Modern Western Science Research Articles

The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China by David A Pietz

Reviewed by: The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern Chinaby David A Pietz E. Elena Songster (bio) The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China. by David A Pietz. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. Pp. 384. $39.95. David A. Pietz makes clear in this book that the Yellow River is not just any river. According to the first sentence, it ceased even being a river when, "In 1997 the Yellow River dried up" (p. 1). From this stark start, the reader is carried on a detailed, fascinating, and important journey from the river's ancient historical significance as the body of water that is credited with giving birth to China's civilization to the present crisis of water scarcity. The [End Page 621]Yellow River also is an engineering marvel. In long stretches, it is a hanging river, meaning it flows elevated above the land on either side propped up by the ancient technical ingenuity of dike construction. This unusual trait is the reason that the Yellow River is not only seen as the source of life in China, but also repeatedly has been the source of mass death. Dubbed "China's Sorrow," the river has offered the millions who have settled and farmed along its fertile banks the tragic pattern of repeated floods and periodic shifts in its course to the sea. This history of the Yellow River is also a history of China, not just as it is carved in the landscape of the North China Plain, but in what it reveals about major national events and the relationships that tie the people to their government and land. At the same time, in pursuing these concurrent foci, Pietz is telling the story of water, humanity's efforts to "order the waters," and how China came to find itself in such a dire water crisis. Throughout the book, he underscores the important point that the Yellow River and history are entwined not only in the past, but also in the future. After this long and careful study, Pietz is able to advise anyone interested in tackling the ongoing desperate water problems of the North China Plain that "the enduring legacies of the physical setting and cultural patterns will shape the parameters of available options" (p. 3). I advise anyone interested in any of these issues to read this book. There is much here for historians of technology to feast on, both in technology content and in historical context. The book is rich in maps and diagrams of various diking strategies over the centuries. Pietz includes extensive debates about silt and sluicing, dam designs, and the juxtaposition of scientific traditions—ancient Chinese and modern Western—which he finds in particular spots to be remarkably similar. Approximately one-quarter of the book is dedicated to the ancient and imperial eras. These are not merely background, but in some ways the most fascinating time periods and fundamental to Pietz's point that cultural traditions have longevity. In these early sections he demonstrates clearly the degree to which humans have changed the landscape long before mechanization, let alone modern industrialization. This study highlights the tremendous emphasis that new nationalists placed on learning and importing modern Western science to early-twentieth-century China. In devoting the middle sections to the Mao era (1949–76), Pietz makes several important contributions to the literature on this era and to the history of science and technology. Beneath the broad-stroke characterizations of the Mao period, Pietz reveals the persistent presence of Soviet influence and soviet-like approaches to engineering (even if they weren't called such) well after the Sino-Soviet split. He also notes the emergence of a distinctively Maoist approach to industrial growth that was linked closely to water management. The last section of the book grounds the rapid growth from the reform [End Page 622]era to the present day in historical context with attention to pollution, climate change, food security, and, importantly, the interconnection of China's water problems and the rest of the world. It is a must read for graduate courses on environmental history or modern Chinese studies and also workable for a more...

Research on the Developmental Trend of Western Psychology and the Influences on the Psychology Research in China

In this paper, we conduct research on the developmental trend of western psychology and the influences on the psychology research in China. Psychology in psychology in China under the background of globalization, are based on Chinese culture and political background of indigenous psychology research, stick to the path of "Chinese style". At present, our country although psychology has made great progress, but also should see the level of psychological development in our country compared with Europe and United States developed countries still there is a gap. The development of health psychology is expected to be in the Chinese traditional health concept, build a bridge between and western modern science so as to achieve the framework of modern science and low consumption, efficient system of health promotion and improve the overall health condition of our country. The paper proposes the systematic solution to the corresponding issues that will be consequential.

