Feuding and Warfare: Selected Works of Keith F. Otterbein by Keith Otterbein

Author:Keith Otterbein [Otterbein, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9782881246203
Google: WNeEzgEACAAJ
Goodreads: 4170769
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1993-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

6. Meek’s description of Higi social organization (1931) is difficult to understand because he does not make it clear that a village consists of a localized patrilineage. Villages are said to belong to the “same clan” (p. 254), to be the “political unit” (p. 262), and to regard all other villages, except those that use the same water supplies and market, as enemies (p. 254). On the other hand, the lineages — “kindreds are patrilineal and each kindred is exogamous” (p. 262) — are the “unit of government” (p. 254), are the “social unit” (p. 262), form “local groups” under the “spiritual authority of the local chief priest” (p. 254), and fought each other only with clubs (p. 262). Meek’s description only becomes clear, to me at least, if village and kindred (lineage) are equated. The “local group” is apparently a political community. Meek (1931, p. 254) states that “the Higi never had ... any system of secular chieftainship... Though the chief priest had no executive power, he served as a unifying agent and exercised considerable control.” Contrary to Meek, I found that the chief performed many executive functions.

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