Santa Fe, 2003.

Ivan Karp founded the African Systems of Thought book series at Indiana University Press in the late 1970s and served as the series editor for more than 20 years. This leading book series in African Studies explores the diversity of approaches to the analysis of systems of thought found in African societies and provides a forum for the presentation of research documenting such systems. The series is multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural in scope and has included contributions from anthropology, history, literature, folklore, philosophy, and comparative religions. The series has published work by leading scholars and books that have become classics. A particular concern of the series has been to present African systems of thought in dynamic perspective and to combat the image of belief systems in Africa as static and unchanging. A second goal of the series has been to publish works of methodological interest that modify existing approaches and works that have been landmarks of analysis published in another language.  

Series Volumes:

 1. Explorations in African Systems of Thought. Edited by Ivan Karp and Charles S. Bird, 1980.

 2. A State in the Making. Roy Willis, 1981.

 3. Chiefship and Cosmology. Randall Packard, 1981.

 4. The Drunken King or The Origin of the State. Luc de Heusch,1982.

 5. Allegories of the Wilderness: Ethics and Ambiguity in Kuranko Folklore. Michael Jackson, 1982.

 6. Modern Kongo Prophets. Wyatt MacGaffey, 1983.

 7. On African Philosophy. Paulin Hontoundji, 1983. Joint publication with Hutchinson and Co., London.

 8. Sacrifice in Africa. Luc de Heusch, 1985.

 9. The Moral Imagination in Kaguru Modes of Thought. T.O. Beidelman, 1986.

10. The Invention of Africa. V.Y. Mudimbe, 1988. 

11. Gender and Social Structure in Madagascar. Richard Huntington, 1988.

12. Africa's Ogun: Old World and New. Edited by Sandra Barnes, 1989.

13. Paths Towards a Clearing:  Radical Empiricism and Ethnographical Inquiry. Michael Jackson, 1989.

14. African Divination Systems: Ways of Knowing. Phillip Peek, ed. 1990.

15. Under the Kapok Tree: Identity and Difference in Beng Thought. Alma Gottlieb, 1992.

16. Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency. Margaret Thompson Drewal, 1992.

17. Iron, Gender and Power: Rituals of Transformation in African Societies.  Eugenia W. Herbert, 1993.

18. African Philosophy in Search of Identity. Dismas A. Masolo, 1994.

19. The Idea of Africa. V. Y. Mudimbe, 1994.

20. Status and Identity in West Africa. Edited by Barbara Frank and David Conrad, 1995.

21. Speaking for the Chief. Kwesi Yankah, 1995.

22. African Material Culture. Edited By Mary Jo Arnoldi, Christraud M. Geary, and Kris L. Hardin, 1996.

23. Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective. Kwasi Wiredu, 1997.

24. Africa's Ogun, 2nd ed. Edited by Sandra Barnes, 1997.

25. African Philosophy as Cultural Inquiry. Edited by Ivan Karp and D. A. Masolo, 2000.

26. Religious Encounters and the Making of the Yoruba. J.D.Y. Peel, 2003

27. African Words, African Voices. Edited by David William Cohen, Stephan Miescher, and Luise White, 2001.

28. Apartheid’s Festival: Contesting South Africa’s National Pasts. Leslie Witz, 2003.

29.  Reasonable Radicals and Citizenship in Botswana: The Public Anthropology of Kalanga Elites. Richard Werbner, 2004.

30. Debility and Moral Imagination in Botswana: Disability, Chronic Illness and Aging. Julie Livingston, 2005.

31. Evangelical Christians in the Muslim Sahel. Barbara Cooper, 2006.

32. Youth, Nationalism, and the Guinean Revolution. Jay Straker, 2009.

33. Beer, Sociability, and Masculinity in South Africa. Anne Kelk Mager, 2010.

34. The Culture of Colonialism: The Cultural Subjection of Ukaguru. T. O. Beidelman, 2012.