How would you analyze the Swazi Ncwala?

Johannes Lenhard

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Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, grade: 69, University of Cambridge, language: English,...

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Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, grade: 69, University of Cambridge, language: English, abstract: Kuper's (1944) original account of the ritual of Incwala in the Swazi territoriy in Southern Africa has spurred an immense literature over the past seventy years. From sociological-functionalist accounts focusing on the Incwala as a ritual of 'internal rebellion' (Gluckman, 1953,1960) over a symbolist focus on the metaphorical power of the King's separation (Beidelman, 1966) to the historical embedding of different forms of the Incwala (Kuper, 1972; Lincoln 1987), no singular interpretation seems adequate on its own. Adding a further layer using a more 'practice oriented' and individual analysis of rituals (La Fontaine, 1985; Bloch, 1991), I try to accomplish an even more complicated and multi-faceted interpretation claiming that no single line of thought can represent the complexity of this ritual in its various historical forms.