IULIA Panait

0766564
Anthropology of Social Change
Session 02: Paper B, part 1

Lincoln, Bruce. 1987. “Ritual, rebellion, resistance: once more the Swazi Ncwala.” Man (N.S)
22(1): 132-56

Bruce Lincoln sets on a journey to confront through his article different thoughts and
interpretations researchers put forward regarding the socio-political instrument represented by
the Ncwala ritual as it evolves in time, whilst contouring his own critical view upon the subject
in matter. 'We see we are all Swazi; we are joined against outside foes', Lincoln quotes a
recording of Hilda Kuper, a statement of the Swazi people which wraps the sole purpose of his
writings into one unison voice coming to show how under colonialism the Ncwala ritual, an
instrument of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction within their society, convincingly
framed this we.
During the first half of the article Lincoln summarizes the succession of practices which form
Ncwala and stresses on the different expressions it embodied as response to social and
political changes of the colonialist period and beyond. Shapeshifting from the initial act of
securing the well-being of the earth and its harvest (its entire structure evolves in rhythm with
absence and presence of moonlight, being anchored in ancestral time), to a display of kingship
power, Ncwala develops further into an instrument of aggregation and cohesion through which
the Swazi Nation releases internal tension (fission-fusion model) and unites as one reluctant
body towards fusion with outside forces and therefore loss of identity and independence as
they know it.
Lincoln follows, thus, Kuper’s insight and schematizes the internal and external chains of power
the two antagonistic levels of sociopolitical integration affixed to this same locus (Swaziland
Protectorate, Swazi Nation: King-Dlamini Clan-Commoner Clans) and introspects on the
dynamics of these relationships which are vividly portrayed and dramatized graphically in the
Ncwala ritual.
Reading Kuper’s depictions of ritual moments it is most clear that Swazi belief in inexplicable
which act upon humanity can be triggered at will and is considered witchcraft, a means of
vengeance. At the same time, the few quotations of the natives always attribute qualities of the
natural world to the act and thought of man: 'The power of the king must be great, but his anger
should rise and subside, rise and subside like waves of the sea'. The native appears to live by
example of natural law but does not, paradoxically, accept it as a higher uncorrupted force
when referring to the deaths of their all-powerful kings and seek revenge amongst their own.
It, therefore, remained unclear to me, from just this singular insight, the extent of their global
understanding of the universal works. I am left to wonder as to which could, in this case, be
the interpretation of death and weather it is sought as catharsis within their nation and
cleansing of negative forces which could have acted through certain individuals or simply
damnation of the ones considered suspects of rebellion against the ruling structure.
IULIA Panait
0766564
Anthropology of Social Change
Session 02: Paper B, part 2

Ferguson, James. 2005. “Decomposing Modernity: history and hierarchy after development”
Pp 166-81 in Postcolonial studies and beyond, edited by A Loomba, et al. Durham: Duke
University Press.

Ferguson aims to foreground a discussion which challenges the understanding of African

modernity as different or alternative and its meaning for the African people. The writer begins
by recalling consecrate notions of hierarchy as theorized by Lovejoy and Aristotle into types of
existence, degrees of perfection, or social, religious and racial rankings of the human condition
and its spectrum as represented in the Chain of Being. What he underlines is the fact that this
hierarchies were timeless and immutable until a shift which lead to the intellectual revolution
of appropriating a temporalized evolutionary progression understanding of the world and its
species.
The writer argues that developmental narratives have not vanished with time, but lost socio-
economical credulity in certain places. The change brought upon by modernization does not
contradict tradition, but rather presents new elements which fuse, by choice of people, with
their chore native identity. Anthropologists would later state that Africa is now modern when
referring to cultural practices which have fled tradition, while nostalgic (of the lost faith in their
possibility to still become modern) natives view their socioeconomical state as not up to date,
nor modern enough. The call for patience ceases to convince.
The idea that the Great Chain of Being mentality might reoccur, Ferguson writes, begins to
linger as a juxtaposition of the above and beneath, rich and poor by nature installs. Thus, an
urge to escape emerges within individual and familial structures. We begin then to ask different
questions which no longer relate to the temporal notion of becoming but to the spatial notion
of border. Therefore, I completely agree with the fact that as anthropologists try to evade
serialization the real condition of inequality and exclusion peeks and Ferguson’s approach and
attention to the individual’s sentiment more vividly showcases reality of the global.
I gather that modern anthropology has become aware of the sensible distinction of the scientific
meaning of modernity and how it translates among its actual subjects, the people that find
themselves incapable of achieving the now illusory prosper socioeconomical status. On the
other hand, I consider one should not jump to accepting these apocalyptic conclusions of lost
faith and despair, since there is yet chance for further change to occur on a global and
conscious level, where mankind might see the next evolutionary step all together.