The Nature of Entrustment : Intimacy, Exchange, and the Sacred in Africa / Parker Shipton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shipton, Parker MacDonald.

Series:

Yale agrarian studies.

Yale Agrarian studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic anthropology--Africa--Great Lakes Region.

Economic anthropology.

Ceremonial exchange--Africa--Great Lakes Region.

Ceremonial exchange.

Luo (Kenyan and Tanzanian people)--Finance.

Luo (Kenyan and Tanzanian people).

Luo (Kenyan and Tanzanian people)--Commerce.

Luo (Kenyan and Tanzanian people)--Economic conditions.

Great Lakes Region (Africa)--Economic conditions.

Great Lakes Region (Africa).

Great Lakes Region (Africa)--Social life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2007]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This groundbreaking book addresses issues of the keenest interest to anthropologists, specialists on Africa, and those concerned with international aid and development. Drawing on extensive research among the Luo people in western Kenya and abroad over many years, Parker Shipton provides an insightful general ethnography. In particular, he focuses closely on nonmonetary forms of exchange and entrustment, moving beyond anthropology's traditional understanding of gifts, loans, and reciprocity. He proposes a new view of the social and symbolic dimensions of economy over the full life course, including transfers between generations. He shows why the enduring cultural values and aspirations of East African people-and others around the world-complicate issues of credit, debt, and compensation.The book examines how the Luo assess obligations to intimates and strangers, including the dead and the not-yet-born. Borrowing, lending, and serial passing along have ritual, religious, and emotional dimensions no less than economic ones, Shipton shows, and insight into these connections demands a broad rethinking of all international aid plans and programs.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Fiduciary Culture: A Thread in Anthropological Theory

Chapter 3. Luo and Their Livelihood: The Great Lake Basin and Beyond

Chapter 4. Entrustment Incarnate: Humans and Animals over Years and Generations

Chapter 5. Teaming Up: Borrowing, Lending, and Getting By

Chapter 6. Marriage on the Installment Plan: The Present and the Promised

Chapter 7. Debts in Life and Death: Shared Responsibility and the Funerary Flow

Chapter 8. In the Passing: Inheritance of Things and Persons

Chapter 9. Blood, Fire, and Word: Luo, Christian, and Luo-Christian Sacrifice

Chapter 10. Conclusion: Entrustment and Obligation

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [253]-271) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300150117

0300150113

OCLC:

884499450