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charisma fatigue in an East African generation‐set system
Author(s) -
ALMAGOR URI
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1983.10.4.02a00010
Subject(s) - charisma , changeover , meaning (existential) , set (abstract data type) , power (physics) , sociology , social system , social psychology , psychology , political science , law , computer science , social science , telecommunications , physics , quantum mechanics , transmission (telecommunications) , psychotherapist , programming language
The charisma of elders occupying the topmost social rung (the senior set in power) in a generation‐set system is treated here as a “meaning‐giving” quality that is under a constant barrage of institutionalized and controlled outbursts of violence by young men. The analysis of these outbursts as “extrasystemic” events that display some inherent antinomic and anti‐institutional qualities explains a central feature of generation‐set systems: the interplay of meanings between age and generation, the two main principles of such a system. The young men's outbursts highlight the biotemporal realities and the mortality of the elders in power who are the social carriers of meaning and who symbolize the well‐being and continuity of the social order. The outbursts expose the incongruity between the symbols and their carriers, which becomes more and more glaring as the elders dwindle in number and become progressively less efficient. These outbursts may be viewed as “tremors” that accumulate into outright pressures for a power changeover, [age system, charisma, changeover, Dassanetch, East Africa, social organization]