AFRICAN SOCIETIES SE512
1998-99
Michaelmas and Lent Terms
Course Convenor: |
Room: Eliot Extension L31 |
Dr David Zeitlyn |
Email d.zeitlyn@ukc.ac.ukTelephone extension: 3360 |
Other Teachers: |
Room: Eliot Extension L41 |
Dr. N I Lovell |
Email n.i.lovell@ukc.ac.uk Telephone extension: 7845 |
Number Registered for Course : max 40
Email list for Course : af-anth@ukc.ac.uk
Assessment Procedure : You will be assessed by a combination of two essays, a bibliography on one of the topics covered and contributions to the course email list. At the end, a three hour examination is held. Essays etc contribute 10% of all marks, the examination 90%. You must make at least four contributions to the email list which include at least two article summaries (but not including essays and the bibliography which should not be sent to the list).
Assignment Requirements : Essays need to be of at least 2000 words, not more than 3000 in length and must be typed .
first essay on 18 December 1998 by 3.00 p.m.
bibliography on 19 February 1999 by 3.00 p.m.
second essay on 26 March 1999 by 3.00 p.m.
Sanctions and Exemptions : If any coursework is late, it will not be marked unless medical or other evidence is provided, as for examinations.
Please Note : Seminars are compulsory.
Note on the bibliography
The biblography should be a 3-4 page document that lists (using standard formatting conventions, for example, as used in this docuement) some of the material available to read on a particular subject. Beside each entry you should note the means you used to find the reference. A list of short abbreviations used should be given. For example you may have
Zeitlyn, D. 1993. Names for things or ideas? Mambila masks, museums, CmedicinesD and the meaning of Sùàgà Paper presented at: 8African Studies Association Conference9. Boston. Source: printed biblio from Zeitlyn 1994
Zeitlyn, D. 1994. Sua in Somié. Mambila Traditional Religion Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag. Source: BIDS-IBSS
The intention is that you undertake some 8library9 research finding out what material is available (using standard and/or electronic sources). This can provide the basis for your reading for your second essay, but there9s no problem if you want to write about a different topic.
Note on the email list: To subscribe you must send an email to the following address
list-manager@ukc.ac.uk
containing the message
subscribe af-anth
You will then receive an automatic message to which you must reply in order to confirm your subscription.
To send messages to the list, once you have subscribed, send them to af-anth@ukc.ac.uk - they will be automatically sent to all subscribers.
The article summary or reviews (at least two) need be no more than 200 words and should be a short summary of the basic argument in the article. Other contributions can be comments on books read or reflections on topics under discussion - for others on the list to respond to.
The culture of the peoples of Mediterranean Africa, the Sahara, the Ethiopian Highlands and the Horn of Africa differs markedly from that of the peoples further south. In this course the emphasis is on that southern area, the Sub-Saharan African Major Cultural Region, to give it a formal label. The aim throughout is to improve your detailed knowledge of the societies of this major region during the period since c1890, and to sharpen your judgement of how these societies differ from each other, and from European societies of the same period. Particularly important is the need to focus on the images of 'Africa' which people in Britain have, and to test these against the evidence available on this course. For instance, some people in Britain see Sub-Saharan Africa as covered with wet equatorial forest (which they call 'jungle'), Most of it is not!
There is no textbook fully suitable to the course, and the lectures are designed to provide a framework, and also a commentary on the more important features. However, it is possible to provide a list of books for background reading, covering all the major region or parts of it:-
Allen, Chris and Gavin Williams (eds.), 'Sociology of "Developing Countries"' in Subsaharan Africa, Macmillan.
Birmingham, D. 1995. The decolonisation of Africa London: UCL Press.
Birmingham, D., & Martin, P. M. (eds.) 1983. History of Central Africa. 2 vols. London: Longmans.
Fage, J.D., A History of Africa, Hutchinson.
Davidson, B. 1992. The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State London: James Curry.
Iliffe, John, The Emergence of African Capitalism (Anstey Memorial Lectures, 1982), Macmillan.
Mair, Lucy, African Kingdoms, Oxford.
Mair, Lucy, African Societies, Cambridge.
Mair, Lucy, Primitive Government, Scolar.
Rodney, Walter, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, East Africa Publishing House.
The essays themselves, should follow four key rules:-
1. Answer the question;
2. Have a definite 'shape', with beginning, middle and conclusion;
3. Sustain a continuous argument throughout (most writers fall down on rule 3);
4. Use examples.
Essays, and examinations, are marked in terms of these four rules, and in terms of the sensitivity which you show to contradictions between different interpretations of the same evidence. For example, the claim 'States are bad for people because they cause oppression, manipulation and persecution' contradicts, or, appears to contradict, 'States are good for people because they inhibit lawlessness and enforce co-operation'. What is that contradiction about?
At the end of essays indicate which books, articles or other sources you have used, and, where there is controversy, or possible controversy, use footnotes to indicate sources. Leave a wide margin on the left, to aid in marking. As noted on the first page, essays need to be at least 2000 words long. You must write two essays, you may write more, if you want to do so. Essay titles and reading for them, and for each week's seminar, are indicated under the topic headings.
