A village head , village headman or village chief is the community leader of a village or a small town.
86-586: Modern ethnicities Diaspora Performing arts Government agencies Television Radio Newspapers The Maragoli , or Logoli ( Ava-Logooli ), are now the second-largest ethnic group of the 6 million Luhya nation in Kenya, numbering around 2.1 million, or 15% of the Luhya people according to the last Kenyan census . Their language is called Logoli, Lulogooli, Ululogooli, or Maragoli. The name Maragoli probably emerged later on or after interaction of
172-504: A host of men, a band of comrades as well as a swarm or flock of animals. In Classical Greek , the word took on a meaning comparable to the concept now expressed by "ethnic group", mostly translated as " nation , tribe, a unique people group"; only in Hellenistic Greek did the term tend to become further narrowed to refer to "foreign" or " barbarous " nations in particular (whence the later meaning "heathen, pagan"). In
258-421: A focus on the interface between groups. "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries", therefore, is a focus on the interconnectedness of ethnic identities. Barth writes: "... categorical ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact, and information, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in
344-567: A god of the same name. When Christianity was first introduced in the early 1900s by various Christian missionaries from Europe and America, the Luhya took the name of their traditional god, Nyasae and gave that name to the Christian god . The first Luhyas who were converted to Christianity took words that defined some aspects of their religious traditions and applied them to Christ and the Christian god. The Friends Church (Quakers) opened
430-503: A mercurial character. Ronald Cohen concluded that ethnicity is "a series of nesting dichotomizations of inclusiveness and exclusiveness". He agrees with Joan Vincent's observation that (in Cohen's paraphrase) "Ethnicity ... can be narrowed or broadened in boundary terms in relation to the specific needs of political mobilization." This may be why descent is sometimes a marker of ethnicity, and sometimes not: which diacritic of ethnicity
516-901: A mission at Kaimosi and the Church of God of Anderson, Indiana , USA, took over the mission in Bunyore . During the same period the Catholic order Mill Hill Brothers came to the area of Mumias . The Church of God arrived in 1905 and began work at Kima in Bunyore. Other Christian groups such as the Anglicans (CMS) came in 1906. In 1924 the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada began their work in Nyan'gori. The Salvation Army came to Malakisi in 1936. The Baptists came to western Kenya in
602-519: A preoccupation with scientists, theologians, and the public. Religious institutions asked questions about whether there had been multiple creations of races (polygenesis) and whether God had created lesser races. Many of the foremost scientists of the time took up the idea of racial difference and found that white Europeans were superior. The ethnicity theory was based on the assimilation model. Park outlined four steps to assimilation: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. Instead of attributing
688-412: A process known as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry (which is then sometimes cast in terms of a mythological narrative of a founding figure ); ethnic identity is reinforced by reference to "boundary markers" – characteristics said to be unique to the group which set it apart from other groups. Ethnicity theory argues that race
774-742: A shared cultural heritage , ancestry, origin myth , history , homeland , language , dialect , religion, mythology , folklore , ritual , cuisine , dressing style , art , or physical appearance . Ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with some groups having mixed genetic ancestry. By way of assimilation , acculturation , amalgamation , language shift , intermarriage , adoption , and religious conversion , individuals or groups may over time shift from one ethnic group to another. Ethnic groups may be divided into subgroups or tribes , which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from
860-519: A stand-in for "paganism" in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an "ethnic character" (first recorded 1953). The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. Depending on context, the term nationality may be used either synonymously with ethnicity or synonymously with citizenship (in a sovereign state). The process that results in emergence of an ethnicity
946-683: A village, presided by a village headman – ligutu . Ligutu / rigutu means 'the hearer/ear' – as such a ligutu can judge. Within a family, the man of the home was the ultimate authority, followed by his first-born son. In a polygamous family, the first wife held the most prestigious position among women. The first-born son of the first wife was usually the main heir to his father, even if he happened to be younger than his half-brothers from his father's other wives. Daughters had no permanent position in Luhya families as they would eventually become other men's wives. They did not inherit property, and were excluded from decision-making meetings within
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#17327719249021032-420: A white missionary called Miss Reeves first came to Maragoli land) and Sirinji (born when money was first introduced in the land). Traditionally, Luhyas practised arranged marriage. The parents of a boy would approach the parents of a girl to ask for her hand in marriage. If the girl agreed, negotiations for dowry would begin. Typically, this would be 12 cattle and similar numbers of sheep or goats, to be paid by
