Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History Social Anthropology and Two Contrasting Uses of Tribalism in Africa Author(s): Peter P. Ekeh Reviewed work(s): Source: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1990), pp. 660-700 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/178957 . Accessed: 23/01/2012 10:57 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Cambridge University Press and Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Comparative Studies in Society and History. http://www.jstor.org Social Anthropology and Two ContrastingUses of Tribalismin Africa PETER P. EKEH State University of New Yorkat Buffalo A remarkablefeature of African studies has been the sharpdiscontinuities in the characterizationof transitionsin African history and society from one era to another. Thus, for an important example, colonialism has rarely been related to the previous era of the slave trade in the analysis of any dominant socioeconomic themes in Africa. Such discontinuity is significant in one importantstrand of modem African studies: The transitionfrom the lore and scholarshipof colonial social anthropologyto postcolonial forms of African studies has been stalled into a brittle break because its central focus on the "tribe" has been under attack.