The younger brother and the stranger : in search of a status discourse for Mande

Abstract

The present article examines different categories of expression (genealogies, family histories, themes from the Sunjata epic, principles of segmentation, labour division) in precolonial Mande (in present-day Guinea and Mali), and shows that they all develop along lines of predictability, and are therefore products of the same discourse. The author argues that genealogies are artificial kinship constructions which represent status claims. Any genealogy in Mande is operative only in a specific context, as an argument in a struggle for interpretation, and thus the usual positivist, chronological interpretation of genealogies is contested. The relationship oldest/youngest in particular serves to express unity and tension in diplomatic relations between social groups, and this relationship has been articulated politically in a functional way in relation to other oppositions such as mobile/immobile, interior/exterior. This status discourse is illustrated by a discussion on the position of the rulers of Kangaba, the alleged ancient capital of the Mali empire. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French.