article
The Zande royal court
Zaire [microform] • 11 • Published In 1957 • Pages: 361-389, 493-511, 687-713
By: Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (Edward Evan).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Evans-Pritchard describes and analyzes the organization of the Azande royal courts at both the kingdom and provincial levels. the data pertain particularly to King Gbudwes kingdom in the last half of the 19th century and the opening years of the 20th century prior to the establishment of British colonial rule, and the data sources were mainly elderly informants and travelers accounts, supplemented by his own observations of some remaining elements of traditional court life at the courts of Gbudwes sons. Evans-Pritchard observes that the relations between the king and his immediate retinue are analogous to those between ruler and subject at each level of Azande government; hence, the structure and functions of the royal court become an index or model of the nature of political relations in the whole state. A key function and support of the territorial-administrative hierarchy is the system of economic reciprocity, whereby tribute, taxes, fines, and the products of organized labor groups such as the military companies are channeled upward to the princes and the king, and a redistribution is then made downward to the subjects of the rulers mainly in the form of prepared food and spears to be used as bride-wealth as well as weapons in warfare.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Form and rules of government
- Chief executive
- Territorial hierarchy
- Provinces
- Executive household
- Polygamy
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Azande
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1999
- 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
- article
- 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
- Gilbert Winer ; Robert O. Lagacé ; 1968-1969
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1927-1930
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- ca. 1865-ca.1905
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Sudan
- NotesAdditional notes
- E. E. Evans-Pritchard
- HRAF pagination: 1-75 p.
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- sn94094569
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Zande (African people)