bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Influence of the Kingdom of Kongo on Central Africa
Authors: Torday E.
Published: April 2006

The methodical investigation of African customs and institutions, which, notwithstanding tardy official recognition, has made such rapid strides within the last twenty or thirty years, brings us constantly up against phenomena which upset our most cherished theories. The best text-books have taught us that the method of making fire by the stick-and-groove method belongs to Oceania, and it is most disconcerting to come across some African tribe, like the Tophoke, right in the centre of the continent, who practise it and know no other. The features of a Bena Lulua display unabashed curvilinear scorings which by all rights ought to adorn the face of some Maori. The Boloki employ a method of casting which is, but for its crudeness and the distinction that vegetable matter is used instead of wax, based practically on the same principles as the cire perdue process of higher civilizations. How is it that the Warega disdain the timehonoured African institution of slavery in whatever form and have social grades which find their nearest counterpart among the Edo and Ibo, twelve hundred miles west? Shall we ever find explanations for these and many other ethnological problems? The greatest difficulty we have to face when investigating matters of the past in Africa is the entire absence of dates: the African has never kept an account of time, which has always been of but little value to him, and consequently the co-ordination of various events becomes extremely laborious, if not impossible.
Economic Changes in South African Native Life
Authors: Schapera I.
Published: April 2006

The native problem as it exists to-day in South Africa is not a phenomenon of recent growth. The issues which confront the country are the product of many decades of inter-racial contact and adjustment, during which Europeans and Natives have exercised a steadily growing influence upon each others' lives. Under the influence of European culture many of the Natives have abandoned their original tribal customs, and their social life is being reorganized on a new basis by the adoption of European habits and ideas. On the other hand, the presence of the Natives has so profoundly affected the social and economic development of the Europeans as to have become almost an integral part of the whole structure of civilization in South Africa. It is no longer possible for the two races to develop apart from each other. The future welfare of the country now depends upon the finding of some social and political system in which both may live together in close contact, without that increasing unrest and disturbance that seems to develop as the inevitable result of the lack of stability and unity in any society.
The Political Structure of the Nandi-Speaking Peoples of Kenya
Authors: Evans-Pritchard E. E.
Published: April 2006

This paper is an attempt to analyse briefly the literature on the Nandi-speaking peoples of Kenya with the object of noting structural similarities and differences between them. In particular the inquiry is directed to discovering whether their political structures conform to the same general type.
Les Exploitations mécanisées du Moyen Congo Français
Authors: Hauser André
Published: April 2006

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Si la pénétration europdénne dans un monde organisé à l'échelle du village et de la tribu a modifié profondemént les sociétés africaines, on ne peut dire que les Noirs en soient arrivés à un stade d'évolution où ils sauraient mettre seuls leur pays en valeur selon les techniques modernes: ils ont encore besoin d'un encadrement de Blancs pour exploiter le sol ou le sous-sol. Les centres mécanisés de production minière, forestière, agricole, où divers groupes ethniques vivent et travaillent côte à côte, sont appelés à devenir des facteurs d'unification du pays, d'éducation de ses habitants et d'élévation de leur niveau de vie dans la mesure où les entreprises feront bénéficier leurs salariés, et l'Etat ses ressortissants, d'un équipement adéquat dans tous les domaines.
Centres Urbains d'Afrique Equatoriale Française
Authors: Lebeuf Jean-Paul
Published: April 2006

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La présente publication fait partie d'une étude d'ensemble des centres urbains de l'Afrique Equatoriale Française. Ces recherches dont nous avons été chargé par le Haut-Commissariat de la République en A.E.F, présentent l'originalite d'être les premières qui aient été poursuivies par des spécialistes des sciences humaines, non dans une intention purement érudite, mais afin que des mesures administratives puissent être prises dans le but de dormer une solution à certains problèmes posés par la colonisation.

D'autre part, ces travaux ne sont qu'une introduction à des recherches plus approfondies. En effet, eu égard au temps dont nous disposions par rapport à l'importance du problème envisagé, nous avons dû nous en tenir, une fois le cadre tracé, à l'étude de points particulièrement importants dans l'évolution actuelle. Le rapport complet de ces recherches a fait l'objet de publications dont le présent article constitue le résumé.
The Dual Mandate for Tomorrow
Authors: Ross Emory
Published: April 2006

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Lord Lugard, in a good deal of his action as well as in his speaking and writing around the turn of our present century and later, gave prominence and helped to give progressive formulation to an idea which had not then been nearly so clearly seen, accepted, or practised as it has been in certain quarters since.

