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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Malcolm Guthrie and the Reconstruction of Bantu Prehistory |
Author: | Flight, Colin |
Year: | 1980 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 7 |
Pages: | 81-118 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Subsaharan Africa Africa |
Subjects: | Bantu-speaking peoples migration history ethnic groups History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171657 |
Abstract: | The Bantu expansion is one of the most important large-scale problems in African culture history. Until recently, the problem revolved around two linguists - the one an American, Joseph H. Greenberg, the other a British, Malcolm Guthrie. Throughout the 1960s all discussion of the Bantu expansion among non-linguists, in British circles at least, was predicated on the facile compromise that the rival theories of Greenberg and Guthrie - whatever they themselves might think - were only in 'apparent' contradiction. However, as everyone by now seems willing to admit, the contradiction was not 'apparent' only, but real. Greenberg was basically right, while Guthrie was fundamentally wrong. The author here traces the development of Guthrie's conception of Bantu prehistory, explaining as briefly as possible where he went astray. Fig., notes. |