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EBOOK Ebook PDF International Human Resource Management 5Th Edition Download Full Chapter PDF Kindle
EBOOK Ebook PDF International Human Resource Management 5Th Edition Download Full Chapter PDF Kindle
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Brief Contents
List of Figures and Tables
List of Contributors
Abbreviations
Your Guide to this Book
Online Resources
Introduction
PART 1 Cultural, Comparative and Organizational Perspectives on
IHRM
1 Culture and Cross-Cultural Management
2 Comparative Human Resource Management
3 The Transfer of Employment Practices across Borders in
Multinational Companies
4 Approaches to International Human Resource Management
Part 2 International Assignments and Employment Practices
5 International Assignments
6 Multinational Companies and the Host Country Environment
7 MNCs, Regulation and the Changing Context of International
Human Resource Management
8 Human Resource Management in Cross-Border Mergers and
Acquisitions
Part 3 IHRM Policies and Practices
9 Managing Knowledge in Multinational Firms
10 Training and Development: Developing Global Leaders and
Expatriates
11 Global and Local Resourcing: The Cases of Japan, Taiwan,
China and Vietnam
12 Global Performance Management
13 Total Rewards in the International Context
14 Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management in the Global
Context
15 Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability through
Ethical HRM Practices
Index
Detailed Contents
List of Figures and Tables
List of Contributors
Abbreviations
Your Guide to this Book
Online Resources
Introduction
From the early beginnings to the present
Intellectual roots
A brief overview of the chapters’ contents
What makes this book different?
Who is this book for?
PART 1 Cultural, Comparative and Organizational Perspectives on
IHRM
1 Culture and Cross-Cultural Management
Introduction
Studies on culture in management
Positivist views: ‘Culture and values’
Interpretive views: ‘Culture and meanings’
Critical views: ‘Culture and power’
Summary and conclusions
2 Comparative Human Resource Management
Introduction
Globalization and HRM
The importance of context
Differences in HRM practice
Summary and conclusions
3 The Transfer of Employment Practices across Borders in
Multinational Companies
Introduction
Why transfer employment practices?
The four influences framework
Summary and conclusions
4 Approaches to International Human Resource Management
Introduction
Review of IHRM approaches
The concept of HRM and international HRM
Are IHRM models applicable to other contexts?
What factors affect HRM approaches internationally?
What are the implications of change for IHRM approaches?
Summary and conclusions
Part 2 International Assignments and Employment Practices
5 International Assignments
Introduction
Staffing policies
Motives for international transfers
Alternative forms of international assignments
The international assignment process
Dimensions of international assignment success
Summary and conclusions
6 Multinational Companies and the Host Country Environment
Introduction
Varieties of host country environments
Sustainability of divergent employment arrangements
Understanding how MNCs act in diverse host country
environments
Host country effects on IHRM practices of MNC subsidiaries
Summary and conclusions
7 MNCs, Regulation and the Changing Context of International
Human Resource Management
Introduction
What is regulation and why is the political context important?
Why are there political agendas to de-regulate?
What are the political and institutional drivers of de-
regulation?
What are the problems with de-regulation and what is
currently meant by re-regulation in a global context?
Summary and conclusions
8 Human Resource Management in Cross-Border Mergers and
Acquisitions
Introduction
Cultural differences and cross-border M&A performance
What does integration mean?
Managing cross-border integration: The HRM implications
Summary and conclusions
PART 3 IHRM Policies and Practices
9 Managing Knowledge in Multinational Firms
Introduction
Different types of knowledge
Factors influencing knowledge sharing
How to stimulate knowledge sharing
Gaining access to external knowledge
Knowledge retention
From the management of knowledge to innovation
Summary and conclusions
10 Training and Development: Developing Global Leaders and
Expatriates
Introduction
Training and development in the global environment
Global leaders
The development of global leaders
Expatriate development
Summary and conclusions
11 Global and Local Resourcing: The Cases of Japan, Taiwan,
China and Vietnam
Introduction
Review of HR competencies approach
External labour market changes and internal strategic choice
Capitalist market economies: Japan and Taiwan
Socialist market economies: China and Vietnam
Summary and conclusions
12 Global Performance Management
Introduction
Key components of PMSs
Factors affecting PMSs
Culture and PMSs
PMSs in seven leading economies: China, Germany, India,
Japan, South Korea, UK and USA
PMS for expatriates
Summary and conclusions
13 Total Rewards in the International Context
Recap: Differentiating between PCNs, TCNs and HCNs
Introduction: The current state of total rewards
Complexities faced by IHR managers
International total rewards objectives for the MNC
Newer forms of international assignments
Key components of global total rewards programmes
Approaches to international compensation
Repatriation issues
International trends in global total rewards
