| The Pot-King: The Body and Technologies of Power Contributor(s): Warnier, Jean-Pierre (Author) |
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ISBN: 9004152172 ISBN-13: 9789004152175 Publisher: Brill OUR PRICE: $92.15 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2007 Annotation: The king of Mankon (Cameroon) acts as a container of ancestral substances he distributes to his people. This book shows how the exercise of power in a contemporary African kingdom is based on the implementation of bodily and material technologies. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - Social Science | Sociology - General |
| Dewey: 305.896 |
| Series: African Social Studies |
| Physical Information: 0.74" H x 6.46" W x 9.38" (1.20 lbs) 325 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - West Africa - Cultural Region - Central Africa |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The king of Mankon, in the western highlands of Cameroon, is an agricultural engineer by training, a businessman, and a prominent politician on the national stage. He partakes in the "return of the kings" in the forefront of an African public space. This book analyses the principles of the sacred kingship which lie at the core of the king's different roles. While showing that the king's body acts as a container of bodily substances transformed into unifying ancestral life-essence by appropriate means, and bestowed upon its subjects, it develops an innovative approach to bodily and material cultures as an essential component of the technologies of power. In so doing, it departs significantly from previous approaches to sacred kingship. |