The Internal Dynamics of Ethnicity

Clan Names, Origins and Castes in Southern Zimbabwe

Bibliographic Data

ID2590468
AuthorsBjörn Lindgren (corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume74
Issue2
Pages173-193
Publication date2004-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3366/afr.2004.74.2.173
OpenAlexW2159984316
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited47

Since the late 1960s, researchers have primarily regarded ethnicity as the result of increasing international relations, and thus often as a comparative phenomenon. Although this research has been immensely important for its critique of essentialist notions of ethnicity, analyses of the historically formed specificity of ethnicity have been somewhat neglected. In this article, using an example from Zimbabwe, the author highlights the internal dynamics of ethnicity. The article shows how people in southern Zimbabwe use various clan names, origins, and 'castes' in a practice of naming, and how this practice breaks the category Ndebele into parts. The author argues that instead of studying ethnic categories as unbreakable wholes, focusing on smaller units of analysis gives a more complex picture of ethnicity. This view challenges some more or less established truths on ethnicity deduced from comparative studies

Clan · Dynamics (music · Epistemology · Essentialism · Ethnic group · Genealogy · Phenomenon · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub