Words and Processes in Mambila Kinship The Theoretical Importance of the Complexity of Everyday Life

Words and Processes in Mambila Kinship presents a set of studies of the way that Mambila speakers in Cameroon talk about themselves and their kin. Author David Zeitlyn employs conversational analytic methods to further the study of kinship terminologies. This book takes an important step toward a new synthesis between the practice of ethnography and the study of language while presenting African natural language data (still rare in mainstream linguistics) in an accessible format.

David Zeitlyn is Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Kent, Canterbury.