| Concubines and Power: Five Hundred Years in a Northern Nigerian Palace Contributor(s): Nast, Heidi J. (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0816641544 ISBN-13: 9780816641543 Publisher: University of Minnesota Press OUR PRICE: $25.74 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2005 Annotation: The monumental palace of Kano, Nigeria, was built circa 1500 and is today inhabited by more than one thousand persons. Historically, its secluded interior housed hundreds of concubines whose role in the politics, economics, and culture of Kano city-state has been largely overlooked. In this pioneering work, Heidi J. Nast demonstrates how human-geographical methods can tell us much about a site like the palace, a place bereft of archaeological work or relevant primary sources. Drawing on extensive ethnographic work and mapping data, "Concubines and Power presents new evidence that palace concubines controlled the production of indigo-dyed cloth centuries belore men did. The women were also key players in the assessment and collection of the state's earliest grain taxes, forming a complex and powerful administrative hierarchy that used the taxes for palace community needs. Social forces undoubtedly shaped and changed concubinage for hundreds of years, but Nast shows how the women's reach extended far beyond the palace walls to the formation of the state itself. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Women's Studies - History | Africa - General - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social |
| Dewey: 305.420 |
| LCCN: 2004020159 |
| Physical Information: 0.59" H x 6.78" W x 9" (0.81 lbs) 245 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Central Africa - Sex & Gender - Feminine - Cultural Region - African |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Drawing on her field work in the palace between 1988 and 2003, Nast (international studies, DePaul U., Chicago) presents a historical geographical account of royal concubinage in the monumental palace of Kano, Nigeria, built about 1500 and today inhabited by over a thousand people. Her study demonstrates how human geographical methods can be used i |