This idea may be paraphrased by saying that a balance should be maintained in colonial relationships between the good resulting for the colonial peoples and that accruing to the governing peoples.
The Buyeye: A Secret Society of Snake-charmers in Sukumaland, Tanganyika Territory
Authors: Cory Hans
Published: April 2006

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The object of this paper is to describe the initiation ceremonies into the Buyeye, a society of snake-charmers, the main purpose of which is to give the members a knowledge of all matters concerning snakes, especially the cure of snake-bites. This knowledge enables members to handle snakes with impunity, although they only do so for purposes of propaganda.
Oron Verb Morphology
Authors: Simmons Donald C.
Published: April 2006

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The Oron, who call themselves ɔrɔ, number approximately 50,000 individuals, and inhabit 90 villages in Calabar Province, Nigeria. Lexicon and morphology establish the affiliation of Oron with the Ibibio-Efik dialect cluster recognized by Westermann and Bryan, and with Efik in the Central Branch (Cross River languages) of Greenberg's Niger-Congo family.

The material is based on the speech of Mr. Okon Ukam of Eweme village. Since the informant did not speak English the writer communicated with him through Mr. Dimo Udoh Eyo, an Ibibio from Etobodom, Uyo District, who became conversant with the Oron language in his youth. Between March and May 1953, 10,000 words of text and a vocabulary list of approximately 1,700 morphemes were transcribed. Although it is not assumed that all possible tenses or tone permutations have been obtained, it is believed that most of the tenses are described. The writer acknowledges his indebtedness to Ward's study of Efik, and Lounsbury's study of Oneida verb morphology since each has served as a model for the presentation of certain aspects of Oron morphology.
Changing Political Leadership in West Africa
Authors: Garigue Philip
Published: April 2006

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Much recent research has been concerned with obtaining an acceptable definition of the terms ‘leader ’and ‘leadership’ to provide a basis for a theory of leadership. Some results have been achieved in the study of leadership in the ‘face-to-face’group. It is when large-scale social movements are involved that the techniques of the sociogram and personality tests, which have been the main tools of analysis in the ‘face-to-face’ studies, are not sufficient, and the investigator has to employ the institutional analysis, which places the individual aspect of leadership in a secondary position.
L'Enterrement d'un Chef konkomba
Authors: Cornevin R.
Published: April 2006

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Les populations konkomba qui se partagent équitablement de part et d'autre de l'Oti entre les deux Togo français et britannique, ont déjà fait l'objet d'un certain nombre d'études tant à l'époque allemande que du côté britannique et françcais.

Population belliqueuse, sympathique et fière, les Konkomba ont longtemps tenu en échec les forces allemandes de l'Oberleutnant Thierry, fondateur du poste de Sansane Mango, du docteur Gruner et du Leutnant von Massow (campagne de 1897).

Au point de vue linguistique, le konkomba est très proche du bassari et appartient au groupe gourma.
Curiosités Linguistiques
Authors: Mengrelis Thanos
Published: April 2006

Les Africains se sont trouvés dans l'obligation d'employer des mots nouveaux pour désigner des choses qui n'existaient pas avant l'arrivée des Européens. Ces néologismes produisent souvent de belles réussites et ainsi des mots pittoresques se sont formés. Nous donnons comme exemple quelques mots du vocabulaire francomalinké de la Guinée Française.
Land Tenure on the Eritrean Plateau
Authors: Nadel S. F.
Published: April 2006

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It has been said of the African that he does not possess his land but is possessed by it. The attitude of the Eritrean peasant towards his land cannot be more aptly described. Indeed, his preoccupation with his landed possessions shows a depth and passion not often parallelled among African races.
La Notion de Propriété chez quelques Peuplades matrilinéales du Congo Belge
Authors: De Cleene N.
Published: April 2006

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Le régime des biens étant intimement lié à l'évolution de la société, il est de la plus haute importance au point de vue de la colonisation, de connaître le sens précis que l'indigène attache a la propriété.

Dans ce but, nous examinerons d'abord comment se présente chez quelques peuplades matrilinéales ce que nous appelons la propriété mobilière, immobilière et foncière. Cet exposé sera purement descriptif et, si nous employons pareille terminologie, c'est uniquement en vue d'ordonner les faits à étudier. Dans les cadres ainsi établis, nous analyserons ensuite la portée du droit de propriété indigène. Et nous terminerons en confrontant les conceptions indigènes avec le droit de propriété tel que nous le connaissons.
Preventive Medicine and Superstition in Nigeria
Authors: Ajose Oladele A.
Published: April 2006

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The peoples of the Western world, and not a few Africans who have adopted some Western ideas, are apt to think that in matters of hygiene and preventive medicine the peoples of Nigeria owe all their useful practices solely to Western civilization, while the traditional theories and practices are merely superstitions. But in fact, when one analyses these, one finds interwoven with them correct principles of hygiene and preventive medicine. It is true that Nigeria owes a great deal to modern medicine, but had it not been for an existing foundation of practical hygiene and preventive medicine among Nigerian peoples, it would not have been possible for them to derive full benefit from modern practices.
Seven Tribes in Central Africa
Authors: Colson Elizabeth , Gluckman Max
Published: April 2006

