An Analytical Commentary on the Social Structure of the Dogon

Africa ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Tait
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Social System ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphIt is useful to review existing ethnographic writings from time to time in the light of advancing theory. The data considered here are contained in an impressive body of first-rate material collected in accordance with the best descriptive methods on which French ethnographers rely. This paper is in no sense a summary of the data collected by the various Missions Griaule; it is an ‘analytical commentary’ dealing only with the social system of the Dogon of Sanga that a structural analysis of the material reveals. Its purpose is to direct attention to some problems of structure for which further investigation is needed. It can most usefully be read side by side with the principal works on this people so far published.

The Concept of ‘Bewitching’ in Lugbara

Africa ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Middleton
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Opening ParagraphIn this paper I consider some Lugbara notions about witches, ghosts, and other agents who bring sickness to human beings. I do not discuss the relationship of these notions, and the behaviour associated with them, to the social structure. The two aspects, ideological and structural, are intimately connected, but it is possible to discuss them separately: on the one hand, to present the ideology as a system consistent within itself and, on the other, to show the way in which it is part of the total social system. Here I attempt only the former.

The Significance of Cattle Exchanges in Lovedu Social Structure

Africa ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Krige
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social System ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Real Place ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Social Arrangements ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Good Behaviour ◽  
Better Than

Opening ParagraphThe Louedu of the NE. Transvaal are patrilineal and marriage, which is patrilocal, involves (as it does among other S. Bantu tribes) the transfer of munywalo. This,institution has been variously interpreted as the legalization of the marriage, as a guarantee of a wife's status or good behaviour, and in terms of compensation, economic or ritual. But these interpretations are rather like parodies in which the emphasis on the features mentioned is not so much wrong as a caricature. We have, often complacently, projected our own values and motivations as universally valid. Much might be said in favour of such a caricature, if it is infused with the life of a character in Dickens, especially when the purpose has been to ennoble an institution which many regard as degrading. The kindly cartoon is better than the derogatory stereotype. It would, however, be better still if we could accommodate ourselves to a system in which the social arrangements are incommensurable with our own. More specifically, and that is the purpose of this article, we might try to discover the real place of munywalo in the social system. The manner in which we phrase the subject, that is, as the relation of the cattle exchanges to the social structure, is not meant to disguise our approach. It is intended to focus attention on the facts that cattle constitute the essence of munywalo, and that the exchanges of cattle involved are both the basis of important social arrangements and by far the most important use to which cattle are put in the society.

The Social Structure of Modern Bamako

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude Meillassoux
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
North Bank ◽  
Niger River ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Town

Opening ParagraphAccording to a partial census taken in 1960, Bamako city has about 130,000 inhabitants. Small by Western standards, it is still by far the largest city in Mali. At the time of the French conquest Bamako had only between 800 and 1,000 inhabitants; it was the capital of a Bambara chiefdom, grouping about thirty villages on the north bank of the Niger river, with a total of about 5,000 people. The ruling dynasty was that of the Niaré, who, according to their traditions, came from the Kingi eleven generations ago (between 1640 and 1700). For defence against the neighbours and armed slave-raiders fortifications were built around the town and a permanent army of so-fa (horsemen) was raised. Soon after its foundation Bamako attracted Moslem Moors from Twat who settled as marabouts and merchants under the protection of the Niaré's warriors. Among them, the Twati (later to be called Touré) and the Dravé became, alongside and sometimes in competition with the Niaré, the leading families.

16. Still a Discipline After All These Debates?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Wæver
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Social System ◽  
Sociology Of Science ◽  
Intellectual Structure ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relations Of Power

This chapter considers how the arguments associated with the thirteen different theories of International Relations discussed in the book sum up. More specifically, it asks whether IR is (still?) a discipline, and whether it is likely to remain one. The chapter examines the intellectual and social patterns of IR and the discipline as a social system, along with its relations of power, privilege, and careers. It also reflects on where, what, and how IR is today by drawing on theories from the sociology of science, whether IR can be regarded as a subdiscipline within political science, and the social structure of IR. It argues that the discipline of international relations is likely to continue whether or not ‘international relations’ remains a distinct or delineable object. It also contends that the core of the intellectual structure in the discipline of IR has been recurring ‘great debates’.