Isma'il al Faruqi and Islamization of knowledge: A critical review

Muslim thinkers in the XX century offered different analyses of the relationship between traditional Islamic knowledge and modern Western sciences. In the beginning, it was thought that in the light of modern sciences Muslims could stop the process of multiple weakening of their societies. However, as various shortcomings of the Western culture started being noticed, there were more and more talks about the need for a modern Islamic science, or even new Islamic universities. The extremely influential Isma'il al Faruqi undoubtedly deserves most credits for popularizing the issues of islamization of knowledge and science. Believing that in the reform of the educational system should be recognised the key solution to the overall crisis in the Islamic world, al Faruqi, in collaboration with his closest friends from the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) formulated general principles, objectives and a detailed plan of the process of islamization of knowledge. He suggested that the Muslim experts should get well acquainted with modern sciences, and then to creatively connect those sciences with the Islamic heritage, in the light of basic Islamic concepts and views. However, using the method of philosophical analysis of contents of al Faruqi's writings on islamization of knowledge, we can see that his approach to understanding of Islam is burdened with pronounced literalism. He was an extreme opponent of the philosophical and mystical heritage of Islam, and also he had little knowledge of basic flows of dogmatic theology in Islam, which he necessarily preferred. Al Faruqi reduced Islamic intellect to the level of the instrument for solving problems in a person's physical life and he believed that it is harmful to think about metaphysical and esoteric truths. Finally, al Faruqi's analysis of the essential nature of modern sciences is essentially simple. He did not focus at all on the crucial, complex and hidden epistemological principles of different cognitive stages of Post-Renaissance Western science. Thus, his idea of islamization of knowledge resembles a simple mechanical structure, whose methodological frameworks and cognitive norms are far from clear. Hence, we cannot accurately predict cultural and social destiny of this structure, and it is certainly possible that it will differ in no way from the modern Western science.

КОНЦЕПЦІЯ ПРАЦЕВЛАШТУВАННЯ В ЗАХІДНІЙ СОЦІОЛОГІЇ

This article analyzes the characteristics of the concept of meaningful employment in the modern Western science. Based on work by R. Dearing, L.Dacre Pool, L.Zels, M. Yorke, R. McQuaide, R. Knight, E.Pollard, A. Forrier, J. Hilladge, L. Harvey and others substantiates the concept of employment in the European socio-economic discourse. Provided the current pattern of employment "USEM" and HEI's employment model "CareerEDGE", and highlights their heuristic potential. And also considered how the concept of employment may be associated with "professional success" by S. Pavlin.

Anthropotheology: Latour Speaking Religiously

While Bruno Latour is commonly identified with science studies, he has also written extensively on religion and especially on its relation to the modern Western sciences. His writings on the subject include the relatively early essays, “On the Cult of the Factish Gods” and “‘Thou Shall Not Freeze-Frame’ or, How Not to Misunderstand the Science-Religion Debate”, and the book, Rejoicing: Or the Torments of Religious Speech . Religion also figures centrally in Latour’s recent work, including An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns and his 2013 Gifford lectures, “Facing Gaia.” Indeed, it appears that the hope to frame a generally acceptable, intellectually sophisticated, and theologically proper account of religion (which Latour identifies with Christianity) has been a central motivating force in his work for at least the past two decades and perhaps from the beginning. In his pursuit of these ends, Latour has tied together a duly radical constructivist-pragmatist account of scientific knowledge with a rhetorically deft Christian apologetics to produce a singular—bold, inventive, and in many ways compelling but also equivocal—anthropotheology. Readers in the humanities will find much of interest in these writings but also much that is perplexing, dubious, and intellectually and/or experientially alien.

한국 전통 과학에 대한 고등학생들의 인식과 가치 탐색

Received 20 November 2014Received in revised form23 December 201418 February 2015Accepted 24 February 2015The purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of science education using Korean TSK(Traditional scientific knowledge). In this study, we have developed five Korean TSK units including science concepts, historical knowledge and cultural experience and applied them to 10th graders. The five units are as follows: (1) Calendars(western and eastern), (2) Our traditional sundial, Angbuilgu, (3) A great scientist in the King Sejong Era, (4) Data interpretation of ancient record of natural phenomenon in Korea, and (5) Gyeongbokgung Palace. The analyses included a pre- and post test of students' perception, classroom observation, students' activity sheets, and interview. The results show that the students' perception of Korean TSK has changed toward recognizing the value of Korean TSK as a kind of natural science. They expressed their expectation of Korean TSK in scientific, practical, and emotional perspectives, wherein some students thought the practical and emotional perspectives of Korean TSK as non-scientific characteristics. Students showed five types of worldview about the relationship between Korean TSK and WMS(western modern science). Most students favored and cherished the Korean TSK but at the same time, they were confused about its scientific value. The results support the rethinking of the meaning of science and what students learn in school. We should consider how we teach the Korean TSK to students. It is important that a profound research of the Korean TSK should be continued to make our science education varied.

