Kuria Generation Classes

Abstract

Opening ParagraphThe importance of age as a factor of social grouping amongst East African peoples has long been recognized. Amongst the Kuria, a Bantu-speaking people who have been culturally influenced by Nilo-Hamitic neighbours, two distinct forms of age-grouping exist. In one ‘age-sets’ are recruited at regular provincial ceremonies of initiation, the historical sequence of sets then serving to rank their members by age seniority. In the other ‘generation classes’ are recruited according to a fixed cycle of named classes where the children of the men of one class are automatically ascribed membership of the succeeding class and where norms of coevality apply to each class in sequence. These two forms of age-grouping are institutionally distinct (status in one is in no way ‘tied’ to status in the other) and they operate in different ways within the society. Although both belong to what may empirically be called Kuria age-organization, they can conveniently be described separately. The following paper describes the generation classes.