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Article
Hierarchy and the Haya Divine Kingship: A Structural and Symbolic Reformulation of Frazer's Thesis
American Ethnologist
  • Robert G. Carlson, Wright State University - Main Campus
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-1993
Abstract

This article presents a structural and symbolic reformulation of Sir James Frazer's theory of divine kingship. A model of hierarchy derived from formal logic, one that Terence Turner (1977a) applied in his reconceptualization of the structure of rites de passage, is employed to analyze the cosmology of a former Haya kingship of northwest Tanzania. A tripartite model of hierarchy encoded in the ceilings of traditional Haya dwellings is described. Analysis of the model demonstrates how the king's role as a unique mediator symbolically constituted and resolved the problem of the separation and interrelationship between the transcendent and the normative orders.

DOI
10.1525/ae.1993.20.2.02a00060
Citation Information
Robert G. Carlson. "Hierarchy and the Haya Divine Kingship: A Structural and Symbolic Reformulation of Frazer's Thesis" American Ethnologist Vol. 20 Iss. 2 (1993) p. 312 - 335 ISSN: 00940496
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/robert_carlson/127/