Ceremonial Life Research Articles

High Frontiers: Dolpo and the Changing World of Himalayan Pastoralists

Kenneth M. Bauer, High Frontiers: Dolpo and the Changing World of Himalayan Pastoralists, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.In High Frontiers, Bauer presents an ecological history of a remote region in the high Himalaya just south of the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region (China). He traces developments in the lives of Dolpo agro-pastoralists through the changes wrought by successive political waves in both Nepal and China. Although Bauer's work grew out of his training and work in ecology and development, particularly for the WWF in Nepal, it is also based on ethnographic research in Dolpo from 1996-97, and archival work on the histories of Nepal and Tibet The fruits of this multidisciplinary methodology and approach are readily apparent in this account of social adaptation to political and ecological change that takes full account of wider processes, yet remains rooted in the details and conditions of daily life. For anthropologists, the book offers an interesting and highly readable account of the effects of large-scale transnational and state processes on the daily lives of people concerned with yaks, trade and wresting crops from the steppe.Chapter 1, Agro-Pastoral System, gives a sense of daily life in the harsh climate and marginal physical environment of circa 1997. In what is perhaps the most ethnographic chapter of the book, Bauer describes a triad of interrelated and overlapping forms of production-agriculture, animal husbandry and trade-linking these to daily household practices, and to a religious and ceremonial life closely tied to subsistence concerns. The second chapter, Pastoralism in View and Review, considers the situation in Dolpo in terms of two influential approaches in academic interpretations of pastoralism, the first giving analytic primacy to social organization, the second giving primacy to the workings of ecological relations. Drawing from both approaches, Bauer contextualizes Dolpo herding practices and rangeland management strategies as variations of general types of subsistence patterns found elsewhere. Through this description, he questions assumptions commonly made, for example, in discussions of the tragedy of the by showing how the commons in Dolpo is not exploited through capricious acts of self-interest, but is instead regulated through a variety of cooperative social practices such as lotteries (administered by religious specialists) in which all have a chance at the best pastureland, and others take their turn making do with less desirable ranges. Likewise, he describes how collective labour groups ensure the equitable distribution of essential commodities gathered from the commons, like dung (fuel).Chapter 3, A sketch of Dolpo's History, is based largely on archival and published sources, and sets the stage for the following two chapters by describing Dolpo's changing relationship with neighbouring populations from 650 to 1950, and by demonstrating how similarly lengthy and fluctuating relationships between (what are now) India, China, Tibet and Nepal influenced the region, particularly in terms of trans-border trade and pastoral movement.Chapters 4, A New World Order in Tibet, and 5, Nepal's Relations with its Border Populations and the Case of Dolpo, describe how the Tibet Autonomous Region (China) on the one side, and the Nepalese state on the other have influenced Dolpo livelihoods since the 1950s. These two parallel chapters describe how critical events in state manoeuvrings and policy-making had dramatic influences on centuries-old subsistence patterns. Chapter 4 (based on the published scholarly work), for example, describes how Chairman Mao's successive campaigns to unify and reorganize China and repress resistance, resulted in changes in transportation, settlement and the organization of agricultural production that disrupted and all but severed Dolpo-pa patterns of seasonal grazing and trade in Western Tibet. …

Yuchi Ceremonial Life: Performance, Meaning, and Tradition in a Contemporary American Indian Community. Jason Baird Jackson

<i>Yuchi Ceremonial Life: Performance, Meaning, and Tradition in a Contemporary American Indian Community</i>. Jason Baird Jackson

Yuchi ceremonial life: performance, meaning, and tradition in a contemporary American Indian community

Yuchi ceremonial life: performance, meaning, and tradition in a contemporary American Indian community

The Opposite Of Powwow: Ignoring And Incorporating The Intertribal War Dance In The Oklahoma Stomp Dance Community

Among the varied Native American communities of Eastern Oklahoma two worlds of dance performance co-exist. The more famous of these is the powwow. With historical roots among the societies of the Great Plains, it has spread to Native American communities throughout North America. This paper examines connections linking the powwow with the less well-known stomp dance, a tradition associated with the ceremonial life of Native peoples whose homelands are in Eastern North America.

