Individuality, Freedom of Choice, and Cultural Flexibility of the Kamba

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Periodical article

Title:	Individuality, Freedom of Choice, and Cultural Flexibility of the Kamba
Author:	Oliver, Symmes C.
Year:	1965
Periodical:	American Anthropologist (ISSN 0002-7294)
Volume:	67
Issue:	2
Period:	April
Pages:	421-428
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Kamba Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Abstract:	The Bantu-speaking Kamba of Kenya number some 800,000 people. Their effective political organization is primarily limited to the local community level. The absence of a central political structure and the emphasis on self-governing local communities, together with the size and distribution of the tribe and the fact that the Kamba are only now beginning to fill up the territory they have occupied for less than 300 years, serve to make of the Kamba a good test case for problems of variation and adaptability. The author shows that the Kamba culture can be characterized as a system which illustrates a loose structural orientation, a shallow commitment and a relatively high degree of individualism in Kamba culture fits well in this complex, and that other more structured aspects of the culture are probably related to it as well. References cited.