The Roots of Ethnicity : : The Origins of the Acholi of Uganda Before 1800 / / Ronald R. Atkinson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn eBook Package Archive 1898-1999 (pre Pub)
• VerfasserIn: Atkinson, Ronald R.,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2015]; ©1995
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: The Ethnohistory Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (344 p.) :; 25 illus.

In The Roots of Ethnicity, Ronald R. Atkinson argues that although colonial rule and its aftermath have played a major role in shaping the particular manifestations of ethnicity in Africa, many sociohistorical developments crucial to current expressions of ethnicity can be traced to a past long before the colonial period. Atkinson develops his argument through an exhaustive examination of the origins of the collective identity of the Acholi of present-day northern Uganda. His study makes clear that by the time of European conquest the essential foundations and the crucial parameters for the evolution of Acholi society and ethnic consciousness had long been established. In presenting his argument for the need to extend the existing scholarship on ethnicity in Africa beyond its twentieth-century focus, Atkinson provides what is perhaps the most detailed reconstruction and analysis yet available of the pre-1800 evolution of an African sociopolitical order.Beyond these contributions to the study of African history, The Roots of Ethnicity provides an extended case study in and a convincing argument for the use of oral sources in the reconstruction and interpretation of the African past. It will be of interest to students and scholars of anthropology, history, and African studies, as well as to all those interested in ethnicity and the politics of identity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Glossary and Pronunciation Guide -- Introduction: Ethnicity in Perspective -- Chapter 1. The Available Sources and Other Influences Shaping the Present Work -- Chapter 2. Social and Economic Life in Acholi Before the Late Seventeenth Century -- Chapter 3. The New Order and Its Foundations -- Chapter 4. The Emergence of the Earliest Acholi Chiefdoms -- Chapter 5. The Southeastern Zone: The New Order Takes Hold -- Chapter 6. The Southeastern and East-Central Zones: The New Order Spreads -- Chapter 7. The South-Central and Western Zones: The Continuing Extension of the New Order -- Chapter 8. The Central and Northern Zones: The Consolidation of the New Order at the Center and Its Furthest Extension North -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Estimated Population of Acholi Chiefdoms c. 1790 -- References -- Index -- Backmatter