The Lele of the Kasai, Volume 1

Front Cover
Psychology Press, 2003 - Social Science - 286 pages
This first volume is a compilation of numerous essays by Douglas on the Lele in the Belgian Congo covering a fifteen year period. There are early indications of Douglas's cultural imagination and written expression that were to make her works accessible and relevant to a western readership of non-anthropologists. The intellectural tools and examples she gained from Africanist ethnography continue to serve her explorations of European and American society.
 

Selected pages

Contents

INTRODUCTION I
1
THE LELE ON THE MAP
9
THE PRODUCTIVE SIDE OF THE ECONOMY
29
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
52
OFFICES AND AGESETS
68
CLANS
85
Relation between residence pattern and preferred marriage
92
I THE PRIVATE WIFE AND PRIVATE
113
AS CREDITOR AND DEBTOR
168
THE ROLE OF THE ARISTOCRATIC CLAN
186
RELIGIOUS SANCTIONS ON VILLAGE UNITY
204
SORCERY
220
Incidence of sorcery accusations
225
Nyamas widow
233
The three senior men of Hanja clan section in Middle Homba
237
CONTROL OF SORCERY
241

Effects of discrepancy in age at marriage
117
II THE COMMUNAL VILLAGEWIFE
128
BLOOD DEBTS
141
Pawn asks lord to settle his blood debt
147
Case history of pawnship of Ket clan section
149
Pawns declare themselves free
151
Exchange of pawns
155
Claim over pawn postponed
160
Pawnship obligations between clan sections in South Homba
165
EUROPEAN IMPACT ON LELE SOCIETY
259
Documentation of South Homba
273
pawnship obligations
276
pawnship obligations
277
pawnship obligations
278
pawnship obligations
279
Bibliographic References
280
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

accused adultery age-mates age-set bars of camwood Basongo Begetters Biong blood compensation blood debt brother villages Bulomani Bushong Bwenga clan camwood Chokwe Christians claim clan section clansmen Congo daughters dead death died dry season economy father fees fellow-clansman femme fight forest founding clans girl give Hanga Hanja Homba villages hunt husband Ilebo ilumbi initiation junior Kabenga-benga Kasai Kasai River Kenge killed Lele village living Loange lord Lubelo clan Lukondo Lumbunji maize Makaka Makasu male Malembi Malongo marriage married matrilineal Mbombe Middle Homba Mikope mother mother's brother Ndong never Ngoie Ngomabulu Ngondu Ngwe Nyimi official diviner older paid palm wine Pangolin pawns person poison ordeal polyandry polygyny quarrels raffia cloths raffia palm refused relations rites ritual river role senior settle sexual intercourse sister social son-in-law sorcery South Homba tribes Tundu village-wife village-wives weaving wife wives woman women young وو

References to this book

About the author (2003)

Born in Italy, Mary Douglas was educated at Oxford University and began her career as a civil servant in 1943. Her first field research was carried out in what was then the Belgian Congo and she taught at Oxford and the University of London before moving to the United States in 1977. Purity and Danger (1966) is an essay about the logic of pollution beliefs, suggesting that ideas about dirt and disorder outline and reinforce particular social orders. Her other essays exploring the implicit meanings of cultural symbols follow a similar Durkheimian format. Her recent interests have turned to analysis of risk behavior and cross-cultural attitudes about food and alcohol.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Lele of the Kasai, Volume 1
Volume 1 of Collected Works: “The” Lele of the Kasai, Mary Douglas
Volume 1 of Collected works, Mary Douglas
Volume 1 of Mary Douglas: Collected Works, Mary Douglas, ISBN 0415283973, 9780415283977
Volume 1 of Selections, Mary Douglas
The Lele of the Kasai, Mary Douglas, ISBN 0415283973, 9780415283977
Volume 1 of Works, Mary Douglas
Volume 1 of Works. 2003, Mary Douglas
AuthorMary Douglas
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherPsychology Press, 2003
ISBN0415291046, 9780415291040
Length286 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
Social Science / Anthropology / General
Social Science / Archaeology
Social Science / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / African Studies
Social Science / Reference
  
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