ABSTRACT

This book is an original, systematic, and radical attempt at decolonizing critical theory. Drawing on linguistic concepts from 16 languages from Asia, Africa, the Arab world, and South America, the essays in the volume explore the entailments of words while discussing their conceptual implications for the humanities and the social sciences everywhere. The essays engage in the work of thinking through words to generate a conceptual vocabulary that will allow for a global conversation on social theory which will be necessarily multilingual.

With essays by scholars, across generations, and from a variety of disciplines – history, anthropology, and philosophy to literature and political theory – this book will be essential reading for scholars, researchers, and students of critical theory and the social sciences.

chapter 1|30 pages

Changing Theory

Thinking Concepts from the Global South

part I|34 pages

Relation

chapter 2|18 pages

Ubuntu/Guanxi

chapter 3|14 pages

Tarbiyya

part II|44 pages

Commensuration

chapter 4|13 pages

Logic

chapter 5|14 pages

Anda¯ j

chapter 6|15 pages

Izithunguthu

part III|58 pages

The Political

chapter 7|16 pages

Eddembe

chapter 8|15 pages

Minzu

chapter 9|9 pages

Kavi

chapter 10|16 pages

Rajo gun· a

part IV|50 pages

The Social

chapter 11|12 pages

Asabiyya

chapter 12|16 pages

Dadani

chapter 13|20 pages

Marumakkatta¯ yam

part V|42 pages

Words in Motion

chapter 14|15 pages

Rantau

chapter 15|13 pages

Musāfir

chapter 16|12 pages

Feitiço/Umbanda

part VI|30 pages

Rooted Words

chapter 17|11 pages

Nongqayi/Nongqai 1

chapter 18|17 pages

Naam

part VII|34 pages

Indeterminacy

chapter 19|15 pages

Pajubá

chapter 20|17 pages

Ardhana¯ riswara

part VIII|14 pages

Insurrection

chapter 21|12 pages

Awqa¯ t/Auka¯ t