Book
The Azande: history and political institutions
Clarendon Press • Oxford • Published In 1971 • Pages:
By: Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (Edward Evan).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This book, written by a social anthropologist, brings together a series of previously published articles in presenting an admittedly piecemeal history of the Azande. The history is essentially based upon the study of one kingdom, the old kingdom of Gbudwe in the most north-easterly extension of Zandeland in the valley of the Sueh in Sudan. The history ranges in time from ca. 1863 to the time of Evans-Pritchard's field research between 1926-1930. It is based upon a survey of the available European literature (travel accounts, missionary reports, scientist's diaries and military and colonial government records of the Belgians and the British) and his own field interviews. Included in the study is a critical review of some of the literary sources used. The book covers historical surveys of the clans and their associated totems, with a sample distribution from Tembura to Merdi; the ethnic distribution of the independent clans and tribal groups that merged to form the Azande; a summary of the Zande culture (based upon Gbudwe's kingdom); ethnic (tribal and clan) origins of the royal and commoner classes; a description of court life; a history of warfare, inter- and intra-clan, and with the Belgians and British; and a history of Gbudwe's kingdom. Numerous distributional maps and genealogies of the clans and kingdoms are used to illustrate the political hierarchies and territories; these are based upon both the documents and mythological texts. In the appendix, Evans-Pritchard analyzes various versions of one of the origin myths, The Origin of the Ruling Clan, the Avongara. Chapters 9, 12, 13, and 17, seem to correspond to four documents already in the Azande file, viz. 67, 64, 57, and 65, respectively, with alterations from the original published text.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Clans
- Ethnic stratification
- Historical reconstruction
- Traditional history
- Tillage
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Warfare
- Executive household
- Chief executive
- External relations
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Azande
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1998
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central 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.
- Social 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
- Sarah T. Bridges ; Sigrid Khera ; 1973
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1926-1930
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- ca. 1863 - 1930
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Gbudwe Kingdom, Valley of Sueh, Sudan
- NotesAdditional notes
- E. E. Evans-Pritchard
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 463-439)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 70889223
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Zande (African people)