You may like to read what is happening south of the Sahara while this course is going on. A useful source is The Economist or Focus on Africa (per DT 1.F6). You should, however, note that for The Economist , and all British journalists, Africa is a Cinderella area, and does not receive the refined attention devoted to Europe and the United States.
African societies become less baffling when you know some of the peoples in detail. It is worth choosing three peoples, and absorbing each of them thoroughly. There is plenty of choice, but three accessible sources are :
1. Eades, J.S., The Yoruba Today NB an electronic verion of this is available: http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/YorubaT/yt.html
2. Heald, S. 1989. Controlling anger : the sociology of Gisu violence (International African library ; 6). Manchester: Manchester University Press for the International African Institute.
3. Leakey, L.S.B., The Southern Kikuyu Before 1903 (This is in three volumes. You may like to concentrate on one)
4. Bowen, E.S. 1956. Return to Laughter . London: Readers Union.
5. Caplan, P. 1997. African Voices, African Lives. Personal narratives from a Swahili village . London: Routledge.
LECTURES AND READING LIST
Climate and vegetation. Types of subsistence activity and their distribution. Population distribution. Main linguistic and cultural boundaries.
Reading
Fage, J.D., A History of Africa, chapter 1.
Forde, D., "The cultural map of West Africa" (photocopy in Short Loan).
Hopkins, A., An Economic History of West Africa, chapter 1.
Mabogunje, A.L., "The land and peoples of West Africa" in J.F.A. Ajayi and M. Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, vol.1.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. What general relationships (if any) are there between the physical habitat and African social and cultural patterns?
2. If you had to devise a course on African societies, what kinds of political or cultural units would you focus on, and what problems might arise in defining them?
States and stateless societies. Definitional problems. Bands, segmentary lineages and age-sets. Social order and dispute settlement.
Fortes, M., and E.E. Evans-Pritchard, "Introduction" in Fortes and Evans-Pritchard (eds.), African Political Systems.
Horton, R., "Stateless societies in the history of West Africa" in J.F.A. Ajayi and M. Crowder (eds.), A History of West Africa, vol.1.
Mair, Lucy, Primitive Government, part 1, chapters 1-4.
Obayemi, A., "The Yoruba and Edo-speaking peoples and their neighbours before 1600" in Ajayi and Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, vol.1 (2nd edition only).
Shorter, A., East African Societies, chapter 4.
Anigbo, O.A.C. 8Commensality as Cultural Performance: the struggle for leadership in an Igbo Village9, in The Politics of Cultural Performance , edited by David Parkin, Lionel Caplan and Humphrey Fisher, 101-14. (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1996).
Stevenson, Robert F., Populations and Political Systems in Tropical Africa.
Bohannan, Paul, "Political aspects of Tiv social organisation" in J. Middleton and D. Tait (eds.), Tribes Without Rulers.
Fortes, M., "The political system of the Tallensi" in M. Fortes and E.E. Evans-Pritchard (eds.), African Political Systems.
Gibbs, J.L. (ed.), Peoples of Africa, chapters on Igbo, Fulani, Tiv.
Mair, Lucy, African Societies, chapters 3, 10, 11, 16.
Gibbs, J.L. (ed.), Peoples of Africa, chapters on Jie, Somali, Bantu Tiriki.
Gulliver, P., Social Control in an African Society.
1. What do stateless African societies reveal about anthropological concepts of power?
2. How useful or rigid is the distinction between stateless and centralised societies in the African context?
Foraging techniques. Social structure of hunting and gathering bands. Foraging and the environment. Relations with outsiders. Sedentarisation.
Barnard, A. "Kalahari Bushmen settlement patterns" in P. Burnham and R.F. Ellen (eds.), Social and Ecological Systems.
Lee, Richard B., "!Kung Bushman subsistence" in A. Vayda (ed.), Environment and Cultural Behaviour.
Lee, Richard B., "The !Kung Bushmen of Botswana" in M.G. Bicchieri (ed.), Hunters and Gatherers Today.
Lee, R.B. and I. De Vore (eds.), Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers.
Marshall, Lorna, The !Kung of Nyae Nyae.
Marshall, L. "The !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari" in J.L. Gibbs (ed.), Peoples of Africa.
Shostak, M. 1981. Nisa. The life and Words of a !Kung Woman . Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Katz, R. 1982. Boiling energy : community healing among the Kalahari Kung . Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press.
Woodburn, J., "An introduction to Hadza ecology" in Lee, R.B. and De Vore (eds.), Man the Hunter.
Woodburn, J., "Residential stability" in Lee and De Vore (eds.) op.cit.
Woodburn, James. "Egalitarian societies", Man (N.S.) 17 (1982), 431-51.
Turnbull, Colin, "The Mbuti pigmies of the Ituri forest" in J.L. Gibbs (ed.), Peoples of Africa.
Turnbull, C., The Forest People.
Turnbull, C., Wayward Servants.
