Notes sur Ndéba, une enceinte fortifiée à la frontière du Cameroun et du Nigéria : réflexions préliminaires entre archéologie et histoire

L'étude du site fortifié de Ndéba dans la région mambila du Cameroun (Adamaoua) laisse ressortir deux phases successives d'occupation : l'une datée du premier millénaire de notre ère, l'autre, marquée par la construction du fort, appartiendrait à la fin du XIXe siècle, voire au début du XXe. Cet établissement est un témoin intéressant de la période d'insécurité généralisée qui couvre tout le XIXe siècle, et qui est déjà connue par les sources historiques. Dans un tel contexte, peut-on le considérer comme l'illustration d'une manifestation de prise d'indépendance politique par une petite communauté de l'ouest du Cameroun central ? Cette réflexion est sans doute trop précoce, mais elle cherche à s'orienter vers une interrogation encore non résolue sur les antécédents de ce témoin archéologique visible et sur son enracinement éventuel dans le temps long

Understanding Anthropological Understanding: for a merological anthropology

In this paper I argue for a merological anthropology in which ideas of ‘partiality’ and ‘practical adequacy’ provide a way out of the impasse of relativism which is implied by post-modernism and the related abandonment of a concern with ‘truth’. Ideas such as ‘aptness’ and ‘faithfulness’ enable us to re-establish empirical foundations without having to espouse a simple realism which has been rightly criticised. Ideas taken from ethnomethodology, particularly the way we bootstrap from ‘practical adequacy’ to ‘warrants for confidence’ point to a merological anthropology in which we recognize that we do not and cannot know everything, but that we can have reasons for being confident in the little we know

The Secret to Successful User Communities: An Analysis of Computer Associates’ User Groups

This paper provides the first large scale study that examines the impact of both individual- and group-specific factors on the benefits users obtain from their user communities. By empirically analysing 924 survey responses from individuals in 161 Computer Associates' user groups, this paper aims to identify the determinants of successful user communities. To measure success, the amount of time individual members save through having access to their user networks is used. As firms can significantly profit from successful user communities, this study proposes four key implications of the empirical results for the management of user communities

Untangling knowledge creation and knowledge integration in enterprise wikis

A central challenge organizations face is how to build, store, and maintain knowledge over time. Enterprise wikis are community-based knowledge systems situated in an organizational context. These systems have the potential to play an important role in managing knowledge within organizations, but the motivating factors that drive individuals to contribute their knowledge to these systems is not very well understood. We theorize that enterprise wiki initiatives require two separate and distinct types of knowledge-sharing behaviors to succeed: knowledge creation (KC) and knowledge integration (KI). We examine a Wiki initiative at a major German bank to untangle the motivating factors behind KC and KI. Our results suggest KC and KI are indeed two distinct behaviors, reconcile inconsistent findings from past studies on the role of motivational factors for knowledge sharing to establish shared electronic knowledge resources in organizations, and identify factors that can be leveraged to tilt behaviors in favor of KC or KI

Ethnogenesis and fractal history on the African frontier: Mambila-Njerep-Mandulu

This paper explores the notion of fractals – structures that display a similar degree of complexity at whatever scale they may be viewed – in relation to investigating African history. A case study of developing ethnicities in the Mambila region of the Nigeria–Cameroon borderland is presented from a fractal perspective: five levels of the history of this region, covering different time, population and physical scales, as well as different objects of explanation for each, are explored. Our general conclusion is that the different scales, or levels, at which one may view history may contain features or imply generalizations that mask features found in, or generalizations implied by, other levels

Notes sur Ndéba, une enceinte fortifiée à la frontière du Cameroun et du Nigéria : réflexions préliminaires entre archéologie et histoire

L’étude du site fortifié de Ndéba dans la région mambila du Cameroun (Adamaoua) laisse ressortir deux phases successives d’occupation : l’une datée du premier millénaire de notre ère, l’autre, marquée par la construction du fort, appartiendrait à la fin du XIXe siècle, voire au début du XXe. Cet établissement est un témoin intéressant de la période d’insécurité généralisée qui couvre tout le XIXe siècle, et qui est déjà connue par les sources historiques. Dans un tel contexte, peut-on le considérer comme l’illustration d’une manifestation de prise d’indépendance politique par une petite communauté de l’ouest du Cameroun central ? Cette réflexion est peut-être trop précoce, mais elle cherche à s’orienter vers une interrogation encore non résolue sur les antécédents de ce témoin archéologique encore visible et sur son enracinement éventuel dans le temps long. The study of the fortified site Ndeba in the Mambila area of Cameroon (Adamawa Region) shows two successive phases of occupation. The first is dated to the first millennium AD, and the second, marked by the construction of the fort, belongs to the late nineteenth century or early twentieth. This is consistent with the widespread insecurity during that period known from historical sources for the entire nineteenth century. But beyond these historical circumstances, it is possibly the archaeological trace of a declaration of political independence made by a small community of western central Cameroon. This leads to reflections on a still unresolved question about the background of such political statements and their possible roots in the long term.</p