This book is as fascinating as its title: while reading, one discovers constantly new meanings of what ‘dancing funerals’ might mean. This multi-layered aspect is strengthened by the creative composition of the book. The author connects vivid ethnography of the present-day functioning and performances of dancing groups in the Bamileke region (West Cameroon) with detailed reports from the colonial archives. This collage of historical information and present-day observation yields surprising vistas of continuity and transformation. The young dancers want their performances to be emphatically ‘traditional’ but they go to great lengths to impress their audiences, not only through wild dancing but also by unsettling improvisations, unexpected attributes and fearsome outfits; apparently, to them, the traditional does not exclude constant innovation. The intermezzos in colonial texts confirm this insight: what seems to be traditional contains all sorts of novelties, and what seems to be starkly novel reflects ‘custom’ in unexpected ways. Clearly, these dances and their socio-political meanings can only be understood in their complex historicity.

The author does not shy away from the complications his dual approach raises, focusing especially on the historical links with the Union des Populations du Cameroun (Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, UPC) guerrillas that set this whole area ablaze at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s. The abruptness and violence of this rebellion astonished the authorities at the time – both the French and the Cameroonians – but also continues to puzzle academics today. For Beuvier, ‘his’ present-day dancing groups are certainly not a direct continuation of the rebellion in new forms. A complicating factor, for instance, is that the flowering of these dancing groups owes much to Cameroon's first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo – the great antagonist of the UPC, seen by them as a vicious colonial collaborator – who allotted a special role to youngsters’ dance associations in his politics of nation building, after he had finally succeeded in violently smothering the UPC rebellion.

All of these complications result in a rich analysis of ambiguities in the constantly shifting role of les cadets sociaux (the social juniors). It is on this point that the broader relevance of Beuvier's interpretations stands out. In the Bamileke area, the youngsters’ role may be highlighted particularly through their involvement in a fierce guerrilla struggle. But fully understanding the ambiguities of youngsters’ role is a challenge for many societies. Moreover, it is clear by now that a crude opposition between elders-with-authority and youngsters-in-rebellion is too simplistic. We need a more detailed analysis of the ambiguities of such relations, marked by the historical specificities of their specific context.

Many studies emphasize that the exploitation of young men by their elders took extreme forms in this area, notably since polygyny for the notables blocked access to women for many cadets, condemning them to remain juniors for the whole of their lives. Beuvier certainly does not relativize the reality of such exploitation, but he also insists on the density of the ‘associative tissue’ of this society. Earlier studies emphasizing the exclusion of young men may underestimate the resilience of these issues. A central theme in this book is the manjon – a term used as a general label for a wide range of associations, which also encapsulated the juniors in the social networks around the chief. Interestingly, some UPC activists tried to hide their network of cells by masking them as manjon, which are implicitly associated with occult power and corresponding forms of initiation. Similarly, today's dancing groups also identify as manjon, thereby giving their group a ‘mystic’ aura. The core chapters of the book thus follow the historical transformations of these manjon, with their seemingly folkloristic performances as their present-day outcome. With such a historical perspective, it becomes clear how these groups can even claim to take over the functions of the chief himself. For them, chieftaincy has been severely undermined, with the chiefs being reduced by the colonial government to administrative auxiliaries. The present-day dancing groups aim to step into this void by facilitating exchanges between the living and their ancestors. Thus, they claim the sacred power that used to be the privilege of the chief and his notables.

Beuvier's book is a true adventure because of the incessant shifts he conjures up, aided by the amazing effervescence of the associationisme that characterizes Bamileke societies. Yet, despite due attention to such kaleidoscopic complexity, he also develops important and original general insights, for instance concerning the maquis (guerrillas) around 1960, which, although studied and restudied, still retain many riddles due to the suddenness of their explosion and the continual shifts of the groups involved over a relatively brief period. He clearly shows that it is far too simple to see the maquis as a rebellion of young people against their chiefs and notables. Some chiefs were certainly targeted, but not the institution as such. The leaders of the maquis should rather be pictured as young men who tried to recreate a real chieftaincy. One of the recurrent modes of action was the burning of palaces, houses and so on, but fire was not only a means of destruction; it was also a source of purification, just as in the rituals some dance groups perform now at funerals.

This author clearly likes to surprise his reader with unexpected links and convergences. But this dynamic presentation is what makes his book a magisterial example of what a ‘historical anthropology of associationisme’ – a direction he proposes to develop further – can offer. This book shows how such a perspective can produce a fine and intuitive analysis of the historicity of associations, such as the dancing groups, in their creative involvement with tradition. One may still wonder how such an anthropology of associationisme deals with innovations that seek to break with the past; indeed, some elements suggest that such a drive for rupture is also present in the wild performances of the groups. Yet, the creativity with which the author links his fieldwork to profound reinterpretations of major historical changes (like the still enigmatic guerrillas in this area) also highlights that his anthropology of associationisme has a wider relevance, far beyond the field of Bamileke studies, fascinating as that may be.