Central Africans and cultural transformations in the American diaspora

Forward Jan Vansina Introduction Linda Heywood Part I. Central Africa: Society, Culture and the Slave Trade: 1. Central Africa during the era of the slave trade, c. 1490s-1850s Joseph C. Miller 2. Religious and ceremonial life in the Congo and Mbundu areas, 1500-1700 John K. Thornton 3. Portuguese into African: the eighteenth century Central African background to Atlantic Creole culture Linda Heywood Part II. Central Africans in Brazil: 4. Central Africans in Central Brazil, 1780-1835 Mary Karasch 5. Who is king of the Congo? A new look at African and Afro-Brazilian Kings in Brazil Elizabeth W. Kiddy 6. The great porpoise-skull strike: Central-African water spirits and slave identity in early nineteenth-century Rio De Janeiro Robert W. Slenes Part III. Central Africans in Haiti and Spanish America: 7. Twins, Simbi spirits and Lwas in Kongo and Haiti Wyatt MacGaffey 8. The Central African presence in Spanish Maroon communities Jane Landers 9. Central African popular Christianity and the making of Haitian Vodou religion Hein Vanhee 10. Kongolese catholic influences on Haitian popular Catholicism: a socio-historical exploration Terry Rey Part IV. Central Africans in North America and the Caribbean: 11. 'Walk in the Feenda': West-Central Africans and the forest in the South Carolina-Georgia low country Ras Michael B. Brown 12. Liberated Central Africans in nineteenth century Guyana Monic Schuler 13. Combat and the crossing of the Kalunga Thomas J. Desch-Obi.

An Activist Posing as an Academic?

A few years ago, while interviewing for a tenure-track position at a large, public institution in the Midwest, I was informed that several faculty members suspected me of being "an activist posing as an academic." When I asked for more clarification, some faculty members explained that my research lacked "objectivity." Based on subsequent conversations I had during the interview process, I deduced that their ideal academic was someone who applied reductionist, social scientific methodologies to parochial, data-driven research questions. Apparently as a Tsalagi (Cherokee) scholar, my interdisciplinary, applied research threatened the "white" privilege and values of these self-appointed guardians of the political science discipline.1 I never understood how approaching questions of political mobilization and human rights as a Tsalagi scholar could be deemed so threatening to the cohesiveness of an entire field. I also failed to appreciate such a dichotomized worldview—you are either an academic or an activist, but you clearly cannot be both. Such narrow, binary thinking gives the illusion that scholarship and activism are mutually exclusive. If I were to play anthropologist to the academics who opposed my interview (as they appear to have done with me during the interview process), I would carefully document their ethnocentric belief systems, myths of academic freedom, individualistic/self-absorbed cultural practices, passive-aggressive mannerisms in refusing to engage in any discussion regarding my research, and a generalized fear of original ideas.2 While I initially found the label of "activist posing as an academic" personally offensive, I now take pride in it, knowing that my dedication to Tsalagi people and Indigenous communities did not conveniently fit [End Page 160] into a Western conceptualization of "objectivity." I am also proud that these guardians of disciplinary turf so clearly recognized the applied nature of my research and community outreach. By refusing to apologize for being a Tsalagi professor, I practiced the academic freedom that these scholars lauded publicly but suppressed privately. Not surprisingly, I never received a job offer from the institution where I interviewed. Fortunately, I already had a tenure-track position with the political science department at a large, public university in the southeastern United States, which I will refer to as Yonega University (YU). In the course of my five years of experience at YU, I found that stereotypes of the Indian "activist," "spiritual" Indian, and "Noble Savage" were still prevalent at these institutions of "higher learning." I was constantly working to debunk these stereotypes while being held up to unrealistic expectations. On the one hand, as an Indigenous professor I was somehow expected to represent the interests of all Indigenous peoples in the United States and speak on behalf of some 4.1 million Indigenous peoples at committee meetings, lectures, and so forth—despite constantly informing disappointed faculty and students that I can only speak for myself. On the other hand, my views were denounced when I voiced perspectives that were contrary to prevailing university norms of white privilege—in those instances, I was considered out of line with other Indigenous views on the issue and inadequate as a "representative" for all Indigenous peoples. As eminent Lakota scholar Vine Deloria Jr. writes: "The more we try to be ourselves, the more we are forced to defend what we have never been."3 My experiences at YU made me realize that I did not aspire to live in a world where my work would be read exclusively by other academics (which seemed rather incestuous to me) and where my work with Indigenous communities might be perceived as a distraction from the "publish or perish" mentality. Following the philosophy of noted Cherokee anthropologist Robert K. Thomas, I am a Tsalagi first and a trained political scientist second.4 I want my life to reflect my attempt to walk the way of wi-gaduwaga based on relations to kinfolk, homelands/holy places, histories, language, and ceremonial life.5 As the lives of Henrietta Mann (Cheyenne), Robert K. Thomas...

