Anthropology Books

Originally published in 1933, this book is a comparative study of the labour market in the early part of the twentieth century in different parts of Africa. It focusses particularly on the impact of Western influence, both on an industrial and...

Originally published in 1937, this book describes and compares the tribes of the Mongalla Province in what is now South Sudan. In the second part of the book some 27 individual tribes are discussed in detail, and topics such as linguistics, culture,...

Originally published in 1971 and written in English and French, with summaries in both languages, the essays in this volume dsicuss the effects of internal economic and political conditions and of external relations on the development of trade and...

Originally published in 1961, this study of the indigenous system of government in Ruanda-Urundi until the beginning of the 20th century, describes the complex relationship between the Tutsi and the Hutu and shows how the Tutsi succeeded in maintaining...

Originally published in 1956, the main emphasis of the book is on the complex age-set organization which constitutes the framework within which the life of every Kikuyu is regulated from infancy to old age. The book shows how the political and...

Originally published in 1958, this book discusses how marriage and Fulbe family life, the economy and the whole organization of society is centred on cattle; how the welfare of the herd and its increase, the balance betweent he size of the herd and the...

Originally published in 1964, this book analyses the unique type of social stratification which is more akin to a social class system in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. Liberia, established in 1847 has no history of rule by a colonial power and is of...

Originally published in 1975, this book presents the results of research into social change in Ghana. The book looks in detail at the problems of particular sub-groups and sectors in one single nation and they show that the field-worker with a wide...

Originally published in 1949, this book takes the analysis of Tale social structure further. It shows how the patriarchal principle regulates domestic life and thus moulds individual development among the Tallensi. The analysis of the inter-connexion of...

Originally published in 1980 and here re-issued with an updated preface, this book deals with the role of the horse in the societies of West Africa during the pre-colonial period. It traces the history of its introduction and its diffusion within West...

Originally published in 1975, the studies in this volume examine the range of factors which mediate the development of social processes in both town and country: as well as migration there is the ebb and flow of beliefs, ideologies and educational and...

Originally published in 1975, the papers collected in this volume review African pastoralism in both West and East Africa, in relation to economy, ecology, social and community organisation, kinship, inter-group relations, modern administrative attitudes...

Originally published in 1966, this book brings together papers dealing with the emergence and development of elites in sub-Saharan Africa among social categories ranging from farmers and women market traders through foremen and merchants to...

Originally published in 1957, this is an account of the Chiga, a Bantu tribe of Western Uganda. The Chiga are an independent farming people who have no tribal organization, and unlike the neighbouring East African peoples of a similar culture, no caste...

Originally published in 1963, this was the first monograph concerning an African people in which an irrigation-based society was studied in detail and its implications explored. The Sonjo, a Bantu-speaking people isolated among cattle pastoralists of...

Originally published in 1951 this book analyses the social values and institutions involved in the establishment and maintenance of marital relationships. Most of the data is derived from Umor, the largest of the five Yakö villages. As well as...

Originally published in 1956 this book contains extracts of the 18th century diary of an Efik chief and documents the activities of slave-traders, the rituals of the Egbo society and many details of domestic life of among the Efik. This volume includes...

Originally published in 1964 this volume collects together 25 years' worth of journal articles from the UK and USA. It brings together detailed descriptions and analyses of various aspects of the Yakö peoples of the Cross River area of Eastern Nigeria...

Originally published in 1971 this book argues that certain aspects of traditional African social systems have been misunderstood because of a failure to appreciate what is implied by important differences between the technologies of the major traditional...

Originally published in 1967 (second edition) presents an account of the life and social organisation of the Lo Wiili of the Haute Volta and Ghana. Chapters on the geographic and ethnographic background and economic system are followed by a detailed...

Originally published in 1945, this book analyses Tale social structure at the level of corporate group organization. Tale culture is discussed primarily as the content of social relations and not in its own right. Customs, beliefs, conventional usages,...

Originally published in 1972 this study analyses the process of economic growth and social change in the riparian communities of the Lower Volta River in Ghana, which came about in large part due to the construction of the Volta dam in 1963. With its...

Originally published in 1962, this study discusses the changes in the life of the Ovimbundu from the time of their caravan trade in slaves, rubber, and ivory down to the more recent period when the organization of their chiefdoms was influenced by the...

Originally published in 1943 this book discusses the life and culture of the Lovedu, a Bantu tribe in South Africa. As well as discussing the Rain-Queen, much of the book is devoted to the royal institutions; the network of links woven by kinship,...

