ebooks The World Hunt: An Environmental History of the Commodification of Animals (California World History Library) by John F. Richards in History

Description

In this innovative study; David Parkin shows how indigenous African rites and beliefs may be reworked to accommodate a variety of economic systems; new spatial and ecological relations among communities; and the locally variable influences of Islam and Christianity. The Giriama people of Kenya include pastoralists living in the hinterland; farmers; who work land closer to the coast; and migrants; who earn money as laborers or fisherman on the coast itself. Wherever they live; they revere an ancient and formerly fortified capital; located in the pastoralist hinterland; which few of them ever see or visit. It is the site of occasional large-scale ceremonies and becomes especially important at times of national crisis. It then acts as a moral core of Giriama society; and a symbolic defense against total domination and assimilation.