Lineage Theory: A Critical Retrospect

Abstract

The establishment of or is conventionally traced to publication in 1940 of African Political Systems, The Nuer, and The Political System of Anuak ( 15, 16,28). Lineage theory dominated study of social structure in British anthropology immediately after end of World War II and retained a central position until mid-1960s when, like British social anthropology more generally and British Em­ pire itself, it seemed to lose its impetus and to run into sands. Yet it did not completely vanish. Elements of lineage model of political organiza­ tion still embellish phantom protostates in work of African historians or the lineage mode of production in work of French Marxist an­ thropologists, or they appear simply as part of trappings, taken for granted, in dozens of ethnographic monographs. This stubborn half-life of lineage theory warrants consideration. I have an historical interest in lineage theory also, for although repre­ sented at time as a breakthrough, it was rather a transformation of earlier theories in anthropology. Understanding way in which trans­ formation occurred helps us to see how and why anthropology developed as it did. The organization of my review is roughly chronological, and I shall sketch genealogy of lineage theory, a genealogy which predictably has been tampered with (by others) to fi t later political realities. Evans-Pritch­ ard, for example, pointed out that there is a long history of interest in central themes of descent theory, that is, in the reciprocal relations be­ tween descent groups and local and political groups, between lineages and