Concubines and Power: Five Hundred Years in a Northern Nigerian Palace (original) (raw)
2005
The monumental palace of Kano, Nigeria, was built circa 1500 and, by the early 00's, was inhabited by more than one thousand persons. Historically, its secluded interior housed hundreds of concubines whose role in the politics, economics, and culture of Kano city-state has been largely overlooked. In this pioneering work, Heidi J. Nast demonstrates how human-geographical methods can tell us much about a site like the palace, a place bereft of archaeological work or relevant primary sources. Drawing on extensive ethnographic work and mapping data, Concubines and Power presents new evidence that palace concubines controlled the production of indigo-dyed cloth centuries before men did. Palace concubines were to the assessment and collection of the state's earliest (grain) taxes, forming a complex and powerful administrative hierarchy that used the taxes for palace community needs. Social forces undoubtedly shaped and changed concubinage for hundreds of years, but Nast shows how the reach of concubines extended beyond the palace walls to the formation of the state itself.
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