1118-548: Is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include a people of a common language , culture , common sets of ancestry , traditions , society, religion , history, or social treatment. The term ethnicity is sometimes used interchangeably with the term nation , particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism . Ethnicity may be construed as an inherited or societally imposed construct. Ethnic membership tends to be defined by
1204-506: Is a local government or tribal post. The village headman is the person appointed to administer an area that is often a single village . The headman has several official duties in the village, and is sometimes seen as a mediator in disputes and a general “fixer” of village or individuals problems. Examples of headmanship have been observed among the Zuni , !Kung , and Mehinacu , among others. Nearby tribal leaders recognized or appointed by
1290-443: Is a social category and is only one of several factors in determining ethnicity. Other criteria include "religion, language, 'customs', nationality, and political identification". This theory was put forward by sociologist Robert E. Park in the 1920s. It is based on the notion of "culture". This theory was preceded by more than 100 years during which biological essentialism was the dominant paradigm on race. Biological essentialism
1376-423: Is called ethnogenesis , a term in use in ethnological literature since about 1950. The term may also be used with the connotation of something unique and unusually exotic (cf. "an ethnic restaurant", etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established. Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership,
1462-420: Is called ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim cultural continuities over time, although historians and cultural anthropologists have documented that many of the values, practices, and norms that imply continuity with the past are of relatively recent invention. Ethnic groups can form a cultural mosaic in a society. That could be in a city like New York City or Trieste , but also
1548-662: Is held every even year in August and December (the latter only among the Tachoni and the Kabras), and the initiates are typically 11 to 15 years. Traditions have however changed with the dynamics of life, and currently, like most communities in Kenya, boys are initiated at the time the parent feels appropriate and is now usually done during infancy with symbolic rites of passage during their preteen years. The Luhya are traditionally agriculturalists, and they grow different crops depending on
1634-774: Is no longer practised among the Kakamega Luhya, except for the Tiriki. Nowadays, the initiates are usually circumcised in hospital for health reasons and there is no seclusion period. On healing, a party is held for the initiate – who then usually goes back to school to continue with his studies. Among the Bukusu , the Tachoni and to a much lesser extent the Nyala and the Kabras, the traditional methods of initiation persist. Circumcision
1720-655: Is not a noun in Britain. In effect there are no "ethnics"; there are only "ethnic relations". In the U.S., the OMB says the definition of race as used for the purposes of the US Census is not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference". Sometimes ethnic groups are subject to prejudicial attitudes and actions by
1806-442: Is salient depends on whether people are scaling ethnic boundaries up or down, and whether they are scaling them up or down depends generally on the political situation. Kanchan Chandra rejects the expansive definitions of ethnic identity (such as those that include common culture, common language, common history and common territory), choosing instead to define ethnic identity narrowly as a subset of identity categories determined by
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#17327719249021892-431: Is the belief that some races, specifically white Europeans in western versions of the paradigm, are biologically superior and other races, specifically non-white races in western debates, are inherently inferior. This view arose as a way to justify enslavement of African Americans and genocide of Native Americans in a society that was officially founded on freedom for all. This was a notion that developed slowly and came to be
1978-463: The Caribbean and South Asia . Max Weber maintained that ethnic groups were künstlich (artificial, i.e. a social construct ) because they were based on a subjective belief in shared Gemeinschaft (community). Secondly, this belief in shared Gemeinschaft did not create the group; the group created the belief. Third, group formation resulted from the drive to monopolize power and status. This
2064-583: The Chinese were known as tusi ( tu-szu ; Chinese : 土司 ; pinyin : tǔsī ; Wade–Giles : t'u -szu ), although they could command larger areas than a single village. The village head in Indonesia is called Kepala Desa . Generally in Malaysia , the village head is called Ketua Kampung , except for the proto Malay village where the position is called Batin . Ketua Kampung
2150-552: The Luo moved into the area and settled. Luhya culture is comparable to most Bantu cultural practices. Polygamy was a common practice in the past but today, it is only practised by a few people. However, the Avalogooli people were traditionally monogamous like the patriarch Mulogooli. Marriage was especially significant for young men as they were not allowed to own property before marriage. About 10 to 15 families traditionally made up
