Author : Ann Patricia Caplan
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351028448
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)
Book Synopsis Choice and Constraint in a Swahili Community by : Ann Patricia Caplan
Download or read book Choice and Constraint in a Swahili Community written by Ann Patricia Caplan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-16 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1975, this book examines property and power relations in a Swahili village on Mafia Island off Tanzania. It focuses on the cognatic descent groups which are important in many areas of village life such as land-holding, marriage, residence, Islamic activities and spirit possession cults. Some anthropologists have contended that groups with multiple membership cannot be viable social units, but this book shows that such a system can actually work. In showing how the cognatic descent groups actually operate, both an ideology of descent group membership and also numerical material about patterns of choice are presented. This involves the construction of both mechanical and statistical models, as well as a decision model to discuss the constraints governing choices.