Regimes of Ignorance : Anthropological Perspectives on the Production and Reproduction of Non-Knowledge

Non-knowledge should not be simply regarded as the opposite of knowledge, but as complementary to it: each derives its character and meaning from the other and from their interaction. Knowledge does not colonize the space of ignorance in the progressive march of science; rather, knowledge and ignorance are mutually shaped in social and political domains of partial, shifting, and temporal relationships. This volume’s ethnographic analyses provide a theoretical frame through which to consider the production and reproduction of ignorance, non-knowledge, and secrecy, as well as the wider implications these ideas have for anthropology and related disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.

Roy Dilley is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. His books include Islamic and Caste Knowledge Practices among Haalpulaaren (2004), Nearly Native, Barely Civilized: Henri Gaden's Journey Across Colonial French West Africa (2014) and Rencontres photographiques: Henri Gaden, photographe, en Afrique Occidentale, with the Archives nationales d'outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence.

Thomas G. Kirsch is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Konstanz. Recent publications include Spirits and Letters: Reading, Writing and Charisma in African Christianity (Berghahn Books, 2008), Domesticating Vigilantism in Africa (co-edited with Tilo Grätz; James Currey, 2010) and Ethical Fields in Africa (co-edited with Astrid Bochow and Rijk van Dijk, 2017).