Nyakyusa and Ngonde / Owen J. M. Kalinga [and four others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kalinga, Owen J. M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nyakyusa (African people).

Ngonde (African people).

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Conn. : Human Relations Area Files, 2011.

Summary:

This collection of 10 documents covers cultural, economic and historical information about the Nyakyusa and Ngonde, circa 1875 to 1983. Most of the documents were written by the husband-wife team of Godfrey and Monica Wilson based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 1934-1938. The basic introduction to Nyakyusa society and culture is Godfrey Wilson's "An Introduction to Nyakyusa society". Together with the works of Monica Wilson, these provide a comprehensive first-hand account of Nyakyusa culture and society as observed in mid-1930s. Main themes covered in these works include social and economic structure of a Nyakyusa age-village, communal rituals related to burials, marriage, birth, and misfortunes; the relationship of religion to Nyakyusa social structure; changes in generational and gender relations; and traditional land tenure systems. The collection also includes two other documents that focus on the Ngonde. These cover the traditional political structure of Ngonde society and aspects of socioeconomic change since 18th century. Finally, the collection also includes one essay which seeks to re-evaluate some of the key arguments in the earlier work by the Wilsons. The focus is on dynamics of kinship and chieftainship in age-villages, a uniquely Nyakyusa residence pattern in which a cohort of boys establish their own village settlement in previously uninhabited land.

Notes:

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