In Praise of the Ancestors: Names, Identity, and Memory in Africa and the Americas

Review

by Amol Saghar
published on 13 November 2024

Susan Elizabeth Ramírez’s "In Praise of the Ancestors" seeks to study issues of historical consciousness and identity formation in the specific context of pre-modern societies. The intended readers of the book range from subject specialists to university-level students and general history enthusiasts.

Susan Elizabeth Ramírez’s In Praise of the Ancestors book underlines the fact that besides collective memories, the modern world’s sense of history is based primarily on written records stored in archives around the world. This book seeks to challenge the assumption that unlettered civilizations were akin to “peoples without history.” Through an in-depth study of three Native groups - Kazembes (Zambia in central Africa), the Iroquois Confederation (upper New York, North America), and the Andeans (South America) - Ramírez presents a revisionist view of early colonial accounts of these societies. This book attempts to reveal the incongruities as far as accepted knowledge about such Native groups is concerned.

This book is recommended primarily for anthropologists, historians, folklorists, and university-level students or researchers aiming to study human history through oral traditions. Additionally, history enthusiasts from different walks of life who are keen to investigate issues like cultural logic underpinning succession or the making of human identity will find this book of immense academic value. The intended readers of the book range from subject specialists to university-level students and general history enthusiasts.

The three mentioned Native groups are studied through oral traditions, specific to each of them, using positional inheritance. This inheritance, a key factor in the formation of their group identity and collective memories, refers to a system in which titles and names are passed on from generation to generation. Positional inheritance was common to the Kazembes, Iroquois Confederation, and the Andeans. However, as the author demonstrates, the working of this system was different in each case.

Divided into five chapters, the book approaches the issues of collective memory and identity formation in a nuanced manner. Besides making her readers aware of the evolutionary history of written records, Ramírez also, in the initial section, discusses at length the various historiographical debates centered on the theme of the book. In the subsequent three chapters, the system of positional inheritance as is prevalent among the Kazembes, Iroquois Confederation, and Andeans is taken up for thorough investigation. Focusing on the period between the 16th and the mid-20th centuries, Ramírez begins her research by examining the twin systems of continuous kinship and positional inheritance as was in place in the Kazembe society between the 18th and the mid-20th centuries. In the succeeding two chapters, the book analyses identity formation and collective memory in the specific context of the Iroquois Confederation and the Andeans.

About the Iroquois Confederation, Ramírez highlights the practice of using names to memorialize remarkable leaders. This tendency, we are informed, was prevalent among the people comprising the Iroquois Confederation in the 17th and 18th centuries. The naming practices of the Andeans are investigated in the chapter. Through a discussion based on the 16th-century manuscript records as well as some of the later-day testimonies located in the Andean and the Spanish archives, Ramírez seeks to critique many of the colonial assumptions, by documenting the use of this alternative system of memory perpetuation, which was, significantly, not recognized by the Spanish conquistadors. The concluding section of the publication deliberates upon the importance of oral traditions in the construction of the human past. The chapter provides arresting answers to some of the pertinent questions relating to the nature of historical consciousness in societies that pre-dated writing.

Susan Elizabeth Ramírez is the Neville G. Penrose Chair of History and Latin American Studies at Texas Christian University. As the study of historical consciousness in pre-capitalist societies is still developing, In Praise of the Ancestors is an important academic intervention. Rare illustrations concerning aspects of memorialization which are popular in the three Native societies as well as detailed maps and tables, add to the richness of this, otherwise exciting book. Through her detailed examination of historical consciousness among the Native people on three continents, the author has broached upon a wider issue, acknowledging that the nature of knowledge is critical for appreciating and appraising knowledge itself. Since the book is written in a coherent manner and for more than one type of audience, it will be of interest to the specialists of the subject as well as general readers.

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