1. What relationship is there between mode of subsistence and social structure among African hunters and gatherers?
2. How well have hunters and gatherers fared in their relations with more complex societies around them?
3. Is equality a bequest or an achievement?
Pastoral techniques. Social structure of pastoralism: lineages and age-sets. pastoralism and the environment. Pastoralism and the market economy. Prospects for pastoralists: alternatives?
Dyson-Hudson, N., "Subsistence herding in Uganda" (photocopy in Short Loan).
Monod, T. (ed.), Pastoralism in Tropical Africa, "Introduction" and papers by Baxter, Gulliver and Lewis.
Swift, J., "Sahelian pastoralists: underdevelopment, desertification and famine", Annual Review of Anthropology, 6, 1977, 457-78.
Frantz, C., "The open niche, pastoralism and sedentarization in the Mambila grasslands of Nigeria" in P. Salzman (ed.), When Nomads Settle.
Gibbs, J.L. (ed.), Peoples of Africa, Chapters on Jie, Karimojong, Somali, Fulani.
Gulliver, P., The Family Herds.
Mair, Lucy, African Societies, chapter 3.
Monod, T. (ed.), Pastoralism in Tropical Africa, select from papers by Baker, Frantz, Horowitz, Jacobs, Swift.
Spencer, P. 1965. The Samburu, a study of gerontocracy in a nomadic tribe . London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Spencer, P. 1988. The Maasai of Matapato, a study of rituals of rebellion . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Stenning, Derrick J. Savannah Nomads. A study of the Wodaabe Pastoral Fulani of Western Bornu Province, Northern Region, Nigeria . (London: O.U.P., 1959).
Riesman, Paul, Freedom in Fulani Social Life.
1. In what ways is the social organisation of African pastoralists adapted to their mode of subsistence?
2. What evidence is there that African pastoralists are gradually going out of business, and what alternative economic opportunities are open to them?
Definitional problems. Kingship: checks and balances. Centralisation and bureaucratisation. Military technology and state development.
Lloyd, P.C., "The political structure of African kingdoms" in M. Banton (ed.), Political Systems and the Distribution of Power.
Mair, Lucy, African Kingdoms.
Goody, J., Technology, Tradition and the State in Africa.
Law, R., "Oyo: a West African cavalry state" in Journal of African History, 1975.
MacGaffey, W. 1970. The Religious Commissions of the Bakongo. Man (n.s.) 5.1, 27-38.
Morton-Williams, P. 1960. The Yoruba Ogboni cult in Oyo. Africa 30, 362-374.
Smaldone, J., Warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate.
Wilks, I., "Ashanti in the 19th century" in D. Forde and P. Kaberry (eds.), West African Kingdoms in the 19th Century.
Wilks, I., "Land, labour, capital and the forest kingdom of Asante" in J. Friedman and M. Rowlands (eds.), The Evolution of Social Systems.
Gibbs, J.L. (ed.), Peoples of Africa, chapter on Ganda, Rwanda.
Mair, Lucy, African Societies, chapters 12-14.
Mair, Lucy, Primitive Government, part II, chapters 5-10.
Shorter, A., East African Societies, chapter 5.
1. Assess the impact of either trade or military technology on state formation in Africa.
2. What strategies did African rulers use to concentrate power in their own hands, and what constraints were there on them achieving this?
Creation and maintenance of identity. Problems with concepts and descriptive labels. Is tribe a useful category?
General reading.
Freid 'The notion of tribe.'
Southall, A. 1970. 'The illusion of tribe', Journal of Asian and African Studies 5(1-2), 28-50.
this is in the library as a BOOK: The passing of tribal man in Africa, ed. Peter C.W. Gutkind .
Kopytoff, I. 1987. The Internal African Frontier: the making of African political culture. In The African Frontier: the reproduction of traditional African societies (ed.) I. Kopytoff. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Peel, J. D. Y. 1989. The cultural work of Yoruba ethnogenesis. In History and ethnicity (eds.) E. Tonkin, M. McDonald, & M. Chapman. London: Routledge.
Davidson 'Blackman's Burden' chapter 4
Case studies:
1) The Tikar
Jeffreys, M. D. W. 1964. Who are the Tikar? African Studies 23(3/4), 141-153.
Chilver, E. M., & Kaberry, P. M. 1971. The Tikar problem: a non-problem. Journal of African Languages 10(2), 13-14.
Price, D. 1979. Who are the Tikar now? Paideuma 25, 89-98.
Fowler, I. & D. Zeitlyn. 1997. Introductory Essay: the Grassfields and the Tikar. In African Crossroads: intersections of history and anthropology in Cameroon (eds) I. Fowler & D. Zeitlyn. Oxford: Berghahn. In Short-term loan and also available electronically at
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/dz/xroads/intro.html
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. Is the tribe a western construct?
2. Which units best help us understand african societies?
3. Are tribes and ethnic groups different?
The household and the organisation of farm labour. Indigenous concepts of land-tenure and their modification with the growth of a market economy. African farmers as peasants. The intensification of agriculture: cash-crops, new methods and the role of the state.
