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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | A critical examination of honor cultures and herding societies in Africa |
Author: | Moritz, Mark |
Year: | 2008 |
Periodical: | African Studies Review |
Volume: | 51 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 99-117 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Africa Cameroon |
Subjects: | pastoralists Fulani honour personality |
External link: | http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/african_studies_review/v051/51.2.moritz.pdf |
Abstract: | African pastoralists have historically used aggression strategically to restock after major losses. On the basis of anthropological studies of African pastoral societies, cultural psychologists have linked the psychological roots of pastoral aggression to the cultural complex of honour. This article is a critical examination of this link, notably among the Fulbe Mare'en pastoralists of northern Cameroon. It argues, first, that honour cultures are likely to be found among peasant pastoralists, but not among tribal pastoralists. It also argues that honour psychology and the pastoral personality are two analytically distinct psychological profiles, each of which is acquired through participation in different routines. The article describes the ecocultural context of Fulbe Mare'en, herding and 'pulaaku' (appropriate social behaviour), and herding routines from early childhood to adolescence. Although, like peasant pastoralists, the Fulbe Mare'en pastoralists are (in principle) dependent on the State for security and resolution of major internal conflicts, they continue, like tribal pastoralists, to rely on their own sociopolitical organization and on group solidarity to resolve most internal and external affairs. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |