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Culture and Customs of Zambia. By Scott D. Taylor. Culture and Customs of Africa. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. Pp. xviii, 148; 1 map, 25 illustrations. $49.95 cloth.
The Republic of Zambia is not easily bound by single term characterizations. Of course, no country is. Nevertheless, having been charged with just this sort of loaded directive, Scott D. Taylor first reiterates some of the familiar descriptors. Zambia is, he writes in his preface, one of the rare enduringly peaceful African nations. It was an important frontline state against colonialism, and one of the first modern African nations to experience prodigious urbanization. It is also, he suggests, an ever-evolving product of these endowments and processes. Transregional demographic shifts and interethnic interaction have led to shared cultural mores in urban areas especially. Zambians act, he writes, neither wholly traditional nor modern; instead they create a uniquely Zambian cultural environment in which traditions...