Pollution and Pastoral Antipraxis

The issue of Maasai inequality

Bibliographic Data

ID2465161
AuthorsJ G Galaty (0000-0002-4150-8092, McGill University, corresponding author)
Year1979
Volume6
Issue4
Pages803-816
Publication date1979-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/ae.1979.6.4.02a00130
OpenAlexW2104438911
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited7

The issue of the inequality of specialized classes in pastoral Maasai society is discussed in relation to Mary Douglas's theoretical contribution to the analysis of pollution. The Douglas view, which would emphasize the social marginality and classificatory ambiguity of Maasai hunters, blacksmiths, and diviners is criticized as leaving unexplained their multiple forms of pollution and the origin of their distinctiveness. In contrast, this paper claims that these classes lie at the symbolic genesis of pastoral identity, through involvement in forms of "antipraxis," necessary to yet structurally contrasting to the ideal of pastoralism. Pollution and inequality are thus primary values, not secondary manifestations, that dialectically constitute, rather than reflect, the symbolic order of Maasai productive classes

Aesthetics · Ambiguity · Ethnology · Geography · Identity (music · Inequality · Linguistics · Livestock · Maasai · Optimal distinctiveness theory · Pastoralism · Social inequality · Sociology · French Urban and Social Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Social Psychology