Karla Poewe is an anthropologist

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...

 and historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

. She is the author of ten academic books and fifty peer reviewed articles in international journals. Currently Poewe is Professor Emeritus in Anthropology at the University of Calgary

University of Calgary

The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...

, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Adjunct Research Professor at Liverpool Hope University

Liverpool Hope University

Liverpool Hope University is a university in Liverpool, England. Two of its three founding colleges were established in 1844 and 1856, the third opening in the 1960s. It is the only ecumenical university in Europe. Based on two campuses, the main campus is located in Childwall and the second...

, Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. She is married to Irving Hexham

Irving Hexham

Irving Hexham is a Canadian academic and writer who has published twenty-three books and numerous articles, chapters, and book reviews in respected academic journals. Currently, he is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, married to Dr...

.

Biography

Born 25 January 1941 in Königsberg

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

, East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

, Poewe became a refugee at the age of three after 189 Lancaster bombers from No. 5 Group of the British RAF dropped 480 tons of bombs on the city centre. Her family was moved to a small estate in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, staying several weeks before being moved again. Almost six months later they found themselves in the vicinity of Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 just in time for the bombing. From Dresden they were moved to Plauen

Plauen

Plauen is a town in the Free State of Saxony, east-central Germany.It is the capital of the Vogtlandkreis. The town is situated near the border of Bavaria and the Czech Republic.Plauen's slogan is Plauen - echt Spitze.-History:...

 in Saxony and eventually spent three years in Werdau

Werdau

Werdau is a town in Germany, part of the Landkreis Zwickau in the administrative region of Chemnitz, the Free State of Saxony. It is situated on the river Pleiße, 8 km from Zwickau....

 before walking over 250 miles, after the death of Poewe's father, to cross into the British Zone near 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:...

. From there they went to the small town of Buxtehude

Buxtehude

Buxtehude is a town on the Este River in Northern Germany in the district of Stade and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . Buxtehude is a steadily growing medium-sized town and the second largest in the district of Stade. It lies on the southern borders of the Altes Land within easy reach of...

. Poewe's memories of this period were published as Childhood in Germany during World War II (1988).

Poewe worked as an air hostess with Trans-Canada Airlines before entering the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 where she won several prestigious scholarships. Originally planning to study medicine, she switched to Anthropology. After completing her B.A. she enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of New Mexico

University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...

 where Harry Basehart was her thesis supervisor. Poewe studied for a while with John Middleton

John Francis Marchment Middleton

John Francis Marchment Middleton was a British professor of anthropology in the United States, specializing in Africa. He was director of the International African Institute in 1973-1974 and in 1980-1981. His work on the Lugbara religion is considered a classic of African anthropology.Middleton...

 at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 and learned Swahili

Swahili language

Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...

 and Bemba

Bemba language

The Bemba language, ChiBemba , is a major Bantu language spoken primarily in north-eastern Zambia by the Bemba people and as a lingua franca by about 18 related ethnic groups, including the Bisa people of Mpika and Lake Bangweulu, and to a lesser extent in Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the...

 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

. The fieldwork for her Ph.D. thesis was carried out in Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

.

Career

After the completion of her thesis she taught for a year at the University of Toronto before moving to the University of Lethbridge

University of Lethbridge

The University of Lethbridge is a publicly-funded comprehensive academic and research university, founded in the liberal education tradition, located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with two other urban campuses in Calgary and Edmonton. The main building sits among the coulees on the west side of...

 in Alberta. She then carried out further fieldwork funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

. During this time she published her first book, Matrilineal Ideology (1981), followed by Reflections of a Woman Anthropologist (1982). This book, which helped pioneer a new genre of anthropological writing, was, at the publisher's insistence, published under the pseudonym Manda Cesara.

After Poewe married Irving Hexham the two co-authored Understanding Cults and New Religions (1986) and New Religions as Global Cultures (1997). Poewe began fieldwork in 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...

 where she studied the rise of Charismatic Christian Churches and the relationship of their members to apartheid. This ground-breaking work resulted in an International Conference held at the University of Calgary in 1993 on the topic of Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture, which led to the publication of a book with the same title.

Poewe's fieldwork in South Africa came to an end in 1989 when a close friend, the Rt. Rev. Londa Shembe, leader of one branch of the Zulu African Independent Church amaNazaretha

Nazareth Baptist Church

Nazareth Baptist Church is an African Initiated Church founded by Isaiah Shembe 1910....

, was assassinated and two other friends were also murdered. These tragedies led Poewe to redirect her research interests to looking at the role of missionaries in the areas of Africa where she had studied. The fall of the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

 enabled her to freely access the archives of the Berlin Mission Society. While working in these archives in 1995 she discovered a large amount of material dealing with conflicts between members of the Berlin Mission and National Socialists.

