| The Sacred Void: Spatial Images of Work and Ritual Among the Giriama of Kenya Contributor(s): Parkin, David (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0521024986 ISBN-13: 9780521024983 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $44.64 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2006 Annotation: 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 among 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 laborers or fisherman 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. It is the site of occasional large-scale ceremonies and becomes especially important at times of national crisis. It then acts as a moral core of Giriama society, and a symbolic defense against total domination and assimilation. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - Religion | Ethnic & Tribal - History | Africa - General |
| Dewey: 299.683 |
| Series: Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology |
| Physical Information: 0.64" H x 6" W x 9" (0.92 lbs) 284 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - African |