2236-455: The New World were multi-ethnic from the onset, as they were formed as colonies imposed on existing indigenous populations. In recent decades, feminist scholars (most notably Nira Yuval-Davis) have drawn attention to the fundamental ways in which women participate in the creation and reproduction of ethnic and national categories. Though these categories are usually discussed as belonging to
2322-569: The 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of "peculiar to a tribe, race, people or nation", in a return to the original Greek meaning. The sense of "different cultural groups", and in American English "tribal, racial, cultural or national minority group " arises in the 1930s to 1940s, serving as a replacement of the term race which had earlier taken this sense but was now becoming deprecated due to its association with ideological racism . The abstract ethnicity had been used as
2408-610: The Greeks. Herodotus (8.144.2) gave a famous account of what defined Greek (Hellenic) ethnic identity in his day, enumerating Whether ethnicity qualifies as a cultural universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen ,
2494-502: The Luhya progenitors first arrived in what is now northern Kenya , Southern Ethiopia and Southern Sudan , the ruler of the Luhyas at the time was Kitanga. The Turkana people later came to occupy the area where the Luhya ancestors had settled, and called it Lok-Kitang meaning 'the place of Kitang.' ( Lokitaung is a modern town in northwestern Kenya ). Mulogoli was born from the union of Andimi and Mwanzu. Andimi had three wives: Mwanzu
2580-525: The Suam River depending on various environmental or human triggers, into what is now western Kenya and eastern Uganda , and settled near the source of that river, Mt. Elgon . They displaced a people akin to the Khoisan of southern Africa and settled in their current homeland of what is now western Kenya . The Maragoli people lived in and built what are now the stone ruins of Thimlich Ohinga before
2666-525: The United States that the ethnicity theory was exclusively based on the immigration patterns of the white population and did take into account the unique experiences of non-whites in the United States. While Park's theory identified different stages in the immigration process – contact, conflict, struggle, and as the last and best response, assimilation – it did so only for white communities. The ethnicity paradigm neglected
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2752-994: The added value of being able to describe the commonalities between systems of group identity in both tribal and modern societies. Cohen also suggested that claims concerning "ethnic" identity (like earlier claims concerning "tribal" identity) are often colonialist practices and effects of the relations between colonized peoples and nation-states. According to Paul James , formations of identity were often changed and distorted by colonization, but identities are not made out of nothing: Categorizations about identity, even when codified and hardened into clear typologies by processes of colonization, state formation or general modernizing processes, are always full of tensions and contradictions. Sometimes these contradictions are destructive, but they can also be creative and positive. Social scientists have thus focused on how, when, and why different markers of ethnic identity become salient. Thus, anthropologist Joan Vincent observed that ethnic boundaries often have
2838-449: The belief of common descent. Jóhanna Birnir similarly defines ethnicity as "group self-identification around a characteristic that is very difficult or even impossible to change, such as language, race, or location." Different approaches to understanding ethnicity have been used by different social scientists when trying to understand the nature of ethnicity as a factor in human life and society. As Jonathan M. Hall observes, World War II
2924-478: The boundaries of the nation-state. Village head In Brunei , village head is called ketua kampung or ketua kampong in the Malay language . It is an administrative post which leads the community of a village administrative division , the third and lowest subdivision of the country. In China, village head ( simplified Chinese : 村长 ; traditional Chinese : 村長 ; pinyin : cūn zhǎng )
3010-401: The ceremony was followed by a period of seclusion for the initiates. On their coming out of seclusion, there would be a feast in the village, followed by a period of counselling by a group of elders. The newly initiated youths would then build bachelor huts for each other called simba or esimba where they would stay until they were old enough to become warriors. This kind of initiation
3096-573: The context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined. In the 19th century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent "nations". Nation-states , however, invariably include populations who have been excluded from national life for one reason or another. Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either demand inclusion based on equality or seek autonomy, sometimes even to
3182-422: The course of individual life histories." In 1978, anthropologist Ronald Cohen claimed that the identification of "ethnic groups" in the usage of social scientists often reflected inaccurate labels more than indigenous realities: ... the named ethnic identities we accept, often unthinkingly, as basic givens in the literature are often arbitrarily, or even worse inaccurately, imposed. In this way, he pointed to
