The Lele of the Kasai
Encyclopedia
The Lele of the Kasai was the first book by the influential British
anthropologist Mary Douglas
under her married name (her Peoples of the Lake Nyasa Region appeared under her maiden name, Tew, in 1950). In it she reported on her anthropological fieldwork among the Lele people
on the western bank of the Kasai River
in the Basongo area of what had at the time been south-western Belgian Congo
. The ending of Belgian colonial rule in 1960 was one of the factors that brought her to abandon the usual practice in anthropological field reports of writing in the present tense. The book describes the social, economic and religious life of a large Lele village.
The second chapter, entitled The Productive Side of the Economy, considers the resources available to the Lele, and their exploitation of them through hunting, fishing, slash and burn
agriculture, and craftsmanship, primarily the production of raffia cloth.
The third chapter, Distribution of Wealth, describes how durable and perishable goods are distributed in accordance with status, payment of fees and dues, and exchange through trade and barter.
The fourth chapter, The Village: Offices and Age-Sets, sets out how the division of a village by age set
s cross-cuts and counter-balances division by kinship
.
The fifth chapter, Clans, describes the social functions of matrilineal clan
s spread out over a number of villages.
The sixth chapter, Marriage: I. The Private Wife and Private Family, discusses the polygynous system of household marriage, concentrating control of marriageable women in the hands of older men, the special status accorded to fathers and grandfathers, the social obligations of sons-in-law, notions of sexual pollution, and mother-daughter relationships.
The seventh chapter, Marriage: II. The Communal Village-Wife and Communal Family, considers a system of polyandry
, outlawed by the Belgian colonial authorities, to provide a "village wife" as a communal resource for otherwise unmarried men. While this was regarded by missionaries as little better than a form of prostitution, Douglas describes the honour attendant on being "married to the village".
The eighth chapter, Blood Debts, outlines forms of compensation paid to clans for deaths of clan members held to have been caused by sorcery or sex pollution.
The ninth chapter, The Village: as Creditor and Debtor, considers the village as a "corporate personality", able to make and settle claims. Deaths by violence were a matter for the village, rather than the clan, to settle or avenge.
The tenth chapter, The Role of the Aristocratic Clan in Relations between Villages, sets out inter-village rivalries, "dominated by the idea of wiping out insults and injuries by killing men or capturing women", before discussing the role of the aristocratic Tundu clan, who claimed a sort of ritual ascendancy over the Lele as a whole but had no special political paramountcy.
Chapter eleven, Religious Sanctions on Village Unity and the Organization of Village Cults, describes belief in a single god, "Njambi", whose action in the world is mediated by various spiritual beings; ritual (sexual) segregations and taboo
s; the village cults of "begetters" and of diviners, membership of which imparted spiritual authority and occult knowledge. Her analysis of the most senior of these, the Pangolin
cult (reserved to those who had engendered a male and a female child with the same wife, among other restrictions), became a byword for Mary Douglas's ethnographic insight.
The twelfth chapter, Sorcery, describes the Lele conception of the sorcerer as a skilled diviner, and the efforts of diviners to direct accusations of occult harm towards breaches of ritual purity, the spirits of the dead, sorcerers from other villages, and those who had left the village.
Chapter thirteen, Control of Sorcery, describes the two traditional methods of combatting sorcery: the "poison ordeal" (outlawed by the Belgian colonial authorities in 1924, so that "by 1950 the institution seemed to have disappeared from Lele life", p. 241), and the "messianic" anti-sorcery cults that periodically swept through the villages, wiping the slates of past sorcery accusations clean.
The final chapter, European Impact on Lele Society, describes the effects of colonial administration, the international cash economy, and missionary preaching.
by Oxford University Press
in 1963. A second, paperback edition, published by the International African Institute, followed in 1977. In 2003 the book was reissued by Routledge
as volume 1 of Mary Douglas: Collected Works.
and in
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
anthropologist Mary Douglas
Mary Douglas
Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism....
under her married name (her Peoples of the Lake Nyasa Region appeared under her maiden name, Tew, in 1950). In it she reported on her anthropological fieldwork among the Lele people
Lele people
The Lele, also known as Bashilele or Usilele, are a subgroup of the Kuba people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They traditionally live in the Kasai River region, but since the 1950s many have migrated to Kinshasa. There are currently about 30,000 Lele, of which 26,000 speak the Lele...
on the western bank of the Kasai River
Kasai River
The Kasai River is a tributary of the Congo River, located in central Africa. The river begins in Angola and serves as the border between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo , then flows into the DRC, where it joins the Congo northeast of Kinshasa. The Kasai's tributaries include the...
in the Basongo area of what had at the time been south-western Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
. The ending of Belgian colonial rule in 1960 was one of the factors that brought her to abandon the usual practice in anthropological field reports of writing in the present tense. The book describes the social, economic and religious life of a large Lele village.
Contents
The first chapter, The Lele on the Map, indicates the location of Lele territory, the neighbouring peoples, and the relations between them.The second chapter, entitled The Productive Side of the Economy, considers the resources available to the Lele, and their exploitation of them through hunting, fishing, slash and burn
Slash and burn
Slash-and-burn is an agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically uses little technology or other tools. It is typically part of shifting cultivation agriculture, and of transhumance livestock...
agriculture, and craftsmanship, primarily the production of raffia cloth.
