Book
The politics of kinship: a study in social manipulation among the lakeside Tonga of Nyasaland
Published on behalf of The Rhodes-Livingston Institute (University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland) by the Manchester University Press ; and in the U.S.A. by Humanities Press, Inc. • Manchester [eng.] • Published In 1964 • Pages:
By: Van Velsen, J..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
A superb ethnography on Lakeshore Tonga kinship and politics, which employs a situational analysis approach. The study shows how leaders to the extent possible attract followers and augment or maintain power by manipulating lineage and affinal connections, bridewealth debt, cross-cousin marriage, access to land and marital residence. Van Velsen analysizes several case studies, including ‘Meya's Death,’ expertly accounting for the different behavior of individuals and groups.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Borrowing and lending
- Status, role, and prestige
- Regulation of marriage
- Mode of marriage
- Residence
- Kin relationships
- Lineages
- Community structure
- Community heads
- Inter-community relations
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Lakeshore Tonga
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2001
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southern 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.
- Ethnographer
- 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.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard;1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1952-1955
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1930-1952
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nkhata Bay district, Northern Province, Malawi
- NotesAdditional notes
- by J. van Velsen
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-330)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 64005609
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Ethnology--Malawi