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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Ethnogenesis and Fractal History of an African Frontier: Mambila-Njerep-Mandulu |
Authors: | Zeitlyn, David Connell, Bruce |
Year: | 2003 |
Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
Volume: | 44 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 117-138 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Nigeria Cameroon |
Subjects: | Mambila historiography history ethnic groups History and Exploration Ethnic and Race Relations Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/4100385 |
Abstract: | This paper explores the notion of fractals - structures that display a similar degree of complexity at whatever scale they may be viewed - in relation to investigating African history. A case study of developing ethnicities in the Mambila region of the Nigeria-Cameroon borderland is presented from a fractal perspective: five levels of the history of this region, covering different time, population and physical scales, as well as different objects of explanation for each, are explored. The authors' general conclusion is that the different scales, or levels, at which one may view history may contain features or imply generalizations that mask features found in, or generalizations implied by, other levels. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |