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Reexamining a classical work of social anthropology, African Political Systems (1940), edited by Fortes and Evans-Pritchard, this book looks at the colonial and academic context from which the work arose, as well as its reception and its subject matter, and looks at how the work can help with analysis of current politics in Africa. This book critically reflects upon the history of anthropology. It also contributes to a political anthropology which is aware of its antecedents, self-reflexive as a discipline, conscious of pitfalls and biases, and able to locate itself in its academic, social and political environment.
“African Political Systems Revisited is a rich collection…that…more than succeeds in obliging us to acknowledge the ongoing empirical and theoretical value of a disciplinary monument without succumbing to either theoretical nostalgia or postcolonial posturing.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
“African Political Systems Revisited is ethnographically and theoretically rich, an excellent example of how we can read, discuss with, and profit from a “classic” of anthropology, without uncritically celebrating it or haughtily dismissing its possible contributions for the present. If a similar exercise were made for other ‘classics,’ our relationships with our ancestors would be much more fruitful. The discussion of how different political systems, values and forms of legitimacy interact and are renegotiated is a necessary step toward a better understanding of what ‘freedom,’emancipation,’ ‘resistance,’ and ‘agency’ mean in different African contexts.” • Cahiers d'Études africaines
“African Political Systems Revisited (APSR) offers valuable reconsiderations of some of the key contributions of the original African Political Systems (APS) published by Meyer Fortes and Edward Evan Evans Pritchard in 1940, by way of bridging a central anthropological discussion over a span of 80 years… Altogether, APSR makes an intriguing contribution to the fields of social anthropology, political anthropology, African studies, and political theory and will be a valuable read specifically to students of political anthropology in combination with the original work.” • Anthropos
“The book is a high quality discussion by a group of established and upcoming anthropologists of the impact and value of a classical and foundational text in social anthropology … The result is a strong contribution to social anthropology with new theoretical and comparative insights.” • C.S. van der Waal, Stellenbosch University
Aleksandar Bošković is Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Archaeology in Belgrade. His books include William Robertson Smith (Berghahn Books, 2021), Mesoamerican Religions and Archaeology (Archaeopress, 2017) and Other People’s Anthropologies (Berghahn Books, 2008, editor).
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Adam Kuper
Chapter 1. The Right Book at the Right Time: Early Reactions and Continuing Debates
Aleksandar Bošković
Chapter 2. African Political Systems and Political Anthropology
Herbert S. Lewis
Chapter 3. Complementary Segmentary Opposition, Early Kingship and the Looming State: Bridging the Dichotomy of African Political Systems
Simon Simonse
Chapter 4. The Shilluk reth: Early King or Head of State? An Inter-Nilotic Exploration
Simon Simonse
Chapter 5. From African Political Systems and Tribes Without Rulers via The Early State towards a New Approach to the Political Anthropology of Africa
Petr Skalník
Chapter 6. Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment in Ankole: Revisiting the Chapter by Oberg
Günther Schlee
Chapter 7. Beyond African Political Systems? The Relevance of Patrilineal Descent in Moments of Crisis in Northern Somalia
Markus V. Hoehne
Chapter 8. Some Notes on the Tuareg (Kinin) of Northern Darfur
Munzoul Assal
Chapter 9. The Nkandla Controversy: Insights from African Political Systems
Robin Palmer
Chapter 10. Rethinking Tswana Kingships and Their Incorporation in Modern Botswana State Formation
Ørnulf Gulbrandsen
Afterword
Bilinda Straight
Index