Understanding Somalia and Somaliland
Culture, History and Society
Published on 1. August 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
176 pages
978-1-85065-898-6 (ISBN)
Description
Ioan Lewis details the history and culture of the Somali people, providing a unique window into this little-known culture and its increasingly public predicaments. He provides insight into the complex social, historical, and cultural hinterland that is the Somali heritage and pays close attention to the pervasive influence of traditional nomadism, especially its extremely decentralized nature. Lewis also addresses developments in the Somali political region since the collapse of the Republic in 1991, including the formation and steady development of the democratic state of Somaliland. Though it has grown into a de facto personality, this self-governing outpost of democracy is still officially unrecognized internationally. Lewis concludes with a discussion of the Islamist movement that brought a brief but astonishing period of stability to much of Southern Somalia in late 2006.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 136 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-85065-898-6 (9781850658986)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ioan Lewis is professor emeritus of anthropology at the London School of Economics and author of Arguments with Ethnography: Comparative Approaches to History, Politics, and Religion. He is recognised internationally as the leading academic authority on the history and cultures of the Somali people, on which he has written dozens of books and articles over the last fifty years.
Content
ContentsPart One: The Social Setting1. The Somali Ethnic Region2. Migration and the Islamic Tradition3. The Somali Nation and its Traditional Divisions4. Family Organisation5. Marriage Arrangements6. Religion and General Cultural Characteristics7. The Oral Heritage8. Self-image and National CharacteristicsPart Two: Pre- and Post-Colonial History9. The Imperial Partition (1880-1941)10. The Re-partition of the Somalis (1941-60)11. Independence 1960-196912. The Pan-Somali Struggle (1960-9)13. Military Rule and Revolution (1969-74)14. Scientific Socialism in Somalia15. The Resumption of the Pan-Somali Struggle (1974-8)16. The Russian Legacy17. Government and Rural SocietyPart Three: Society and Economy18. Traditional Rural Social Institutions19. Local Groups and Settlement Patterns20. Livestock Trade and Labour Migration21. Northern Cultivating Settlements22. Southern Cultivating Settlements23. State Settlement Schemes Following the 'Drought of the Long Tail'24. The Refugee Crisis (1978-80)25. Internal Dissent After the Ogaden WarPart Four: Civil War and the Birth of New Polities26. Peace with Ethiopia, Chaos at home27. The Rebirth of Somaliland28. International Intervention29. The Arta 'transitional government'30. The Mbagathi 'transitional federal government'31. Islam brings peace to Mogadishu32. Somaliland: the power of home-made democracy33. Puntland and other possibilitiesAppendicesDiagrams, Tables & Maps