|
|
Annals of Archaeol. And Ethnol
Show Summary
Hide Summary
Historical SummaryA peculiar detail of circumcision among the Masai and Nandi, mentioned in Chap. XII, is thus described by Seligman:
The prepuce is split, the flaps are turned back and brought together on the ventral aspect of the phallus so that the remainder of the prepuce forms an irregular mass of tissue of considerable size projecting beyond the glans.3
This practice, so extraordinary as to suggest that it was not invented twice, is represented on a very early Egyptian slate palette, reproduced by Seligman.4
The custom of killing African kings when they begin to show signs of physical decay (gray hair, loss of teeth, loss of sexual power, etc.), mentioned in Chap. XIV, represents the magical concept that the king symbolizes and mediates all blessings—crops, cattle, rain, the fertility of the earth and of women—and that as he declines these blessings will decline. A practice of this general kind might originate independently many times. The concept resembles that of Indian manitou and Polynesian roana, but in Africa the practice is more or less bound up with the belief that the king incarnates a particular divinity, and its concentration in Africa and the practical identity of the pattern in many regions seem to indicate extensive diffusion, as was doubtless the case with the mana and manitou formulations of the concept.
Seligman5 has suggested that the practice of killing kings may be represented on an Egyptian relief, which he reproduces, but the arrows shot in that scene are apparently no more than part of a coronation ceremony.6
3Seligman, C.G.n/an/an/an/a, "Ethnic Relationships of the Vanquished Represented on Certain Proto-Egyptian Palettes," . 7: 45.
4Ibid., 43–49.
5Egypt and Negro Africa.
6Cf. Gardiner, "The Nature . . . of . . . Hieroglyphic Writing," 121–126.
Chicago: Annals of Archaeol. And Ethnol in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed November 22, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=UIVFIA9FLIF4B58.
MLA: . Annals of Archaeol. And Ethnol, Vol. 7, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 22 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=UIVFIA9FLIF4B58.
Harvard: , Annals of Archaeol. And Ethnol. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 22 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=UIVFIA9FLIF4B58.
|