LIVING ON LUO TIME - RECKONING SEQUENCE, DURATION, HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY IN A RURAL AFRICAN SOCIETY

Some reflections on the reckoning of time among the Luo people of west ern Kenya are offered as a contribution to the evolving discussion on differences in the ways that time is conceptualized by archaeologists and by the people who are the subjects of archaeological research. In particular, the paper examines the ways that the passage of time is co nceived of and represented in a society which has not yet been entirel y converted to the conceptions of temporality that underlie Western ca pitalist societies (and the academic disciplines which are a part of t hem), as well as offering some observations about potential ramificati ons for archaeological interpretation. Luo time-reckoning is shown to be a relational process in which cyclical and linear conceptions of ti me are articulated to discern sequence and duration, and temporality i s shown to be a pervasive feature of representations of social relatio ns and identity.