in Africa. Special Issue: Social Science and Medicine 13B, 268 pp., (with Steven Feierman)
1980 The Development of Health. Akron, Pa., Mennonite Central Committee (Development Monograph 8), March., 32 pp.
1981 Causality and Classification in African Medicine and Health. Special Issue: Social Science and Medicine, 15B,3, 268 pp. (with Gwyn Prins)
1982 Lemba (1650–1930): A Drum of Affliction in Africa and the new World. New York, Garland Publ., 383 pp.
1991 Mennonite Furniture: A Migrant Tradition 1766–1910. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
1992 The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa, ed. with Steve Feierman, University of California Press.
1992 Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa. University of California Press.
1995 Quête de la Guérison dans le Bas-Zaïre. Paris: Karthala.
1999 "The Architecture of Anabaptist-Mennonite Spaces and Places of Meeting and Worship". Proceedings of an International Conference October 16–18, 1997, Harleysville PA. Special Issue of Mennonite Quarterly Review, April. (Editor with David Rempel-Smucker).
2000 Do I still have a life? Voices from the aftermath of war in Rwanda and Burundi, 1994-1995.
KU Monographs in Anthropology # 20. with Reinhild Janzen.
2001 The Social Fabric of Health: An Introduction to Medical Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill
2002 Manual & Test Bank. Companion to The Social Fabric of Health. New York: McGraw-Hill.
(in preparation) Kongo Reader.
(in preparation) Dumuna in Kongo: Lectures in Africanist Medical Anthropology.
Selected articles
1969a "Vers une phénomenologie de la guérison en Afrique centrale" Études congolaises XII:2, 97-115.1969b "The Politics of Apoliticality: Form and Process in a Lower Congo Regional Council" Cahiers d'Études africaines
Cahiers d'Études africaines
The Cahiers d'Études africaines is an international and interdisciplinary academic journal covering topics in the social sciences as relating to Africa, the West Indies, and Black Africa. The journal publishes miscellaneous issues and essays covering recent trends in research and field theory and...
IX,4, 570-99.
1969c "The Cooperative in Lower Congo Economic Development", in The Anthropology of Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. David Brokensha & Marion Pearsall, Soc. Appl. Anthro. Monogr. 10, 70-76.
1970 "The Etiquette of Charity", The Mennonite, 27,456-9; 28,472-5
1971 "Kongo Religious Renewal: Iconoclastic and Iconorthostic", Canadian J. of African Studies, V, 135-43.
1972a "Laman's Kongo Ethnography: Observations on Sources, Methods, and Theories", Africa, 422, 316-28.
1972b "The Confrontation of Church and State in Zaire: Alternative Structures and the Problem of Legitimation" In L'Afrique Occidentale: Développement et Société, Montreal, U. of M. Centre Int. de Criminologie comparée, 181-206.
1974 "N'kisi Figures of the Bakongo" and "Rejoinder on N'kisi" African Arts, 7,3, 87-90; 8,1, 82 (with Wyatt MacGaffey).
1975a "The Dynamics of Therapy in Lower Zaire", in Psychological Anthropology, ed. T.R. Williams, The Hague, Mouton, 441-63.
1975b "Pluralistic Legitimation of Therapy Systems in Zaire", Rural Africana, 26, 105-22; (republished in African Therapeutic Systems, Waltham, Crossroads Press, 1978, ed. A.Ademuwagun, et al.)
1975c "The Pende Masks in Kauffman Museum", African Arts, VIII,4,44-47 (with Reinhild Janzen).
1977 "The Tradition of Renewal in Kongo Religion", in African Religions: A Symposium, pp. 69–114, Newell Booth, ed., New York, London, Lagos: Nok Publications.
1978 "The Comparative Study of Medical Systems as Changing Social Systems", Social Science & Medicine, 12, 2B, 121-9.
1979a "Deep Thought: Structure and Intention in Kongo Prophetism, 1910-21", Social Research, 106-139.
1979b "Ideologies and Institutions in the Precolonial History of Equatorial African Therapeutic Systems", Soc.Sci.Med., 13B
1981 "The Need for a Taxonomy of Health in the Study of African Therapeutics", Soc.Sci.Med. 15B,3,
1982a "Lubanzi: The History of a Kongo Disease", in African Health and Healing, ed. S. Yoder, Los Angeles: Crossroads Press, pp. 107–119.
1982b "Medicalization in Comparative Perspective" pp. 3–18 and "Drums Anonymous: Towards an Understanding of Structures of Therapeutic Maintenance", pp. 154–66,In The Use and Abuse of Medicine, eds. Marten de Vries, R.L. Berg & Mack Lipkin, Jr., New York: Praeger.
