International African Institute

The Wahi Wanyaturu: Economics in an African Society by Harold K. SchneiderReview by: Aidan SouthallAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Oct., 1971), pp. 334-335Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1158927 .

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334 REVIEWS OF BOOKS

The Wahi Wanyaturu: Economics in an African Society. By HAROLD K. SCHNEIDER. (Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, no. 48, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthro- pological Research.) Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1970. Pp. i80, 23 plates, 6 maps.

HAROLD SCHNEIDER'S study of the Turu pastoralists and bulrush millet growers of Central Tanzania is the best vindication from Africa so far of the formalist approach to the economics of subsistence societies. The Turu seem to maximize utilities in a clearly calculat- ing way in about as much of their activities as the average suburbanite. The internal economy constitutes a rationally integrated market system. The crucial factors of land, manure, cattle, and women are highly correlated, although simple figures of land ownership conceal qualitative differences and momentary variations in utilization, while the amount of actual grain produced in any one season depends in part upon the vagaries of nature. Obviously we have only Schneider's picture of the society to go upon, but it is for the most part a con- vincing one, in which his analysis of competitive transactions adequately demonstrates the existence of a maximizing market system and has no need of further distributive or reciprocal concepts. How widely would this type of analysis apply, and how much does it depend on the peculiar amenability of the Turu to it ? There are some indications that the Turu may be rather more coldly maximizing even within the bounds of the immediate family than some other cattle peoples or segmentary lineage systems would allow, but the conclusion must be that the analysis is generally applicable.

The discussion raises implicit questions about Barth's oversimplified assumption of the corporate lineage as generated by undifferentiated equal rights of joint ownership against the world. Schneider refers to lineage segments of various levels as corporate, but most of the time treats them as if they were not, since for practical purposes rights are irrevocably differentiated and specifically allocated right down to the houses of individual wives and their sons. Most unusually, compensation must be paid for homicide even between full brothers, and it is received individually not jointly.

The other intriguing thread which runs through the book concerns current debates about descent. Schneider courageously invokes the ghost of matrilineal survival. He sees unresolved conflict in the Turu system between a dominant patrilineal principle and a matri- lineal principle which is vague but persists. Marriage is not purchase but rather lease of a woman by her brother, in which the transfer from one group to the other is never complete. Although agnates clearly hold the main responsibility for and to one another, the mother's brother can, not always successfully, demand compensation for a sister's son and his agnates if the sister's son is injured, on the ground that he and they are responsible for damage to 'property' in which the mother's brother has an interest. Perhaps this only dramatizes an element which is always inherent in the relations of brothers, sisters, their husbands, children, and in-laws. But Schneider relates it to his argument that increasing livestock wealth leads to increasing emphasis on patrilineal descent and the development of seg- mentary lineage or age organization. Although this may seem dangerously near to echoing the ' strong father right' fallacy, it is an interpretation which deserves very careful explora- tion, for it is quite as plausible as the tortuous functional explanations which may be devised to account for the practices mentioned above. The most closely related neighbours of the Turu, the Iramba, are still matrilineal and largely matrilocal, while other peoples of the region represent a wide variety of permutations and combinations, with the Turu and Gogo combining the greatest wealth in livestock with the clearest patrilineal emphasis.

It is interesting that the mbuya, or cicisbean lover relationship, which appeared anomalous in the ethnography when described by Rigby for the Gogo, appears in similar form among the Turu, but the suggestion that 'husbands only allow these relationships because they cannot prevent them ' (97) makes comparative nonsense. Likewise, the women's organiza-

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REVIEWS OF BOOKS 335 tion with its powerful sanctions on male conduct, which seemed so unusual when described by Klima for the Barabaig, exists in very similar form among the Turu. It must be remem- bered that the Turu, like the Gogo, and many other Bantu peoples of the region are not a tribe as conventionally understood (although unfortunately Schneider uses the term). These are composite ethnic identities of overlapping and often fairly recent origin. They are defined by ecological isolation, but comprised of elements derived from all directions, symbolizing their exploitation and ultimate defence of a common habitat in their claim to descend from a single, primal ancestor, Mu Rimi in the case of the Turu, although in fact one clan claimed to be the only one of pure Mu Rimi descent, while others claimed that the largest clan of all was of Gogo origin.

There are defects in the text as published. The use of capitals to indicate short vowels, leading to such abominations as UnyatUrU, kI-rImI, etc. is to be deplored. There are a few serious mistakes in the crucial Table 5.I and elsewhere which it is hoped can be cor- rected: it appears to be no. 3 who produced over 3oo debes, not no. i as stated (p. 71) and no. 2 is said to have 'two wives' (p. 71) but ' 3 women' in the table. How is the bark storage bin a standard measure if its capacity varies from 30 to 6o debes (p. 67)? 'Women of his lineage ' (p. 37) should presumably read' wives of his lineage '. In view of the impor- tance attached to the divergence of terms applied to male and female siblings and cousins it is most unfortunate that only the terms for man speaking and not for woman speaking are given. AIDAN SOUTHALL

New Essays in African Law. By ANTONY ALLOTT. London: Butterworths, I970. Pp. xxxiv+ 348, bibl. ?3'75.