In her review of Seven Tribes of British Centra Africa in Africa, xxii. 1 Mrs. Douglas praises the individual essays but criticizes their appearance in a single volume. We do not consider it appropriate for writers to reply to criticism which is levied on the basis of general knowledge and of the internal evidence of a book—indeed, we would ourselves accept the criticism which Mrs. Douglas, with others, has made that the editors should not have shirked the task of providing a general introduction to add to the significance of joint publication of the seven essays. But we consider it legitimate to protest when Mrs. Douglas's criticism is based on inadequate and inaccurate statements about the internal affairs of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, especially as she puts this incorrect information in the form of questions.
The Age-system of the Nilo-Hamitic Peoples: A Critical Evaluation
Authors: Bernardi B.
Published: April 2006

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The present paper is an attempt to interpret the structural principles of the Nilo-Hamitic age-system and to establish its significance in the wider structure of the Nilo-Hamitic societies. The discussion is based on an analysis of the available anthropological literature. But this literature is extremely uneven and not seldom confusing, so that some aspects of my argument necessarily have but a preliminary value. It will not be possible to produce here all the details of the analysis, which I hope to deal with more extensively in some other place.
Land Tenure on the Eritrean Plateau
Authors: Nadel S. F.
Published: April 2006

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Doubtful land titles are established or contested through recognized legal channels. Traditionally, the jurisdiction in land disputes is vested in judges (danya) who are the chiefs of the community in whose territory the land is situated. This rule applies also to land litigation between full members of the community and the strangers and guest-groups which may hold land (by lease or other titles) in the area. We note that in such disputes between the hereditary landlords and the landless foreigners the former also arrogate to themselves the right of jurisdiction.
Décès d'une Femme Guerzé (Cercle de Nzérékoré, Guinée Française)
Authors: Holas B.
Published: April 2006

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Bien que la description suivante soit basée sur un cas précis, observé en 1952 dans un campement des immigrés guerzé installés depuis des années dans le pays kono, aux environs du village de Bakoré (canton de Lola), son schéma correspond en grandes lignes au mécanisme coutumier local général.
The Aboakyer of the Effutu: A Critique of Meyerowitz's Account
Authors: Wyllie Robert W.
Published: April 2006

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In her book, The Akan of Ghana (1958), Eva L. Meyerowitz examines some of the religious beliefs and practices of the Akan in an attempt to show that they are of Libyo-Phoenician origin and that Akan civilization is essentially pre-Arab North African in character. As an example of an Akan New Year festival she describes the annual Aboakyer (lit. ‘the catching of an animal’) ritual of the Effutu people of southern Ghana and interprets it in a manner which supports her theory of Akan origins (Meyerowitz, 1958, pp. 38–42). This research note subjects Meyerowitz's treatment of the Aboakyer to critical analysis. It is concerned with her theory of Akan origins only in so far as it results in misinterpretation of the Aboakyer. The note does not provide a full account of the Aboakyer, but a brief outline showing the sequence of ritual events. The field-work upon which it is based was conducted among the Effutu in 1964 and 1965 and included the study of the Aboakyer rituals of these years.
A Survey of Categories of Economic Activities among the Peoples of Africa
Authors: Reader D. H.
Published: April 2006

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This essay is based on a review of the documentation on tribal economies in Africa. It attempts (i) to outline reported economic development within and outside the subsistence sector in traditional African societies; (ii) to assess tribal economic attitudes disclosed; (iii) to appraise, in the light of these, probable reactions towards further economic development with reference to the technological, industrial, and commercial dimensions of urbanization.
Behaviour and Cultural Value in West African Stories: Literary Sources for the Study of Culture Contact
Authors: Shelton Austin J.
Published: April 2006

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In much modern West African literature in English and French the authors depict problems concerning the relationship between the socio-cultural background and the particular experiences and behaviour of the characters portrayed. Investigation and analysis of such stories to ascertain the authors' ‘solutions’ of the characters' problems can aid our understanding of values and attitudes among modern Africans and in turn contribute to the growing corpus of knowledge about culture contact. As Cyprian Ekwensi, the Nigerian novelist, has claimed: ‘African writing is writing which reveals the psychology of the African.’ Obviously it reveals the psychology of both the author and the characters whom he portrays, and even though stories are written by individuals who are ‘modern’ Africans, strong opposition to any consideration of African literature as individualistic ‘art for art's sake’ has been manifested by Africans, including the Society of Nigerian Authors in their reply to Martin Tucker's 1962 argument that African novelists are over-communal and insufficiently individualistic in what they portray. In making such a response, the Nigerian authors in effect reasserted a traditional African attitude towards art as socially functional rather than merely aesthetically pleasing. One is thus justified in pursuing the study of modern literary works by Africans as expressions of attitudes and values related to tradition, contact, and change.
Anthropology and Africa—A Wider Perspective
Authors: Herskovits Melville J.
Published: April 2006

