Book

The Mossi of the Upper Volta: the political development of a Sudanese people

Stanford University PressStanford, CaliforniaPublished In 1964 • Pages:

By: Skinner, Elliott P. (Elliott Percival).

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This document presents an intensive study of the political development of the Mossi people, a Sudanese negroid group occupying the Republic of the Upper Volta, West Africa. The author gathered his data in the Upper Volta Republic between November 1955 and January 1957, a period during which many important political changes were taking place in this region, and most of the field work was done in the territory formerly included in the kingdom of Ouagadougou, although short visits were also made to the Yatenga, Tenkodogo, and Boussouma regions. The field work was further supplemented by data gathered from various government documents and ethnographies on the Mossi. Particular emphasis in this source is on the Mogho Naba (the supreme chief or emperor of the Mossi), his household, ministers, and various territorial chiefs (e.g., provincial, district and village chiefs), and the various levels of interaction between them. Additional information may also be found on law and judicial procedures, economic foundations, and religion and government. The last three chapters of this work present a culture history of Mossi-European relations, and the resulting changes taking place in Mossi political structure as the result of the European conquest of these people. For lack of available information on the 'Ninisi,' an aboriginal people living in the Upper Volta area prior to the coming of the Mossi, information on this group has been subsumed under Mossi (FA28). Footnotes are on pp. 205-219.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
History
Chief executive
Territorial hierarchy
Form and rules of government
Traditional history
External relations
Ethnic stratification
Status, role, and prestige
Territorial hierarchy
Lineages
Sacred objects and places
Family
Marriage
Community structure
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Mossi
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2009
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Western Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
Book
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 1965-1968
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1955-1957
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1481-1957
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Burkina Faso
NotesAdditional notes
Elliott Percival Skinner
Includes bibliographical references(p. [225]-227)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
64012074
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Mossi (African people)