Book
Leadership and authority in an African society: the Afikpo village-group
University of Washington Press • Seattle • Published In 1971 • Pages: xviii, 336 , plates
By: Ottenberg, Simon.
Abstract
This source contains a lucid and lengthy description and analysis of the social structure of the Afikpo village-group. The author builds his discussion from the smallest units (lineages, age sets, and secret societies) on out to larger units including the village and village-group. While there is information on the activities of all these groups, the focus is always on their structure, their place in the local authority structure, their leadership structure, and the process of decision-making within small groups. One of the major conclusions of this study is that, although the Afikpo village-group is organizationally complex in terms of the number of groups to which any person belongs, '…the complexities are reducible to a number of fundamental features, based on descent, age, and sexual distinctiveness, which interpenetrate each type of organization, and to a limited number of types of generalized leadership roles.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2003
- Region
- Africa
- Sub Region
- Western Africa
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Eleanor C. Swanson ; 1980-1981
- Field Date
- 1951-1953, 1959-1960, 1966
- Coverage Date
- esp. 1952-1960
- Coverage Place
- Afikpo village-group, southeastern Nigeria
- Notes
- Simon Ottenberg
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 323-328)
- LCCN
- 77159436
- LCSH
- Igbo (African people)