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Political Sociology and the Anthropological Study Op African Polities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Abstract
- Type
- Notes Critiques
- Information
- European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , December 1963 , pp. 311 - 329
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- Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1963
References
* Barnes, J. A., Politics in a Changing Society (London, 1954)Google Scholar; Bohannan, P. J., Justice and Judgement among the Tiv (London, 1957)Google Scholar; Busia, K., The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti (London, 1951)Google Scholar; Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E., African Political Systems (London, 1940)Google Scholar; Evans-Pritchard, E. E., The Nuer (Oxford, 1940)Google Scholar; Fortes, M., The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi (London, 1945)Google Scholar; Fallers, L. A., Bantu Bureaucracy (Cambridge, 1956)Google Scholar; Gluckman, M., The Judicial Process among the Barotse (Manchester, 1955)Google Scholar; Gluckman, M., Custom and Conflict in Africa (London, 1955)Google Scholar; Kuper, H., An African Aristocracy (London, 1947)Google Scholar; Mair, L. P., Primitive Government (Baltimore, 1962)Google Scholar; Middleton, J. and Tait, D., Tribes Without Rulers (London, 1958)Google Scholar; Nadel, S. F., A Black Byzantium (London, 1942)Google Scholar; Richards, A. I. (ed.), East African Chiefs (London, 1959)Google Scholar; Schapera, I., Government and Politics in Tribal Societies (London, 1956)Google Scholar; Smith, M. G., Government in Zazzau (London, 1960)Google Scholar; Southall, A. W., Alur Society (Cambridge, 1954)Google Scholar; Turner, V. W., Schism and Continuity in an African Society (Manchester, 1957)Google ScholarWinter, E. A., Bwamba: A Structural-Functional Analysis of a Patrilineal Society (Cambridge, 1956)Google Scholar. I have listed here only books in which political structure is the major theme. In addition, of course, there have been many monographs partly devoted to the subject and a very large number of journal articles, particularly in Africa, African Studies and the Papers and Journal of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute.
(1) Easton, D., “Political Anthropology”, in Siegel, B. (ed.), Biennial Review of Anthropology (Stanford 1959).Google Scholar
(2) Easton, D., The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political Science (New York 1953)Google Scholar; Levy, M. J., The Structure of Society (Princeton 1952)Google Scholar; Parsons, T., The Socia System (Glencoe 1951).Google Scholar
(3) Perhaps the best single analysis of this process is L. Bohannan's essay: “Political Aspects of Tiv Social Organization”, in Middleton, and Tait, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(4) Mair, , op. cit., chap. 11Google Scholar; Easton, , 1959, op. cit.Google Scholar
(5) This is essentially the situation among the! Kung Bushmen of the Khalahari, described by Marshall, L. in “!Kung Bushman Bands”, Africa, XXX (1960).Google Scholar
(6) Bohannan, L., op. cit.Google Scholar; Evans-Pritchard, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(7) Fortes, M., “The Structure of Unilineal Descent Groups”, American Anthropologist, LV (1953)Google Scholar; Bohannan, L., op. cit.Google Scholar; Lienhardt, G., “The Western Dinka”Google Scholar, in Middleton, and Tait, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(8) Bohannan, L., op. cit.Google Scholar; Fortes, , 1953, op. cit.Google Scholar
(9) Winter, E. A., “The Aboriginal Political Structure of Bwamba”Google Scholar, in Middleton, and Tait, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(10) de Jouvenel, B., Sovereignty: An Inquiry into the Political Good (Cambridge 1957), chap. x.Google Scholar
(11) Fortes, and Evans-Pritchard, , op. cit. pp. 5–7.Google Scholar
(12) Evans-Pritchard, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(13) Barnes, , op. cit.Google Scholar; Busia, , op. cit.Google Scholar; Southall, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(14) Ibid. chap. ix.
(15) Corporate bilateral descent groups also exist, but have not been reported from Africa.
(16) Fortes, , op. cit. 1953.Google Scholar
(17) These processes may vary from quite rigid rules of seniority to relatively open election from among the members of a lineage.
(18) Several such intermediate cases are described in Middleton, and Tait, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(19) Busia, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(20) Gluckman, M., “The Rise of a Zulu Empire”, Scientific American, CCII (1960).Google Scholar
(21) Smith, , op, cit.Google Scholar
(22) Smith, , op. cit.Google Scholar; Mair, L. P., An African People in the Twentieth Century (London 1934).Google Scholar
(23) See also Goldhammer, H. and Shils, E. A., “Types of Power and Status”, American Journal of Sociology, XLV (1939).Google Scholar
(24) Tout, T. F., Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England (Manchester 1920–1933)Google Scholar; Weber, M., Wirtschaftund Gesellschaft (Tübingen 1947), pp. 679–752.Google Scholar
(25) Almost all the books given in footnote * above illustrate this concern.
(26) See, for example, Lugard, Lord's article: “The International Institute of African Languages and Cultures”, Africa, I (1928).Google Scholar
(27) Mair, 1962, op. cit. chap. xi.Google Scholar
(28) Meek, C. K., Law and Authority in Nigerian Tribe (London 1937), pp. ix–xvi.Google Scholar
(29) Bohannan, P. J., op. cit. chap. 11.Google Scholar
(30) Mair, 1962, op. cit. pp. 259–260.Google Scholar
(31) Busia, , op. cit. chap, viGoogle Scholar; Apter, D. E., The Gold Coast in Transition (Princeton 1955)Google Scholar, especially chap. vii.
(32) Barnes, J. A., Mitchell, J. C. and Gluckman, M., “The Village Headman in British Central Africa”, Africa, XIX (1949).Google Scholar
(33) Smith, , op. cit. chap, viiGoogle Scholar; Fallers, L. A., op. cit. 1956Google Scholar, chap, viii; Richards, , op. cit. chap. 11.Google Scholar
(34) Ibid.; After, D. E., The Political Kingdom in Uganda (Princeton 1961).Google Scholar
(35) Coleman, J. S., Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley 1958), chap, XVIIGoogle Scholar; Fallers, L. A., “Ideology and Culture in Uganda Nationalism”, American Anthropologist, LXIII (1961).Google Scholar
(36) Apter, 1955, 1961, op. cit.Google Scholar; Coleman, , op. cit.Google Scholar
(37) Lewis, I. M., “Modern Political Movements in Somaliland”, Africa, XXVIII (1958)Google Scholar. But see also Biebuyck, D. and Douglas, M., Congo Tribes and Parties (London 1961).Google Scholar
(38) Uganda and the Republic of Congo (Leopoldville) provide other examples. C. Geertz provides an excellent discussion of the politics of ethnic solidarities in the new states generally in Geertz, C. (ed.), Old Societies, New States: The Quest for Modernity in Asia and Africa (Glencoe 1963).Google Scholar
(39) , L. I. and Rudolph, S., “The Political Role of India's Caste Associations”, Pacific Affairs, XXXIII (1960)Google Scholar; Bailey, F. G., Tribe, Caste and Nation (Manchester 1960), pp. 186–192.Google Scholar
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