3268-526: The cultural traits of such groups have no demonstrated genetic connection with racial traits. Because serious errors of this kind are habitually committed when the term "race" is used in popular parlance, it would be better when speaking of human races to drop the term "race" altogether and speak of "ethnic groups". In 1982, anthropologist David Craig Griffith summed up forty years of ethnographic research, arguing that racial and ethnic categories are symbolic markers for different ways people from different parts of
3354-451: The distant past. Perspectives that developed after the 1960s increasingly viewed ethnic groups as social constructs , with identity assigned by societal rules. The term ethnic is ultimately derived from the Greek ethnos , through its adjectival form ethnikos , loaned into Latin as ethnicus . The inherited English language term for this concept is folk , used alongside
3440-452: The distinctions of ethnicity and race that function to set off categories of workers from one another. It is, nevertheless, the process of labor mobilization under capitalism that imparts to these distinctions their effective values. According to Wolf, racial categories were constructed and incorporated during the period of European mercantile expansion , and ethnic groupings during the period of capitalist expansion . Writing in 1977 about
3526-518: The early 1960s. The first Bible translation in the Luhya language was produced by Nicholas Stamp in the Wanga dialect. Osundwa says he made this translation in Mumias, the former capital of the Wanga kingdom of Mumia. There has been a strong Christian witness among the Luhya in the twentieth century. A religious sect known as Dini ya Msambwa was founded by Elijah Masinde in 1948. They worship Were ,
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3612-530: The extent of complete political separation in their nation-state. Under these conditions when people moved from one state to another, or one state conquered or colonized peoples beyond its national boundaries – ethnic groups were formed by people who identified with one nation but lived in another state. In the 1920s, Estonia introduced a flexible system of ethnicity/nationality self-choice for its citizens, which included Estonians Russians, Baltic Germans and Jews. Multi-ethnic states can be
3698-414: The fact that identification of an ethnic group by outsiders, e.g. anthropologists, may not coincide with the self-identification of the members of that group. He also described that in the first decades of usage, the term ethnicity had often been used in lieu of older terms such as "cultural" or "tribal" when referring to smaller groups with shared cultural systems and shared heritage, but that "ethnicity" had
3784-528: The fallen monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the United States. Current topics are in particular social and cultural differentiation, multilingualism, competing identity offers, multiple cultural identities and the formation of Salad bowl and melting pot . Ethnic groups differ from other social groups, such as subcultures , interest groups or social classes , because they emerge and change over historical periods (centuries) in
3870-420: The family. Today, women can inherit property and often make decisions on behalf of their families as per the judgement of Kenyan law and individual families. Children are named after the clan's ancestors, or after their grandparents, or after events or the weather. The paternal grandparents take precedence, so that the first-born son will usually be named after his paternal grandfather ( guka / guga ), while
3956-604: The first-born daughter will be named after her paternal grandmother ( guku ). Subsequent children may be named after maternal grandparents or after significant events. Some Maragoli names have particular meanings whereas others do not. For instance, names like Injugu (born during groundnut harvesting), Kabwoni (born during sweet potato harvesting) and Anzala (born during extreme drought) have meanings. Other names like Afandi, Inziria, Mwachi, Aliviza and Asava have no known meaning. Names of events are also common. For example, Imbarambara (born during road construction), Msuruve (born when
4042-596: The following types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified: In many cases, more than one aspect determines membership: for instance, Armenian ethnicity can be defined by Armenian citizenship, having Armenian heritage, native use of the Armenian language , or membership of the Armenian Apostolic Church . Ethnography begins in classical antiquity ; after early authors like Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus , Herodotus laid
4128-672: The foundation of both historiography and ethnography of the ancient world c. 480 BC . The Greeks had developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes . Although there were exceptions, such as Macedonia, which was ruled by nobility in a way that was not typically Greek, and Sparta, which had an unusual ruling class, the ancient Greeks generally enslaved only non-Greeks due to their strong belief in ethnonationalism. The Greeks sometimes believed that even their lowest citizens were superior to any barbarian. In his Politics 1.2–7; 3.14, Aristotle even described barbarians as natural slaves in contrast to
4214-558: The genes. Examples of various approaches are primordialism, essentialism, perennialism, constructivism, modernism, and instrumentalism. Ethnicity is an important means by which people may identify with a larger group. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. The process that results in emergence of such identification
