Caste, Hierarchy, and Social Change: Tools for the Study of the Gaboye of Somaliland and African Hereditary Groups of Occupational Specialists

This article aims to contribute to the definition of some analytical coordinates in the study of African hereditary groups of occupational specialists. The argument develops from historical and ethnographic research on the Gaboye groups settled in the northwestern Somali territories. After decades of widespread usage by both colonial officers and scholars of the concept of caste for African low-status occupational specialists, some authors have criticized as inappropriate the migration of this concept from the Indian subcontinent. In this article, I argue that, if not used as a classificatory tool, the concept of caste stimulates a fruitful dialogue between different analytical traditions. I focus on two platforms of analytical exchange: the distinction between status hierarchy and power distribution within systems of social stratification, and the intertwined trajectories of transformation and persistence of symbolic and material forms of marginalization.