The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi

Abstract

THIS is a book of considerable interest, both as an account of a little-known area in the northern territories of the Gold Coast and as an example of some present-day trends in social anthropology. The Tallensi are a primitive agricultural people about 350,000 strong who inhabit the densely populated area between the White and the Red Volta. They are as ‘‘backward as any in the Gold Coast, and ‘Fortes previously published material shows their low level of diet and the annual periods of starvation or, at any rate, privation, to which they are liable1. The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi Being the First Part of an Analysis of the Social Structure of a Trans-Volta Tribe. By Dr. Meyer Fortes. (Published for the International African Institute.) Pp. xx+270+16 plates. (London, New York and Toronto : Oxford University Press, 1945.) 30s. net.