Hierarchy and the Haya Divine Kingship: A Structural and Symbolic Reformulation of Frazer's Thesis
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1993
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.
Repository Citation
Carlson, R. G.
(1993). Hierarchy and the Haya Divine Kingship: A Structural and Symbolic Reformulation of Frazer's Thesis. American Ethnologist, 20 (2), 312-335.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/comhth/101
DOI
10.1525/ae.1993.20.2.02a00060