An Unpublished Manuscript Geologica Japonica by Von Siebold: Geology, Mineralogy, and Copper in the Context of Dutch Colonial Science and the Introduction of Western Geo-sciences to Japan

In this article, I will discuss one important aspect of historical encounters between Western colonial scientists and Japanese nature. In order to do so, I will shed new light on how geo-sciences became an object of scientific research of Japan, in the framework of Dutch colonial sciences. I will also show that Western interests in Japanese geo-sciences were primarily stimulated by economic motivations, and that, at the same time, it accompanied the process of the introduction of modern Western sciences into Japan. It is well-known that Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) studied Japanese natural history widely, and wrote two standard works, Flora Japonica and Fauna Japonica. This paper examines a newly found unpublished manuscript Geologica Japonica by von Siebold, which discusses Japanese geology and mineralogy, and reports on copper mining and smelting. Mineralogical and geological collections have also been discovered in museums at Leiden, the Netherlands. These collections are now identified as the research materials used in the preparation of this manuscript, and found to be the first systematic European geo-scientific collections from Japan. The collection of rocks and minerals from Japan has been proved as mostly collected and identified by Heinrich Burger (1806-1858), a pharmacist and assistant to von Siebold. Burger classified the collection using two nomenclature systems, those of A. G. Werner and R. Hauy. We further point out that the Dutch were interested in the useful natural resources of their trading partner, carrying out a survey of coal mines in Japan, and the trial of tea transplantation from Japan to Java. In my research on the newly found manuscripts and collections of geology and mineralogy, I clarify that von Siebold and Burger intensively investigated Japanese copper mining and smelting. They reported their visit to the Sumitomo copper refinery at Osaka, and Burger wrote an article on Japanese copper in the journal of the Batavian Society for Arts and Sciences. In conclusion, based on close study of newly examined manuscripts and detailed identification of geological collections, a network of interest in Japan’s geology and mineralogy by Dutch colonial scientist is illustrated, and its hybrid character is demonstrated against the background of Dutch- Japan cultural exchange.

An enquiry concerning the nature of conceptual categories: a case-study on the social dimension of human cognition.

Cognitive Science, in all its guises, has not yet accorded any fundamental importance to the social dimension of human cognition. In order to illustrate the possibilities that have not so far been developed, this article seeks to pursue the idea, first put forward by Durkheim, that the major categories which render conceptual thought possible may actually have a social origin. Durkheim illustrated his thesis, convincingly enough, by examining the societies of Australian aborigines. The aim here is to extend this idea to cover the case of the conceptual categories underpinning modern Western science, as they developed historically first in Ancient Greece, and then at the Renaissance. These major non-empirical concepts include those of abstract Space (Euclidean space, perfectly homogeneous in all its dimensions); abstract Time (conceived as spatially linearized, with the possibility of imaginatively going back and forth); and a number of canonical logical categories (equality, abstract quantity, essential versus accidental properties, the continuous and the discontinuous, the transcendental…). Sohn-Rethel (1978) has proposed that the heart of the conceptual categories in question is to be found in an analysis of the exchange abstraction. This hypothesis will be fleshed out by examining the co-emergence of new social structures and new forms of conceptual thought in the course of historical evolution. This includes the Renaissance, which saw the emergence of both Capitalism and Modern Science; and on the contemporary situation, where the form of social life is dominated by financial speculation which goes together with the advent of automation in the processes of production. It is concluded that Cognitive Science, and in particular the nascent paradigm of Enaction, would do well to broaden its transdisciplinary scope to include the dimensions of sociology and anthropology.

