Transcontinentality versus Afrocentricity

Abstract

Wim M. J. van Binsbergen’s work, Before the Presocratics (2012), presents a kaleidoscopic assessment of regional and global epistemic traditions and configurations before the advent of ancient Greek thought (see also 2011a–d; 2012b–f;2013). He is concerned about interrogating worlds that relate to Afrocentricity, employing an impressive assemblage of specialties, namely, protohistory, archaeology, comparative ethnography, comparative mythology, comparative linguisticsand genetics. His central thesis is that rather than viewing different regional epistemic formations as singular and distinct,it is more appropriate to understand them as being part of a global and historical continuum of knowledge traditionsthat are perpetually subject to migration and transformation – in short, all the elements of transplantation and dispersal. In this light, the strict separation between regional and ethnic knowledge becomesmisguided and often preposterous.