Champagne and silver buckles: the Viceregal Court at Dublin Castle, 1700-1922

Dublin Castle was for centuries the headquarters of British rule in Ireland - both literally and symbolically - and through it, much of Ireland's national history was enacted. There, the Viceroy - chief representative of the Crown in Ireland - presided, with little political influence or power of his own, but as a conduit and image of that power. Around him gathered a small, privileged minority, whose presence represented the apex of Irish high society for over 200 years. Their colourful lives, role and rituals, lent shape to what became known as the Viceregal Court. This work examines the social and ceremonial life of that court, and looks at the individual players, entourage and rulers who performed at the Castle during the onset of English administration after the Williamite wars, until its demise and withdrawl in 1922 when power was transferred to Michael Collins and to the government of the Irish Free State: No trumpets, no courtiers, no drinks on the sideboard, having withstood the attacks of successive generations of Irish rebels over seven centuries, Dublin Castle was quietly handed over to eight gentlemen in three taxicabs.

The Dialectics of “Us” and “Other”: Anglican Missionary Photographs of the Inuit

The analysis of Inuit social organization and mythology continues to be hindered by representations of Inuit that inform both anthropological and popular consciousness. In an ongoing attempt to locate those Western representations, and particularly those generated by missionaries, this paper examines formation of particular symbolic associations promulgated by missionaries as part of a wider discourse on Inuit. If Western representations can be revealed, specificity of Inuit cultural formations can emerge within their own context. In contrast to prevailing anthropological discourse, which suggests that much of our understanding of cultural productions around world is generated through creation of Other, 1 would like to argue that in Inuit studies problem is that Inuit have been seen as too much like Us and that we must exoticize Inuit to begin to approach a reasonable understanding of their culture. This concern arises Out of three axes that have appeared in recent literature. The first is Ann Fienup-Riordan's discussion of representation of Alaskan Inupiat and Yup'ik in West (1990), and more specifically in Western films (1995). She points out that films about Inuit conflate all occupants of Arctic littoral into an image more appropriate to Eastern Arctic--snow houses, small nomadic family groups, dog teams, and seal and polar bear hunting. These images fail to recognize that Inupiat and Yup'ik of Alaska lived in much richer ecological zones, occupied semipermanent villages with large bone and sod huts, and had a complex ceremonial life focusing on whale hunting. While critical of application of images of Eastern Arctic Inuit to Alaskan context, she fails to consider that image of Eastern Arctic Inuit is also stereotypical and may be limited in its application. Nevertheless, image remains very powerful within Western imagination, even though, for examp le, Inuit of North Baffin Island wintered in sod huts (qarmat) that provided permanent base camps and used famous igloo as a temporary hunting shelter, or in spring and fall. The second axis comes from a reading of contemporary literature on representations of Indians, especially Daniel Francis's work, The Imaginary Indian (1992). Francis shows ambivalence of Western image as it fluctuated between noble savage and unpredictable wild man. In any case, Indian usually appears as taciturn, dour, proud, and (in paintings and photographs) scowling and serious. The Inuit, on other hand, appear in Western iconography as the happy, smiling people, always jolly and gay in face of terrible ecological adversity. As an example, examine Figure 1 published in Anglican Churchman of March 1960. The accompanying caption read: The Eskimos are a happy people and they love to sing and dance. Here they take advantage of a lull in unloading supply ship Rupertsland which arrives once a year when ice has gone out of Bay. Supplies for whole year must be brought in during summer. If anything is forgotten it must either come by air or be delayed until following summer. Eskimo babies join dance. They bounce around on their mothers' backs and enjoy fun. (GSA, P7530-334) This image has not been historically stable. The early encounters with Inuit were fraught with conflict and violence: Martin Frobisher retreated with an Inuit arrow in his buttocks and Inuit successfully repulsed first attempt by Moravian missionaries in Labrador (Graburn 1969; Oswalt 1979). The earliest depictions of Inuit made them as bloodthirsty as Indians but this was soon to disappear in period characterized by search for Northwest Passage (and more specifically search for Franklin expedition), and whaling period. Combined with their geographical and economic marginalization, Inuit have never represented a threat to Western colonial expansion and have been treated very differently through government policy and Western charity. …

