Hierarchy and the Haya divine kingship: a structural and symbolic reformulation of Frazer's thesis
Year: 1993
Type: article
Abstract: This article presents a structural and symbolic reformulation of Sir James Frazer's theory of divine kingship. A model of hierarchy derived from formal logic, one that Terence Turner (1977a) applied in his reconceptualization of the structure of rites de passage, is employed to analyze the cosmology of a former Haya kingship of northwest Tanzania. A tripartite model of hierarchy encoded in the ceilings of traditional Haya dwellings is described. Analysis of the model demonstrates how the king's role as a unique mediator symbolically constituted and resolved the problem of the separation and interrelationship between the transcendent and the normative orders. [Haya, East Africa, kingship, palace architecture, duality, hierarchy]
Source: American Ethnologist
Author: ROBERT G. CARLSON
Institution: Wright State University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1984357243