1982c "Resource Allocation and Symbol Formation in Great Plains Festivals", Rituals, Mind and Symbol, ed. Allan Hanson, University of Kansas Publ. in Anthropology 14, 50-65.
1983 "Towards a Historical Perspective on African Medicine and Health", in Ethnomedicine and Medical History, ed. J. Sterly & F. Lichtenthaeler, Berlin: Verlag Mensch u. Leben.
1985a "Consequences of Literacy in African Religion" in The Social Science of African Religion: Theoretical & Methodological Explorations, eds., Wim van Binsbergen & Matthew Schoffeleers, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul (Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden
Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden
The African Studies Centre is an independent scientific institute in the Netherlands that undertakes social-science research on Africa with the aim of promoting a better understanding of historical, current and future social developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. The present director is Ton Dietz...
), pp. 225–252.
1985b "Changing Concepts of African Therapeutics: An Historical Perspective" in African Healing Strategies, eds. B. du Toit & I.H. Abdalla. Owerri, New York, Trado-Medic Books, 61-81.
1986 "Ippocrati del deserto, Galeni della savana," Kos: Revista di cultura e storia delle scienze mediche, III (Feb/Mar), 20, pp. 39–61.
1987a "Old Age Security and the Family Life Course: A Case Study of Nineteenth Century Mennonite Immigrants to Kansas" Journal of Aging Studies, Vol.I:1, pp. 33–49 (with Jill Quadagno).
1987b "Therapy Management: Concept, Reality, Process" Medical Anthropology Quarterly I:1(ns), pp. 68–84.
1987c "Bethel's Museum: A Centennial History" Mennonite Life.Vol. 42,1, pp. 31–38.
1987d "African Cults of Affliction" Vol. I, pp. 55–59 & "Kongo Religion" Vol. 8, pp. 362–5 In The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. M. Eliade, et al. New York, The Free Press.
1988a "Health, Religion and Medicine in Central and Southern African Traditions", pp. 225–254, Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in the World's Religious Traditions, ed. L. Sullivan. New York: MacMillan.
1988b [Attributions of 18 art pieces from Loango] In Expressions of Belief: Masterpieces of African, Oceanic, and Indonesian Art: Museum voor Volkenkunde Rotterdam. New York: Rizzoli (with Reinhild Janzen).
1988c Commentary on "A Methodology for Cross-cultural Ethnomedical Research," Current Anthropology 29,5, 695.
1990a "The Art of Lemba in Lower Zaire," In Art and Initiation in Zaire, special issue of Iowa Papers in Africa Art, ed. Christopher Roy (with Reinhild Janzen).
1990b "Strategies of Health-Seeking and Structures of Social Support in Central and Southern Africa. In What we know about Health Transition, eds. John Caldwell, S. Findley, P.Caldwell, lD. Broers-Freeman and W. Cosford. Canberra: Health Transition Centre (Health Trans. Ser. 2).
1990c "Burial Customs" (pp. 110–111) and "Funerals"(p. 320) in Mennonite Encyclopedia V.
1991 "Doing Ngoma: A Dominant Trope in African Religion and Healing." J. of Religion in Africa, XXI,4, 290-308.
1992 "Drums of Affliction: Real Phenomenon or Scholarly Chimera?" 161-181. In Religion in Africa: Experience and Expression. Eds. T. Blakeley, W. van Beek& D.Thompson. London: J. Curry; Portsmouth: Heinemann.
1993 "A Follow-up on Ethnocide and Genocide in the Chaco of Paraguay: A Tribute to Robert J. Smith," Aborigine-Newsletter of the University of Kansas Dept. of Anthropology, 5 1993, 1, pp. 1–7.
1994 "The History and Significance of a Mennonite Prayerhouse: The 1880 Bethel Adobe Sanctuary of Inman, Kansas." Mennonite Life.49,3, 4-12.
1995a "The aftermath of war: inside Rwanda and Burundi, 1994-5" KU anthropologist, 6,2, May 1995, pp. 1, 13-15.
1995b "Self-Presentation and Common Cultural Structures in Ngoma Rituals of Southern Africa." Journal of Religion in Africa. XXV, 2, 141-162.
1996 [18 attributions] Africa Meets Africa: The African Collection of the Museum of Ethnology Rotterdam. Rotterdam: Museum of Ethnology. (With Reinhild Kauenhoven-Janzen).
1997a “Healing, an Overview” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara.ed. John Middleton. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, pp. 274–283.
1997b “Sub-Saharan African Healing.” Lincolnwood, IL: Ancient Healing. Publications International. Pp. 322–337.