Summary and conclusions
14 Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management in the Global
Context
Introduction
Equal opportunities
Diversity management
Work–life balance: Practices and discourses
Summary and conclusions
15 Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability through
Ethical HRM Practices
Introduction
Ethics and corporate social responsibility
International labour standards and decent work
Sustainability through the integration of CSR and HR policy
Summary and conclusions
Index
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
4.1 Matching model 123
4.2 Harvard model 125
4.3 Contextual model 127
4.4 5-P model 129
4.5 European model 131
4.6 Integrative HRM framework 132
5.1 Factors influencing the choice between HCN and PCN 166
5.2 Brookfield Annual Relocation Trends Survey Findings (2014) 180
5.3 The international assignment cycle 180
5.4 Determinants of expatriate adjustment 186
6.1 Strength of employment protection in selected countries, 2013 212
6.2 Trends in the level of minimum wages relative to median earnings
for selected OECD countries, 1986–2016 214
6.3 Paid annual leave and paid public holidays, OECD countries 2013
215
6.4 Union density and collective bargaining coverage, 1995 and 2013
216-217
6.5 International comparison of CEO to worker pay 220
6.6 Organizational and institutional influences on multinational
companies and their subsidiaries 229
8.1 Strategies for post-merger outcomes 289
10.1 Mapping the boundaries of global HRD 376
11.1 Organizational structure of ITOCHU Corporation 430
11.2 ITOCHU: Global network 431
15.1 The pyramid of CSR 566
15.2 Utilitarian, managerial and relational theories of CSR 568
15.3 Socially responsible HR practices and business sustainability 580
15.4 An integrated framework for socially responsible employment and
HR practices 583
Tables
1.1 The three views on culture and their related knowledge 13
1.2 Sample of argued representative behaviour linked to Hofstede’s
cultural dimensions and examples of country positioning 15
1.3 Sample of argued representative behaviour for the societal practices
of the cultural dimensions of the House et al. (2004) study and examples
of country positioning 16
1.4 Sample of argued representative behaviour for Schwartz’s value
structures and examples of country positioning 18
1.5 Sample questions to use in the analysis of a situation dealing with
culture 27
2.1 Bundles of flexible working practices in Europe 66
3.1 The three approaches to understanding the transfer of employment
practices 93
3.2 Summary of the four influences framework 104
4.1 Comparison of five dominant HRM models 133
5.1 MNC staffing policies 161
5.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using PCNs, HCNs or TCNs 163
5.3 Sample size and percentage of PCN subsidiary managing directors
in different HQ countries, subsidiary country clusters and industries 165
5.4 Motives for international transfers according to various authors 171
5.5 Success criteria for international transfers 193
6.1 Host country environment influences on HRM practices 229
10.1 Tasks and activities associated with global leadership 378
10.2 Competency typologies of global leaders 381
10.3 Length of pre-departure training received by the 25 employees 394
10.4 The ‘two biggest challenges’ faced by the employees during their
assignments in Mexico 395
11.1 Theoretical perspectives of HR competencies 409
11.2 Theoretical perspectives of external and internal factors 410
12.1 PMS tips for organizations 444
12.2 Key factors affecting PMSs 449
13.1 Index of Living Costs Abroad (Washington, DC = 100), January
2017 495
13.2 Big Mac Index, July 2017 508
14.1 Labour and EO laws in China, India, Japan and Korea 533
14.2 Key differences between managing EO and managing diversity
540
15.1 Means and ends in ethical theories 567
15.2 Issues covered by CSR 569
15.3 Staffing information at Maruti Suzuki Manesar Plant (2012) 586
List of Contributors
Phil Almond
is Professor of International Management at the Institute of International
Management, Loughborough University London, and a lead researcher
of the CRIMT international research centre on work and globalization.
He has published widely on international and comparative human
resource management. He is currently working on an ESRC-funded
project on ‘globalizing actors’ and norm creation and diffusion in
multinationals.
Ingmar Björkman
is Professor of International Business and Dean of Aalto University
School of Business in Finland. His research interests focus on people
management issues in an international context in particular. His work
has been published in a range of leading journals within the areas of
international business and management. He received the Journal of
International Business Studies Decade Award in 2014 together with
Dana Minbaeva, Torben Pedersen, Carl Fey and H.-J. Park. His latest
book is Global Challenge: International Human Resource Management
(2017, 3rd edn, Chicago Business Press), co-authored with Vladimir
Pucik, Paul Evans and Shad Morris.
Chris Brewster
is Professor of International Human Resource Management at Henley
Business School, University of Reading, UK, and also holds similar
appointments at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, the
University of Vaasa in Finland and at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de
Lisboa in Portugal. He has conducted extensive research in the field of
international and comparative HRM, and has published more than 25
books and over 200 articles on these topics.