Science and education across cultures: another look at the Negev Bedouins and their environmental management practices

This is a rejoinder to the original article written by Wisam Sedawi, Orit Ben Zvi Assaraf, and Julie Cwikel about waste-related implication on the welfare of children living in the Negev’s Bedouin Arab community. More specifically, the authors discuss the role of environmental education in the improvement of participants’ life conditions. They do so by analyzing the impact of current precarious waste management practices on children’s health and proposing the implementation of a science study unit in school that could assist them in dealing with the problem. My argument here is divided in three parts: first, based on the original article’s information, I comment on some important characteristics of those unrecognized settlements and their waste production practices; second, I try to determine what kind of environmental education—if any—is necessary in that context to promote the desired changes put forward by the authors; and third, I adopt a cross-cultural approach to science and environmental literacy as means to provoke readers to consider the scientific value (often neglected) of traditional knowledge in attempting to solve the issues described in the original paper. In addition, both the Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education (1977) and the Treaty on Environmental Education for Sustainable Societies and Global Responsibility (1992) are used to support my argument, which also encompasses the concept of empowerment. Ultimately, bridging the Bedouin’s traditional knowledge and Western modern science can help to improve science education at the school level in the unrecognized township under study by linking present and past in search of a more sustainable and peaceful future.

Post-colonial science education: the challenge of negotiating researcher positioning

In this paper, I describe a methodology that I employed, and resultant methods that I designed, to facilitate a Critical Discourse Analysis exploring perspectives on Western modern science as a school subject discipline in a given Caribbean context. Using specific themes from post-colonial theory, I sought to engage with some of the viewpoints presented by key stakeholders in secondary science education in the research setting. This paper reports on the methodological framework for the research study, illustrating some of the philosophical challenges encountered during the development of the research methods. Specifically, I discuss the tensions associated with the pursuit of researcher legitimacy, the use of ‘scientific’ methods of inquiry in a work that seeks to be decolonizing, and the challenge of stimulating conversation about a topic for which participants might not possess readily formulated opinions. My response to these challenges resulted in methods that utilized a unique adaptation of Stephenson's Q methodology. Although these tensions are far from being fully resolved, the approach outlined helps contribute to our understanding of the complexities of negotiation that can occur when conducting research of this nature.

Modern Western Science in Initial Chinese Archaeological Development

Modern Western Science in Initial Chinese Archaeological Development

Western Science and Local Thai Wisdom: Using Museum Toys to Develop Bi-Gnosis

Abstract This article focuses on some of the intersections of two worldviews: Western modern science and a Buddhism-based way of life in Thailand. It enters the debate on the place and practice of Indigenous forms of knowledge and the clashes with formal science education curricula. Our goal is balanced bi-gnosis: the possession of, and proficiency in, two distinct knowledge systems, rejecting syncretic forms or integration of these knowledge systems. The examples discussed are drawn from Thailand's National Science Museum and, in particular, from the museum's work in the traditional Thai technology gallery using visitors’ hands-on activities with toys.

After the Relational Turn

Ten years ago, F. LeRon Shults documented the “turn to relationality” in late modern Western philosophy and science and examined the consequences of this turn for our understanding of human nature (Shults 2003). He identified a number of “reconstructive opportunities” that have emerged in the wake of this development and laid out how these opportunities afforded new perspectives on familiar problems (Shults 2003, 164). He also sought to demonstrate that the turn to relationality had important implications not only for the content of the intellective enterprise but for its practice as well: the relational turn, he argued, encouraged a rethinking of precisely which strategies and habits are most effective for providing students with opportunities for “transformational learning” (Shults 2003, 61-76).

Investigating Secondary Science Teachers’ Beliefs About Multiculturalism and its Implementation in the Classroom

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore secondary science teachers’ beliefs about multiculturalism and its implementation in their classrooms. Participants included nine secondary science teachers, with experience ranging from 1 to 15 years of teaching. Data were collected through interviews, using a semi-structured interview protocol (Kvale, 1996). The interviews were coded, analyzed, and grouped into five themes aligned with the multicultural dimensions developed by Banks and Banks (2007): Content Integration, Knowledge Construction, Prejudice Reduction, Equity Pedagogy, and Empowering School Culture. Results of the research study indicated these participants harbored a general misconception that there was only one science; traditionally that has meant a Western Modern Science (WMS: Cobern & Loving, 2001). The research also suggests the participants in this study had limited knowledge pertaining to multiculturalism in their science classrooms. To these participants, Prejudice Reduction and Equity Pedagogy were the only two dimensions that were important when teaching science content.