Athletics, festivals and Greek identity in the Roman east

Ceremonial life (contests and festivals) was a major preoccupation of the inhabitants of the cities of the Roman East in general and of Roman Asia Minor in particular. Processions meandered through the streets every week, and perhaps even every day, carrying processional statues and driving along sacrificial animals. The air was frequently filled with the smells and sounds of sacrificial banquets. In public places benches were set up, on which people sat to drink and eat together. On some days flocks of people could be seen rushing towards the theatre or the stadium, eager to take up their places in the auditorium, from where they could watch traditional Greek athletic or artistic contests. It must have seemed as though at any given time some part or other of the population was involved in some public ritual. The Greek city in the Roman period was – to borrow a phrase of Walter Burkert – aFestgemeinschaft, a festive community. Greek festive life was not the last resort of traditionalists, however, trying to insulate themselves from new and unpleasant social and political realities. Traditional Greek festivals were very much part of the contemporary world. I shall argue here that Greek festivals played a central part in civic life under Roman rule. I also intend to discuss how they were reformed and adapted to fit into a world where the centre of power was located in Rome. And finally, I want to assess their importance for the self-identification of the local élites.

Wo'Lakol Kiciyapi

ABSTRACT This pilot study hypothesized that the ancient traditions of help and healing among traditional Lakota people represent an alternative or complementary model for understanding a distinctive approach to American social work theory and practice which includes “shamanic” or spirit healing as a constituent part of the help and healing process. Thirty-two individuals, Including traditional Lakota elders, educators, leaders, and mental health providers, were interviewed about their views on traditional ideas of help and healing and about social work and social service practices. The findings show that there were distinctive approaches to ensure social health and well-being among pre-reservation Lakota peoples, and that the traditions of help and healing are intimately linked to the “natural law” and to the ceremonial life of the tribe. The findings show a resurgence of traditional healing practices among the Lakota with important implications for Social Work theory and practice.

Preservation and Research of Sacred Sites by the Zuni Indian Tribe of New Mexico

Sacred sites are important in the ceremonial life of the Zuni Indians of the American Southwest. To protect these sites, both on and off the Zuni Indian Reservation, the Zuni Tribe has used two research and management strategies: (1) historic preservation, and (2) legislation and litigation. In this article, the Zuni Tribe's use of historic preservation to manage sacred sites is analyzed using the report series of the Zuni Archaeology Program. While sacred sites were only a small fraction of the total number of sites recorded, the treatment of these sites as cultural resources resulted in their protection. The Zuni Tribe has also successfully managed sacred sites through special Federal legislation and litigation of land claims. In two instances, sacred places have been added to the Zuni Reservation. Although the strategies employed by the Zuni Tribe have generally been successful, our analysis identifies two as yet unresolved issues: (1) the limited ability of archaeologists to recognize sacred sites, and (2) the unknown impact that may result from the reduction of a dynamic oral tradition to the literate scholarly and legal forms of the dominant society.

Insects as food of the Irian Jaya populations

Insects and terrestrial invertebrates are presumed to have consistently contributed to the diet of our ancestors and it is estimated that 1386 insects are still adopted worldwide for human nutrition. As elsewhere in the tropical world, insects are a part of the diet of Irian Jaya populations. The distribution of insect food consumption on the western side of New Guinea island follows different patterns, according to the environment and to population subsistence economy. In the forest biome of the periferic mountain areas, many different insect species are collected in small numbers, mainly by women and children. Insect collection occurs by chance but probably helps these subjects, the most vulnerable to possible food‐shortages, to complement their diet with some extra proteins and fats. In the western lowlands, a complex cultural system is centered around the traditional staple: sago (Metroxylon sagu and rumphii). The pit of this palm, which grows spontaneously in the swampy forest plains, contains a high amount of starch and is easily gathered by the local people. A beetle (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus papuanus) is strictly linked to the sago palm and oviposits especially on damaged or felled specimens. Villagers manage the sago palms in order to increase palmworm oviposition and to collect a consistent number of larvae about 6 weeks later. This ancient sago culture, favoured by an abundant and reliable resource, has developed a rich ceremonial life connected with sago larvae consumption. Ecologic, economic and cultural factors influencing the variety of insect consumption modalities are taken into account. The development of local, small‐scale invertebrate breeding systems can contribute to the development of sustainable, renewable resources and protect tropical forests from degradation.