4300-608: The god of Mount Elgon , while at the same time using portions of the Bible to teach their converts. They also practice traditional arts, termed witchcraft. The movement originally arose as part of anti-colonial resistance. Various sources estimate that the Luhya are 75–90% professing Christians. 2002 - Iriambuka; 2009 - DC (Disi wa kavaga) The Luhya, except for the Marama and Saamia, practised male circumcision . The Maragoli did not practice clitoridectomy . Traditionally, circumcision
4386-412: The groom's parents to the bride's family. Once the dowry was delivered, the girl was fetched by the groom's sisters to begin her new life as a wife. Instances of eloping were and are still common. Young men would elope with willing girls, with negotiations for dowry to be conducted later. In such cases, the young man would also pay a fine to the parents of the girl. In rare cases abductions were normal but
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#17327719249024472-433: The kernel of a nation which must be defended in times of conflict, or in iconic figures such as Britannia or Marianne . Ethnicity is used as a matter of cultural identity of a group, often based on shared ancestry, language, and cultural traditions, while race is applied as a taxonomic grouping, based on physical similarities among groups. Race is a more controversial subject than ethnicity, due to common political use of
4558-597: The latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan (in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian ecumene ), as the Septuagint used ta ethne 'the nations' to translate the Hebrew goyim "the foreign nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews". The Greek term in early antiquity ( Homeric Greek ) could refer to any large group,
4644-485: The marginalized status of people of color in the United States to their inherent biological inferiority, he attributed it to their failure to assimilate into American culture. They could become equal if they abandoned their inferior cultures. Michael Omi and Howard Winant 's theory of racial formation directly confronts both the premises and the practices of ethnicity theory. They argue in Racial Formation in
4730-483: The modernist understanding of ethnicity as proposed by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson see nations and nationalism as developing with the rise of the modern state system in the 17th century. They culminated in the rise of "nation-states" in which the presumptive boundaries of the nation coincided (or ideally coincided) with state boundaries. Thus, in the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation , developed in
4816-551: The mother of Mulogoli; Amugovolie who had no children and Ndiegu the mother of Mwenje or Anyole (these are the Wanyore, who inhabit Vihiga district together with the Maragoli). The Nyores and Maragoli are one; they are from the same stock, the stock of Andimi. Mulogoli had a wife called Khaliyesa. She had four male children. These four make up the four major clans. The children were Musaali; Kizungu; Kilima and M'mavi. In Maragoli,
4902-551: The parent group. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a panethnicity and may eventually merge into one single ethnicity . Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis . Although both organic and performative criteria characterise ethnic groups, debate in the past has dichotomised between primordialism and constructivism. Earlier 20th-century "Primordialists" viewed ethnic groups as real phenomena whose distinct characteristics have endured since
4988-594: The people or descendants, and is sometimes written as Ba-, Ava-, or Aba- .) Maragolis have a unique culture that is rather simple but complex to other Luhya subtribes. The Lulogooli dialect is not easily understood by other Luhya subtribes, but Maragolis literally understand most of the languages in Luhya land. Many Maragolis have migrated to other areas due to land scarcity and have formed settlements in Trans Nzoia and Lugari Districts. Because Maragolis value their lineage, they have transferred their own local names to
5074-593: The people with missionaries of the Quaker Church. Maragoli also refers to the area that the descendants of a man called Mulogooli (also known as Maragoli) settled and occupied in the thirteenth century AD in the vast lands of vihiga county. Maragolis occupy the largest part of vihiga followed by Abanyore and Tiriki sub tribes. Maragoli clans include the va- masingira, Vakizungu, Va-Mavi, Va-Sachi, Va-Saniaga, Va-Vulughi, Va-Ndega, Va-sari, Va-ng'ang'a, Va-Suva, Va-Yonga, va-twa, va-gisemba... (The prefix Va- refers to
5160-497: The places they have currently occupied, so as to preserve their identity. They also name their children after their ancestors. Maragoli history records a migration from northeast Africa . The story of the Maragoli people begins with a man called Mulogoli. He was descended from Kintu, who led the progenitors of the Luhya to their current area from an area they called Misri , now known commonly as Northern Sudan and Egypt . When
5246-450: The problem of racism became the sole responsibility of already disadvantaged communities. It was assumed that if a Black or Latino community was not "making it" by the standards that had been set by whites, it was because that community did not hold the right values or beliefs, or were stubbornly resisting dominant norms because they did not want to fit in. Omi and Winant's critique of ethnicity theory explains how looking to cultural defect as
