Bondarenko Dmitri M. Homoarchy

48
and its “parts” – communities and chiefdoms, were those of mutual necessity
and complementary (see section 3 of chapter 4). Sargent (1986) has defined the
relations between the supreme authorities and the community as exploitative
(and called the former “bureaucracy”) but in reality in Benin there were no
conditions for such relations’ appearance (Bondarenko 1995a: 257–264, 273–
274; criticism at Sargent’s inadequate attempt to use the Weberian and Marxist
categories at the analysis of Benin socio-political system, see in: Manning
1986; Wilks 1986). Belief in myths telling about the supernatural origin of
power and its holders, in legality and natural character of inequality and social
hierarchy played an important part in determination of communalists’ attitude
to power and authority. The “intimate” character of the relations between the
people and authority led to the situation when central power, embodied in the
respective institutions, though towered above the society and established its
dominance over it, was not separated from the people in the Morgan – Engels’s
sense (see Morgan 1877: 7; Engels 1985/1884: 197–198 vs. Bradbury 1969: 21;
Bondarenko 1993a: 165) what above all signifies that the all-Benin political
institutions formation, recruitment of administrators into them, and the way
they exercised power were taking place in accordance with the communitykinship
traditions, by means of the mechanisms determined by them. Not only
heads of communities and chiefdoms through which titled chiefs coordinated
relations between the Kingdom’s parts and the whole, but also titled chiefs
themselves did not become bureaucrats, as it was shown above. They remained
chiefs with all the mechanisms of coming to, and exercising of power, rights,
privileges, duties, etc. typical of them.
Massive ideological pillars for this objective situation were also
provided (see Bondarenko 2000a; 2000e; 2001: 186–188). It is significant to
note at this point that it would be unreasonable to speak about initial imposition
of ideology by socio-political summit or self-deceiving of those at the social
bottom: at least until the start of active trade with Europeans in the late 15 th
century Benin was characterized by mental continuity – principal identity of all
the social groups’ Weltanschauung (Bondarenko 1995a: 90–91, 165, 254–255)
what also witnesses to lack of unbridgeable gulf between the rulers and the
ruled. The ideas of reciprocal exchange of services as the basis of social
relations went on dominating among communalists. People felt their
complicity to power, its institutions and holders. As a result, “a passion for
legality and order” as a typical feature of African kingdoms (Armstrong 1960:
38) characterized Benin among others. Owe to this Benin history of the Obas
period did not see revolts of the masses against central power and its supreme
holder except uprisings in subjugated lands (and possibly just one episode in
Benin City in the 14 th or 15 th century – that of Oba Ohen’s deposition [see
Bondarenko 2001: 176–177; Roese and Bondarenko 2003: 76–77]).
Such a trend of the Bini political culture kept easily within their
general culture framework, including its mental and behavioral paradigm. 31