An African Aristocracy: Rank Among the Swazi (Kafrican Ethnographic Studies of the 20th Century)

Originally published in 1947 and reprinted with a new preface in 1961, this book is based on field studies and gives an account of the social organization of the Swazi, wiith special reference to the aristocratic structure of their society and the way in which birth and rank determine social relationships and activities. The book provides a historical picture of the Swazi and the part played by them during the period of European expansion in British and Boer conflicts in South Africa. The economic structure of a society based on agriculture and the influence exerted over every aspect of social activity by the conservative and aristocratic political hierarchy is analyzed and post-War changes and their effect upon the Swazi also reviewed. The aim of this book was to introduce the European to the art of West Africa. Many of the examples (extensively illustrated with black and white photos are from the regions between Senegal and Angola, primarily from Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Nigeria and the Cameroons. Although the art and sculpture of West Africa is coherent, there are tribal and territorial characteristics which are discussed as is the significance of masks in ritual ceremony Routledge is delighted to be re-issuing 79 volumes originally published between 1931 and 1988 in association with the International African Institute. Unavailable outside a few key libraries, many of these republished volumes were at the cutting edge of a fieldwork and ethnographic revolution in African anthropology in the decades after 1930. Originally published in 1977, this volume completes with a wealth of case material and against the background of a whole century, Monica Wilson's detailed study of the Nyakyusa-Ngonde people of Tanzania and Malawi. In this study of the Ndembu of Zambia, ritual is examined under two aspects: as a regulator of social relations over time and as a system of symbols. Social life is thereby given direction and meaning.