The Ethnography of Southwestern Angola
Description:... This is the English translation of the major work of Father Estermann, who spent nearly all his adult life as a Roman Catholic missionary in southern Angola, much of it in a leading capacity. A prolific amateur ethnographer, the author organized his work in a traditional anthropological format, divided by major tribal group. The text is largely a generalized synthesis of personal observation and field notes and is of limited interest to the political and economic historian. As background to the narrative accounts and more recent historical analyses of the peasant societies of the region, it nonetheless carries authority as the expression of a lifetime's careful observation, and does occasionally record specific original detail. The English edition is translated and edited by Gordon D. Gibson. See also a collection of articles by Esterman: Etnografia de Angola (Sudoeste e Centro). Colectanea de Artigos Dispersos, Vol. 1 (Lisbon: Instituto de Investigacao Cientifica Tropical, 1983, 483 p.). (Eriksen/Moorsom 1989).
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