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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Bantu Expansions: Re-Envisioning a Central Problem of Early African History
Author:Ehret, ChristopherISNI
Year:2001
Periodical:International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:34
Issue:1
Pages:5-41
Language:English
Geographic terms:Subsaharan Africa
Africa
Subjects:Bantu-speaking peoples
migration
language classification
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3097285
Abstract:How did Bantu languages come to be spoken across almost half of Africa? That question has exercised the imaginations of Africanist historians for decades. Over the last twenty years, one notable claim has held that the Bantu languages can be divided into two primary, coordinate branches, 'Western' and 'Eastern' Bantu. The present author argues, on the contrary, that there is no single genetic primary branch of Bantu that can be called 'Western Bantu', coordinate with an Eastern Bantu branch containing the rest of the Bantu languages. In order to clarify the central evidence in this controversy, the author first gives a brief survey of the historiography and the historical implications of the alternative views of the eivdence. He then looks in detail at the published evidence adduced in support of a 'Western' Bantu branch and shows how it undermines instead of supports that hypothesis. Finally, he discusses two key concepts of linguistic historical interpretation, both of which are important to understanding the controversy: two models of internal relationships within a language group - the wave model and the tree model; and the use of the scientific principle of Ockham's razor - the principle of parsimony of explanation. App., notes, ref. Comments by Roland Oliver, Thomas Spear, Kairn Klieman, Jan Vansina, Scott MacEachern, David Schoenbrun, James Denbow, Yvonne Bastin, H.M. Batibo, Bernd Heine, Michael Mann and Derek Nurse (p. 43-81), with a reply by Ehret on p. 82-87. (Comment by Felix A. Chami in: International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 34, no. 3 (2001), p. 647-651.) [ASC Leiden abstract]
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