View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Timo Kallinen SOME CHIEFS ARE “MORE UNDER” THAN OTHERS Kinship, ritual, and the concept of political hierarchy among the Asante Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, in Auditorium XII on the 11th of December, 2004, at 10 Timo Kallinen SOME CHIEFS ARE “MORE UNDER” THAN OTHERS Kinship, ritual, and the concept of political hierarchy among the Asante Research Series in Anthropology University of Helsinki Academic Dissertation Research Series in Anthropology University of Helsinki, Finland Distributed by Helsinki University Press PO Box 4 (Vuorikatu 3 A) 00014 University of Helsinki Finland fax +358 9 7010 2374 www. yliopistopaino.fi Copyright © 2004 Timo Kallinen ISSN 1458-3186 ISBN 952-10-2150-0 (paperback) ISBN 952-10-2151-9 (PDF), http://ethesis.helsinki.fi Helsinki University Printing House Helsinki 2004 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Collecting data 2 1.2 Outline of the problem 4 2 POLITICS OF KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE 7 2.1 Structural domains 8 2.2 Political blood and familial spirit 11 2.3 Marriages of men, women, and offices 17 2.3.1 Marriage as a process 17 2.3.2 Keeping the great names 22 2.3.3 Distributing the great names 29 3 IS THE STATE A GROUP OF GROUPS? 41 3.1 Do rules make the group? 43 3.2 Descent and territory 46 3.3 Descent and chieftaincy 49 3.4 Two passages in the dynastic history of Amakom 53 3.4.1 Brother afar 54 3.4.2 Resident aliens 58 3.5 Knots and boxes 63 3.6 Groups on the ground, groups in the mind 65 4 CHIEFS AND THEIR CLANS: DESCENT AND HIERARCHY 69 4.1 Hierarchy as a chain of command 70 4.2 What is a clan? 74 4.3 Seniority 77 4.3.1 The brothers 79 4.3.2 The uncle and his nephews 90 4.4 Status, power, and authority 93 5 FORGIVEN AND UNFORGIVEN SINS: NEGOTIATING SENIORITY 97 5.1 Taboo and collective responsibility 97 5.2 “Act of treason” 102 5.3 Embarrassments and punishments 105 5.3.1 Father and son 105 5.3.2 The junior looking after the senior 112 6 THE REBELLIOUS SON AND THE LEOPARD: THE POLITICAL SYMBOLISM OF KINSHIP 116 6.1 From obedient son to rebellious son 116 6.2 Living without father 119 6.3 Father who can punish 126 6.4 Identifying the leopard 128 7 SACRIFICE AND HIERARCHY: DEFINING AUTHORITY THROUGH RITUAL EXCHANGE 135 7.1 Making the divine state 136 7.2 “Emergence through gift” 140 7.3 Chiefly sacrifice 142 7.4 Gods as exchange partners 146 7.5 Sacrifice as struggle for power 154 8 “A PRAYER FOR PROSPERITY”: AUTHORITY OUTSIDE THE HIERARCHIES 158 8.1 Warfare and status 159 8.2 Men and women in war 163 8.3 Lawless sanctions 170 8.4 Ritual for or against the state 172 9 CONCLUSIONS: BEYOND FAMILIAL AND POLITICAL 175 9.1 Colonial and post-colonial challenges 177 9.2 Rules of the chiefs, rules of the nation state 180 9.3 Chieftaincy and the political imagination 187 BIBLIOGRAPHY 192 NAME INDEX 211 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE 1. Inheritance of abusua and nt]r] in a patrilateral cross-cousin marriage 25 FIGURE 2. Royal descent group structure according to Goody 32 FIGURE 3. The “stool marriage” as a matrilateral cross-cousin marriage 38 FIGURE 4. Reconstruction of the relationship between the ruling lineages of Amakom and Nkoransa 56 FIGURE 5. Reconstruction of the relationship between the ruling lineage of Amakom and the lineage of Bosompem Ketekye of Dompoase 61 FIGURE 6. Alleged dynastic relations between the chiefdoms of Amakom, Nkoransa, and Dompoase 64 FIGURE 7. An Asante chiefdom and its component parts described in a diagrammatical form by Rattray 74 FIGURE 8. Administrative Structure of Kumase showing the position and composition of the Adonten group (Adonten fekuo) 84 FIGURE 9. Kwawu administrative structure showing the position of the Asenehene as the head of all sub-divisional chiefs from the Asene matriclan 94 FIGURE 10. Reconstruction of the relationship between the ruling lineages of Kumase, Amakon, and Nkoransa 107 FIGURE 11. The exchange economy of human sacrifices in the victory insurance rites preceding the Denkyira war 154 PHOTOGRAPH 1. A village chief and his elders sacrifice a fowl to the blackened ancestral stool 52 PHOTOGRAPH 2. A chief in a funeral dress reciting the history of his office 110 PHOTOGRAPH 3. The priest of Seseman Ntoa on a palanquin 130 PHOGRAPH 4. A priest possessed by a deity dancing in the installation ceremony of a new priestess of Asuo Akruma 151 PHOTOGRAPH 5. An elderly woman on her way to a shrine 166 All photographs by Timo Kallinen ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is part of the Kingship and Kinship project based at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki. The