Exploring Native American Students’ Perceptions of Scientists

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore Native American (NA) students’ perceptions of scientists by using the Draw-A-Scientist Test and to determine if differences in these perceptions exist between grade level, gender, and level of cultural tradition. Data were collected for students in Grades 9–12 within a NA grant off-reservation boarding school. A total of 133 NA students were asked to draw a picture of a scientist at work and to provide a written explanation as to what the scientist was doing. A content analysis of the drawings indicated that the level of stereotype differed between all NA subgroups, but analysis of variance revealed that these differences were not significant between groups except for students who practised native cultural tradition at home compared to students who did not practise native cultural tradition at home (p < 0.05). The results suggest that NA students who practise cultural traditions at home are more able to function fluidly between indigenous knowledge and modern western science than their non-practising counterparts. Overall, these NA students do not see themselves as scientists, which may influence their educational and career science, technology, engineering, and mathematics paths in the future. The educational implication is that once initial perceptions are identified, researchers and teachers can provide meaningful experiences to combat the stereotypes.

Techno-Science and the State in the Japanese Empire: Yang Daqing, Technology of Empire Janis Mimura, Planning for Empire

Techno-Science and the State in the Japanese EmpireYang Daqing, Technology of Empire Janis Mimura, Planning for Empire Togo Tsukahara (bio) It is a pleasant surprise to find two serious English-language scholarly works on Japan’s period of empire-building and the Japanese state’s use, appropriation, and management of technology. Together, these works suggest that the Japanese attempt at expansion and empire-building in the twentieth century and the conceptualization of its claim to the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” should be characterized by its application of techno-science and not simply attributed to nationalism and fascism. The Japanese political management of a combined science and technology was in many senses remarkable, and it holds great interest as the first non-Western case of the appropriation and globalization of modern Western science and technology. Yet it has been underexamined; except for a few English-language works, such as Mizuno Hiromi’s Science for the Empire: Scientific Nationalism in Modern Japan (2009), most studies of techno-science and empire in Japan have been limited to Japanese academia or to Chinese, mainly from Liang Bo and his group. Yang Daqing’s Technology of Empire: Telecommunications and Japanese Expansion in Asia, 1883–1945 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard East Asian Monograph 219, 2011. Pp. 468. $49.95) is a straightforward history of telecommunications in Japan: well-documented, descriptive, and thorough. This is an impressive work, starting from Japan’s first contact with Western communications technology on the occasion of its forced encounter with American gunboat diplomacy, and ending with [End Page 461] Hirohito’s radio broadcast. Those points are marked to signify the beginning and the end of a distinctive period in Japanese telecommunications, both coerced by the Americans. Chronologically ordered and encyclopedic, this book surely will be a standard in the field. One should note, however, that the subtitle is somewhat misleading. This is not really a book covering Japanese imperialism and communications from 1883 onward; it is much more concentrated on 1930–45, with the earlier story being more of a backdrop. Part 1 discusses the “Genesis” of Japanese telecommunications in the period 1853–1931, when Japan was an emerging empire in the age of submarine telegraphy; it also covers the subsequent technology of wireless. The author pays attention to Japan’s so-called informal empire, the building of its telecommunications network, and that network’s function as a tool of control. Part 2 deals with “Technology,” covering the period after Japan’s commitment to China in the period between 1931 and 1940. Yang states that telecommunications were oriented toward a new order on the continent, and he analyzes new Japanese communication technologies in connection to the way Japanese bureaucrats and engineers envisioned imperial integration. Part 3 discusses “Control” in the more intensified war effort, during 1936 to 1945. How did Japan negotiate and establish control at home, and consolidate media and telecommunications control in China? It also further describes how Japan gained control in Southeast Asia. Finally, part 4 explains the final stage of Japan’s telecommunications from the viewpoint of “Network” in 1939–45: how systematic integration into the disastrous total war was organized and disrupted, up to its final operation and meltdown. In this part, the aftermath of the whole story is briefly discussed. This is the first full-scale book on this topic in English, but it is not clear what is new to Japanese and Chinese historians of technology already familiar with this history. In part, this is because it is much more descriptive than theoretical. I understand that the author needed to explain what is what to English readers, but I, for one, would have liked to see a sharper theoretical edge. The descriptive approach, however, surely has laid a firm foundation for further analysis. There is also an editorial issue of some significance: there are too many mistakes in Japanese. To name just a few notable ones in the earliest part: Hirohito’s radio broadcasting of Japan’s defeat is “Gyoku On Hoso,” not “Gyo’on Hoso” (p. 2), and the standard resource work edited by the Japanese Society of History of Science is Nihon Kagaku Gijutsu Shi...