Originally published in 1967 this volume presents studies of 10 West African kingdoms which have played an important part in the economic, political and cultural life of the region. Ranging geographically from the kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria to...

Originally published in 1947 and reprinted with a new preface in 1961, this book is based on field studies and gives an account of the social organization of the Swazi, wiith special reference to the aristocratic structure of their society and the way in...

Originally published in 1954 this book was originally designed for administrators but has become a key title for anthropologists. It includes a summary account of the history and social organisation of the Nuer and provides a descriptive analysis of...

Originally published in 1950 and updated in 1968, this book discusses the functions and status of native chiefs in what were the French colonies in West Africa. It also examines the relation of the French legal code to native law and custom and the...

The label 'Suicide Cults' has been applied to a wide variety of different alternative religions, from Jonestown to the Solar Temple to Heaven's Gate. Additionally, observers have asked if such group suicides are in any way comparable to Islamist suicide...

Originally published in 1967, this book is a study of witchcraft and sorcery among the Shona, Ndebele and Kalanga peoples of Zimbabwe. It analyses in their social context verbatim evidence and confessions from a comprehensive series of judicial records...

The great critic Peter Viereck, in a volume that both reproduces an earlier effort and presents an entirely new work on the intersection of history and literature, offers a biting critique of the American desire for normalcy that leads to a culture of...

Humor, wit, and laughter surround each person. From everyday quips to the carefully contrived comedy of literature, newspapers, and television we experience humor in many forms, yet the impetus for our laughter is far from innocuous

Originally published in 1945, this book was written at a time when an increasing European influence was affecting customary law in what was Tanganyika and this volume records different aspects of customary law such as inheritance, matrimony, divorce,...

Originally published in 1953, this book records the Customary Law of the Sukuma tribe and discusses the differences in law whcih grew up in the various local federations, with the aim of unifying Customary Law for both the Tanzanians and European...

Originally published in 1949, this book discusses Umbundu social structure and education, with particular reference to how both of these adapted as Angola's contact with Western influences increased in the first half of the twentieth century. Using...

Originally published in 1931, this book collects tales told to the author by agricultural labourers and hunters in what was Togoland in the 1920s. A rare and valuable resource of oral history, the book also contains the history of the Dagomba from...

Originally published in 1935, when the province of Iringa in what is now Tanzania was still under British administrative control, this book is inevitably a product of its time, but nonetheless it represents an important project in collaboration between...

Since publication in 1957 the importance of Bohannan's study of judicial institutions and procedures among the Tiv has been widely recognized. It has contributed widely to the continuing discussion concerning the objectives and methods to be followed in...

Since publication in 1957 the importance of Bohannan's study of judicial institutions and procedures among the Tiv has been widely recognized. It has contributed widely to the continuing discussion concerning the objectives and methods to be followed in...

Originally published in 1959 this volume studies the ritual office of the Mugwe which was of great social significance among the Meru of the Central Province of Kenya and analyses the social changes and decline of the Mugwe which came about in the second...

Originally published in 1951, this book provides an account of the traditional status and functions of the Asanti chief. The effects of British administration on the powers of the chief and his council are described, as are the tensions which the...

This collection of R. E. Bradbury's papers, originally published in 1973 includes edited sections of his (then hitherto) unpublished thesis on the Benin village in Western Nigeria. The book is arranged in 3 parts: historical and political studies of the...

Originally published in 1963 this volume surveys various aspects of the complex relations between rights in land, social organization and economic interests in tropical Africa. The papers - in English and French but with summaries in the other language -...

Originally published in 1973, this volume presents some of the main approaches that were developed by French Africanists during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The book covers social structure, kinship systems, economic change, ethnography, language, history and...

Originally published in 1957 this volume deals with the issue of large scale immigration into Freetown, Sierra Leone from the rural areas in the 1950s and the problems which arose as a result. It analyzes the way traditional social systems had to adjust...

Originally published in 1952 and as a second edition in 1967 this volume provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the Basuto people and their changing culture, and reviews the developments and changes leading up to 1966 when Basutoland...

Originally published in 1974, this volume deals with studies of migration from census and other data, variations in scale, distance and duration of various types of migration, social relations of migrant populations with their home areas and their host...

This book focuses on the emotional hazards of conducting fieldwork about or within contexts of violence and provides a forum for field-based researchers to tell their stories.