Avenging spirits and the structure of Saramaka lineages

Bibliographic Data

ID2898508
AuthorsRichard Price (0000-0002-3190-4710, 1. [email protected], corresponding author)
Year1973
Volume129
Issue1
Pages86-107
Publication date1973-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0006-2294 • E-ISSN: 2213-4379
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/22134379-90002733
OpenAlexW2060534817
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited11

Among the Saramaka Bush Negroes of Surinam, matri-lineages undergo fission periodically a result of certain specific social and demographic pressures. Yet the Saramakas' ideal, abstract of their lineage structure, their home-made or immediate model of the system as they believe it to be (Ward 1965: 124) does not recognize the process of fission ; the corporate lineal groups which form the basic social units of the society are envisioned eternal and unchanging. Though Saramakas participate almost daily in the kinds of events which cumulatively describe the sociological parameters of the process of fission, they view these events deplorable aberrations rather than an inherent feature of the lineage system itself. Avenging spirits are the key component of this ideal synchronie of lineage structure. They provide the basic charters for in dividual matrilineages:, and at the same time play a key role in the Saramaka interpretation of the disparate events involved in the process of lineage fission. It is the complex operation of avenging spirits through time which serves to mask for Saramakas the discrepancy between the ideal, synchronie and the fact (which they recognize in certain limited contexts) that lineage fission does occur. Following a brief introduction to the Saramaka, the paper is divided into five parts. The first introduces the concept of avenging spirits (k?nu). The second describes k?nu the central symbol of ideal lineage structure. The third outlines the nature of real lineages and the causes of fission. The fourth comes to the heart of the problem in examining the role of avenging spirits in the process of lineage fission. And the final section deals briefly with certain divisive effects of the k?nu belief on a daily level, where it functions analogously to witchcraft or sorcery beliefs in many other societies. The Saramaka, who number some 15-20,000, are one of the six

Lineage (genetic · Symbol (formal · African Studies and Ethnography · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Anthropological Studies and Insights

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