<p>The Swahili of East Africa have a long and distinctive history as a literate, Muslim, urban, and mercantile society. This book presents an anthropological account of the Swahili and offers an original analysis of their little-understood and unusual culture. Swahili towns, some urban with elegant stone buildings and others more rural with palm-leaf matting houses, are spread along the 1000 mile East African coast. Because each local community is culturally different from its neighbours, previous historians and anthropologists have viewed the Swahili as a series of isolated and "detribalized" groups. John Middleton argues, on the contrary, that beneath the cultural variation is a single structure, that of a well-defined and complex trading society that has shown little change through the ages. Drawing on his own field research and on earlier writings on the Swahili, Middleton describes this centuries-old mercantile culture, its local and descent groupings, marriage patterns, religion, and values. He traces the history of their colonized past as subjects to Arabs, Portuguese, British, and others and shows that although their economic and political role has continually been a subordinate one, their sense of their unique identity enables them to persist as an ongoing civilization.</p>

The World of the Swahili: An African Mercantile Civilization

Politics & Social Sciences

John Middleton

Social Sciences

Yale University Press

<p>The Swahili of East Africa have a long and distinctive history as a literate, Muslim, urban, and mercantile society. In this book a leading Africanist presents the first full-length anthropological account of the Swahili and offers an original analysis of their little-understood and unusual culture.  Swahili towns, some urban with elegant stone buildings and others more rural with palm-leaf-matting houses, are spread along the thousand-mile East African coast. Because each local community is culturally different from its neighbors, previous historians and anthropologists have viewed the Swahili as a series of isolated and 'detribalized' groups. John Middleton argues, on the contrary, that beneath the cultural variation is a single structure, that of a well-defined and complex trading society that has shown little change through the ages. Drawing on his own field research and on earlier writings on the Swahili, Middleton describes this centuries-old mercantile culture―its local and descent groupings, marriage patterns, religion, and values. He traces the history of their colonized past as subjects to Arabs, Portuguese, British, and others and shows that, although their economic and political role has continually been a subordinate one, their sense of their unique identity enables them to persist as an ongoing civilization.</p>

History

Africa

Mechanical Sealing (Tribology in Practice)

Engineering & Transportation

Engineering

John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Peoples of Africa

Arco Pub. Co.

New Encyclopedia of Africa

Reference

Kaplan

New Encyclopedia of Africa [Hardcover] ...

Thomson/Gale

Encyclopedia of Africa: South of the Sahara: 3

Charles Scribner`s Sons

Encyclopedia of Africa: South of the Sahara

The underground atlas: A gazetteer of the world's cave regions

The first international gazetteer of caves. An invaluable reference book which provides a comprehensive study of all cave regions of the world. From the deep caves of the European Alps to the long caves of Kentucky in the U.S., this book contains detailed information on all the major cave regions of the world & includes data on the extraordinary caves in China. 100 maps & line surveys complement the text, & outstanding caves are illustrated by photos. As well as the convenient listings, entries give a word picture of the character of the world s caves & cave regions in a way that will fascinate all cavers past & present.

The Underground Atlas: A Gazetteer of the World's Cave Regions

Tony Waltham

Science & Math

DIANE Publishing Company

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Books by John Middleton