May Edel's The Chiga of Uganda is in the grand tradition of Franz
Boas, Margaret Mead, and Leslie Spier. Written at a time when older
ways were menaced by contact with other cultures, Edel's effort was
part of a descriptive urgency that aimed to capture the past before
the past disappeared. And that past should be viewed from the
perspective of the people themselves, by students going into the
field to observe, question, and report. This book is an enlarged
and amplified edition of The Chiga of Western Uganda published in
1957 by the Oxford University Press for the International African
Institute. It is enlarged by a major section on material culture
hitherto unpublished. The Chiga of Uganda provides a special
insight into a culture at that time (1933) still intact under the
British protectorate. It is for the most part a picture of life as
it was then still being lived. Where significant changes were
already taking place, the various changes are discussed in the
contexts in which they seemed relevant in social structure,
kinship, marriage, economics, social control, religion, and
education. What makes this edition unique is the new segment on
material culture. This delves into Chiga patterns of food supply
and preparation, horticulture, fire and heating, water supplies,
cattle raising, hunting, fishing, and problems related to shelter,
clothing, and hygiene. Two new special sections deal with tools and
utensils, and, no less important, the physical skills and motor
habits of the people. Edel's concrete yet wide-ranging descriptions
provide an irreplaceable insight into a people and a culture at a
unique point in world and colonial history. The new introduction,
written by Abraham Edel, provides a special sort of insight,
drawing heavily upon the correspondence that May Edel wrote at the
time. The introduction shows how the clouds of war and Nazism in
Europe at the time were already changing the character and context
of anthropology no less than every other area of human endeavor. A
final new aspect of The Chiga of Uganda is May Edel's last
reflections focusing on African tribalism, which turns out to be
not all that different from ethnic and national rivalries in the
Western world. This book will be indispensable to anthropologists,
Africanists, and historians.
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