article
The rhetorical management of dangerous knowledge in Kpelle brokerage
American ethnologist • 8 (4) • Published In 1981 • Pages: 667-685
By: Murphy, William P..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The author of this source argues that 'Kpelle brokers draw upon the key cultural idea of danger inherent in privileged knowledge to contrive a broker role and to construe its indispensability and threatening power in local politics'. In this way, the 'secrets' conveyed by a traditional institution, the Poro and Sande societies, are seen to have analogues in how country Kpelle consider and respect the 'civilized' (kwi) knowledge possessed by 'modernized' persons. The traditional zo, or person in control of religious knowledge, thus also has an analogue in the modern-day political broker.
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Kpelle
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2019
- 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.
- 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
- M. A. Marcus ; 1986
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1973-1974
- NotesAdditional notes
- William P. Murphy
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 74644326
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Kpelle (African people)