Strategies and Norms in a Changing Matrilineal Society: Descent, Succession and Inheritance among the Toka of Zambia (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 58)

The theme of this book is the analysis of the changes that have occurred in the kinship patterns of the Toka of South Zambia as a result of a shift in their form of production from hoe agriculture to ox-drawn ploughing. Dr Holy uses the rich, detailed ethnography that he provides about these changes to confront several theoretical issues of current anthropological interest, as well as to examine the basic methodological problems of anthropological enquiry. Emphasizing the distinction between the conceptual and cognitive world of the actors, and the transactions and events in which they engage, he argues that anthropological explanation has to account not only for structure, but also for the purposeful interaction between actors that generates that structure. Analyzes the changes in the kinship patterns of the Toka of South Zambia as they shifted their form of production from hoe agriculture to ox-drawn plowing. Confronts several theoretical issues of current anthropology including the nature of descent, and the distinction and relationship between descent groups and categories. In Guta and Cifokoboyo, the two areas which have not yet been fully affected by the modern development taking place elsewhere among the Toka, all people to whom an individual can trace a genealogical connection are his or her babululu (kinsmen, sing. mubululu). Ladislav Holy. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 224-227.