The power of youth

Musical practice and the construction of authority among the Samburu (Kenya)

Bibliographic Data

ID9282980
AuthorsGiordano Marmone (0000-0001-8195-4874, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author)
TranslatorsMargaret Buckner (0000-0001-5084-6686)
Year2020
Volume47
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAteliers d anthropologie (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2117-3869 • E-ISSN: 1954-3646
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/ateliers.12728
OpenAlexW2999032990
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited8

Instead of attempting to understand “young people” and “youth” through categories considered universal, it seems more fruitful to examine local productions of age categories. Among the Samburu—pastoralists of northern Kenya, where age is the foundation of individual categorisation and of an egalitarian sociopolitical organisation—youth is “non-existent,” and political authority is among the skills instilled early through training, in the same way as economic tasks. In the very particular context of musical training and the rivalries it provokes for the position of soloist, leadership skills stand out in certain cases. Musical activity, with its ability to bring distinguished personalities to light from before the age of circumcision, occupies a very central place in this power-assertion process at the individual level. As a member of a society sometimes characterised as “gerontocratic,” the Samburu young person actually appears to be the protagonist of a self-generated process of personal political authority creation, much earlier than previously imagined

Aesthetics · Art · Assertion · Context (archaeology · Musical · Personality · Personality psychology · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Social Psychology