How Societies Are Born : Governance in West Central Africa Before 1600

Like stars, societies are born, and this story deals with such a birth. It asks a fundamental and compelling question: How did societies first coalesce from the small foraging communities that had roamed in West Central Africa for many thousands of years? Jan Vansina continues a career-long effort to reconstruct the history of African societies before European contact in How Societies Are Born. In this complement to his previous study Paths in the Rainforests, Vansina employs a provocative combination of archaeology and historical linguistics to turn his scholarly focus to governance, studying the creation of relatively large societies extending beyond the foraging groups that characterized west central Africa from the beginning of human habitation to around 500 BCE, and the institutions that bridged their constituent local communities and made large-scale cooperation possible. The increasing reliance on cereal crops, iron tools, large herds of cattle, and overarching institutions such as corporate matrilineages and dispersed matriclans lead up to the developments treated in the second part of the book. From about 900 BCE until European contact, different societies chose different developmental paths. Interestingly, these proceeded well beyond environmental constraints and were characterized by "major differences in the subjects which enthralled people," whether these were cattle, initiations and social position, or "the splendors of sacralized leaders and the possibilities of participating in them." "Like stars, societies are born, and this story deals with such a birth. It asks a fundamental and compelling question: how did societies first coalesce from the small foraging communities that had roamed in West Central Africa for many thousands of years?" "Vansina employs a provocative combination of archaeology and historical linguistics to turn his scholarly focus to governance, studying the creation of relatively large societies extending beyond the foraging groups that characterized West Central Africa from the beginning of human habitation to around 500 B.C.E., and the institutions that bridged their constituent local communities and made large-scale cooperation possible." "The increasing reliance on cereal crops, iron tools, large herds of cattle, and overarching institutions such as corporate matrilineages and dispersed matriclans lead up to the developments treated in the second part of the book. From about 900 B.C.E. until European contact, different societies chose different developmental paths. Interestingly, these proceeded will beyond environmental constraints and were characterized by "major differences in the subjects which enthralled people," whether these were cattle, initiations and social position, or "the splendors of sacralized leaders and the possibilities of participating in such splendors.""--BOOK JACKET. Like Stars, Societies Are Born, And This Story Deals With Such A Birth. It Asks A Fundamental And Compelling Question: How Did Societies First Coalesce From The Small Foraging Communities That Had Roamed In West Central Africa For Many Thousands Of Years? 1. Preludes -- Late-stone Age Foragers -- Of Pots, Fields, And Flocks -- Proto-njila Speakers And Their Society -- The Dissemination Of The Njila Languages And Its Consequences -- Metallurgy -- Toward The Formation Of West Central Africa -- 2. Early Village Societies, 700-1000 -- Divuyu -- Agriculture -- Bovine Cattle -- Overarching Institutions : Corporate Matrilineages And Dispersed Matriclans -- Becoming Food Producers -- 3. Of Water, Cattle, And Kings -- Nqoma -- Cattle Nomads And Their Societies -- Agropastoralists -- Networks -- History, Environment, And Collective Imagination -- 4. Of Courts And Titleholders -- Feti : An Angolan Zimbabwe? -- Principalities On The Planalto -- An Inner African Frontier. Jan Vansina. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [285]-309) And Index. Frontmatter List of Illustrations (page ix) Acknowledgments (page xi) Conventions on Spelling and Citing Dates (page xiii) INTRODUCTION (page 1) Sources (page 4) Constructing a History (page 11) The Stage (page 14) Part One (page 23) 1 PRELUDES (page 25) 2 EARLY VILLAGE SOCIETIES, 700-1000 (page 69) Part Two (page 101) 3 OF WATER, CATTLE, AND KINGS (page 107) 4 OF COURTS AND TITLEHOLDERS (page 160) 5 OF MASKS AND GOVERNANCE (page 206) 6 A COMING TOGETHER (page 261) APPENDIX: THE NJILA GROUP OF LANGUAGES (page 273) References (page 285) Index (page 311) Like stars, societies are born, and this story deals with such births. It reconstructs the history of African societies before European contact, employing a provocative combination of archaeology and historical linguistics. The author uncovers what drove each society's developmental path, revealing the motivations behind how societies are born. Like stars, societies are born, and this story deals with such a birth. It asks a fundamental and compelling question: How did societies first coalesce from the small foraging communities that had roamed in West Central Africa for many thousands of years? aiming to reconstruct the history of African societies before European contact. AS STARS ARE BORN, SO ARE SOCIETIES, AND THIS IS A story about such a birth.