article
Creating the appearance of consensus in Mende political discourse
American anthropologist • 92 (1) • Published In 1990 • Pages: 24-41
By: Murphy, William P..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article discusses salient features of Mande political culture as observed in lineage meetings concerned with electing heirs to traditional leadership positions including village headship. The most important of these features include creating apparent public consensus through secrecy and strategic use of language.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Ethos
- Community structure
- Political intrigue
- Elections
- Lineages
- Social relationships and groups
- Sociolinguistics
- Verbal arts
- Oratory
- Community councils
- Social control
- Public lectures
- Competition
- Etiquette
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Mende
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2010
- 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
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- 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
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2008
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1970-1980
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1970-1980
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Sierra Leone
- NotesAdditional notes
- William P. Murphy
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-41)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 1715424
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Mende (African people)