Pawan Budhwar
is a Professor of International HRM and Joint Director of the Aston
India Foundation for Applied Research at Aston Business School, UK.
He has published 17 books and over 100 research articles in leading
journals on managing human resources and performance, with a specific
focus on India. He is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of
Management and a Fellow of the British Academy of Management,
Academy of Social Sciences, the Higher Education Academy and Indian
Academy of Management.
Yaw A. Debrah
is Professor of Human Resource and International Management at
Swansea University (University of Wales), UK. He has published
numerous articles and edited books on HRM, IHRM and International
Business and Management in Asia and Africa, including: FDI,
technology and knowledge management; organizational failure; CSR;
employment relations in SMEs in the MENA region; informal sector
employment in developing countries; FDI and employment issues in
sub-Saharan Africa.
Tony Edwards
is Professor of International Management and Director of the Institute
for International Management at Loughborough University London. His
research focuses on the management of labour in multinational
companies, including the diffusion of practices across countries, the
influence of the institutional frameworks in international HR policies
and the management of human resources during and after international
mergers and acquisitions. He is currently leading a multi-country,
ESRC-funded project examining the role of ‘globalizing actors’ in
developing global norms within multinationals.
Damian Grimshaw
is Director of the Research Department at the International Labour
Organization (Geneva). Recent books include Making Work More Equal
(2017, Manchester University Press) and Minimum Wages, Pay Equity
and Comparative Industrial Relations (2013, Routledge).
Anne-Wil Harzing
is Professor of International Management at Middlesex University,
London and visiting Professor of International Management at Tilburg
University, the Netherlands. Anne-Wil’s research interests include
IHRM, HQ–subsidiary relationships, transfer of HRM practices, the role
of language in international business, the international research process,
and the quality and impact of academic research.
K. Galen Kroeck
is an industrial and organizational psychologist, and Professor Emeritus
at Florida International University (FIU), USA. Dr Kroeck has served as
a federal court expert witness in numerous discrimination cases and has
authored many book chapters, textbooks and articles in top academic
journals.
Robert MacKenzie
is Professor of Working Life Science, Karlstad University, Sweden. His
research interests are restructuring, labour market change, contingent
contracts and the regulation of the employment relationship. These
issues have been studied in various national and sectoral contexts,
including telecommunications and construction, and through the social
and economic experiences of migrant workers.
Wolfgang Mayrhofer
is full Professor of Management and Organizational Behaviour at WU
Vienna, Austria. His research interests focus on international
comparative research in human resource management, leadership and
careers. He has co-edited, authored and co-authored 31 books and more
than 200 book chapters and peer reviewed articles.
Dana Minbaeva
is a Professor of Strategic and Global Human Resource Management at
Copenhagen Business School. Her research on strategic and
international HRM, knowledge sharing and transfer in MNCs has
appeared in such journals as Journal of International Business Studies,
Journal of Management Studies, Human Resource Management, and
many others. She received several national and international awards to
research achievements, including the prestigious JIBS Decade Award
2013. Dana Minbaeva is the founder of the Human Capital Analytics
Group (www.cbs.dk/hc-analytics).
Alan Nankervis
is an Adjunct Professor of HRM at Curtin University (Perth), and at
RMIT University (Melbourne) in Australia. He is the author or co-
author of more than a 100 books, book chapters, journal articles and
conference papers. His research interests include comparative Asian
HRM, links between performance management and firm effectiveness,
skills shortages and the ageing workforce. His latest publication is Asia
Pacific HRM and Organisational Effectiveness (2016), co-authored with
Chris Rowley and Noorziah Salleh.
Raphael O. Oseghale
is a Lecturer in HRM in the School of Management, Swansea
University. His teaching and research interests are anchored in the core
subject of human resource management in both domestic and
international organizations. His publications on talent management have
appeared as book chapters and in journals.
Ashly H. Pinnington
is Dean of Research, Faculty of Business and Professor of Human
Resource Management, The British University in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. He has published extensively on the management of
professionals, chiefly institutionalist perspectives in HRM, IHRM and
organizational change. His recent work concentrates on careers, talent
management, ethics and social responsibility.
Vladimir Pucik
is Visiting Professor of Management at China Europe International
Business School in Shanghai where he directs a number of executive-
level programmes. Prior to his retirement, he was Professor of Human
Resources and Strategy at IMD in Lausanne. His current research is
focused on organizational capabilities, cross-border mergers and
acquisitions, and international HRM strategies. His most recent book is
The Global Challenge: International Human Resource Management
(3rd edn, 2017, Chicago Business), co-authored with Paul Evans,
Ingmar Björkman and Shad Morris. He is also a founding partner and an
active investor in several IT ventures in the Central Europe.