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Anthropological research in Africa has been characterized by an intensive, microethnographic approach, which has stressed the understanding of institutional arrangements and their functioning within a given society; and, exceptionally, the analysis of custom in depth. Comparisons have been eschewed, while the broader distributional studies that played an important role in the earlier researches of anthropologists in North America and Polynesia, in Africa have been all but lacking in the scientific literature. The result has typically been the ethnographic monograph rather than the ethnological or ethnohistorical study.
The East African Trade in Woodcarvings
Authors: Elkan Walter
Published: April 2006

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No one who has visited East Africa has come away without seeing the wood-carvings made and sold by the Kamba. Sets of salad-servers crowned by Masai or Nandi heads, figurines of warriors bearing spear and shield, and models of elephants and leopards—these are their stock-in-trade which they carry to every part of East and Central Africa, to the Rhodesias and the Sudan, the Congo, and, exceptionally, to England. Their carvings are spread on the pavement outside hotels and at the most frequented corners of the main streets or they are hawked in baskets from door to I door. Like the jewellery sold at Port Said, their carvings have an exotic but suspiciously uniform look about them and at the back of everyone's mind there lurks the suspicion that really they are all mass-produced by machines—in Birmingham, or ‘by the Indians’ or at some remote Mission station.‘We have been unable so far to come into contact with the managing body of this organized and doubtlessly machinery-using industry’, wrote an American firm anxious to buy their carvings direct from the manufacturer. The truth is that there is no managing body and no machinery. The carvings are made by hand with tools that were in common use before this century and they are sold in the first instance either by the men who carved them or, more commonly, by Kamba ‘dealers’, who may have started as carvers but who eventually have found trade more profitable than manufacture. Some of the dealers have built up a trade which yields them incomes earned by few other Africans in Kenya, and in general there has come into being, almost entirely as a consequence of Kamba enterprise, a thriving industry which provides men from one of the most barren parts of Kenya with incomes comparable to those earned in the most prosperous agricultural regions.
Elections in an African Rural Area
Authors: Austin Dennis
Published: April 2006

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What happens when an African tribal community is suddenly brought within a parliamentary system based on adult suffrage? On the surface, the process is a familiar one: an election date is announced, parties begin to be active, candidates are chosen, a government information van goes round to explain the procedure of voting, polling day arrives, and the member for X constituency is declared returned. The electorate has made its choice and the new member takes his seat in parliament. But, in substance, what happens? What are the issues on which the electorate divides—supposing there is a contest? How does a candidate put himself forward? What should he do, or have in his favour, in order to win? And—the most difficult question of all: how real are such contests in terms of local understanding of what the election is about? The following account is an attempt to answer these questions for one part of West Africa: the Kassena-Nankanni North and Bongo constituencies in northern Ghana during the 1954 and 1956 general elections.
Zionists in Rhodesia
Authors: Aquina Mary
Published: April 2006

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In his classic study of African Independent Churches in South Africa, Sundkler distinguishes two main groups. To the first belong the Ethiopian Churches, that is, Independent African Churches which have split off from European Mission Churches because they resented being administered by Europeans, yet did not want to alter church organization and religious teaching. In the second group belong the Zionist Churches which, as Sundkler writes, are theologically ‘a syncretistic Bantu movement with healing, speaking with tongues, purification rites and taboos as the main expression of their faith’. Sundkler states, however, that these categories are not exclusive, because ‘some Zionist Churches are gradually becoming more and more “Ethiopian” in ideology and behaviour.’
Anthropologists and the Third Dimension
Authors: Vansina J.
Published: April 2006

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Can an anthropologist work with evidence supplied by historical sources? Or rather, can he deal with sources written by foreigners to a culture, data so obviously different from his usual reliance on his own participant observation? The question becomes more relevant each day as more historical data are becoming available about African and Asian societies. In addition trends in theoretical anthropology require more and more diachronic evidence to test or refine existing structural or functional theories.
Äsät, The Soul of the Gurage
Authors: Leslau Wolf
Published: April 2006

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The title of the present article is taken from a Chaha sentence given below that describes the importance of the äsät in the life of the Gurage, whose country is situated in the south-west of Addis Ababa. Indeed the äsät, or the banana-like plant, known as Ensete edulis, provides the staple food of the Gurage diet. The root, the stem of the leaves, and the trunk provide substance for bread; the leaves serve as wrapping material, as base-stands for pots, as load-carriers, and as fuel; the dried leaves are made into small plates for serving chopped meat; and the fibre serves as rope. For some of the Gurage dialects I collected as many as thirty names for the different kinds of äsät, some of these kinds being used as medicines for various forms of illness. The äsät is a frequently recurring theme in the Gurage folklore, folktales, proverbs, and riddles.
Formality and Informality in Yao Speech
Authors: Mbaga K. , Whiteley W. H.
Published: April 2006

