1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910817880603321

Autore

Warnier Jean-Pierre

Titolo

The pot-king : the body and technologies of power / / by Jean-Pierre Warnier

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Leiden ; ; Boston, : Brill, 2007

ISBN

1-281-92609-4

9786611926090

90-474-2270-8

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (335 p.)

Collana

African social studies series, , 1568-1203 ; ; v. 17

Disciplina

305.896/36

Soggetti

Mankon (African people) - Rites and ceremonies

Power (Social sciences) - Cameroon - Mankon

Mankon (Cameroon) Kings and rulers

Mankon (Cameroon) Social life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [301]-309) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Preliminary material / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter One. The human flesh / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Two. The subjects as containers / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Three. The skin-citizens / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Four. \'Smoke must be kept inside the house\' / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Five. The gifts of the dead monarchs / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Six. The closure of the country / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Seven. The king’s three bodies / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Eight. The royal excrement / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Nine. Unbreakable vital piggy-banks / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Ten. De-sexualised bachelors / J.-P. Warnier -- Chapter Eleven. Theoretical questions, in bodily/material cultures / J.-P. Warnier -- Bibliography / J.-P. Warnier -- The mankon language and its transcription / J.-P. Warnier -- Mankon glossary / J.-P. Warnier -- Indices / J.-P. Warnier.

Sommario/riassunto

The king of Mankon, in the western highlands of Cameroon, is an agricultural engineer by training, a businessman, and a prominent politician on the national stage. He partakes in the “return of the kings” in the forefront of an African public space. This book analyses the principles of the sacred kingship which lie at the core of the king’s



different roles. While showing that the king’s body acts as a container of bodily substances transformed into unifying ancestral life-essence by appropriate means, and bestowed upon its subjects, it develops an innovative approach to bodily and material cultures as an essential component of the technologies of power. In so doing, it departs significantly from previous approaches to sacred kingship.