The third chapter, Distribution of Wealth, describes how durable and perishable goods are distributed in accordance with status, payment of fees and dues, and exchange through trade and barter.
The fourth chapter, The Village: Offices and Age-Sets, sets out how the division of a village by age set
Age set
In anthropology, an age set is a social category or corporate social group, consisting of people of similar age, who have a common identity, maintain close ties over a prolonged period, and together pass through a series of age-related statuses...
s cross-cuts and counter-balances division by kinship
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
.
The fifth chapter, Clans, describes the social functions of matrilineal clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
s spread out over a number of villages.
The sixth chapter, Marriage: I. The Private Wife and Private Family, discusses the polygynous system of household marriage, concentrating control of marriageable women in the hands of older men, the special status accorded to fathers and grandfathers, the social obligations of sons-in-law, notions of sexual pollution, and mother-daughter relationships.
The seventh chapter, Marriage: II. The Communal Village-Wife and Communal Family, considers a system of polyandry
Polyandry
Polyandry refers to a form of marriage in which a woman has two or more husbands at the same time. The form of polyandry in which a woman is married to two or more brothers is known as "fraternal polyandry", and it is believed by many anthropologists to be the most frequently encountered...
, outlawed by the Belgian colonial authorities, to provide a "village wife" as a communal resource for otherwise unmarried men. While this was regarded by missionaries as little better than a form of prostitution, Douglas describes the honour attendant on being "married to the village".
The eighth chapter, Blood Debts, outlines forms of compensation paid to clans for deaths of clan members held to have been caused by sorcery or sex pollution.
The ninth chapter, The Village: as Creditor and Debtor, considers the village as a "corporate personality", able to make and settle claims. Deaths by violence were a matter for the village, rather than the clan, to settle or avenge.
The tenth chapter, The Role of the Aristocratic Clan in Relations between Villages, sets out inter-village rivalries, "dominated by the idea of wiping out insults and injuries by killing men or capturing women", before discussing the role of the aristocratic Tundu clan, who claimed a sort of ritual ascendancy over the Lele as a whole but had no special political paramountcy.
Chapter eleven, Religious Sanctions on Village Unity and the Organization of Village Cults, describes belief in a single god, "Njambi", whose action in the world is mediated by various spiritual beings; ritual (sexual) segregations and taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
s; the village cults of "begetters" and of diviners, membership of which imparted spiritual authority and occult knowledge. Her analysis of the most senior of these, the Pangolin
Pangolin
A pangolin , also scaly anteater or Trenggiling, is a mammal of the order Pholidota. There is only one extant family and one genus of pangolins, comprising eight species. There are also a number of extinct taxa. Pangolins have large keratin scales covering their skin and are the only mammals with...
cult (reserved to those who had engendered a male and a female child with the same wife, among other restrictions), became a byword for Mary Douglas's ethnographic insight.
The twelfth chapter, Sorcery, describes the Lele conception of the sorcerer as a skilled diviner, and the efforts of diviners to direct accusations of occult harm towards breaches of ritual purity, the spirits of the dead, sorcerers from other villages, and those who had left the village.
Chapter thirteen, Control of Sorcery, describes the two traditional methods of combatting sorcery: the "poison ordeal" (outlawed by the Belgian colonial authorities in 1924, so that "by 1950 the institution seemed to have disappeared from Lele life", p. 241), and the "messianic" anti-sorcery cults that periodically swept through the villages, wiping the slates of past sorcery accusations clean.
The final chapter, European Impact on Lele Society, describes the effects of colonial administration, the international cash economy, and missionary preaching.
Editions
The first edition was published for the International African InstituteInternational African Institute
The International African Institute was founded in 1926 in London for the study of African languages...
by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
in 1963. A second, paperback edition, published by the International African Institute, followed in 1977. In 2003 the book was reissued by Routledge
Routledge
Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
as volume 1 of Mary Douglas: Collected Works.
Reviews
The Lele of the Kasai was reviewed by:- P. H. Gulliver in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 27:1 (1964), pp. 210-211.
- Godfrey LienhardtGodfrey LienhardtRonald Godfrey Lienhardt was a British anthropologist.-Life and field work:Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, of mixed Swiss and Yorkshire parentage, he went up to Cambridge University in 1939, where he read English under F. R. Leavis until he was called up and became a transport officer,...
in African AffairsAfrican AffairsAfrican Affairs is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by Oxford University Press on behalf of the London-based Royal African Society. The journal covers any Africa-related topic: political, social, economic, environmental and historical...
, Vol. 63, No. 253 (1964), pp. 298-299. - Jan VansinaJan VansinaJan Vansina is a historian and anthropologist specializing in Africa. He is the foremost authority on the history of the peoples of Central Africa.-Biography:...
in Journal of African History, 5:1 (1964), pp. 141-142.
and in
- Archives de sociologie des religions, vol. 9, No. 17 (1964), pp. 175-176.
Sources
- Richard Fardon, Mary Douglas: An Intellectual Biography (London: Routledge, 1999), ch. 3.
External links
- Partial preview on Google Books.