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The Structure and Significance of Kuranko Clanship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Michael Jackson
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Extract

Recently renewed interest in the history and social structures of the Mande-speaking peoples of the West Sudan has brought to attention a problem of both ethnographical and theoretical importance. It is the problem of understanding the structure and functions of clanship in Mande societies, while at the same time interpreting the meanings of clan names, rituals, myths, totemic usages, and inter-clan relationships. In approaching the first aspect of the problem one is faced with questions of definition which have not been satisfactorily resolved; for example, are the nyamakala groups properly defined as ‘castes’, and are the dyamu (or diamu) to be described as ‘clans’ or as ‘patronymic groups’.

Résumé

STRUCTURE ET SIGNIFICATION DU SYSTÈME CLANIQUE KURANKO

Les Kuranko, population de parler mande, habitent les hauts plateaux de la Guinée occidentale. Cet article explique la structure et la signification du système clanique, ainsi que son symbolisme, chez les Kuranko de la Sierra Leone. L'histoire, l'organisation politique, les règles du mariage, la classification des animaux et le système de parenté sont évoqués afin de montrer que les totems claniques particuliers, ainsi que la fonction et la position de chaque clan, ne sont ni fortuits ni aléatoires: ils constituent un système et un tout organisé.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , October 1974 , pp. 397 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1974

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