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of trees and kings: politics and metaphor among the Aluund of Southwestern Zaire
Author(s) -
BOECK FILIP
Publication year - 1994
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.1994.21.3.02a00010
Subject(s) - metaphor , politics , symbol (formal) , ideology , sociology , epistemology , personhood , monarchy , vernacular , anthropology , linguistics , philosophy , law , political science
By means of a detailed analysis of the relationship between the political body and a particular species of tree among the Aluund of Southwestern Zaire, this article demonstrates the specific ways in which traditional political structure and ideology are constituted by ritual and vice versa. Secondly, it offers a reflection upon the ways in which vernacular concepts are translated into anthropological metalanguage and presents a reconsideration of the currently used concepts of symbol and metaphor. [Central Africa, enthronement ritual, kingship, metaphor theory, personhood, tree symbolism]