The nature of entrustment : intimacy, exchange, and the sacred in Africa / Parker Shipton.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-271) and index.

Fiduciary culture : a thread in anthropological theory -- Luo and their livelihood : the Great Lake Basin and beyond -- Entrustment incarnate : humans and animals over years and generations -- Teaming up : borrowing, lending, and getting by -- Marriage on the installment plan : the present and the promised -- Debts in life and death : shared responsibility and the funerary flow -- In the passing : inheritance of things and persons -- Blood, fire, and word : Luo, Christian, and Luo-Christian sacrifice -- Conclusion : Entrustment and obligation.

"This book addresses issues of the keenest interest to anthropologists, specialists on Africa, and those concerned with international aid and development. Drawing on extensive research among the Luo people in western Kenya and abroad over many years, Parker Shipton provides a general ethnography with a new theme and theoretical approach." "This book examines how the Luo assess obligations to intimates and strangers, including the dead and the not-yet-born. Borrowing, lending, and serial passing along have ritual, religious, and emotional dimensions no less than economic ones, Shipton shows, and insight into these connections demands a broad rethinking of all international aid plans and programs."--Jacket.