Allen, C. and G. Williams (eds.) 'Sociology of "Developing Countries"' in Subsaharan Africa, section 3.
Hart, K., The Political Economy of West African Agriculture.
Iliffe, John, The Emergence of African Capitalism, chapter 2.
Hill, P., Rural Hausa.
Netting, R., "Household organisation and intensive agriculture: the Kofyar case", Africa, 1965.
Netting, R., Hill Farmers of Nigeria 1968.
Netting, R.M. & M.P. Stone. 1996. Agro-Diversity On a Farming Frontier - Kofyar Smallholders On the Benue Plains Of Central Nigeria. Africa 66(1), 52-70.
Leach, M. 1994. Rainforest relations: gender and resource use among the Mende of Gola, Sierra Leone (International African library; 13). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute London.
Fairhead, J. & M. Leach. 1996. Misreading the African landscape: society and ecology in a forest-savannah mosaic . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, A., Land, Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia.
Snyder, F., Capitalism and Legal Change.
Beer, C. and G. Williams, "The politics of the Ibadan peasantry" in G. Williams (ed.), Nigeria: Economy and society.
Berry, S.S., Cocoa, Custom and Socio-Economic Change in Rural Western Nigeria.
Eicher, K. and C. Liedholm (eds.), The Growth and Development of the Nigerian Economy, papers by Berry and Hogendorn.
Goody, J., "Rice burning and the green revolution in Northern Ghana", Journal of Development Studies, 16, 1980, 136-55.
Harrison, R.K., "Work and motivation" in D.J. Murray (ed.), Studies in Nigerian Administration.
Hill, P., Studies in Rural Capitalism in West Africa, chapter 2.
Pottier, J. 1988. Migrants no more : settlement and survival in Mambwe villages, Zambia (International African Library ; 4). Manchester: Manchester University Press for the International African Institute.
Pottier, J. 1989. Threes-a-crowd - knowledge, ignorance and power in the context of urban agriculture in Rwanda. Africa 59(4), 461-477.
1. Discuss the relationship between traditional farming techniques and social structure in African societies.
2. Are African cultivators "peasants" and, if so, is this a recent development?
Markets and market networks. Ethnic monopolies. Role of women in trade. Local traders and foreign capital. Marketing and the state. Alternative distribution channels?
Meillassoux, C., "Introduction" in Meillassoux (ed.), The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa.
Collins, J.D., "The Clandestine movement of groundnuts across the Niger-Nigeria border", Canadian Journal of African Studies, 10, 1976, 259-78.
Handwerker, W.P., "Kinship, friendship and business failure among market sellers in Monrovia", Africa, 1973.
Meillassoux, C. (ed.), op.cit., select from papers by Lawson, Smith, Hill and Hodder.
Quinn, N., "Do Mfantse fish sellers estimate probabilities in their heads?", American Ethnologist, 5, 1978, 206-26.
Cohen, Abner, "The social organisation of credit in a West African cattle market", Africa, 1965.
Cohen, A., "Politics of the kola trade", Africa, 1966.
Cohen, A., "Cultural strategies in the organisation of trading diasporas" in Meillassoux (ed.), op.cit.
Eades, J.S., "Kinship and entrepreneurship among the Yoruba in northern Ghana" in W. Shack and E.P. Skinner (eds.), Strangers in African Societies.
Khuri, F.I., "Kinship, emigration and trade partnership among the Lebanese of West Africa", Africa, 1965.
Leighton, N.O., "The political economy of a stranger population: the Lebanese of Sierra Leone" in W. Shack and E.P. Skinner (eds.), Strangers in African Societies.
Sudarkasa, N. "Commercial migration in West Africa with special reference to the Yoruba in Ghana" in W. Shack and E.P. Skinner (eds.), Strangers in African Societies.
Winder, W.C., "The Lebanese in West Africa", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1962.
Eades, J.S. 1993. Strangers and traders: Yoruba migrants, markets and the state in Northern Ghana (International African library ; 11). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute.
Schildkrout, E. 1978. People of the zongo . Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
1. Why are ethnic monopolies so common in the markets of Africa?
2. What methods for accumulating capital are available to African traders?
Domestic slavery in Africa. Slaves and political systems. Warfare and the production of slaves. The Atlantic slave trade. Impact on African societies. Abolition and the growth of legitimate trade: effects on domestic slavery.
Inikori, J., "Introduction" in Inikori (ed.), Forced Migration.
Fage, J.D., "Slavery and the slave trade in the context of West African history" in Inikori (ed.)
Kopytoff, I. & S. Miers. 1977. African "slavery" as an institution of marginality. In Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (eds) I. Kopytoff & S. Miers. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Lovejoy, P., "Slavery in the context of ideology" in Lovejoy (ed.), The Ideology of Slavery in Africa.
Law, R. (ed.) 1995. From slave trade to 'legitimate' commerce. The commercial transition in nineteenth-century West Africa . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Curtin, Philip D., "The Atlantic slave trade 1600-1800" in J.F.A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, vol.1.
