非洲民族現象因其獨特性、復雜性和變化性,長久以來吸引著國際學術界的目光——非洲是人類學最重要的田野調查區域之一,生產出眾多經典的非洲民族志,非洲民族關系則成為人類學、民族學、政治學等多學科展開理論闡釋的熱點。自20世紀八九十年代以來,非洲民族研究領域出現了兩種不同趨向的方法論探索:一種是宏觀層面拓展,在以往宏觀歷史研究的基礎上,進一步疊加了社會分層的立體結構視角,并運用大數據進行國別(或地區)的分類比較與量化檢驗;另一種是微觀層面探索,表現為傳統民族志研究方法向精細化發展,在"歷史維度""比較維度"和"觀察細度"等方面進行了拓展。本文聚焦近年來非洲民族研究領域的上述重要變化,擬透過代表性案例分析,梳理和闡釋宏觀與微觀層面方法論的精進及其所促動的理論成長,包括關于歐洲殖民遺產影響當前非洲民族關系的認識如何走向具體與深化,對"共生論""沖突論"等非洲民族與文化研究中的主流觀點進行反思與修正等。文章并且認為,在當前中非關系全面快速發展的新形勢下,非洲民族研究需要積極探索"宏觀結構+量化分析"和"廣域深景"民族志等新研究范式,打造更為精準的"工具庫",以有效提升非洲民族研究的廣度、深度與精度,夯實中非民族文化交流互鑒的基礎,從而為構建中非命運共同體貢獻學科力量。

Ethnicity in Africa has long attracted the attention of the international academia for its uniqueness, complexity and variability. As one of the most important fieldwork areas of anthropology, Africa has produced much classical African ethnography, while theoretical interpretation of ethnic relations in Africa has become a hot topic in many disciplines, such as anthropology, ethnology and political science. Since the 1980 s and the 1990 s, there have been two opposing tendencies of methodological advance in the field of African ethnicity studies: one is at the macro level, exploring further into the multi-dimensional structure of social stratification on the basis of previous macro-historical studies, as well as comparing and quantifying the classification of countries(or regions) by applying big data; and the other is at the micro level, digging deeper into the traditional ethnographic research methodology, and expanding the dimensions of history and comparison as well as the acuteness of observation. This paper focuses on these important changes in the field of African ethnicity studies in recent years. By analyzing representative cases, the paper intends to categorize and explain the development of methodologies and theories promoted by these methodological advances at the macro and micro levels. The study covers the gradual process of the concretion and deepening of the European colonial heritage’s impact on current ethnic relations in Africa, as well as a reflection and criticism of the mainstream research viewpoints on African nations and cultures, such as "symbiosis theory" and "conflict theory". This paper argues that, under the new circumstance of rapid and comprehensive development of the China-Africa relationship, it is necessary for scholars engaging in African ethnicity studies to explore new research paradigms like "macro-structure plus quantitative analysis" and "wide-angle and in-depth survey", so as to obtain more accurate research tools for effectively enhancing the breadth, depth and accuracy of African ethnicity studies, consolidating the basis for mutual cultural exchanges between China and Africa, and making theoretical contributions to the building of a China-Africa community with a shared future.