A Complex Polity : Generations, Initiation, and Territory, among The Old Meru Of Kenya / Anne-Marie Peatrik.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peatrik, Anne-Marie.

Series:

Africae Monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

Anthropology.

Kenya.

eastern Africa.

ages of life.

family.

kinship.

Meru.

pre-colonial polity.

Local Subjects:

History.

Anthropology.

Kenya.

eastern Africa.

ages of life.

family.

kinship.

Meru.

pre-colonial polity.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (496 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Complex Polity

Place of Publication:

Nairobi, Nanterre : Africae, 2021.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Weaving together ethnography and history, this book offers an in-depth analysis of the pre-colonial polity of the Meru of Kenya and its radical transformations from 1908 through the 1950s. It addresses the manifold issues of initiation and the politics of belonging, unravels the intertwined life courses of men and women, and disentangles the web of family life and the handover of power across political generations. Restoring two well-known instances of Meru politics to their rightful place―the enigmatic mûgwe and the famous njûûri ncheke-the book also offers a fresh reading of the controversial story of Mbwaa. It sheds light on the crisis of the 1930s affecting male and female initiations, and establishes a link with the demographic transformations and the radical shift that occurred during the 1950s. A Complex Polity renews the issue of the historicity of political generation-set systems in Meru, as well as elsewhere in Kenya and eastern Africa. More broadly, the work aims to promote comparative anthropology to enhance knowledge of African pre-colonial democracies and polities, and a deeper understanding of social and cultural change in the longue durée, linking precolonial and postcolonial Africa. “Peatrik’s book is not a simple ethnographic monograph, it is an innovative analysis on the topic of age grades… Her study lies, in its own right, among the classics of ethnology and among the most original and comprehensive works on this subject. It is recommended not only to the africanists and the anthropologists, but also to those who are interested in studying social and political systems.” Bernardo Bernardi, author of The Mugwe, a Failing Prophet, and of Age Class Systems.

Contents:

Front cover

Title page

Copyright

Dedication

About the author

Contents

List of maps, tables and figures, illustrations

Foreword to the English edition

Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION | The Hidden Criterion

1. Age and its manifestations in eastern Africa

Map 1

Kenya and bordering countries

Map 2

Kenya's central mountain range

2. The choice of the Meru Tigania-Igembe and the conditions of the study

Map 3

North-east of the Mount Kenya mountain range

Fig. 1

Position of the Ithalie, the oldest male set in 1986-1988

3. A Summary of the book

4. Ethnonyms and languages in use

PART ONE | PUZZLING GENERATIONS: OR, HOW THE SYSTEM REALLY WORKED

1 | Making a way through life

1. Childhood

2. The life cycle of men

3. The life cycle of women

Fig. 2

The different ages of life

4. Age grades, individual progressions, and human longevity

Fig. 3

Sex ratio of old people in the 1989 census

5. The ages of life and the measurement of time

Fig. 4

The circadian cycle, its sub-multiples and multiples

Fig. 5

The year and its divisions

2 | Mastering the succession of generations

1. A foundation course in the system

2. The recruitment of male sets

Fig. 6

Cycle of names of nthukî, male Tigania-Igembe generation-sets

Fig. 7

Rules governing the distribution of sons (from different fathers) in the nthukî.

3. Ntuiko, the handover of power and the progression of male sets

Fig. 8

The dual division of the set system (gîtiba, pl. ntiba)

Fig. 9

Interrelation of sets with age grades

Fig. 10

Transmissions of power and sets involved since the colonial conquest in 1908

4. Women in the generation-set system

Fig. 11

Women in the generation-set system

Fig. 12

Provisional and definitive denomination of the subsets and sets (Male Female)

5. The dynamics of the system and control of demographic drift

PART TWO | MULTIVOCAL GENERATIONS: WEAVING KINSHIP AND POLITICS

3 | Family, residence and territory

1. The family kraal and means of subsistence

Fig. 13

The different elements of the family kraal

Elements of the old economy

2. The mûciî cycle

From gûtûra matû to mwariki

Fig. 14

The mwariki

Accomplished person and the synchronization of domestic and generational cycles

3. Inheritance and dispersal

4. The meanings of mwiriga

Fig. 15

Organization of territory and clans: the example of Athiru Gaitî in Igembe

4 | Composite Kinship

1. The vocabulary of kinship: terms and attitudes

Fig. 16

Kinship terms and generation levels

Fig. 17

Main terms of kinship: male Ego

Fig. 18

Main terms of kinship: female Ego

2. The uthoni alliance and bridewealth

Marriage prohibitions and preferences

Fig. 19

Allies: male Ego

Fig. 20

Allies: female Ego

Agreement reached!

Fig. 21a

Takers and givers in the establishment of the uthoni alliance

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

OpenEdition Books License https://www.openedition.org/12554

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

2-36519-023-5

2-493207-06-8

OCLC:

1531327696