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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Accumulation, Wealth and Belief in Asante History. 1: To the Close of the Nineteenth Century |
Author: | McCaskie, Thomas C. |
Year: | 1983 |
Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
Volume: | 53 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 23-43 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ghana |
Subjects: | world view Ashanti polity stools Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration |
External links: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1159772 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1159730 https://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pao:&rft_dat=xri:pao:article:4011-1983-053-00-000002 |
Abstract: | Throughout the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century the Asante state became increasingly complex. Its capacity to intervene in the social formation was institutionalized in an explicitly formulated ideology, and one of the most fundamental components of this was a purposeful rationalization of the societal ethic of accumulation. The nature of this matter is explicated by a consideration of the meanings of its symbolic representations, embracing the objects known as the Golden Stool and the Golden Elephant Tail. The first part of the article discusses the way in which, in terms of wealth, state and society interacted within the consensual framework of an agreed system of cultural assumptions and priorities, and the ways in which this social coherence came under threat, broke down and dissolved by the end of the nineteenth century. The second part deals with the issue of belief, and especially the spiritual meaning of the Golden Stool, in the twentieth century. Notes, ref., sum. in French. |