Fage, J.D., A History of Africa, chapters 9-11.
Hopkins, A.G., An Economic History of West Africa, chapter 2.
Iliffe, J., The Emergence of African Capitalism, chapter 1.
Inikori, J. (ed.), Forced migration, papers by Fage, Rodney, van Dantzig, Alpers.
Lovejoy, P. (ed.), The Ideology of Slavery in Africa, select from papers by Northrup, Agiri, Klein, Lovejoy and Cooper.
Rodney, W., How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, chapters 2-4.
Burnahm and Goody chapters in Watson, J. L. (ed.) 1980. Asian and African systems of slavery Oxford: Blackwell.
Akinjogbin, I.A., Dahomey and Its Neighbours.
Law, R., The Oyo Empire.
Rodney, W., A History of the Upper Guinea Coast.
Meillassoux, C. 1991. The anthropology of slavery: the womb of iron and gold London: Athlone.
1. Were slaves necessarily a subordinate group in precolonial African societies?
2. What were the major effects of the Atlantic slave trade on African societies?
3. What effects did the abolition of the slave trade by the European powers have on slave systems in Africa itself?
The distribution of kinship systems in Africa. The influence of environment on kinship structure. Patrilineal, Matrilineal, double unilineal and cognatic procedures: definitional problems. Kinship and changing economic conditions.Residential flexibility and organisation. Impact on matrilineal procedures of economic change and social mobility.
Reading
Lewis, I.M., "Problems in the comparative study of unilineal descent groups" in M. Banton (ed.), The Relevance of Models for Social Anthropology.
James, W. 1993 (1978). 'Matrifocus on African Women,' in S. Ardener (ed.) Defining Females , pp.140-62 Oxford: Berg.
Barber, K. 1991. I could speak until tomorrow: Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the I.A.I. Chapter 5 'Oriki of Origin' on Kinship and ile.
Fortes and Evans-Pritchard (eds.), African Political Systems, chapters on Nuer and Tallensi.
Gough, K., "Nuer kinship: a re-examination" in T.O. Beidelman (ed.), The Translation of Culture.
Mair, L., Peoples of Africa, chapters 5, 10 (Nuer and Tallensi).
Worsley, P., "The kinship system of the Tallensi: a re-evaluation", Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 86, 1956, 37-75.
Douglas, M., "Is matriliny doomed in Africa?" in M. Douglas (ed.), Man in Africa.
Fortes, M., "Kinship and marriage among the Ashanti" in A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and D. Forde (eds.), African Systems of Kinship and Marriage.
Fortes, M., "Time and social structure" in Time and Social Structure and Other Essays.
Fortes, M., Kinship and the Social Order, chapters 9 and 10.
Evans-Pritchard, E., The Nuer.
Evans-Pritchard, E., Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer.
Bender, D.R., "Agnatic or cognaticD", Man, 1970.
Eades, J.S., The Yoruba Today, chapter 3.
Lloyd, P., "Agnatic and cognatic descent among the Yoruba", Man, 1966.
Goody, Esther, Contexts of Kinship.
Smith, M.G., "The Hausa" in Gibbs (ed.), Peoples of Africa.
Forde, D., "Kinship and marriage among the Yako" in , op.cit.
Goody, J., "The fission of domestic groups among the LoDagaba" in J. Goody (ed.), The Developmental Cycle in Domestic Groups.
Husbands and wives in a polygynous society. Bridewealth. Terminal separation and divorce. Marriage, class and social mobility. Alternatives to marriage.
Reading General
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1950. Introduction. In African Systems of Kinship & Marriage (eds.) A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, & D. Forde. Oxford: OUP.
All the chapters in African Systems of Kinship & Marriage (eds.) A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, & D. Forde. Oxford: OUP. are recommended.
Goody, J. R., & Tambiah, S. J. 1973. (eds.) Bridewealth and dowry Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Several chapters are good including Goody
Bohannan, Paul 'The impact of money on an African subsistence economy'. Journal of Economic History 19 , 491-503 (1959) reprinted in ed Dalton CTribal and Peasant economiesD
Marriage Presentations
Evans-Pritchard, E., Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer.
Gray, R., "Sonjo brideprice" in LeClair and Schneider (eds.), Economic Anthropology.
Goody, E.N. & J.R. Goody. 1967. The Circulation of Women and Children in Northern Ghana. Man (N.S.) 2(2), 226-248.
The Economic Role of Women
Allen, C. and G. Williams (ed.), 'Sociology of "Developing Countries"' in Subsaharan Africa, section 2.
Hafkin, Nancy and Edna Bay (eds.), Women in Africa, read "Introduction" and select from other papers.
Schildkrout, E., "Dependency and autonomy" in C. Oppong (ed.), Male and Female in West Africa.
Schlegel, Alice, Sexual Stratification, papers by Smock and Lewis.
Sudarkasa, N., Where Women Work.
Alternatives to Marriage
Cohen, A., Custom and Politics in Urban Africa, chapter 2.
