Historical anthropological study on colonial construction of socio-cultural reality in Kenya Coast

英国殖民政府对当地社会文化机构和习俗的态度并不总是一致的，根据具体的当地情况和殖民行政当局必须解决其殖民计划的问题而有所不同。与当地机构和习俗的不一致和矛盾的谈判，通过对其含义的相互理解和误解，有时导致新的社会文化现实、混合的殖民文化现实，这种现实仍然对当今的社会文化构成具有强大的影响。这项研究的目的是通过对内罗毕国家档案馆殖民材料的人类学重新阅读，并通过对当地人的详细采访，阐明殖民社会文化现实的构建过程，特别是肯尼亚沿海省杜鲁马人的两个地方机构--巫术信仰和继承规则。这一结果将出现在我即将出版的书(《迷恋信仰》)和我目前正在撰写的一篇文章中。

British colonial administration's attitudes towards local socio-cultural institutions and customs were not always consistent, varied according to specific local situations and probblems through which colonial administrators had to work out their colonizing projects. Inconsistent and ambivalent negotiations with local institutions and customs, through mutual understanding and misunderstanding over their meanings, sometimes resulted in the creation of new socio-cultural realities, hybrid colonial cultural realities, which still has strong influences over present day socio-cultural formations. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the process of construction of colonial socio-cultural realities, with specific focus on two local institutions, witchcraft belief and inheritance rule, among the Duruma people of the Coast Province of Kenya, through an anthropological rereading of colonial materials in National Archive, Nairobi, and through detailed interviews with local people. The result will appear in my forthcoming book ("spellbinding beliefs") and in an article I am presently working on.