Schism and Continuity in an African Society

A Study of Ndembu Village Life

Victor Turner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000323023
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

With a new foreword by Bruce Kapferer, Professor of Anthropology, James Cook University- A reprint of the seminal anthropological work of the 1960s. Originally published by Manchester University Press.Victor Turner will be remembered as the anthropologist who developed the concept of the 'social drama', a method used extensively by anthropologists to describe and analyse the social life of a community. In essence, this technique involves analysing social crises within a community over a period of time in order to gain a better understanding of the key principles that govern the social life of the community.This book -- Turner's first 'social drama' study -- focuses on the village life of the Ndembu of Zambia who were then under British rule. The social constraints, such as the matrilineally-inherited headmanship system, and the various releases from these constraints, provoked periodic crises which caused great disruption and pain. These crises made visible the contradictions between the principles governing social life and the conflicts experienced between individuals and groups when enforcing these principles. Seven social dramas are discussed - all from one family over a period of twenty years -- each substantiated by sociological and demographic research.

INDEX

abolition of slavery, 64n., 180-1, 183, 192-4

accretion, 197

adelphic succession, 87-9,199-200; in Mukanza, 99

— group of male uterine parallel cousins, 68-9, 73

adepts, 293; in Ckihamba, 311-12

adjacent genealogical generations, 207, 235,237, 240

adjacent siblings, 209

adult males, residence of, 66

affkal connections, 281-6

affixes, 235. 237, 240

African Political Systems, 287, 291, 302

age-seniority, 89

agriculture, 20-1

Alcosa, in., 13

Allan, W., on carrying capacity of land, 21; on Lamba village size, 39

alliance of alternate generations, 80-1, 106,167,199; inMukanza, 106-7

— between lineage segments, 109

ambition for headmanship, 99, 218

ancestor cult, 173, 195-6; associated with the bush, 173

— shrines, 35,173; Tale and Ndembu, 172-3; see muyombu

Anderson Mulumbi, 160, 164

avunculocal, definition of, xviiin.

Ban gala, founded by a hunter, 26; village size, 42

Barnes, J. A., 128n.; on Ngoni village size, 39

Bashi-lange riamba cult, 26

Baumann, H. von, on Mbala and Chokwe hunters, 25-6; on Chokwe villages, 42

beer as payment at work-parties, 22; for rituals, 116, 118, 294.

Belgian Congo, 1; trade with, 9

beliefs regarding the dead, 173

Bemba village size, 39; clans, 86; uxorilocal marriage, 76-7

Bibiana, 107, 377

Biscuit, 89, 217, 230

' black liver ', 98

blindness, 159

blood-brotherhood, 214, 280; for Chihamba, 307

Boma, 8

boundary of Northern Rhodesia, 1-2; arbitration, 7

boys, residence of, 53-4, 64-7

breach, of norms, 113, 115, 120-1, 123-4; of social relations,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• PREFACE TO THE 1996 EDITION BY BRUCE KAPFERER
• PREFACE TO THE 1972 EDITION BY MAX GLUCKMAN
• PREFACE TO THE 1968 EDITION
• PREFACE TO THE 1957 EDITION
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• I HISTORICAL AND ECOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
• II THE VILLAGE : TOPOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
• III THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF THE VILLAGE
• IV MATRILINEAL DESCENT : THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF VILLAGE ORGANIZATION
• V MATRILINEAL SUCCESSION AND THE DYNAMICS OF VILLAGE INTRIGUE
• VI VILLAGE FISSION, SLAVERY AND SOCIAL CHANGE
• VII VARIETIES OF VILLAGE FISSION
• VIII THE STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF VIRILOCAL MARRIAGE WITHIN THE VILLAGE
• IX POLITICAL ASPECTS OF KINSHIP AND AFFINITY
• X THE POLITICALLY INTEGRATIVE FUNCTION OF RITUAL
• XI THE CHIEFTAINSHIP
• XII POSTSCRIPT
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX