Of totemism and ethnicity: Consciousness, practice and the signs of inequality*

Is ethnicity an object of analysis, something to be explained? Or is it an explanatory principle capable of accounting for significant aspects of human existence? Because it has been treated in both ways, sometimes simultaneously, there is disagreement over even the most fundamental issues: What is ethnicity, one thing or many? Does it have the capacity to determine social and material life? Or is it determined by other forces and structures? And how does it relate to race, class and nationalism? Drawing examples primarily from Africa, this essay posits five propositions about the nature of ethnicity in an effort to illuminate its historical character and diverse experiential forms.