ISBN:
90-04-09560-8
,
978-90-04-09560-1
ISSN:
0920-6221
Language:
English
Pages:
XV, 477 Seiten
,
Illustrationen, Karten
Series Statement:
Studies in Human Society volume 5
Keywords:
Sudan König
;
Dualismus
;
Königtum, sakrales
;
Macht
;
Anthropologie, politische
Abstract:
This study of the rainmakers of the Nilotic Sudan means a breakthrough in anthropological thinking on African political systems. Taking his inspiration from Rene Girard's theory of consensual scapegoating the author shows that the long standing distinction of states and stateless societies as two fundamentally different political types does not hold. Centralized and segmentary systems only differ in the relative emphasis put on the victimary role of the king as compared with that of enemy victims. Kings of Disaster so proposes an uninvolved solution to the vexed problem of regicide. Recent cases occurring during the great drought of the mid-1980's are discribed and analyzed.Making simultaneous use of first-hand field data and archival sources, the book offers the first presentation of five Nilotic communities on the East Bank of the Nile. This study offers a new perspective on the role of violence in the structuring of society. (Umschlagtext)
Description / Table of Contents:
List of case histories -- Introduction -- Part One. The problem and the setting -- 1. The sacred, consensus and power -- 2. Ethnological connections between the Nile and the Kidepo -- 3. Modes of subsistence and social organizations -- 4. The passing of the glamour: the Bari -- 5. The twin kingdoms: the Lotuho -- 6. The bugbear of the administration: the Pari, Lokoya and Lulubo -- Part Two: Dualism -- 7. Territorial dualism -- 8. The dualist structure of the age-class organization -- Part Three: Centralism, or the king as aggressor against the people -- 9. The king as enemy of his people -- 10. The king as unifier of the people -- 11. 11 Tipping the balance of power to the king -- 12. Boundaries in the sky: the territorial dimension of kingship -- 13. The fingers of god: the cosmological dimension of kingship -- 14. Rain queens and rainstones as symbols of the centre -- 15. The spear and the bead: the divisiveness of kingship -- Part Four: The scapegoat king, or the people as aggressor against the king -- 16. The king as victim in suspense -- 17. The king as victim -- 18. Catching life in the spell of death -- 19. The metabolism of violence and order -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Linguistic Chart -- Index -- Maps
Note:
Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 431-457
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