In the Shadow of History: Passing of Lineage Society

The spread of modernity throughout the non-Western world has had transformative effect not only on governments and economies but on the lives of individuals as well. The constraints and opportunities of modernization inevitably lead to the breakdown and supplanting of older social relations and livelihoods. In this volume Andrew P. Davidson examines the Nuba Mountain region of western Sudan to show how individuals and families struggle to maintain or expand their well-being in the face of continuous uncertainty, when control of their destinies is increasingly slipping out of the comforting confines of the village. In its combination of empirical analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and theoretical inquiry, In the Shadow of History reconceptualizes development in such a way that the dynamics of historical transformation are made clear.

Andrew P. Davidson is lecturer of sociology at the University of New England at Armidale in Australia.