Description |
1 online resource |
Series |
Methodology and history in anthropology ; volume 35 |
|
Methodology and history in anthropology ; v. 35.
|
Contents |
Part I: Divinatory societies -- The forest within -- Beyond Turner's watershed division -- Part II: Medicinal rule -- A Sukuma chief on medicine -- Endogenizing Vansina's equatorial tradition -- From cult to dynasty: Nilotic and Niger-Congo extensions -- Magic and the sole mode of production -- Tio shrines of the forest master -- Part III: The ceremonial state -- Kuba, Kongo and Buganda 'miracles': reversions in transition -- From divinatory to ceremonial state: narrative proof from Rwanda -- Conclusions: Reversible transitions |
Summary |
As soon as Europeans set foot on African soil, they looked for the equivalents of their kings - and found them. The resulting misunderstandings last until this day. Based on ethnography-driven regional comparison and a critical re-examination of classic monographs on some forty cultural groups, this volume makes the arresting claim that across equatorial Africa the model of rule has been medicine - and not the colonizer's despotic administrator, the missionary's divine king, or Vansina's big man. In a wide area populated by speakers of Bantu and other languages of the Niger-Congo cluster, both cult and dynastic clan draw on the fertility shrine, rainmaking charm and drum they inherit |
Analysis |
Kingship, Rulership, African History, East Africa, Central Africa |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
Notes |
Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on October 24, 2018) |
Subject |
Chiefdoms -- Africa, Central
|
|
Traditional medicine -- Africa, Central
|
|
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural
|
|
Chiefdoms
|
|
Kings and rulers
|
|
Politics and government
|
|
Traditional medicine
|
SUBJECT |
Africa, Central -- Politics and government. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001587
|
|
Africa, Central -- Kings and rulers
|
Subject |
Central Africa
|
Form |
Electronic book
|
LC no. |
2018023456 |
ISBN |
9781785339851 |
|
1785339850 |
|