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Yao is a Bantu language spoken by about 100,000 people in Southern Tanganyika; by nearly a third of a million people in Nyasaland, and by a much larger but unspecified number in Portuguese East Africa. Grammatical studies of the language as spoken in Nyasaland have been made by Sanderson (1922) and Hetherwick (1902), and Sanderson's Dictionary appeared in 1954. Anthropologically the Nyasaland Yao have been intensively studied by Professor J. C. Mitchell, but the Tanganyika section has remained largely unstudied, either by linguists or anthropologists.
A Case Study of Ideas Concerning Disease among the Tiv
Authors: Price-Williams D. R.
Published: April 2006

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Ideas and behaviour relating to health and disease among the Tiv of Benue Province, Central Nigeria, have been reported in the literature at different times. Most of these studies have focused on the general principles involved as universal features of the Tiv people. The present study is concerned only with the ideas and social background of disease in one particular locality, namely an area within a certain ‘clan’ called Mbara.
Age Generations and Political Process in So
Authors: Laughlin Charles D. , Laughlin Elizabeth R.
Published: April 2006

Introduction

As with many other East African peoples, political authority and the control of wealth in So are linked inextricably with age as a determining factor. A close analysis of their age-grading structure is requisite to a complete understanding of the So way of life. Furthermore, because this structure is based upon a recently borrowed model of proper social stratification an examination of the system is instructive to scholars interested in acculturative interaction between societies.
Matriliny in the Throes of Change: Kinship, Descent and Marriage in Luapula, Zambia. Part One
Authors: Poewe Karla O.
Published: April 2006

Introduction

The research upon which this paper is based was carried out over a period of about 18 months in the Luapula Province of Zambia. I first spent a month in Ntoto fishing camp, which is located about 15 km north of Kashikishi village on the slopes of Lake Mweru. For a year after that I conducted research in Kashikishi, a large village (about 1,500 population) adjacent to the southeastern shore of Lake Mweru. I then spentfour months in Lukwesa, which is situated about 130 km south of Kashikishi on the Luapula River, which flows into the lake. Finally, I spent an additional month in other smaller villages along the river. By these changes of locale I attempted to cover the area researched by Cunnison in 1949 (published in 1959), and to record some of the variability in kinship, economic, and religious activities within the river and lake region.
Laman's Kongo Ethnography: Observations on Sources, Methodology, and Theory
Authors: Janzen John M.
Published: April 2006

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Valuable African archival materials are known to have been ‘rediscovered’ accidentally after having been ‘lost’ to scholarship for a time. Perhaps the foremost example of this in Lower Congo research is the eighteenth-century bibliography located by Jadin in the Vatican Library some time ago. A similar case which I shall discuss here is that of the KiKongo sources of Karl Laman's four volume ethnography The Kongo, a 775-page work detailing traditions, customs, lore, and legend from the BaKongo north of the Congo River at the turn of the century. These sources were ‘lost’ too, but in a different way. Through an obfuscating editorial policy and several translations from KiKongo to Swedish, and again from Swedish to English, their central role in the final work became completely obscured. A reconstruction of how Laman's posthumous ethnography in fact reached the stage of publication should be of help to those who find it difficult to work with as it is—although I must make clear that the work is, as it stands, already of outstanding value. An explanation of the editorial policy in terms of its premises should reveal the impact of tacit ethnological theory upon something as seemingly cut-and-dried as the posthumous works of an established scholar, already well known in his field.
Brideservice, Residence, and Authority among the Goba (N. Shona) of the Zambezi Valley
Authors: Lancaster C. S.
Published: April 2006

Introduction

The Shona-speaking complex of tribes covers most of present day Southern Rhodesia, stretching to the Zambian border along the Zambezi River and into Mozambique in the north and to the Indian Ocean in the east. The Korekore group is the major northern division of the Shona-speaking peoples. The original Korekore appear to have been a band of Karanga invaders from the south who entered the middle Zambezi Valley in the fifteenth century and established the Mwene Mutapa confederacy. Today the Korekore group occupies an area extending south from the Zambezi between longitude 28° and longitude 33° east, including the low-lying valley floor and the middle and high veldt or plains to the south where most of the population is concentrated (Garbett, 1966). The valley floor in this region has been considered a poor habitat by African and White settlers alike. The climate is generally poor, there are few cattle because of the tsetse fly, the area is economically undeveloped, and the population is sparse and scattered. Because of their poorer habitat the valley dwelling Korekore have come to be distinguished from their more fortunate highland neighbours to the south and are disparagingly known as Goba or poor lowlanders. In times past they have also been known as Banyai or vassals to the stronger Shona chiefs on the more populous cattle-rich highlands, and also as Chikunda or followers of the Portuguese and half-caste traders operating along the Zambezi in the nineteenth and earlier centuries. This historical background of changing political relations symbolized by changing ethnic identities will be described elsewhere (Lancaster, n.d.).
New Guinea Models in the African Savannah
Authors: Karp Ivan
Published: April 2006

