Two decades later, the conceptual problems of the term “agency” identified by Walter Johnson remain largely unresolved, in particular the analytic inhibitions that follow from what the historian Lynn Thomas has described as agency-as-argument. Taking the case of the colonial Zimbabwean chief Munhuwepayi Mangwende as a reference point, this essay argues that the microhistorical tracing of agency as meaning rather than causality is what may permit us to move past the “safe harbor” of agency-as-argument and begin to understand the full range of what people have chosen to do in the past—and to interact more effectively with what they might yet choose to do in the present.

中文翻译：

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代理的意义，意义的代理：论综合与纠缠


二十年后，沃尔特·约翰逊提出的“能动性”一词的概念问题在很大程度上仍未得到解决，特别是历史学家林恩·托马斯所描述的“能动性作为论证”所产生的分析抑制。本文以津巴布韦殖民地酋长 Munhuwepayi Mangwende 的案例为参考点，认为将代理作为意义而不是因果关系进行微观历史追踪，可能会让我们超越代理作为论证的“安全港”，并开始全面了解人们过去选择做的事情，并与他们现在可能选择做的事情进行更有效的互动。