essay
The Kingdon of the Zulu of South Africa
African political systems • London • Published In 1955 • Pages: 25-55
By: Gluckman, Max.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This source presents a comparative study of Zulu political organization in the mid-19th century under King Mpande and in the mid-20th century under European rule. After a brief introductory section on cultural history, the discussion turns to an analysis of the role of the king, the various chiefs of the political order and their relationship to and integration into the kinship system of the traditional Zulu period. As with other sources in this file, no clear definition is given of what constitutes a 'chief' -- references are sometimes given to a tribal chief, at other times to a ward head (INDUNA) and frequently the reference is only to 'chief' alone without any political point of reference. Under European rule the political structure has changed considerably. The Zulu king still exists, but primarily as a ceremonial figure. Under reserve administration the various Zulu tribes are grouped into magisterial districts, each under the supervision of a chief with limited judicial authority. The real political power today is vested in the European magistrate who is the superior political and judicial officer in KwaZulu-Natal. The comparisons and contrasts between these two political systems constitute the major bulk of the material in this source.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Status, role, and prestige
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Territorial hierarchy
- Districts
- Provinces
- Chief executive
- Deliberative councils
- External relations
- Public welfare
- Revolution
- Military organization
- Ethnosociology
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Zulu
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2005
- 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
- essay
- 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.
- 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
- John Beierle ; 1979
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1936-1938
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- ca.1450-1938
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- NotesAdditional notes
- Herman Max Gluckman
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Zulu (African people)