Christopher J. Rees
is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resources at the Global Development
Institute, University of Manchester, UK. He is a Chartered Psychologist
and Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and
Development. His teaching and research interests focus upon HR-related
organizational change and development initiatives and he has published
widely on this subject.
B. Sebastian Reiche
is Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Managing
People in Organizations at IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.
His research focuses on the forms, prerequisites and consequences of
global work, international HRM, global leadership and knowledge
transfer. He is Associate Editor of Human Resource Management
Journal and regularly blogs on topics related to expatriation and global
work (http://blog.iese.edu/expatriatus).
Laurence Romani
is Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.
Her research investigates how to recognize and respect cultural
differences (cultures, ethnicities, genders, etc.) and relate to the others in
enriching ways for all involved. Laurence adopts a critical and feminist
perspective to study cross-cultural and diversity management.
Chris Rowley ,
Kellogg College, University of Oxford and Cass Business School, City
University, London. He is Editor of the Asia Pacific Business Review,
Journal of Chinese HRM and Journal of International Trade and
Commerce. He is book series editor of Asian Business and Management
(WSP) and Working in Asia (Routledge). He researches and publishes
on HRM and Asian business and management, has published over 600
articles, books and chapters and has given expert comments and
interviews for international TV, radio and newspapers.
Jill Rubery
is Professor of Comparative Employment Systems, Alliance Manchester
Business School, University of Manchester, UK and Director of the
Work and Equalities Institute. She has published widely on comparative
employment systems. Recent books include European Employment
Models in Flux (2009) with Gerhard Bosch and Steffen Lehndorff,
Welfare States and Life Course Transitions (2010) with Dominique
Anxo and Gerhard Bosch, and Women and Austerity (2014) with Maria
Karamessini.
Günter K. Stahl
is a Professor of International Management at WU Vienna. He served on
the faculty of INSEAD from 2001–2009 and has held visiting positions
at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, the D’Amore-McKim
School of Business at Northeastern University, and the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania, among others. His current research
interests include the drivers of corporate responsibility, the changing
nature of global work, and the sociocultural processes in international
teams, alliances, mergers and acquisitions. He is Senior Editor of the
Journal of World Business, Academic Fellow of the Centre for
International HRM at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge,
and Fellow of the Centre for Global Workforce Strategy at Simon Fraser
University.
Helene Tenzer
is Associate Professor of International Business at Tübingen University
in Germany. Her research focuses primarily on multinational teams,
language diversity in international management, and organizational
behaviour. She has published on these topics in outlets such as the
Journal of International Business Studies, Leadership Quarterly and
Journal of World Business. In addition, she has founded a research
network on language issues in management with currently over 100
international members.
Arup Varma
(PhD, Rutgers University) is Professor of Human Resource Management
at the Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago. His
research interests include performance appraisal and expatriate issues.
He has published over 50 papers in leading refereed journals and
presented over 100 papers at leading international conferences.
Jean Qi Wei
is a Lecturer at the Department of Management in Kingston University
Business School, UK. She is also an academic member of the Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Her specialist areas of
interest include IHRM, rewards and performance management. Her
work has been published in refereed academic journals, HRM text
books, and national and international academic conferences.
Mengying Yu
holds a MS in Integrated Marketing Communication from Loyola
University Chicago. Her research interests include performance
appraisal and expatriate adjustment. She is working on projects related
to expatriate adjustment and plans to pursue a doctoral programme in the
near future.
Abbreviations
AA affirmative action
CEE Central and Eastern Europe
CEO chief executive officer
CHRM comparative human resource management
CQ cultural intelligence
CSR corporate social responsibility
DM diversity management
DPE domestic private enterprises
EEOL Equal Employment Opportunity Law
e-HRM electronically enabled HRM
EI employee involvement
EMS electronic manufacturing services
EO equal opportunity
EU European Union
FDI foreign direct investment
FOE foreign-owned enterprise
GDP gross domestic product
GLOBE The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Effectiveness research project
GVC Global Value Chain
HCN host country nationals
HQ headquarters
HRD human resource development
HRIS Human Resource Information Systems
HRM human resource management
IA international assignment
ICI Intercultural Communication Institute
ICT information and communication technologies
IHRM international human resource management
ILO International Labour Organization
IMF International Monetary Fund
JSC joint stock companies
M&A merger and acquisition
MNC multinational company
MNE multinational enterprise
NGO non-governmental organization
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
OEM original equipment manufacturer
Off-JT off-the-job training
OJT on-the-job training
PCN parent country nationals
PMS performance management system
PRP performance-related pay
R&D research and development
ROI return on investment
SEZ special economic zone
SHRM strategic human resource management
SIETA Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research
SOE state-owned enterprise
T&D training and development
TCN third country nationals
TMT top management team
TQM total quality management
UN United Nations
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
WLB work–life balance
WLC work–life conflict
WTO World Trade Organization
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.