A Complex Polity, Generations, Initiation, and Territory, among The Old Meru Of Kenya
EAN13
9782493207067
Éditeur
Africae
Date de publication
Collection
Africae Monographs
Langue
anglais
Fiches UNIMARC
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A Complex Polity

Generations, Initiation, and Territory, among The Old Meru Of Kenya

Africae

Africae Monographs

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    15.99
Weaving together ethnography and history, this book offers an in-depth
analysis of the pre-colonial polity of the Meru of Kenya and its radical
transformations from 1908 through the 1950s. It addresses the manifold issues
of initiation and the politics of belonging, unravels the intertwined life
courses of men and women, and disentangles the web of family life and the
handover of power across political generations. Restoring two well-known
instances of Meru politics to their rightful place―the enigmatic mûgwe and the
famous njûûri ncheke-the book also offers a fresh reading of the controversial
story of Mbwaa. It sheds light on the crisis of the 1930s affecting male and
female initiations, and establishes a link with the demographic
transformations and the radical shift that occurred during the 1950s. A
Complex Polity renews the issue of the historicity of political generation-set
systems in Meru, as well as elsewhere in Kenya and eastern Africa. More
broadly, the work aims to promote comparative anthropology to enhance
knowledge of African pre-colonial democracies and polities, and a deeper
understanding of social and cultural change in the longue durée, linking
precolonial and postcolonial Africa. “Peatrik’s book is not a simple
ethnographic monograph, it is an innovative analysis on the topic of age
grades... Her study lies, in its own right, among the classics of ethnology
and among the most original and comprehensive works on this subject. It is
recommended not only to the africanists and the anthropologists, but also to
those who are interested in studying social and political systems.” Bernardo
Bernardi, author of The Mugwe, a Failing Prophet, and of Age Class Systems.
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