Description
Book SynopsisAge-systems as political instruments.
Trade ReviewThe volume contributes to our understanding of the formal genius of age systems ... - -- John G. Galaty * in JRAI *
...East Africa is the single most important area of the world in which age-systems survive, ...This welcome volume is a substantial contribution to our knowledge of age-systems. - -- P.T.W. Baxter * SOAS BULLETIN *
If previously anthropologists had focused on a particular society and had suggested that age-systems were autonomous structures of control and sociability this volume considers age-systems as political means for competitions, violence and trans-national association transcending the isolation of social ritual, though using ritual as a political model of competition. ...an interesting and highly significant volume, particularly within the ongoing discussions of ethnicity, identity and globalisation. It provides a new theoretical framework for East African ethnography and a challenge for anthropologists of politics, religion and nationalism. - -- Mario I. Aguilar * CAMBRIDGE ANTHROPOLOGY *
Table of ContentsConflict, age and power in North East African age systems, Simon Simonse and Eisei Kurimoto; resonance of age systems in southeastern Sudan, Eisei Kurimoto; age, conflict and power in the monyomiji age systems, Simon Simonse; "brothers in arms" - military aspects of East African age-class systems in historical perspective, John Lamphear; generational systems on the threshold of the third millennium - an anthropological perspective, Serge Tornay; Gaga systems on the meta-ethical level - Gabbra/Boran/Garre interactions in the Kenyan-Ethiopian borderland, Gunther Schlee; women's age categories in a male-dominated society - the case of the Chamus of Kenya, Kaori Kawai; age systems and modes of predatory expansion, Paul Spencer; peacemakers, prophets, chiefs and warriors - age-set antagonism as a factor of political change among the Kipsigis of Kenya, Toru Komma; Rendille age system as an instrument of clan coherence and subsistence security, Shun Sato; two extinct age systems among the Iteso, Nobuhiro Nagashima.
