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Secret knowledge as property and power in Kpelle society: elders versus youth1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

William P. Murphy
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Extract

Inequality based on privileged knowledge is an old topic in social analysis. It figures prominently, for example, in early works such as Condorcet's study of human progress. Condorcet argues that obstacles to progress arise when society is divided into two categories: ‘the one jealously hiding what it boasts of knowing, the other receiving with respect whatever is condescendingly revealed to it’ [1955 (1795): 17].

Résumé

La connaissance secrète en tant que propriété et pouvoir dans la société Kpelle : les anciens contre les jeunes

Cet essai analyse la relation d'autorité qui existe, chez les Kpelle, entre les anciens et les jeunes dans le contexte de la hiérarchie lignagère et des institutions à caractère secret. Les anciens se réclament, en effet, d'un savoir privilégié acquis dans les sociétés secrètes, en particulier dans le Poro masculin et le Sande feminin, pour justifier l'autorité qu'ils exercent sur les jeunes et sur le produit du travail de ces derniers. En outre, le contenu même des secrets compte moins que les pratiques politiques et économiques fondées sur l'existence du secret. Une distinction importante est faite entre les anciens des lignages qui possèdent la terre et ceux des lignages de rang inférieur. Seuls les premiers contrôlent à la fois les positions politiques laïques et les fonctions rituelles des sociétés secrètes. Cette analyse se distingue des études précédentes qui soutiennent que les sociétés secrètes d'Afrique Occidentale servent avant tout à éduquer les jeunes, ou à modérer l'autorité séculière. Elle se distingue également des études qui voient d'abord dans l'autorité des anciens un moyen de redistribuer le produit du travail des jeunes au profit du bien-être de la communauté.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , April 1980 , pp. 193 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1980

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