Abstract
Social Organisation in Africa.—Dr. Thurnwald concludes his survey of African social systems in Africa for October. The highest forms of social organisation in Africa are found in association with cattle and cultivation of the soil. Many crafts are practised in the home for the benefit of the family. Some callings are the monopoly of certain clans. Clans may either be equal or socially graded, while there is also gradation within the clan. In the larger units under a central authority the most diverse groups may exist side by side. Generally, the tribes which are engaged directly in procuring the means of existence are the most primitive. The higher organisation is based on the association of different tribes each specialising in an occupation. By this association, however, each tribe becomes more exclusive, as their livelihood depends more and more on the exchange of their products. Among tribes such as the herdsmen of East Africa, a graded society is directed by sacred princes, society being stratified upon agricultural clans and hunters. Among the herdsmen-farmers of South Africa, cattle-keeping is still the dominant factor. In the Sudan and West Africa the organisation is that of a stratified peasant-pastoral with three grades of freemen, dependents, and slaves. The final form to be distinguished is that of the net-like state uniting various races under a king—a type of state internally associated with sacred rites such as that of Abyssinia and Kaffa, with an aristocracy derived from cattle and horse herdsmen, great families with slaves, the use of the plough and professional craftsmen of various kinds, who are also recruited from aboriginal rulers and immigrants.
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Research Items. Nature 124, 999–1001 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124999a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124999a0