| dc.description.abstract | The dual purpose of this work is to present a detailed ethnography
of the Rendille people, a nomadic society of northern Kenya with
a camel-based pastoral economy and an East Cushitic language, and to
describe and analyze the Rendille age-set system in the context of the
total culture. The work was inspired in part by the work of Harold C.
Fleming (1965), who, in his cross-cultural historical study of agegrading
societies of East Africa, hypothesized a major impact on area
cultures by the early contact between the Nilotes and the Cushitic
ancestors of today's Rendille and Somali peoples.
Also in part this work was inspired by that of Paul Spencer
(1973), who published an introduction to Rendille social organization
in his study of the relationship between the Rendille and the neighboring
Nilotic Sarnburu, but who interpreted the Rendille social structure
and age-set system mainly in terms of their relative similarity to
Samburu forms. Specifically, Spencer claimed that the Rendille age-set
system is a modified imitation of the Sarnburu system, less important
in Rendille society than the Sarnburu system is to the Samburu.
The dissertation is organized in two parts. Part I comprises
the general' ethnography, with chapters on the ecology of Rendille-land,
the culture history of the Rendille and neighboring peoples, the social
and residential structures of the society, the livestock economy, the
calendar, and religion and ritual. It is shown that all these aspects
are interlocked to form a unified social organization well adapted to
the limitations and requirements of a meagre ecology and the camelbased
pastoral nomadism through which the people gain their subsistence.
Part II comprises the structural and functional analysis of the
Rendille age-set system, and the conclusions. The rules governing the
age-set system are outlined and extensively analyzed, partly using the
structural analytical methods of Frank H. Stewart (1977), and partly
through comparison with the age- and generation-set systems of the Jie,
Dassanetch, Boran, and Samburu. It is shown that, contrary to Spencer's
contentions, the Rendille age-set system incorporates the principles of
genealogical generation, chronological age, and calendrical time in a
total and internally coherent system, and is a definite reflection of
Rendille Cushitic cultural heritage. Characteristics of the system misunderstood
by Steward and Spencer are reanalyzed in terms of generational
organization and the calendar to support this finding.
The rituals of the age-set cycle are described, and the system
is further analyzed in terms of its functional relationship to the rest
of the society, showing how the system provides for the division of
labor, for demographic regulation, for political succession, for the categorization
of historical events, and for the unification of society members
across clan apd lineage boundaries.
The degree to which the Rendille age-set system is integrated
into the society makes its functional significance to the
society clear. The structural analysis shows the strong Cushitic
basis of the system, shedding potential light on further historical
study of area cultures. | en |