Government in Umor: A Study of Social Change and Problems of Indirect Rule in a Nigerian Village Community

Africa ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryll Forde
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Native People ◽  
Village Community ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Indirect Rule

Opening ParagraphThe policy of adapting ‘for the purposes of local government the tribal institutions which the native people have evolved themselves, so that the latter may develop in a constitutional manner from their own past’ depends for success on more than a general grasp of the outlines of native social organisation. Native standards of value as expressed in individual and collective behaviour, the operation of balances and checks in the social system, current trends which are tending to cause some institutions and customs to lose strength at the expense of others, and the economic forces that have been or are in the future likely to be operative in the society, must all be analysed and assessed in their mutual relations as interrelated elements in a complex process.

scholarly journals Struktur dan Sistem Sosial pada Aras Wacana dan Praksis

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Thohir Yuli Kusmanto ◽  
Misbah Zulfa Elizabeth
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Fundamental Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practical Reality

<p><em>The social phenomenon that became the focus of sociology has diversity in the aspects of social life of society both as a real and practical reality as well as abstract and utopian reality. The reality is static and moves dynamically inherent in social processes in the daily life of social setting. The social process shapes reality as part of the past takes place today and becomes a hope for the future. Among the social phenomena that become part of the fundamental study of sociology are structure and social system. Social structure is a process of social interaction that lasts a long time, regularly and form a pattern. The social system is a functional social interaction of a set of elements in a group or society to defend the boundaries or unity of its parts. Both in this context are interesting to explain the process of its formation, relationships, functions, traits and changes in discourse and praxis. Applying literature study this article will explore the processes of formation, relationships, functions, traits, and changes of social structure and social system in discourse and praxis. The effort is important to strengthen the sociology repertoire on the macro and abstract level.</em></p>

scholarly journals The Sacred, Heterology and Transparency: Between Bataille and Baudrillard

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 175-191
Author(s):  
William Pawlett
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social System ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Central Nucleus ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sacred And Profane ◽  
Symbolic Exchange ◽  
Left And Right

This article re-examines Bataille’s increasingly influential notion of the sacred, with particular emphasis on the left or impure aspects of the sacred and their relationship to social structure or topology. Bataille’s understanding of the ‘sacred nucleus’ of society is examined in detail, particularly his suggestion that society endures only as the hardening of the conduits of sacred and profane around a radically heterogeneous, impure or ‘filthy’ central nucleus. For Bataille the sacred as heterogeneous is necessarily excluded from profane, homogeneous working life, and is internally divided between left and right, or pure and impure aspects. The article then examines the theme of profanation in Bataille’s writing, and the emergence of what he calls ‘post-sacred’ society. Finally, the article turns to Baudrillard’s relationship to Bataille’s work, and, beyond their common indebtedness to Mauss, the author examines the thematic relationship between Bataille’s heterological sacred and Baudrillard’s notions of symbolic exchange, evil and transparency. Baudrillard’s work presents a version of heterology more adapted to the contemporary era of rampant consumerism and virtual technologies, but, as the author argues, it actually departs rather little from Bataille’s position. However, for Baudrillard, profanation generates conditions of hyper-positivity and transparency which reintroduce evil, repulsion and disorder into the social system.

The social structure of the Sotho-speaking peoples of Southern Africa

Africa ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Kuper
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Social System ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
Central Case ◽  
The Relationship

IntroductionIn this paper I draw together modern reports on various Sotho-speaking peoples and attempt to indicate the relationship between the political arrangements within each ‘tribe’ and certain aspects of its social system—in particular, patterns of marriage preference and residential alignment.The richest data and some of the most penetrating analysis is to be found in Schapera's writings on the Tswana, and his Tswana material provides my central case-study. The Kgalagari and the Southern Sotho (Basuto) systems are obviously similar in many ways, although I shall point out some interesting variations. In the second part of the paper I attempt to show that the variables abstracted in the first part are related in only slightly different ways in the superficially divergent systems of the Pedi and the Lovedu, and even in some groups whose organization has been fundamentally disrupted by colonial or settler intervention.The Sotho-speaking peoples have intrigued many anthropologists particularly because of their preference for marriage with close kin, usually including all cousins, and sometimes even closer relatives. It was with this in mind that Radcliffe-Brown (1950: 69) remarked that the Tswana ‘are decidedly exceptional in Africa, and might almost be regarded as an anomaly’. This is a problem which is central to my analysis, and in order to clear the ground something must be said about marriage strategies in general. Broadly speaking, there are three options, which I will now outline.

Polygamy in Mεnde Country

Africa ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. H. Crosby
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Social System ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphPolygamy is a social system, and is intimately bound up with the subject of property, of labour, and of the difference in status between men and women. If this paper appears to trespass into other fields it is because of the complexity of the subject and because polygamy is not something that can be abstracted from the social organization generally and be examined by itself; it is both symptom and cause of widespread difference in Mende society from that of our own.

Tsimihety Kinship and Descent

Africa ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Adequate Account ◽  
Recent Discussion ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
A Minor

Opening ParagraphThough the Tsimihety tribe is the subject of three monographs by Molet (1953, 1956, 1959) and a number of papers by various authors (e.g. Mattei, 1938; Magnes, 1953), its social structure has not yet been adequately described. Indeed, there is no adequate account of the social structure of any Malagasy group, although Ottino's (1963) analysis of aspects of Vezo social structure is very illuminating. The primary aim of this paper therefore is to describe two of the major features of Tsimihety social structure—kinship and descent. As there are facets of Tsimihety kinship and descent that have some bearing on recent discussion of these topics, a secondary aim is to contribute, in a minor way, to that discussion.

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