Words and Processes in Mambila Kinship

Book excerpt: Words and Processes in Mambila Kinship presents a set of studies of the way that Mambila speakers in Cameroon talk about themselves and their kin. Author David Zeitlyn employs conversational analytic methods to further the study of kinship terminologies. This book takes an important step toward a new synthesis between the practice of ethnography and the study of language while presenting African natural language data (still rare in mainstream linguistics) in an accessible format.