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  1. Home
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  3. The Sacred Void
  • Cited by 70
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
November 2009
Print publication year:
1991
Online ISBN:
9780511521133
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511521133
Subjects:
Social and Cultural Anthropology, Religion, Anthropology, Religion: General Interest
Series:
Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology (80)
Information

Book description

In this innovative study, David Parkin shows how indigenous African rites and beliefs may be reworked to accommodate a variety of economic systems, new spatial and ecological relations between communities, and the locally variable influences of Islam and Christianity. The Giriama people of Kenya include pastoralists living in the hinterland; farmers, who work land closer to the coast; and migrants, who earn money as labourers or fishermen on the coast itself. Wherever they live, they revere an ancient and formerly fortified capital, located in the pastoralist hinterland, which few of them ever see or visit. Their different perspectives sometimes conflict, but together provide a shifting idea of the sacred place. As the site of occasional large-scale ceremonies, moreover, the settlement becomes especially important at times of national crisis. It then acts as a moral core of Giriama society, and a symbolic defence against total domination and assimilation.

Reviews

‘Parkin’s knowledge of East African societies is second to none … As with his previous works, it contributes significantly to our understanding of the complexities of change in modern Africa.’

Source: Man

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