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Beyond the Segmentary State: Creative and Instrumental Power in Western Uganda

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Journal of World Prehistory Aims and scope

Abstract

The concept of the segmentary state was proposed by Southall, based on ethnographic fieldwork among the Alur people of Uganda, and subsequently applied elsewhere, notably to the putative ancient kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara. Archaeological research, summarized here, has demonstrated that ancient Bunyoro-Kitara was not a segmentary state; indeed, neither was the political system of the Alur. The Nyoro state of the nineteenth century shows a complex interplay of political sovereignty and ritual suzerainty and of accommodation and resistance to central authority. This is understood through examination of the concepts of instrumental and creative power, the latter particularly relevant to negotiations concerning the status of women. The archaeological record of this region is then explored for evidence of earlier expressions of instrumental and creative power. Finally, the paper shows how the archaeological record of Munsa is itself an arena for modern political struggles in which protagonists harness different forms of power.

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Acknowledgments

David Schoenbrun introduced me to the concepts of creative and instrumental power; his linguistic work on the history of the African Great Lakes region has been a great source of ideas and inspiration. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a meeting of the Complex Society Group in San Diego; I thank Tom Levy and Guillermo Algaze for inviting me to present a paper at that meeting. I thank Jeff Fleisher and Stephanie Wynne-Jones for their invitation to participate in their symposium at the Society of American Archaeology annual meeting in Vancouver and in this publication. I thank Andrew Reid, Ann Stahl, Henry Wright, Ephraim Kamuhangire and others too numerous to mention for ideas and for suggestions about books and papers I should read. My field research was supported by the British Institute in Eastern Africa and the National Science Foundation (SBR-9320392).

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  1. Department of Anthropology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA, 92407-2397, USA

    Peter Robertshaw

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Robertshaw, P. Beyond the Segmentary State: Creative and Instrumental Power in Western Uganda. J World Prehist 23, 255–269 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-010-9039-x

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