AFRICAN law has been through a period of considerable development in the decade I960- 70. Legal systems have been reformed to take account of constitutional changes following independence, much legislation of a social engineering character has been passed, and a great deal of knowledge has been acquired and disseminated about particular branches of the law. Yet certain fundamental problems about African law remain and continue to give rise to difficulties. Of these the most significant arise in respect of the relationship of received European laws to the local legal procedures and in terms of the nature and application of customary law. Both received European law and customary law together form the core of most African legal systems and it is therefore important in the continuing development of such systems that the operation of their basic components should be fully understood. Professor Allott's contribution to the understanding of such basic matters has been consider- able and there is scarcely a judge or a writer who is not in his debt so far as the methods of analysis are concerned. Indeed, it can be stated with some justification that the systematic study of received law and customary law in anglophonic Africa commenced with his original Essays in African Law published in I960. In that work he subjected these problems to a rigorous analysis by examining in detail the statutory provisions under which English law was received and under which customary law was regulated and demonstrated that African legal systems possessed a coherence of their own rather than being mere adjuncts of English law. By these means a precise legal methodology was developed which cast light on problems which had hitherto been ignored or not thought worthy of discussion. Allott's arguments and conclusions in that work have had a seminal influence on subsequent writers, many of them his former pupils and colleagues, and have given rise to much debate and a certain amount of academic controversy. It is, therefore, appropriate that he should once more turn his attention to the fundamental problems of African law and take account not only of recent changes, but of other views which have been expressed in terms of his own.

The book, for such it is rather than the normal collection of essays, is divided into two

REVIEWS OF BOOKS 335 tion with its powerful sanctions on male conduct, which seemed so unusual when described by Klima for the Barabaig, exists in very similar form among the Turu. It must be remem- bered that the Turu, like the Gogo, and many other Bantu peoples of the region are not a tribe as conventionally understood (although unfortunately Schneider uses the term). These are composite ethnic identities of overlapping and often fairly recent origin. They are defined by ecological isolation, but comprised of elements derived from all directions, symbolizing their exploitation and ultimate defence of a common habitat in their claim to descend from a single, primal ancestor, Mu Rimi in the case of the Turu, although in fact one clan claimed to be the only one of pure Mu Rimi descent, while others claimed that the largest clan of all was of Gogo origin.

There are defects in the text as published. The use of capitals to indicate short vowels, leading to such abominations as UnyatUrU, kI-rImI, etc. is to be deplored. There are a few serious mistakes in the crucial Table 5.I and elsewhere which it is hoped can be cor- rected: it appears to be no. 3 who produced over 3oo debes, not no. i as stated (p. 71) and no. 2 is said to have 'two wives' (p. 71) but ' 3 women' in the table. How is the bark storage bin a standard measure if its capacity varies from 30 to 6o debes (p. 67)? 'Women of his lineage ' (p. 37) should presumably read' wives of his lineage '. In view of the impor- tance attached to the divergence of terms applied to male and female siblings and cousins it is most unfortunate that only the terms for man speaking and not for woman speaking are given. AIDAN SOUTHALL

New Essays in African Law. By ANTONY ALLOTT. London: Butterworths, I970. Pp. xxxiv+ 348, bibl. ?3'75.

AFRICAN law has been through a period of considerable development in the decade I960- 70. Legal systems have been reformed to take account of constitutional changes following independence, much legislation of a social engineering character has been passed, and a great deal of knowledge has been acquired and disseminated about particular branches of the law. Yet certain fundamental problems about African law remain and continue to give rise to difficulties. Of these the most significant arise in respect of the relationship of received European laws to the local legal procedures and in terms of the nature and application of customary law. Both received European law and customary law together form the core of most African legal systems and it is therefore important in the continuing development of such systems that the operation of their basic components should be fully understood. Professor Allott's contribution to the understanding of such basic matters has been consider- able and there is scarcely a judge or a writer who is not in his debt so far as the methods of analysis are concerned. Indeed, it can be stated with some justification that the systematic study of received law and customary law in anglophonic Africa commenced with his original Essays in African Law published in I960. In that work he subjected these problems to a rigorous analysis by examining in detail the statutory provisions under which English law was received and under which customary law was regulated and demonstrated that African legal systems possessed a coherence of their own rather than being mere adjuncts of English law. By these means a precise legal methodology was developed which cast light on problems which had hitherto been ignored or not thought worthy of discussion. Allott's arguments and conclusions in that work have had a seminal influence on subsequent writers, many of them his former pupils and colleagues, and have given rise to much debate and a certain amount of academic controversy. It is, therefore, appropriate that he should once more turn his attention to the fundamental problems of African law and take account not only of recent changes, but of other views which have been expressed in terms of his own.

The book, for such it is rather than the normal collection of essays, is divided into two

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.216 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 23:52:02 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions