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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat 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.
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