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A Multi-Polity People: The Oganda, an Indigenous Form of Clan Federation A Multi-Polity People: The Oganda, an Indigenous Form of Clan Federation
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Homestead Development Cycle: Belonging When Living Homestead Development Cycle: Belonging When Living
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… and When Dead … and When Dead
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From a Luo Doorway From a Luo Doorway
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Descent and Descent Groups: A Few Cautions Descent and Descent Groups: A Few Cautions
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Doorways and “Key Units” of Society Doorways and “Key Units” of Society
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Principles That Slide Up and Down Principles That Slide Up and Down
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Women's Roles in Patriliny Women's Roles in Patriliny
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4 An Earthly Anchorage: Graves and the Grounding of Belonging
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Published:January 2009
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Abstract
This chapter explores the historical background surrounding the origins and evolution of human society within the context of Africa. The earliest, most sparsely settled human societies, for example, showed organization that was based on kinship and descent. It would only be later on, under dense population settlements, that forms or organization based on territorially defined polity emerged. In Africa, however, most societies combined the principles of kinship and territorial polity somehow in organizing loyalties and authority. For instance, in places like Nuer in East Africa, or Tallensi in West Africa, some indigenous political groupings are based more on location of residence than biological affiliation. Some Euro-American commentators—such as Evans-Pritchard, for instance—have been attempting to play up kinship and play down territorial polities as if to say that they are primitive. The chapter thus proposes the argument that segmentary lineages are not less modern forms of civilized than territorial polities with a centralized bureaucracy.
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