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Fourteen years have passed since J. A. Barnes published his short article on ‘African models in the New Guinea Highlands’ (1962). In it Barnes raised the question of whether the concepts used to analyse systems of descent in African societies were applicable to descent systems in New Guinea that appeared at first glance to be similar. This article signalled the beginning of a debate over the nature of descent and kinship in New Guinea and the advisability of using concepts and results derived from field research in another continent and in a different context. The very status of social anthropology as a comparative and generalizing science is called into question by the debate initiated by Barnes, for if African research has no relevance for New Guinea research, then neither cross-cultural typologies nor generalizations about social behavior are possible. Hence, the New Guinea literature has more than just an area specialist's significance.
Occupational prestige, status, and social change in modern Ethiopia
Authors: Shack William A.
Published: April 2006

Introduction

Towns and cities throughout modern Africa have witnessed the emergence of prestige and status groups, principally as consequence of newly developing wage earning opportunities for educated Africans. Like African townsmen almost everywhere, urban Ethiopians now engage in, or aspire to occupations as skilled specialists which carry altogether new social prestige. Old values associated with traditional labour undertakings have undergone adjustment and modification. Because changing patterns of urban social relationships develop in large measure from the diverse ways Ethiopians, or other Africans, make a living, studies of the ranking of occupations by their social prestige value have been suggested as a useful approach to understanding the nature of the urban system of social stratification, on the one hand, and to providing a baseline for determining indices of social change, on the other.
Some Aspects of Marital Stability in a Rural Luo Community
Authors: Potash Betty
Published: April 2006

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The stability of marriage is one of the most striking features of a rural Luo community, yet discussions of marital problems are endemic. Women frequently voice complaints about their husbands' behavior or make more general comments on the difficulty of marriage for women. By contrast, men voice few complaints about their own marriages, although they are well aware of women's attitudes. I was frequently cautioned by male friends not to pay too much attention to anything a woman might tell me since ‘women liked to complain.’
Rice, yams and chiefs in Avatime: speculations on the development of a social order
Authors: Brydon Lynne
Published: April 2006

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Contemporary texts on West African crops usually note that rice is grown in areas west of the Tano: southern Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Liberia grow a considerable quantity of rice and in recent years there has been much attention given to improving both crop type and cultivation techniques. Northern Ghana has also seen the introduction of wet rice cultivation on a large scale. But there are areas in eastern Ghana, to the east of the Volta, where rice is grown. The rice is the indigenous glaberrima type; cultivation techniques owe nothing to the developers and rice-growing has a nodal place in local culture.
The Manipulation of Myth in a Tavara Chiefdom
Authors: Bourdillon M. F. C.
Published: April 2006

Introduction

In this paper we consider how a functional study can help us to understand the manipulation of myths. This is not to return to the functionalism of Radcliffe-Brown (1935) which sought to explain every social institution by showing how it helps to maintain the social structure. Rather we consider what the myth-maker is trying to do in recounting his stories, or the function these stories serve for the narrator. We are concerned with the logical processes behind myth. This is not the ‘logic’ that Lévi-Strauss (1964, 9-22) tries to elucidate when he unfolds the structural patterns followed by the myths of a particular culture. We do not so much consider myth as an object to be analysed, but myth-making or the narration of myths as an activity of the people concerned. We are concerned with logic in the sense of the mental processes by means of which myth is used to express the intentions of the narrator. For this it is necessary to study myths in the particular contexts in which they are used.
Le rôle social et rituel du bétail chez les Massa du Tchad
Authors: Dumas-Champion Françoise
Published: April 2006

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Un jour la communauté des bêtes se dispersa, chaque bestiau s'en fut de son côté pour vivre sa vie, l'homme tua la mère de Vache et de Buffle. Buffle dit qu'il vengerait sa mère en attaquant les hommes dans la brousse; mais Vache dit qu'elle resterait dans les demeures des hommes et qu'elle vengerait sa mère en causant d'interminables disputes à propos de dettes, d'épouseurs à doter, d'adultères, toutes sources de conflits et de mises à mort parmi le peuple. Cette longue noise de Vache et d'Homme remonte à des temps immémoriaux, et jour après jour Vache se revanche de la mort de sa mère en provoquant la mort des hommes. D'où vient que les Nuer disent du bétail : ‘Il finira avec l'humanité’ car les hommes mourront tous pour des bêtes, et ils disparaîtront ensemble, eux et leurs bêtes.
The Structure and Significance of Kuranko Clanship
Authors: Jackson Michael
Published: April 2006

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Recently renewed interest in the history and social structures of the Mande-speaking peoples of the West Sudan has brought to attention a problem of both ethnographical and theoretical importance. It is the problem of understanding the structure and functions of clanship in Mande societies, while at the same time interpreting the meanings of clan names, rituals, myths, totemic usages, and inter-clan relationships. In approaching the first aspect of the problem one is faced with questions of definition which have not been satisfactorily resolved; for example, are the nyamakala groups properly defined as ‘castes’, and are the dyamu (or diamu) to be described as ‘clans’ or as ‘patronymic groups’.
Tiv Kuraiyol, Body Protectors
Authors: Bergsma Harold M.
Published: April 2006