project has been directed by Professor Karen Armstrong and funded by the Academy of Finland. Additional funding has been provided by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (2000) and the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (1999). In 2004 I was also awarded a grant for finishing the dissertation by the University of Helsinki. I want to thank my supervisor Professor Karen Armstrong who has facilitated my research by inviting me to her project. She has read all drafts of this dissertation with insight, empathy, and exemplary patience. Her feedback kept the writing process on a steady course and also in many ways deepened my understanding of anthropology. Professor Jukka Siikala has closely followed the progress of my thesis from day one and read most of the draft versions. His role has also been crucial in securing funding for my research. I am especially grateful to Professor Siikala for turning my attention to some relevant comparative material from the Pacific. I was fortunate to have two prominent regional specialists, Professor Charles Piot and Dr. Jane Parish, as the preliminary examiners of my dissertation. Their understanding and encouraging observations and suggestions are much appreciated. Professor Lina Fruzzetti has also read the final version of the manuscript and given some valuable comments. I thank the other members of the Kingship and Kinship project, Reea Hinkkanen and Perpetual Crentsil, with whom I have shared similar concerns and experiences during both fieldwork and writing. I also wish to thank the other teachers, researchers, and graduate students of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Helsinki for their input in several seminars and workshops, but, most of all, for being first-rate colleagues and friends. Outside the academic circles, I wish to thank my parents, Eino and Maija-Liisa Kallinen, and my many friends who have had to put up with the eccentric ways of the anthropologist. Still, I have been able to count on their unconditioned support for which I am, of course, forever grateful. My interest in Ghanaian society and culture began when I got to know some members of the Ghanaian community in Finland. I would especially like to mention Edmond Armar, Owusu Kwame Atta, and Dr. Richard Owusu who have helped me a great deal in getting to and settling in Ghana. I also thank Dr. Kim David, a veteran medical doctor of the civil wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone whose remarkably broad experience in West Africa has been an inspiration and a rich source of information. x When I set out to write a book about chiefs I already knew that without the co-operation of the traditional rulers I would get nowhere. In retrospect, I am proud to say that I was never turned down. Particularly, I wish to thank Nkoransahene Okatakyie Agyeman Kudom IV and Amakomhene Akosa Yiadom II for their positive attitude towards my research and for the interviews they granted me. Akyempemhene Oheneba Adusei Poku kindly replied to my inquiries concerning a research permit. My correspondence with Akomforehene Boakye Atonsa II has been very clarifying on several interesting issues. I am indebted to Nana Kwabena Tia II, the Asenehene of Kwawu, who not only candidly discussed the history of the Asene people with me but also honoured me by adopting me into the Asene clan. I also want to thank Domaahene Agyeman Badu II for an illuminating discussion about Akan clanship. I am grateful to Yejihene Yaw Kagbrese V, Cherepohene Twumasi Ankrah VIII, and Konkomahene Yiadom Boachie II for their overwhelming hospitality, particularly during the annual Kajuji festival in Yeji. Heartfelt thanks belong also to Opanin Kwame Tawiah, Dendwahemaa Yaa Fosuaa, Dendwahene Baffuor Asare, Nana Bredihene, and Nana Sesemanhene in Nkoransa, Nana Aberasohene and Nana Oseawuohene in Kyebi, Nana Aduanahene in Abetifi, the queen mother and elders of Asantemanso, and Nana Kwame and many other royals of Kumase. Finally, I wish to thank Nana Afua Kobi Serwah Ampem II, the queen mother of Asante, for welcoming me to Kumase. Several traditional priests and priestesses generously shared a part of their vast knowledge of the Akan spirit world with me. Special thanks go to Nana Anobea of Abetifi, Nana Yaw Effah and Nana Duodu of Akuma, Nana Akwasi Ankomako of Seseman, and Nana Ankomah Adjei of Bredi. The staff of the Public Records and Archives Administration Department in Kumase always did their very best to assist me as I went through their extensive holdings. Thanks also to the staff of Manhyia Archives and, in particular, to the Director of the Archives, Mr.