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Population Density and State Formation in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Richard Vengroff
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Extract

Anthropologists working in a number of regions in the world have noted the existence of a positive relationship between population density and state formation (R. Stevenson, 1968: 1-7). The only area to which this generalization has not been applied is Africa south of the Sahara. In writing about African societies, Fortes and Evans-Pritchard assert that

size of population should not be confused with density of population. There may be some relations between the degree of political development and the size of population, but it would be incorrect to suppose that governmental institutions are found in those societies with great density (1940: 7).

Furthermore, they base this conclusion not only on evidence from the eight societies included in African Political Systems but also on data from other African societies which “prove that a large population in a political unit and a high degree of political centralization do not necessarily go together with great density” (1940: 8).

In his interesting and insightful book, Population and Political Systems in Tropical Africa, Robert Stevenson implies that the seemingly anomalous assertions by Fortes and Evans-Pritchard have gone unchallenged for decades because of the stature of the two anthropologists rather than the weight of the evidence (1968: 5). Only Eisenstadt clearly states that this is an empirical question which requires further systematic analysis (1959: 204). Stevenson cites a number of instances in which Africanists noted a relation between population density and political organization, but none in which the relationship was systematically examined (1968: 5-6).

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , April 1976 , pp. 67 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1976

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References

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