Barrio Matters: Toward an Ethnology of Mesoamerican Customary Social Units

One of the most perplexing topics in Mesoamerican ethnology is the customary(2) social unit that mediates relations between household (or domestic group) and community in Mesoamerican Indian and rural society (Nutini 1976:14; Thomas 1979:45; for the label rural, see Chambers and Young 1979). (Mesoamerica here refers to the most intensively studied portions of this region, central and southern Mexico and Guatemala, but the region also includes Belize, El Salvador, and small sections of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica [Kirchhoff 1968:23; Weaver 1993:2].) Scholars routinely mention this social unit among the distinctive features of the region's social organization (e.g., Kirchhoff 1968:30; Redfield and Tax 1968:33; Wolf 1959:220). It is a prominent element in local identity, politics, and ceremonial life in many Indian and rural communities (Guiteras Holmes 1968:104; Thomas 1988:195). There is no consensus on its defining characteristics, however, or its prevalence (now and in the past), or its chief variants, or, very importantly, what it should be called for comparative purposes. These issues form the substance of this article, but I will propose a definition and an analytical label at this point to facilitate discussion. The social arrangement in question is simultaneously an institutionalized alliance of households (or domestic groups) and a formal community subdivision in a hierarchically ordered, vertically integrated, customary system of social organization. It is a social segment in the strict sense employed by Service (1962:18-19) and Firth (1964:60-62), one of a set of like units that relate to one another in an orderly fashion, and whose functions serve to integrate one level of social organization with another. The unit is identified often in the literature as the Mesoamerican barrio. For reasons explained further on, barrio is an unfortunate choice of label. The alternative I propose is customary subdivision. Not every unit of organization found at the level between household and community is a customary subdivision. Excluded are units whose only purpose is to serve civil-administrative needs, such as the noncustomary subdivisions known as municipal tenencias and town secciones or demarcaciones. These are externally imposed inventions for the purposes of tax collection, censuses, and so forth. They bear little or no relevance to community organization unless their boundaries happen to correspond with the community's customary subdivisions (Guiteras Holmes 1968:105; Hunt and Nash 1967:253ff.; Redfield 1928:287; Slade 1992:50). Likewise disqualified are customary social units devoted solely to the needs of their membership, such as informal surname groups and kindreds (Taggart 1976), ritual kinship bonds or compadrazgo (Nutini 1984; Nutini and Bell 1980), reciprocal exchange networks such as ayuda, vuelta mano, and guelaguetza (Nutini 1968; Stephen 1991), patron-client dyads (Foster 1961, 1963), political factions (Friedrich 1977; Hunt 1976), and voluntary religious fellowships (Dow 1974; Nash 1958:62-64). Customary subdivision systems, by contrast, exhibit these features: an established set of co-equal subdivisions; community rules for changing the number of recognized subdivisions; community rules for assigning subdivision affiliation, such that all or virtually all the households in the community are incorporated into the system; and the formal or informal authority to draft labor from the members for both the benefit of the constituent households and the benefit of the community (Kirchhoff in Guiteras Holmes 1968:117; Lockhart 1992:16; Mulhare 1986:396, 406-08). Many qualitatively different kinds of social arrangements serve as the basis for customary subdivision systems in Mesoamerica; e.g., descent groups, territorial wards, and less easily defined groups that merge kinship, territoriality, and other criteria in varying degrees. Several obstacles stand in the way of the systematic, comparative study of these systems: 1. …

Small change: individual farm work and collective life in a western Nigerian savanna town, 1969–88

AbstractA comparison of data collected in western Nigeria (the Yoruba area) in 1968-69 and 1988 suggests that small-scale male farmers' patterns of work remained quite similar in the total amount of work they did and in the amount by task. This finding seemed surprising, since the study area lies in the food supply hinterland of the rapidly growing cities of Ibadan, Lagos and Abeokuta. The farming system has changed in several ways in response to increased urban demand and improved transport, including an increase in farm size on the part of male farmers. Changed cropping patterns, the increased use of hired labour and somewhat increased returns to labour seem only partly to account for the persistence. Analysis of the work data in terms of its timing, rather than in terms of time, suggests that farmers are tending to work at the same task in longer stretches ofconsecutive days, and this, in turn, is related to the marked rescheduling of traditional ceremonial life and the intensified politico-associational life moved to the weekend.

The dry and the wet : astronomy, agriculture and ceremonial life in Western Amazonia

The existence of priests in the Amuesha' society mainly explained the richness of cosmology and astronomicas knowledge. Astronomical configurations are linked to others systems of reference (zoological, botanical, musical or agricultural...). Thus the Amuesha apprehend their cosmos as an integrated whole through associations beween different codes...