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This paper is concerned with a description of the religious beliefs of the Tiv with regard to kuraiyol. Kuraiyol, literally translated, means ‘body protectors’. The belief in kuraiyol is closely related to the major religious belief system termed akombo a soron, or propitiation of fetishes. A good deal has been written about akombo by students of the Tiv but very little has been written about kuraiyol. It is difficult to determine when kuraiyol became an important aspect of Tiv religious practices. Dr. Paul Bohannan has recently mentioned in written correspondence to this writer that as early as 1949 kuraiyol had ‘gained a tremendous popularity’. From personal observation during the period from 1955 to 1967 an increasing emphasis appeared to be placed on kuraiyol, especially during periods of war and violence which so greatly affected Tivland. Many Tiv believed kuraiyol to be effective charms against evil forces, including the mbatsav (night witches), the adzov (wood spirits, goblins), and other malevolent spirits. In addition, kuraiyol was believed to impart to the owner certain magical powers which enhanced the wearer's ability to fight, make love, gain material possessions, and the like.
New Coalitions and traditional chieftainship in Northern Zambia: The Politics of Local government in Uyombe
Authors: Bond George Clement
Published: April 2006

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The imposition of British colonial rule brought rural societies in Zambia to the crossroads of traditional and bureaucratic administration. Indigenous forms of government mediated central government institutions and regulated administrative changes. The majority of rural Africans were governed by composite structures. They were under a bureaucratic system but not part of it. The colonial form of local government, the Native Administration, was not a bureaucracy, though it may be considered a formal organization, in that ‘collective efforts were explicitly organized for specific ends’ (Blau and Scott, 1962: 223). Under colonial rule the principal ends were to maintain law and order and to collect taxes from the African majority. The indigenous political systems were left largely intact, and thus, politics was an intimate part of local government. This paper looks at one of these local systems of government and deals with its development and transformation through a number of phases, focusing primarily on the transitional period at the end of colonial rule (the late 1950s and the early 1960s) and the beginning of Zambian independence and on the persistence of traditional chieftainship as the basis of local government through the process of political change.
TheWaswahili: The social history of an ethnic group
Authors: Arens W.
Published: April 2006

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Definitional questions, such as ‘Who are theWaswahili’, posed by Eastman (1971) in this journal, appear to have been of little interest in the past, as many social anthropologists either ignored the problem or assumed that the answers were self-evident. However, those who have confronted this task have shown that simplicity and self-evidence is rarely a characteristic feature of the inquiry. Even classic ethnographic cases of supposed culturally homogeneous and distinct tribal groups are at present being re-examined in light of the renewed interest in this topic (cf. Helm, 1968). Whether or not the Nuer are the Dinka, or vice versa, it has been minimally established that such questions are legitimate and even fruitful in sharpening our analytical approach to subject populations.
Zande Bridewealth
Authors: Evans-Pritchard E. E.
Published: April 2006

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This paper was drafted many years ago and it was against the background of this and other unpublished material that I came to the view about the nature of bride-wealth indicated in my paper ‘Social Character of Bride-Wealth, with Special Reference to the Azande’ (Man, 1934, 194).
Les Cérémonies Soixantenaires du Sigui chez les Dogon: Onzième Lugard Memorial Lecture
Authors: Dieterlen Germaine
Published: April 2006

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Je tiens à vous dire mon émotion d'avoir été désignée pour cette conférence, consacrée à la mémoire de Lord Lugard. Car je n'ai pas aujourd'hui l'intention de faire un exposé académique: en effet, je préfère vous apporter les premiers résultats d'une recherche ‘sur le terrain’ qui se situe dans un cadre assez exceptionnel, celui d'une cérémonie soixantenaire itinérante chez les Dogon du Mali. Je vous présenterai cette recherche dans l'état où elle se trouve actuellement, c'est-à-dire encore en cours d'enquête et d'examen; mon propos constitue une introduction aux films que vous allez voir, réalisés par notre collègue Jean Rouch, chaque année, depuis quatre ans, à l'occasion de ces cérémonies.
Young puritan preachers in post-independence Malawi
Authors: Dijk Richard A. van
Published: April 2006

In Blantyre, Malawi's main urban centre with a population of over 400,000, there are some thirty to forty young preachers who between them run fifteen or so organisations that constitute the Born Again movement. The organisations include ‘ministries’ and ‘fellowships’ as well as ‘churches’. The movement started c.1974. What is significant is that all the leaders were then teenagers; even today the second ‘generation’ of preachers are teenagers or in their early twenties. One theme dominates their message: vehement opposition to involvement in practices of a largely secretive or malevolent nature, witchcraft and ‘politics’ in particular. The young preachers assume these forces to be the basis of the power that elders wield in the villages or in urban townships. Yet in Blantyre, where political surveillance over everyday life is very marked, they have to be wary of challenging this older, powerful generation if they are to preserve the ‘intellectual space’ that religion offers them. The article ends by arguing that the theories which are used to explain urban Zionist Churches elsewhere in southern Africa are not relevant to the analysis of a Born Again movement run by successful young urbanites.
Tradition and Travesty: Chiefs and the Administration in Makoni District, Zimbabwe, 1960–1980
Authors: Ranger Terence
Published: April 2006

