Abstract
The article highlights a contrast between West African Niger-Congo and East and Southern African Bantu societies. Amongst the latter, kin-generations are sharply distinguished and alternate generations characteristically merged, whereas among the Niger-Congo peoples it is rather adjacent generations that are merged (a fact Radcliffe-Brown ignored). The difference is integral to the social structures of the two regions, between which however some continuity can be traced through the processes of the “Bantu expansion”. An explanation for the heightened awareness of generational differences is sought firstly in the effects of matrilineal kinship crosscutting patrifilial residence and secondly in the axial emergence of the people identified by C. Ehret as “Mashariki” in the Great Lakes area.
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