Simon Simonse

Kings of Disaster

Dualism, Centralism and the Scapegoat King in Southeastern Sudan

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

This study of the rainmakers of the Nilotic Sudan means a breakthrough in anthropological thinking on African political systems. Taking his inspiration from Rene Girard's theory of consensual scapegoating the author shows that the long standing distinction of states and stateless societies as two fundamentally different political types does not hold. Centralized and segmentary systems only differ in the relative emphasis put on the victimary role of the king as compared with that of enemy victims. "Kings of Disaster so proposes an uninvolved solution to the vexed problem of regicide. Recent cases occurring during the great drought of the mid-1980's are discribed and analyzed. Making simultaneous use of first-hand field data and archival sources, the book offers the first presentation of five Nilotic communities on the East Bank of the Nile. This study offers a new perspective on the role of violence in the structuring of society.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Brill / Brill NV
• Seitenzahl: 500
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. März 1992
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 238mm x 154mm x 27mm
• Gewicht: 769g
• ISBN-13: 9789004095601
• ISBN-10: 9004095608
• Artikelnr.: 21377641

Autorenporträt

Simon Simonse studied in Leiden and Paris, and worked as a lecturer of Anthropology in Zaire, Uganda, the Southern Sudan (where the material for this book was collected), and in Holland. He is presently working as an advisor for social research in the Sriwijaya University, Palembang, Indonesia.