The Pot-King: The Body and Technologies of Power: 17 (African Social Studies) - Softcover

Warnier, Jean-Pierre

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9004152172 ISBN 13: 9789004152175

Publisher: Brill, 2007

Synopsis

The king of Mankon, in the western highlands of Cameroon, is an agricultural engineer by training, a businessman, and a prominent politician on the national stage. He partakes in the "return of the kings" in the forefront of an African public space. This book analyses the principles of the sacred kingship which lie at the core of the king's different roles. While showing that the king's body acts as a container of bodily substances transformed into unifying ancestral life-essence by appropriate means, and bestowed upon its subjects, it develops an innovative approach to bodily and material cultures as an essential component of the technologies of power. In so doing, it departs significantly from previous approaches to sacred kingship.

About this title

Product Description:

The Pot-king The king of Mankon (Cameroon) acts as a container of ancestral substances he distributes to his people. This book shows how the exercise of power in a contemporary African kingdom is based on the implementation of bodily and material technologies. Full description

About the Author:

J.-P. Warnier, Ph.D. (Anthropology, 1975) University of Pennsylvania, is Emeritus Professor in Paris. His work concerns material culture and Cameroon. He has published (with J.-F. Bayart, eds.) Matiere a politique : le pouvoir, les choses et les corps. CERI, 2004).

About this edition

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 9004152172
• ISBN 13: 9789004152175
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 325