Pritchard's 'Sitting On A Man'

When studying African history, it is important to realize that the information produced by the analysis is dependent on the lens the scholar is viewing Africa through. When studying African societies through structural functionalists such as Evans Pritchard, we tend to see African societies as unchanged ethnic groups whose lives are controlled by the dominating social/political institutions. Yet those theorists that succeed Pritchard, tend to show the power our bias has on the narrative of the societies within the continent. Through a comparative analysis of gender relations and human exchange by Pritchard and later theorists, I will more clearly illustrate this idea. In an examination of gender relations, one can observe that
In her excerpt ‘Sitting on a Man”, she more explicitly shows change in gender relations by explaining the political participation of Igbo women before the British and how this ends after their intrusion. In her piece, women gain political influence through collective action. This action comes in the form of mikiri, female only meetings and the practice of “sitting on a man”- strikes. These mikiri mimic the male dominated village meetings and allow the women to have an equal platform for expressing grievances. Through humiliation, destruction of property, refusal to cook and even threats of these actions, “women could take direct action to enforce their decision” (Van Allen 401-402). This created a stable balance between the power or man and women within the Igbo community. However, we see a change in their society when the British introduce native administration and Victorian ideals. Van Allen states “It was a violation of Igbo concepts to have one man represent the village…and more a violation that he should give orders to everyone else”(403). With the outlaw of the village assemblies the “self-help” practices of women to cease to exist and ends their “illegitimate use of force”(406). Victorianism adds to this transformation by forcing on women the ideal that politics is for men(407). Van Allen’s investigation emphasizes processes of change by evaluating how institutions that were thought to be
Pritchard’s analysis of the Nuer is an impressive in-depth study of the people and their social/political institutions during the late 1920’s, that allows us to better understand their way of life. Other theorist’s emphasis on change allows us to both understand African history and reevaluate our previously held misconceptions about the continent. These theorists together in different ways work to better the overall understanding of