About Sabine Jell-Bahlsen

Sabine Jell-Bahlsen
Cultural Anthropologist
Ethnographic Film Maker
Writer & Editor
E-mail: SabineJB@aol.com

I study African Cultures focusing on the Igbo of South Eastern Nigeria. My ethnography is based on long-term field research since 1978, expanded and updated ever since. My publications include a book on Mammy Water in Igbo Culture (Enugu 2014), The Water Goddess in Igbo Cosmology (2008) http://www.africaworldpressbooks.com numerous articles in anthologies and refereed journals, and documentary films, among them Mammy Water (1989), Owu (1991) and Tubali (1994) www.der.org I hold an MA in ethnology from Free University, Berlin, Germany, a Ph. D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research, New York, NY (1980), have taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, Papua New Guinea University of Technology and Ball State University, curated exhibitions of Papuan Artifacts in Germany, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, Dialectical Anthropology (2003-2008). My current research centers on nature and spirituality, and on socio-cultural transformations and their artistic expressions, such as in architecture, landscape and masquerade performances.