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#17327719249025332-433: The public, political sphere, they are upheld within the private, family sphere to a great extent. It is here that women act not just as biological reproducers but also as "cultural carriers", transmitting knowledge and enforcing behaviors that belong to a specific collectivity. Women also often play a significant symbolic role in conceptions of nation or ethnicity, for example in the notion that "women and children" constitute
5418-525: The region. Close to Lake Victoria , the Saamia are mainly fishermen and traders, with their main agricultural activity being the growing of cassava . The Bukusu and the Wanga are mainly cash crop farmers, raising sugar cane in the Bungoma and Mumias areas respectively. The Bukusu also farm wheat in the region around Kitale . The Isukha of Kakamega area and the Maragoli of Vihiga raise tea , while
5504-571: The result of inherited traits and tendencies. With Weber's introduction of the idea of ethnicity as a social construct, race and ethnicity became more divided from each other. In 1950, the UNESCO statement " The Race Question ", signed by some of the internationally renowned scholars of the time (including Ashley Montagu , Claude Lévi-Strauss , Gunnar Myrdal , Julian Huxley , etc.), said: National, religious, geographic, linguistic and cultural groups do not necessarily coincide with racial groups: and
5590-488: The result of two opposite events, either the recent creation of state borders at variance with traditional tribal territories, or the recent immigration of ethnic minorities into a former nation-state. Examples for the first case are found throughout Africa , where countries created during decolonization inherited arbitrary colonial borders, but also in European countries such as Belgium or United Kingdom . Examples for
5676-622: The rocky land of the Nyore is used to harvest stones and gravel for construction. In Bukura area, the Khisa are small scale and only subsistence maize farmers. They also rear cattle, sheep, goats and chicken on a small scale. The Kabras of Malava area mainly grow maize at subsistence levels, with a few also farming sugar cane . With the rapid modernisation of Kenya , many young Luhya people have emigrated to Nairobi and other towns in search of work. Ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group
5762-419: The rural areas after retirement or the death of parents in the rural areas. The Luhya had extensive customs surrounding death. There would be a great celebration at the home of the deceased, with mourning lasting up to forty days. If the deceased was a wealthy or influential man, a big tree would be uprooted and the deceased would be buried there. After the burial another tree, mukumu , would be planted. This
5848-588: The second case are countries such as Netherlands , which were relatively ethnically homogeneous when they attained statehood but have received significant immigration in the 17th century and even more so in the second half of the 20th century. States such as the United Kingdom , France and Switzerland comprised distinct ethnic groups from their formation and have likewise experienced substantial immigration, resulting in what has been termed " multicultural " societies, especially in large cities. The states of
5934-420: The source of inequality ignores the "concrete sociopolitical dynamics within which racial phenomena operate in the U.S." It prevents critical examination of the structural components of racism and encourages a "benign neglect" of social inequality. In some cases, especially those involving transnational migration or colonial expansion, ethnicity is linked to nationality. Anthropologists and historians, following
6020-407: The state or its constituents. In the 20th century, people began to argue that conflicts among ethnic groups or between members of an ethnic group and the state can and should be resolved in one of two ways. Some, like Jürgen Habermas and Bruce Barry, have argued that the legitimacy of modern states must be based on a notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects. According to this view,
6106-441: The state should not acknowledge ethnic, national or racial identity but rather instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals. Others, like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka , argue that the notion of the autonomous individual is itself a cultural construct. According to this view, states must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within
6192-512: The study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently. According to Eriksen , these debates have been superseded, especially in anthropology , by scholars' attempts to respond to increasingly politicized forms of self-representation by members of different ethnic groups and nations. This is in the context of debates over multiculturalism in countries, such as the United States and Canada, which have large immigrant populations from many different cultures, and post-colonialism in
6278-524: The term in social studies in the 1980s and 1990s. Barth went further than Weber in stressing the constructed nature of ethnicity. To Barth, ethnicity was perpetually negotiated and renegotiated by both external ascription and internal self-identification. Barth's view is that ethnic groups are not discontinuous cultural isolates or logical a priori to which people naturally belong. He wanted to part with anthropological notions of cultures as bounded entities, and ethnicity as primordialist bonds, replacing it with
