The place of stunted ironwood trees : a year in the lives of the cattle-herding Himba of Namibia / David P. Crandall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crandall, David P., 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Himba (African people)--Domestic animals.

Himba (African people).

Himba (African people)--Social life and customs.

Cattle herders--Namibia--Otutati.

Cattle herders.

Domestic animals.

Otutati (Namibia)--Social life and customs.

Otutati (Namibia).

Namibia--Otutati.

Physical Description:

viii, 269 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Continuum, 2000.

Summary:

This is an intimate account of the lives of a small band of cattle herders, the Himba, who live in and around the settlement of Otutati in northwestern Namibia. The narrative chronicles the events of a single year, though within that year are found the events of a lifetime: birth, maturation, aging, death; generosity, meanness, accomplishment, failure.

Through subtle yet vivid description, the author draws the reader into a human world that appears so utterly different from our own in the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, as the leading characters' lives and personal qualities, their joys, hopes, and anxieties unfold, the exoticism of their world fades and the experience of life rings strangely familiar.

Indeed, the narrative's power lies in its finely woven depiction of the great commonality of human life and the human condition in the midst of a peculiar and foreign world. If this is an admission anthropologists are traditionally loathe to make, yet it is so; and the reader is left with a beautiful and compelling portrait of a world and a people in which the familiar and the strange freely mix and mingle.

Contents:

Map of Southern Africa 3

Nineteenth-Century Map of Kaokoland 4

Diagram of Otutati Village 5

Living Arrangements/Relations to Wamesepa 6

The People of Otutati 9

1. The Valley Is Full of Life 15

2. Faces in the Crowd 25

3. Open and Close 45

4. A Cry at Dawn 50

5. The Forces of the Unseen 60

6. A Woman Must Be Strong 71

7. The Path of a Man 94

Reflection 129

8. The Prophet Cometh 134

9. To Ripen and Dry 146

10. A Spirit Must Be Driven 165

11. Learning the Truth 182

12. Found and Lost 194

13. When Words Are Spoken 207

14. The Living and the Dead 219

15. Offering the Pipe 234

16. The Road Is Filled with Dust 257.

ISBN:

082641270X

OCLC:

44039689