Globalization and the Cultural Effects of the World Economy in a Semiperiphery: The Emergence of African Indigenous Churches in South Africa

Abstract

Applied to religious phenomena, globalization theories which explain the emergence of an interdependent world-system provide the largest possible macro-framework against which to view both societal and individual interactions. While both individual decisions and national forces are important and legitimate concerns, consideration of how these relate to globalization present an important additional analytical level which should not be ignored. Such macro-structural explanations are usually neglected in accounts of the rise of African Indigenous Churches (AlCs), due to an affinity among AIC specialists for a focus on micro-variables. Where macro-variables are incorporated in analyses (e.g. Barrett 1968, Dancel 1987), these tend to focus on the effects of colonialism within the national sphere.