6364-446: The term. Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California, Berkeley) argues that "racial/ethnic identity" is one concept and concepts of race and ethnicity cannot be used as separate and autonomous categories. Before Weber (1864–1920), race and ethnicity were primarily seen as two aspects of the same thing. Around 1900 and before, the primordialist understanding of ethnicity predominated: cultural differences between peoples were seen as being
6450-468: The usage of the term "ethnic" in the ordinary language of Great Britain and the United States , Wallman noted The term "ethnic" popularly connotes "[race]" in Britain, only less precisely, and with a lighter value load. In North America, by contrast, "[race]" most commonly means color, and "ethnics" are the descendants of relatively recent immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. "[Ethnic]"
6536-448: The ways in which race can complicate a community's interactions with social and political structures, especially upon contact. Assimilation – shedding the particular qualities of a native culture for the purpose of blending in with a host culture – did not work for some groups as a response to racism and discrimination, though it did for others. Once the legal barriers to achieving equality had been dismantled,
6622-544: The word Abaluhya or Avaluhya means "the people of the north", "the people of the higher place", "the people from the north", or simply "northerners". Luhya ancestors moved further south, probably along the Turkwel river . The Turkwel's principal source is the Suam river. Luhyas, a people who needed a constant source of water for their crops, animals and various industries like metalworking, and building, kept moving along
6708-442: The world have been incorporated into a global economy: The opposing interests that divide the working classes are further reinforced through appeals to "racial" and "ethnic" distinctions. Such appeals serve to allocate different categories of workers to rungs on the scale of labor markets, relegating stigmatized populations to the lower levels and insulating the higher echelons from competition from below. Capitalism did not create all
6794-399: The young man had to pay a fine. As polygamy was allowed, a middle-aged man would typically have 2 to 3 wives. When a man got very old and handed over the running of his homestead to his sons, the sons would sometimes find a young girl for the old man to marry. Such girls were normally those who could not find men to marry them, usually because they had children out of wedlock. Wife inheritance
6880-665: Was a period of training for adult responsibilities for the youth This was a transtion from childhood to adult hood. Among the Kakamega Luhya, circumcision was carried out every four or five years, depending on the clan. This resulted in various age sets, notably Kolongolo , Kananachi , Kikwameti , Kinyikeu , Nyange , Maina , and Sawa in that order. The Abanyala living in Navakholo have an initiation of their young boys every other year, notably an even year. The initiates were about 8 to 13 years old, and
6966-423: Was a sacred tree and is found along most Luhya migration paths; it could only be planted by a righteous woman, typically a virgin or an elderly woman). Nowadays, mourning takes shorter periods of time (about one week) and the celebrations are held at the time of burial. Ovogogo and rovego are post-burial ceremonies held to complete mourning rites. Animal sacrifices were also traditionally practised. There
7052-483: Was a turning point in ethnic studies. The consequences of Nazi racism discouraged essentialist interpretations of ethnic groups and race. Ethnic groups came to be defined as social rather than biological entities. Their coherence was attributed to shared myths, descent, kinship , a common place of origin, language, religion, customs, and national character. So, ethnic groups are conceived as mutable rather than stable, constructed in discursive practices rather than written in
7138-459: Was and is also practised. A widow would normally be inherited by her husband's brother or cousin. Today, wife inheritance is uncommon to non-existent. In some cases, the eldest son would also inherit his father's widows (though not his own mother). Modern day Luhyas do not practice some traditional customs as most have adopted the Christian way of life. Many Luhyas also live in urban towns and cities for most of their lives and only return to settle in
7224-592: Was appointed and assisted by Majlis Pengurusan Komuniti Kampung (Village Community Management Board). In Sarawak , the head of a traditional long house is called Tuai Rumah . Head of a barangay or village in the Philippines In the Qing and early Republican era, dibao were officially appointed village officials, usually selected from the local landowning class and responsible for land use and boundaries in their jurisdiction. In Edo period Japan,
7310-407: Was contrary to the prevailing naturalist belief of the time, which held that socio-cultural and behavioral differences between peoples stemmed from inherited traits and tendencies derived from common descent, then called "race". Another influential theoretician of ethnicity was Fredrik Barth , whose "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries" from 1969 has been described as instrumental in spreading the usage of
7396-474: Was great fear of the avaroji ( witches ) and babini ( wizards ). These were "night-runners" who prowled in the nude, running from one house to another casting spells. Most modern day Luhyas are Christians and for some, if not all, the word for God is Nyasaye or Nyasae . The word Nyasae when translated into English roughly corresponds with Nya (of) and Asae / Asaye / Sae / Saye (God). The Luhya traditionally worshipped
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