Full Description
These essays are mainly concerned with the development of some of Max Gluckman's ideas about African politics. He regarded frequent rebellions to replace incumbents of political offices (as against revolutions to alter the structure of offices) as inherent in these politics. Later he connected this situation with modes of husbandry, problems of the devolution of power, types of weapons and the law of treason. He advanced to a general theory of ritual, as well as to general propositions about the position of officials representing conflicting interests within a hierarchy, typified by the African chief under colonial rule.
Originally published in 1963.
Contents
1. An Advance in African Sociology 2. Succession and Civil War among the Bemba 3. Rituals of Rebellion in South-East Africa 4. The Magic of Despair 5. The Village Headman in British Central Africa (with J.C. Mitchell and J.A. Barnes) 6. Chief and Native Commissioner in Modern Zululand 7. The Reasonable Man in Barotse Law 8. Malinowski's Contribution to Social Anthropology 9. Malinowski