Dinan, C., "Pragmatists or feminists? The professional single women in Accra" in Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 65, 1977, 155-76.
Dinan, C., "Sugar daddies and gold diggers: the white-collar single women in Accra" in C. Oppong (ed.), Female and Male in West Africa.
Pitten, R., "Houses of women: a focus on alternative life-styles in Katsina City" in C. Oppong (ed.), Female and Male in West Africa.
Social Mobility and Marriage
Harrell-Bond, B., Modern Marriage in Sierra Leone.
Oppong, C., Marriage Among a Matrilineal Elite.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. How subordinate were women in precolonial African society, and have recent changes altered their position for the worse?
2. What alternatives to marriage are available for African women, and how far are they socially accepted?
3. How do African women succeed in combining their economic and domestic roles?
4. Discuss the ways in which the organisation of marriage in Africa is related to other soical factors.
Units of social organisation and degrees of involvment. Theories of the soul and personality.
Reading
Lienhardt, G. 1985. Self: Public, Private. Some African Representations. In The Category of the Person. Anthropology, philosophy, history (eds) M. Carrithers, S. Collins & S. Lukes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This is also in JASO (Journal of the Anthropology Society of Oxford) 1980.
Destiny, the Soul and the Personality
Fortes, M., Oedipus and Job in West African Religion.
Fortes, M., "On the Tallensi concept of the personality" in CNRS, La Notion de Personne en Afrique Noire.
Fortes, M., "Coping with destiny among the Tallensi" in R.H. Hook (ed.), Fantasy and Symbol.
Horton, R., "Destiny and the unconscious in West Africa" in Africa, 1961.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. Is the self a social construct?
2. What impact has western education had on African socialisation and childrearing patterns?
3. Would you agree that the education systems which have developed in Africa have simply reproduced the sorts of class divisions to be found in the metropolitican countries?
God and the cosmos. Interpretation of ritual and symbolism.
Reading
Cosmic Structure and Social Structure
Douglas, Mary, Natural Symbols.
Evans-Pritchard, E., Nuer Religion.
Horton, R., "The Kalabari world view" Africa, 1962.
Lienhardt, G., Divinity and Experience, especially Part I.
Morton-Williams, P., "An outline of the cosmology and cult organisation of the Oyo Yoruba" Africa, 1964.
The Interpretation of Symbols
Sperber, Dan, Rethinking Symbolism.
Turner, V., The Ritual Process.
Turner, V., The Forest of Symbols.
Wescott, Joan and P. Morton-Williams, "The symbolism and ritual context of the Yoruba laba Shango " in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1962.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. What relationship (if any) do you detect between social structure and views of the cosmos in African societies?
2. How far can one establish the meaning of the symbols used in African ritual?
The explanation of misfortune. Divination and sacrifice. Witches and ancestors. Ritual in politics and social control.
Reading
The Explanation of Misfortune
Bascom, W.R., "The sanctions of Ifa divination" in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1941, 43-51.
Evans-Pritchard, E., Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande.
Horton, R., "African traditional thought and western science" in Africa, 1967, also in M. Marwick (ed.), Witchcraft and Sorcery, and in B. Wilson (ed.), Rationality.
Mendonsa, E., "Etiology and divination among the Sisala of Ghana" (photocopy in Short Loan).
Zeitlyn, D. 1990. 'Professor Garfinkel visits the Soothsayers. Ethnomethodology and Mambila Divination', Man (n.s.) 25(4), 654-66.
or
Zeitlyn, D. 1995. 'Divination as Dialogue: the negotiation of meaning with random responses,' in E. N. Goody (ed.) Social Intelligence and Interaction , pp. 189-205. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zeitlyn, D. 1993. 'Spiders in and out of Court or "the long legs of the law." Styles of spider divination in their sociological contexts.', Africa 63(2), 219-240.
Indigenous Healing
Prince, R., "Curse, invocation and mental health among the Yoruba" (photocopy in Short Loan).
Prince, R., "Indigenous Yoruba psychiatry" (photocopy in Short Loan).
Maclean, U., Magical Medicine.
Turner, V., The Forest of Symbols, chapters 9-10.
Turner, V., The Drums of Affliction.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. How far do beliefs in the ancestors and in witchcraft tend to support the political status quo in African societies?
2. In what ways are the methods of African healers and diviners similar to those of western medical specialists?
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/LOCAL-ONLY/Ancestors/
From this address you will be able to find the full text of:
Kopytoff, I. 1971.'Ancestors as Elders', Africa 41, 129-42.
Calhoun, C. J. 1980. 'The authority of ancestors: a sociological reconsideration of Fortes's Tallensi in response to Fortes's critics', Man (n.s.) 15(2), 304-319. and the ensuing correspondence with Kopytoff in Man: 16(1), 135-138; 17(3), 548 etc
Fortes, M., "Pietas and ancestor worship" in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1961.
Gluckman, M. 1937. Mortuary customs and the belief in survival after death among the South-Eastern Bantu. Bantu Studies 11, 117-36.
and my own discussion of this literature with regard to Mambila data:
Mambila avatars and the ancestor cult: Problems of History and Interpretation.