Otras prácticas de crianza en algunas culturas étnicas de Colombia: un diálogo intercultural

En el presente artículo se opta por construir una ruta descriptiva de análisis que permitiera poner en consideración el concepto de “Pautas de Crianza” y su contenido, puesto que para hablar de prácticas de crianza alternas, es decir, de los grupos indígenas y afro, es preciso aclarar que en aras del eurocentrismo se han privilegiado los saberes de la ciencia occidental moderna y se han excluido los saberes creados y reproducidos en el interior de los grupos étnicos mencionados, olvidando que también forman parte del dogma de los saberes válidos. Por lo tanto, para comprender la riqueza de otras formas de conocimiento y/o hacer una decolonialidad del saber, es necesario conocer y respetar las cosmovisiones de las voces acalladas, ya que sus discursos han sido subalternizados y/o mediatizados por otros sin permitirles darlos a conocer desde su propia voz, desde sus lugares epistémicos, éticos y políticos. Entonces, la idea es complementar la episteme occidental con otras epistemes.

Moving Beyond Widdowson and Howard

Traditional Indigenous knowledge is increasingly recognised and incorporated both in and beyond the university. In Canada's Northwest Territories, this recognition has been manifest as policy mandating that scientists incorporate the knowledge of elders and hunters into their environmental and climate change research. However, the recognition of traditional knowledge has not always been met with acceptance and understanding. This article analyses the book Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry by Francis Widdowson and Albert Howard (2008), which is highly critical of traditional knowledge. Widdowson and Howard advocate for cultural assimilation by arguing that traditional knowledge is incompatible with, and inferior to, modern Western science. In their line of reasoning, the current application of traditional knowledge transplants ‗neolithic‘ culture into modernity and stunts the ability of Aboriginal peoples to participate in modern Canadian (and dominant Western) culture. While other critics argue against the racialised and inflammatory discourse, I try to salvage insight from the authors' misunderstandings; Widdowson and Howard's failed grasp on traditional knowledge actually illuminates a fundamental problem. The problem is not in meshing Indigenous and scientific knowledge; rather, the problem is in bridging the gap between Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing. I engage the work of A. Irving Halowell, Tim Ingold and scholars of Dene knowledge and traditional lifeways to discuss how Indigenous religion and worldview create a unique approach to knowledge.

Correlations Between Indigenous Brazilian Folk Classifications of Fungi and Their Systematics

Abstract Folk classification is largely based on a long history of observing and harvesting living organisms. Although epistemologically undervalued by Western modern science, the study of ethnomycological classifications by indigenous populations has recently received increased attention. The classification criteria for fungi of several Brazilian indigenous groups, including the Caiabi, Txicao, Txucarramae, Tupi-Guarani, and Yanomami, are similar to those used in classical, morphology-based taxonomy. The Yanomami, due to their long history of mycophilic behavior, show impressive knowledge of fungal classification similar in some cases to the recently proposed phylogenetic classification. This suggests that indigenous traditional knowledge may be helpful in the development of fungal systematics, reinforcing the epistemological validity of these distinct forms of knowledge of the natural world.

Horton Revisited: African Traditional Thought and Western Science

Over the years Robin Horton has argued for what he refers to as the ‘continuity thesis’ according to which there are theoretical similarities between African traditional thought and modern Western science. Horton’s thesis stands in contrast to the standard Western anthropological appraisal of traditional African thought. The standard appraisal (Levy-Bruhl, Durkheim, Evans-Pritchard, et al.) statedthat the two modes of thought were incommensurate. I argue that while the continuity thesis holds for certain aspects of African thought – empirical, protoscientific and metaphysical – it does not apply to traditional African religious expression. My thesis here is that belief systems founded on magic, religion and their combinations should be understood as belonging to what might be referred to as general metaphysics. I argue too that if the continuity thesis is to apply tothe history of thought in Africa then the more apt comparison should be between the different phases of technological and scientific thought of the West. Thus Horton’s claim that traditional African religious thought is configured according to the goals of explanation, prediction and control thereby putting it on the same epistemic plane as modern Western science is thereby rendered irrelevant. On the other hand the goal of traditional African religion like that of many other religious traditions – including those of the West – has principally been to seeka conscious communion with ancestors and anthropomorphised godheads and spiritual entities of the metaphysical realm.