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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | A note on Vansina's invention of matrilinearity |
| Author: | MacGaffey, Wyatt |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Periodical: | The Journal of African History (ISSN 0021-8537) |
| Volume: | 54 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 269-280 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Central Africa Congo (Democratic Republic of) |
| Subjects: | traditional society matriarchy historiography anthropology |
| About person: | Jan Vansina (1929-) |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853713000303 |
| Abstract: | Jan Vansina's 'Paths in the Rainforests' (1990) provides an instructive example of progress in overcoming the continuing burden of nineteenth-century evolutionary theory in studies of precolonial Africa in both historiography and anthropology. This article focuses on a critical section of the book, which outlines social evolution and 'the invention of matrilinearity' in the area around the lower Congo, showing both the strengths and the weaknesses of Vansina's approach. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