This material provided the basis for a new project concerning the role of religions in the rise of National Socialism which took almost ten years to complete and resulted in her latest book, New Religions and the Nazis (2006). Currently Poewe is studying the treatment of German refugees following the end of World War II and is interested in the impact of defeat on the defeated.

Works

• Matrilineal Ideology: Male Female Dynamics in Luapula, Zambia. London: Academic Press. 1981.
• (under pseudonym Manda Cesare) Reflections of a Woman Anthropologist: No Hiding Place. London & New York: Academic Press. 1982.
• The Namibian Herero: A History of Their Psychosocial Disintegration and Survival. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press. 1985.
• (with Irving Hexham) Understanding Cults and New Religions. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 1986.
• Childhood in Germany during World War II: The Story of a Little Girl. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press. 1988.
• Religion, Kinship, and Economy in Luapula, Zambia. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press. 1989.
• Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. 1994.
• (with Irving Hexham) New Religions as Global Cultures: Making the Human Sacred. Boulder: Westview Press. 1997.
• New Religions and the Nazis, Oxford, Routledge. 2006.

Selected academic papers by Karla Poewe

• "Religion, Matriliny and Change: Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh‑Day Adventists in Luapula, Zambia", in: American Ethnologist (Washington), Vol. 5, No. 2 May 1978, pp. 301‑321.
• "Matriliny and Capitalism: the Development of Incipient Classes in Luapula, Zambia", in: Dialectical Anthropology (Amsterdam), 1978, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 331‑347.
• "Matrilineal Ideology: The Economic Role of Women in Luapula, Zambia", in: The Versatility of Kinship: Studies in Anthropology, edited by L. Cordell and S. Beckerman, Academic Press (London), 1980, pp 333‑357.
• "Strange Pain: Textual Expressions from Africa and the Caribbean", lead paper in: Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly, Special Issue, (Washington), 1985, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 91‑99.
• "On the Metonymic Structure of Religious Experiences: The Example of Charismatic Christianity", lead paper in: Cultural Dynamics (Amsterdam), 1989, Vol. II, No.4, pp. 361‑380.
• "Theologies of Black South Africans and the Rhetoric of Peace versus Violence", Canadian Journal of African Studies, (Ottawa) Vol. 27, No. 1, 1993, pp. 43–65.
• "Rethinking the Relationship of Anthropology to Science and Religion", in: Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture, edited by Karla Poewe, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, South Carolina), 1994, pp. 234–258.
• "From Volk to Apartheid: The Dialectic Between German and Afrikaner Nationalism", in Missionsgeschichte - Kirchengeschichte - Weltgeschichte [Mission History-Church History-World History], edited by Ulrich van der Heyden/Heike Liebau, Franz Steiner Verlag, (Stuttgart), 1996, pp. 191–213.
• "‘Verfassungsfeindlich’: Church, State and New Religions in Germany." Irving Hexham and Karla Poewe. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 2 (2), April 1999, pp. 208-227.
• "Scientific Neo-Paganism and the Extreme Right then and today: from Ludendorff’s 'Gotterkenntnis' to Sigrid Hunke’s 'Europas Eigene Religion'.” In Journal of Contemporary Religion
  Journal of Contemporary Religion
  The Journal of Contemporary Religion is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal which covers anthropological, sociological, psychological, and philosophical aspects of religion.- History and format :...
  
  14 (3), October 1999, pp. 387–400.
• "The Spell of National Socialism: The Berlin Mission’s Opposition to, and Compromise with, the Völkisch Movement and National Socialism: Knak, Braun, and Weichert". In: Ulrich van der Heyden und Juergen Becher, Eds. „Mission und Gewalt: Der Umgang christlicher Missionen mit Gewalt und die Ausbreitung des Christentums in Afrika und Asien“. (Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv, Band 6) Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000, pp. 268–290.
• "Politically Compromised Scholars or What German Scholars Working under Missions, National Socialism, and the Marxist Leninist German Democratic Republic Can Teach Us". American Anthropologist 2001 103 (3): 834-837.
• "Liberalism, German Missionaries, and National Socialism: Diedrich Westermannm, Martin Jäckel, and Jakob Wilhelm Hauer". In: Ulrich van der Heyden, Mission und Macht im Wandel politischer Orientierungen: Europäische Missionsgesellschaften in politischen Spannungsfeldern, in Afrika und Asien zwischen 1800 und 1945. Franz Steiner Verlag, Volume 10, March 2005: pp. 1–30.

External links

• Karla Poewe, University of Calgary
  University of Calgary
  The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
  
  .
• New Religions and the Nazis website
• Review of New Religions and the Nazis by Steigmann-Gall and Poewe's response, H-net
• Nazi New Religions, Pt 1 and Nazi New Religions, Pt 2 — transcripts of an interview of Poewe by Rachel Kohn concerning New Religions and the Nazis on the Radio National
  Radio National
  ABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...
  
  program "The Ark"