INTRODUCTION

During the first months of 19811 was in Makoni district, Zimbabwe, carrying out research on its twentieth-century history. I arrived there bearing a powerful letter of credit from the Minister of Local Government and, as a result, the District Commissioner allowed me to see his current files on chiefs and headmen. These files – far fatter than any that had survived from an earlier period in the National Archives – covered the period 1960 to 1980, with a scattering of earlier material. They were full of elaborately researched precolonial histories of the chiefdoms, the more elaborately researched the later in time they were compiled. They were also full of equally elaborate chiefly genealogies, often covering a dozen or so pages. The District Commissioner supposed that his files would be interesting to a historian because of these evidences of the past. But I soon came to realize that they were secondary to, and dependent upon, the relationship which the files really documented.
Post-famine recovery in highland Bwisha, Zaire: 1984 in its context
Authors: Pottier Johan , Fairhead James
Published: April 2006

The 1984 drought affected vast areas of East, Southern and Central Africa, including Zaire's Kivu Province. Within North Kivu, areas of the collectivité Bwisha, of the zone of Rutshuru, were known to have been particularly hard hit. Within this collectivite, two administrative units (groupements) were singled out for famine relief: Jomba and Gisigari. Although few people died of the direct effects of the drought there was widespread impoverishment and hunger. This analysis of the drought of 1984 focuses on the groupement of Jomba.

The aim is to reconstruct what happened before, during and after the famine. To do this, Part One outlines the farming systems of highland Bwisha from an historical perspective. Part Two discusses the stages of the drought, the social groups worst affected and the coping mechanisms used by groups and individuals. The latter discussion includes aspects of external relief. Part Three discusses post-famine changes in agriculture and trade relations, with a comment on how the people of Bwisha will fare when faced with another major drought.

Since the end of the prolonged drought and famine of 1984 cropping systems have continued to change. Current intensification of highland agriculture is associated with an emphasis on aseasonality in production. This new phase, accelerated and conditioned by the famine, will alter future famine coping responses. Despite the appearance of productive agriculture and flourishing trade, food security in the area and the ability to cope with future climatic disruption are being eroded fast.
Garden cultivation, conservation and household strategies in Zimbabwe
Authors: Bell Morag , Hotchkiss Patricia
Published: April 2006

With reference to dambo utilisation in the Communal Areas of Zimbabwe, this article considers how, under conditions of unreliable rainfall, communities and households manage their land and water resources to maintain a balance between resource exploitation and conservation. Regional variations in patterns of garden cultivation are identified and related to differences in resource endowment, to variations in the interpretation and implementation of government legislation and t o contrasting histories of involvement in commodity production. It is also demonstrated that within regions domestic strategies are not rigidly fixed but may be modified over time with changes in household composition and resources available.
Restoration of high species density in calcareous grassland: the role of seed rain and soil seed bank
Authors: Willems J.H. , Bik L.P.M.
Published: April 2006

Abstract. A small‐scale restoration experiment concerning a species‐rich calcareous grassland was conducted over a 7‐yr period. 20 yr of abandonment (1971‐1990) resulted in both a strong reduction of the number of species and an absolute dominance of the shrub Crataegus monogyna and the grass Brachypodium pinnatum ‐ which contributed 98% of the above‐ground herb phytomass. The plot (3 m x 6 m) was cleared in September 1990 and thereafter yearly mown in autumn. Small soil seed bank samples were taken immediately after clearing and again in the autumn of 1996. The inner part of the plot showed a reduced soil seed bank compared to the plot underneath the vegetation outside the plot in 1990. Six years later an increased number of seeds in the soil in this inside area could be recorded mainly in the upper soil layer, although the amount was only 40% compared to the outside or control area. Ca. 20% of the species present in the restored vegetation were recorded in seed traps during the main seed dispersal period in 1997. Restoration of high species richness in the plot was a fast process during the first few years: from seven species in 1990 towards 39 three years later. This was significantly faster than the restoration process of the calcareous grassland at the same slope 20 yr earlier. This was probably due to the increased size of the community species pool at the site as a result of appropriate management during the last decades. Relative species number increase was highest at the largest scale during this experiment, viz. at the total plot area.

The success of restoration of species‐rich, dry grassland vegetation largely depends on the interaction between several conditions, e.g. seed availability, either originating from the seed rain or soil seed bank, favourable germination conditions and a successful development to a mature, seed producing individual. Germination and establishment strongly depend on suitable vegetation structure as a result of sustainable management.