These will also be avilable in the librray as normal. other possible sources (on paper) include
Bradbury, R., "Fathers, elders and ghosts in Edo religion" in M. Banton (ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion.
Goody, J., Death, Property and the Ancestors.
Goody, E., "Legitimate and illegitimate aggression in a West African state" in M. Douglas (ed.), Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations.
Middleton, J., "Witchcraft and sorcery in Lugbara" in J. Middleton and E. Winter (eds.), Witchcraft and Sorcery in East Africa.
Middleton, J., Lugbara Religion.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. How far do beliefs in the ancestors and in witchcraft tend to support the political status quo in African societies?
2. How are systems of ancestors best understood?
3 Do Mambila have ancestors?
Possession, trance and mediumship. Gender roles, politics and the coneption of selfhood.
Boddy J. 1988, Spirits and Selves in Northern Sudan: the Cultural therapeutics of Possession and Trance. In American Ethnologist 15(1):4-27.
Boddy J. 1989, Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press.
Boddy J. 1994, Spirit Possession Revisited: Beyond Instrumentality. In Annual Review of Anthropology 23:407-434.
Bourguignon E. (ed.), 1973 Religion, Altered States of Consciousness and Social Change. Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State University Press.
Constantinides 1985, Women Heal Women: Spirit Possession and Segregation in a Muslim Society. In Social Science and Medicine 21(6):685-692.
Corin E. 1979, A Possession Psychotherapy in an Urban Setting: Zebola in Kinshasa. In Social Science and Medicine 13(B):327-338.
Crapanzano V. 1977, Introduction. In Crapanzano V. and Garrison V. (eds.), Case Studies in Spirit Possession. London, Wiley Inter-Science Publications.
Crapanzano V. 1980, Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan. Chicago, Chicago University Press.
Csordas T. J. 1987, Health and the Holy in African and Afro-American Spirit Possession. In Social Science and Medicine 24(1):1-11.
Gussler J. 1973, Social Change, Ecology and Spirit Possession among South African Nguni. In Bourguignon E. (ed.), Religion, Altered States of Consciousness and Social Change. Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State University Press.
Kramer F. 1993, The Red Fez: Art and Spirit Possession in Africa. London, Verso.
Lambek M. 1980, Spirits and Spouses: Possession as a System of Communication among the Malagasy Speakers of Mayotte. In American Ethnologist 7(2):318-331
Lambek M. 1981, Human Spirits: A Cultural Account of Trance in Mayotte. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Lambek M. 1988, Spirit Possession, Spirit Succession: Aspects of Social Continuity among Malagasy Speakers in Mayotte. In American Ethnologist 15(4):710-731.
Lambek M. 1989, From Disease to Discourse: Remarks on the Conceptualization of trance and Spirit Possession. In Ward C. A. (ed.) Altered States of Consciousness and Mental Health: a Cross-Cultural Perspective. Newbury Park, London and New Delhi, Sage Publications.
Lévy R. I., Mageo J. M. and Howard A. 1996, Gods, Spirits and History: a Theoretical Perspective. In Mageo J. M. and Howard A. (eds.), Spirits in Culture, History and Mind. New York and London, Routledge.
Lewis I. M. 1971, Ecstatic Religion. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books.
Lewis I.M., El Safi A. and Hurreiz S., 1991. Women's Medicine: the Zar-Bori in Africa and Beyond. Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute.
Lovell N. I. 1997, Unleashing Spirits and Unbouding Gender: Vocal Gods and Polyvalent Discourse in Watchi possession. In Ethnos, October 1997,3-4.
Zempléni A. 1977, From Symptom to Sacrifice: the Story of Khady Fall. In Crapanzano V. and Garrison V. (eds.), Case Studies in Spirit Possession. London, Wiley Inter-Science Publications.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. If possession is particularly associated with women how can we explain possession of males?
2 What sorts of social patterns explain who gets possessed?
General Reading
Haynes, J. 1997. Religion and Politics in Africa . London: Zed Books.
a) Islam
The spread and distribution of Islam. Social and political impact of Islam. Institutions of Islam. Brotherhoods. Conversion. Islam and women. Islam and education.
Reading
General
Lewis, I.M. (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa, "Introduction" and paper by Trimingham.
The Spread of Islam
Baxter, P., "Acceptance and rejection of Islam among the Boran of Kenya" in I.M. Lewis (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa.
Bovill, E., The Golden Trade of the Moors.
Bruce, R., "Conversion among the Pyem" (photocopy in Short Loan).
Clarke, Peter, West African and Islam.
Grindal, B.T., "Islamic affiliations and urban adaptations: the Sisala migrant in Accra" in Africa, 43, 1973, 333-46.
Lewis (ed.) op.cit.
Mark, P., "Urban migration, cash-cropping and calamity" in African Studies Reviews, 21, 1978, 1-14.
Rigby, P., "Sociological factors in the contact of the Gogo of Central Tanzania with Islam" in I.M. Lewis (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa.
