The power of youth

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

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9282980
AutoresGiordano Marmone (0000-0001-8195-4874, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, autor de correspondencia)
TraductoresMargaret Buckner (0000-0001-5084-6686)
Año2020
Volumen47
Fecha de publicación2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAteliers d anthropologie (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2117-3869 • E-ISSN: 1954-3646
EditorialOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/ateliers.12728
OpenAlexW2999032990
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas8

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