charisma fatigue in an East African generation‐set system

Abstract

The charisma of elders occupying the topmost social rung (the senior set in power) in a generation‐set system is treated here as a “meaning‐giving” quality that is under a constant barrage of institutionalized and controlled outbursts of violence by young men. The analysis of these outbursts as “extrasystemic” events that display some inherent antinomic and anti‐institutional qualities explains a central feature of generation‐set systems: the interplay of meanings between age and generation, the two main principles of such a system. The young men's outbursts highlight the biotemporal realities and the mortality of the elders in power who are the social carriers of meaning and who symbolize the well‐being and continuity of the social order. The outbursts expose the incongruity between the symbols and their carriers, which becomes more and more glaring as the elders dwindle in number and become progressively less efficient. These outbursts may be viewed as “tremors” that accumulate into outright pressures for a power changeover, [age system, charisma, changeover, Dassanetch, East Africa, social organization]