article
Gusii funerals: meanings of life and death in an African community
Ethos • 10 • Published In 1982 • Pages: 26-65
By: LeVine, Robert Alan.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
According to LeVine the funerals of the Gusii, like those of other African peoples, are occasions for dramatic public statements about the meanings of particular lives and of life in general. This article attempts to explicate those meanings on the basis of the author's own observations of Gusii funerals and from the information provided by informants on this topic. LeVine's primary objective in this study is to describe how Gusii view their own death rituals and to provide a context for unerstanding the place of these rituals in the personal experience of Gusii individuals (p. 26).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Drives and emotions
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Sociocultural trends
- Outbuildings
- Family relationships
- Grandparents and grandchildren
- Sorcery
- Life and death
- Dying
- Burial practices and funerals
- Mourning
- Eschatology
- Prayers and sacrifices
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Gusii
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Eastern 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
- John Beierle ; 2005
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1955-1957, 1964, 1974-1976
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1955-1976
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- southwestern Kenya
- NotesAdditional notes
- Robert A. LeVine
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-65)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 73643517
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Gusii (African people)