ANTH326 Peoples and Cultures of Sub-Saharan

AfricaMeeting 9, November 5, 2007

Business

• Media Critique• Critical reviews• Journal• Blog entries• FIFEQ.ca (FFEM), November 15

Last stretch

• Reached important point• Making links• Bring everything together• Make sure understand• Dangling issues

Southall and Ranger

Team 1

• Self-definition based on outsider• False categories in anthro• Tribes don’t exist, isolated pre-colonial• Different terms• European imposition tradition on Africa• Problems caused• Applied by Africans themselves

Team 2

• Dangers of categorisation• Nationalism/tribalism• What can do? Should/shouldn’t

categorise

Team 3

• Different definitions of tribe, can’t adhere• Identify own or outside name• Away from stereotypical of tribe,

behaviour• Results of colonialism in history of

tradition• Assimilation by colonials

Team 4

• Classification• Blurring boundaries, Features• Tribe in larger• Divide to rule, creating difference• “Real” Africa/Africans• Outdated concept in contemporary world

(state)• Gender bias in recording tradition

British Social Anthropology

• Emeriti– LSE (then Madison), Oxford

• Nationalism, ethnicity, tribalism• Southeastern Africa

– Southall on Uganda– Ranger in Zimbabwe, Tanzania

• Ranger’s Invention of Tradition with Hobsbawm, 1983

Social Groups

Beyond Kinship

• Defining social groups– Support systems– Solidarity– Communitas

• Ethnicity as super-kinship• Kindreds (selected kins)• “Sodalities” (age sets)• Associations

Secret societies

• Initiation societies• Muslim brotherhoods (sufism)

– Tijaniyya• Freemasons

Voluntary Associations

• Social networks• Urban life• Local• "Ethnic“• Cosmopolitan networks• Political parties

Group Identity

• Identity as us/them• Constructed/created/invented• Negotiated/fluid/flexible• Leading to conflicts• Schisms and mergers

War and Peace

• War as “violent resolution to conflict”– Between groups (however defined)

• Peace as “normal state of system”• Pacifist tendency among anthropologists

– Academic and personal– Pragmatic and principled

States

Defining States?

• Centralised control• Nation-state with trade• Infrastructure• Geography• Internationally recognised political entity• Sovereignty as legal rights, rule over

citizens• Ethnically diverse

Characteristics of States

• Pre-/Post-Industrial• Centralisation• Boundaries• Administration• Currency• Hierarchy• Formality

Colonialism

• “Real” Africa/Africans• Assimilation by colonials• Gender bias in recording tradition• European imposition tradition on Africa• Results of colonialism in history of tradition• Problems caused• Divide to rule, creating difference• Nationalism/tribalism

Anthropological Categorisation

• Classification• Dangers of categorisation• False categories in anthro• Different terms• Different definitions of tribe, can’t adhere• What can do? Should/shouldn’t

categorise

Define Self/Other (Esoteric/Exoteric)

• Self-definition based on outsider• Identify own or outside name• Applied by Africans themselves

Tribe in larger

• Tribes don’t exist, isolated pre-colonial• Outdated concept in contemporary world

(state)• Away from stereotypical of tribe,

behaviour• Blurring boundaries, Features