1998 "The Comparative Study of Medical Systems as Changing Social Systems," In Sjaak van der Geest & A. Rienks, eds., The Culture of Health and illness: Readings in Medical Anthropology, Amsterdam Med. Anthro. Unit. (revised republication of 1978 version).
1999a “Anabaptist/Mennonite Spaces and Places of Worship” Introduction to special issue of Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. 73, April, 151-165.
1999b “Form and Meaning in Central Kansas Mennonite Buildings for Worship,” special issue of Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. 73, April, 325-354.
1999c “Ayiwewe”: Children of Rwanda draw their memories of war.” Canadian J. of African Studies, Vol. 33, special issue, ed. Bogumil Jewsiewicki. (with Reinhild Janzen)
1999d "Text and Context in the Anthropology of War Trauma: The African Great Lakes Region, 1993-1995." Suomen Antropologi: J. of the Finnish Anthropological Society, 4, 24, 37 -57..
2000a “Theories of Music in African ‘Ngoma’ Healing.” pp. 46-66 In Musical Healing in Cultural Context. Ed. Penelope Gouk. London: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
2000b “Historical Consciousness and a 'Prise de Conscience' in Genocidal Rwanda." Journal of African Cultural Studies. Special Issue, Eds. JDY Peel & John Lonsdale. 13, 1: 153-168.
2000c “Afterword” to The Quest for Fruition: Studies of the Political and the Therapeutical in Ngoma, eds. Rijk van Dijk, Ria Reis, & Marja Spierenburg. Oxford: James Currey Publishers.
2001 “Mind/body, subject/object: Recent trends in medical anthropology.” Reviews in Anthropology. Vol. 30, pp. 357–374.
2003a "Continuity, Change, and Challenge in African Medicine," In Medicine across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Medicine, ed. Helain Selin. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. with Edward C. Green. (on-line revised re-edition with Kluwer-Springer, 2006).
2003b "Illusions of Home: The Story of Return of a Rwandan Refugee." In Lynellyn Long & Ellen Oxfeld, eds. Coming Home? Refugees who Return. University of Pennsylvania Press.
2004 "Affliction: African Cults of Affliction" & "Kongo Religion" Encyclopedia of Religion. MacMillan Reference, USA. 2nd edition. Revised essays and bibliographies.
2005a Religious Healing among War Traumatized African Immigrants to the United States." In Religion and Healing in America. Pp. 159-172. Eds. Linda Barnes & Susan Sered. Oxford University Press. With Adrien Ngudiankama and Melissa Filippi-Franz.
2005b "The Lemba Trading Association as seen in the Rymar Ivory." African Carved Ivory: A Mini-Conference on Local Images & Global Connections of a 19th Century Loango Tusk. Kansas African Studies Center, University of Kansas. April 13. Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. http://www.kasc.ku.edu/~kasc/programs/conferences/2005/jjanzen2.shtml
2006a "Tsistsistas in Kauffman Museum: On the Making and Meaning of the Cheyenne Segment in the Permanent Exhibition 'Of Land and People'." Mennonite Life, June, vol. 61, no. 2. http://www.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2006june/janzen.php
2006b Business & Islam: Proceedings of a Workshop, April 7–8, University of Kansas. Sponsored by the Kansas African Studies Center, Center for International Business Education & Research, the Department of Economics, and Mohamed El-Hodiri. With Ousmane Seck & Zaier Aouani. http://www.kasc.ku.edu/~kasc/programs/conferences/2006/Business_in_Islam/index.shtml
2006c "Medicine in Africa." Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer Online Publications. With Edward Green.
2007 "Identity, Voice, Community: New African Immigrants to Kansas" Videofilm produced by Kansas African Studies Center. 46 minutes.
(in press) Healing and Health Care: African Theories and Therapies. 6000 words. New Encyclopedia of Africa. MacMillan.(submitted Summer 2005; proofs reviewed Dec., 2006)
(in press) "Foreword," (760 words), Bernhard M. Bierlich, The Problem of Money: Human Agency & Western Medicine in Northern Ghana. Oxford: Berghahn Books. (submitted December 2006)
(in press, 2011) "Afri-Global Medicine: New Perspectives on Epidemics, Drugs, Wars, Migrations and Healing Rituals," Medicine, Mobility, and Power in Global Africa: Transnational Health and Healing. Ed. Hansjörg Dilger, Abdoulaye Kane and Stacey Langwick. Indiana University Press.
(forthcoming) "Science and Religion in Sub-Saharan African Medicine," Science and Religion Around the World: Historical Perspectives, Eds. Ron Numbers & John Brooks. Oxford University Press. (with Steven Feierman)