Simmons, W., "Islamic conversion and social change in a Senegalese village" in Ethnology, 18, 1977, 303-23.
Wilks, I., "The position of Muslims in metropolitan Ashanti in the early 19th century" in I.M. Lewis (ed.), Islam in Tropical Africa.
Wilks, I., "The transmission of Islamic learning in the western Sudan" in Jack Goody (ed.), Literacy in Traditional Societies.
Islam, Politics and Economic Behaviour
Cohen, Abner, Custom and Politics in Urban Africa.
Iliffe, John, The Emergence of African Capitalism, chapter 3.
O'Brien, D.C., The Mourides of Senegal.
Paden, John, Religion and Political Culture in Kano.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. How would you account for the rapid spread of Islam in Africa in the present century?
2. Is Islam a religion of conservatism or a religion of innovation in the African context?
The spread of Christianity. Politics of conversion. Christianity and education. Mission and indigenous churches. Christianity and protest.
Reading
The Sociology of Conversion
Goody, J., "Religion, social change and the sociology of conversion" in J. Goody (ed.), Changing Social Structure in Ghana.
Horton, R., "African conversion" in Africa, 1971.
Fisher, H.J. 1973. Conversion reconsidered: Some Historical Aspects of Religious Conversion in Black Africa. Africa 63, 27-40.
Horton, R. and J.D.Y. Peel, "Conversion and confusion" in Canadian Journal of African Studies, 1976.
Ifeka-Moller, C., "White power: socio-structural factors in conversion to Christianity" in Canadian Journal of African Studies, 8, 1974.
Peel, J.D.Y., "Syncretism and religious change" in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1968, 121-141.
Peel, J.D.Y., "The christianisation of African society" in E. Fashole-Luke (ed.), Christianity in Independent Africa.
Missionaries and Independent Churches
Ayandele, A., The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria.
Mitchell, R.C., "Religious protest and social change: the origins of the Aladura movement in Western Nigeria" in R.I. Rotberg and A. Mazrui (eds.), Protest and Power in Black Africa.
Peel, J.D.Y., Aladura.
Roberts, A.D., "The Lumpa church of Alice Lenshina" in Rotberg and Mazrui (eds.), op.cit.
Christianity and Economic Change
Barrett, S.R., The Rise and Fall of an African Utopia.
Iliffe, J., The Emergence of African Capitalism, chapter 3.
Long, N., Social Change and the Individual.
Seminar/Essay Topics
1. Either (a) What effects has Christianity had on African society? or (b) What effects has African society had on Christianity?
2. Is the Protestant Ethic a factor in accounting for economic growth in Africa?
Chiefs and kings under colonial rule. Stateless societies under colonial rule. Changes in boundaries, succession and administration. Chiefs and the growth of nationalism. The fate of chiefs in independent Africa.
Reading
Fage, J., A History of Africa, chapters 15-16.
Lemarchand, R., "Introduction" and "Conclusion" in African Kingships in Perspective.
Rodney, W., How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, chapters 5-6.
Crowder, M. and O. Ikime (eds.), West African Chiefs, read "Introduction" and select from papers by Paden, Skinner, Jones, Asiwaju, Schildkrout, Ferguson and Wilks.
Bradbury, R., "Continuities and discontinuities in pre-colonial Benin politics" in Benin Studies.
Lemarchand, R. (ed.), African Kingships in Perspective, select from papers by Clapham, Lemarchand, Young, Doornbos and Lloyd.
Asiwaju, A., Western Yorubaland Under European Rule.
Atanda, A., The New Oyo Empire.
Lemarchand, R., Rwanda and Burundi.
Staniland, M., The Lions of Dagbon.
1. In what ways were the roles of rulers and chiefs modified by their incorporation into colonial administration?
2. What problems did colonial officials have in dealing with the administration of stateless societies, and how did they attempt to overcome them?
Political development and the politics of decolonisation. Political stability in the post-independence era. Party politics, the one-party state and the role of the military.
Allen, C. and G. Williams (eds.), 'Sociology of "Developing Countries"' in Subsaharan Africa, Section 6.
Fage, J.D., A History of Africa, chapter 17.
Austin, D. and R. Luckham (ed.), Politicians and Soldiers in Ghana, papers by Austin, Esseks and Bennett.
Dunn, John (ed.), West African States.
Dudley, Billy, Instability and Political Order.
Jones, Trevor, Ghana's First Republic 1960-66.
Luckham, R., The Nigerian Military.
Panter-Brick, S.K., Soldiers and Oil, papers by Bienen, Campbell and Turner.
Post, K. and M. Vickers, Structure and Conflict in Nigeria.
Mazrui, A., Soldiers and Kinsmen in Uganda.
Shivji, I., Class Struggle in Tanzania.
R. Thornton, The Colonial, the Imperial, and the Creation of the European in Southern Africa. In J. Carrier (ed.) Occidentalism:Images of the West. 1995
1. How would you account for the frequency of military coups in Africa?
2. Does having a one-party state or a military government make any essential difference to politics in an African state?