A Note on Vansina's Invention of Matrilinearity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8045569 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wyatt Macgaffey (Haverford College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 269-280 |
| Publication date | 2013-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021853713000303 |
| OpenAlex | W2136240576 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 30 |
Jan Vansina's Paths in the Rainforests (1990) provides an instructive example of progress in overcoming the continuing burden of nineteenth-century evolutionary theory in studies of precolonial Africa in both historiography and anthropology. This article focuses on a critical section of the book, which outlines social evolution and ‘the invention of matrilinearity’ in the area around the lower Congo, showing both the strengths and the weaknesses of Vansina's approach
Archaeology · Epistemology · Ethnology · Genealogy · Historiography · Section (typography · Sociology · Strengths and weaknesses · African history and culture studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Philosophy
Ceramics Decorated with Woven Motifs
Soyo and Kongo
Kongo Cosmopolitans in the Nineteenth Century
The Eastern Border of the Kongo Kingdom
A Central African Kingdom
The Origins of Kongo
‘To Make Book’
Introduction
From America to Africa
From Image to Grave and Back
The Making of Kongo Identity in the American Diaspora
Descent
The Kongo Kingdom
Compelling Vansina
African Voices From the Congo Coast
Rainhas, princesas e donas
Leza, Sungu, and Samba
Paths in the rainforests
Custom and government in the Lower Congo.
Lemba, 1650-1930
Africa
Ancient Law
Rise of Anthropological Theory
Kongo Political Culture
The Origins and Early History of the Kingdom of Kongo, c. 1350-1550
African Historiographies
Lineage Structure, Marriage and the Family Amongst the Central Bantu
Family and Kinship among the Kongo South of the Zaïre River from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries
Africa
Un Ordre et sa Destruction
Dialectical systems, history and anthropology
L'ombre des fetiches. Societe et culture yombe
The Invasion Hypothesis in British Archaeology
Ancient society, or, Researches in the lines of human progress from savagery through barbarism to civilization
The Savage Within
The Study of Kinship Systems
African Political Systems
Un ordre et sa destruction
Post-Colonialism and the Political Imagination
Matriliny in the Throes of Change
Matriliny in the Throes of Change
Matrilineality, Residence, and Residential Zones
Cousin Terms
| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,89 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2021 (5) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 17 |