Savage Systems examines the emergence of the concepts of "religion" and "religions" on colonial frontiers. The book offers a detailed analysis of the ways in which European travelers, missionaries, settlers, and government agents, as well as indigenous Africans, engaged in the comparison of alternative religious ways of life as one dimension of intercultural contact. Focusing primarily on nineteenth-century frontier relations, David Chidester demonstrates that the terms and conditions for comparison - including a discourse about "otherness" - that were established during this period still remain.
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