Mortuary Ritual and Prestige Economy: The Malagan for Bukbuk

n the Melanesian island of New Ireland, located in the Bismarck Archipelago some four hundred miles northeast of New Guinea (Fig. 1), the most important moments of social and ceremonial life are the mortuary feasts most commonly known as Malagans. These are held for all individuals in the months or years after their demise, and one such celebration, staged in 1978-1979 in the Kisiu hamlet of Panatgin village (central Mandak region), was recorded in considerable detail in the ethnographic reporting of Elizabeth Brouwer and also on film by Chris Owen.' In the discussion which follows, I would like to

Egalitarian structures in Iberian social systems: the contexts of turn‐taking in town and country

Corporately organized, egalitarian systems of turn‐taking and cost‐sharing in local economic, administrative, and ceremonial life are found in Iberian communities of different sizes. Here their occurrence in the countryside is reviewed and analyzed together with new material, historical and modern, on the Spanish city of Soria, which gives perspective on the integration of egalitarian structures into the hierarchical wider society. Ideological aspects of the turn‐taking systems are explored and the position of the “rotative community” vis‐à‐vis the wider social system, with their contrasting styles of interpersonal relations, is assessed, [social organization, economic institutions, ritual organization, urban social structure, urban history, Spain, Iberia]

Civic ceremony in early modern London

The ceremonial life of the early modern town has emerged as an important area of study for urban historians. Ever since the publication of Charles Phythian-Adams' innovative study, attention has focused on the elaborate series of processions, pageants and rites of passage which were a constant feature of the yearly cycle of town life. In the wake of his work other studies of the ceremonial life of late medieval and early modern towns have added to the urban historian's awareness of the importance of ritualized forms of behaviour as a symbolic thread which helped bind together the social fabric of the townscape. The research done thus far forms one of those areas of scholarship in which the cross-fertilization of the interdisciplinary approach, so beloved of the ‘new’ urban history, has proved particularly fruitful. It might be surprising then that London, the largest of English towns, has yet to receive similar treatment. There have been, of course, several important studies of the capital in the early modern period, and they have something to say about the ceremonial life of the city. These have largely concentrated on topics such as the structure of government, the nature of London's ruling elite, and social mobility within the city's craft organizations. While providing important sidelights on ceremony, these treatments have tended to place ceremonial events in the background, as the ‘icing on the cake’. At the same time there have been many important studies by art and literary historians of ceremonial occasions such as coronations, royal entries or the Lord Mayors' Shows, but these have tended to concentrate on ceremony as an expression of dynastic propaganda or as a development in dramatic form rather than as part of the social history of the city. The object of this article will be to attempt to rectify this gap in our knowledge by applying some of the framework bequeathed by Phythian-Adams, and so try to assess the relevence of his conclusions about urban society in this period to the particular case of London.

Symbolic Patterning in Angkola Batak Adat Ritual

In Sumatra's Angkola Batak culture, rituals celebrating major kinship-related events such as marriage have many layers of social and symbolic meaning; they have political, kinship, musical, mythic, and philosophical dimensions as lengthy, oratory-filled ceremonies that unite wife-giving lineages with wife-receivers. This article examines several ways that the interpretive approach that is discussed in the introduction can help students of Indonesian ritual grasp diverse aspects of Batak marriage rituals such as their hidden symbolic organization and their practical political implications. The article deals with a short sequence ofadatdance staged for anthropological research purposes. (Adat, once translated as customary law, roughly means Angkola ceremonial life, kinship norms, and political thought;adatis eminently flexible, redefined by each Batak generation.) The choreography of the dance (wife-receivers dancing with wife-givers), songs, clothing, the political biographies of the participants, and the fact that the event was staged render the ceremony open to both structural and social contextual inquiry.

Anita Jacobson-Widding, Red-White-Black as a Mode of Thought: a study of triadic classification by colours in the ritual symbolism and cognitive thought of the peoples of the lower Congo, Stockholm, Almqvist &amp; Wiksell International, 1979, 396 pp. - John Kennedy, Nubian Ceremonial Life, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978, 265 pp. - Emefie Ikenga Metuh, God and Man in African

Anita Jacobson-Widding, Red-White-Black as a Mode of Thought: a study of triadic classification by colours in the ritual symbolism and cognitive thought of the peoples of the lower Congo, Stockholm, Almqvist &amp; Wiksell International, 1979, 396 pp. - John Kennedy, Nubian Ceremonial Life, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978, 265 pp. - Emefie Ikenga Metuh, God and Man in African