bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Co-operators and Bureaucrats: Class Formation in a Senegalese Peasant Society
Authors: O'Brien Donal B. Cruise 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionRecent rural unrest in Senegal, the malaise paysan and the spreading rejection of commercial agriculture, have focused official and journalistic attention on the predicament of that country's peasantry. This is a predicament in large part defined by nature, which has endowed most of Senegal with soils so poor as to leave little practical alternative to the groundnut as a source of export revenue. Declining world market prices for this staple export have inevitably exacerbated the situation, especially following the final withdrawal of French price subsidies in 1967. Consequent economic difficulties are in turn made no easier by a rapid rise in population (officially estimated at 2·1 per cent per annum): this causes overcrowding on the land, with over-cultivation and soil exhaustion, and thus stimulates migration to towns and cities which can provide few employment outlets.
Kinship and Credit among the Nuer
Authors: Glickman M. 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionMore than a generation has passed since the appearance of Professor Evans-Pritchard's The Nuer. The sub-title of this classic work, ‘A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People’ is, I believe, inaccurate. The Nuer is more an interpretation than a description, and it is difficult to isolate the descriptive material, which Evans-Pritchard as a matter of policy (1940a, p. 261) subordinated to theory. Although the theory of the book is an abiding part of anthropological discussion and controversy, having become a model for the study of other societies, we should still return to the facts, asking to what extent the Nuer ‘model’ fits the way of life of the Nuer of the southern Sudan.
Sex Roles among the Nharo Bushmen of Botswana
Authors: Barnard Alan 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Nharo are a Khoe- (‘Hottentot-’) speaking hunting and gathering people of the central-western Kalahari. Linguistically they are closely related to the G/wikhwe and G//anakhwe of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and to several other, lesser-known, central Kalahari and Okavango Bushman peoples of Botswana. They are more distantly related to the extinct Khoekhoe (‘Hottentot’) herding peoples of the Cape Province of South Africa, and more distantly still, to the Nama Khoekhoe of Namibia. Lexicostatistical, cultural and genetic evidence suggests that the Khoe hunter-gatherers in general have lived independently from their herding relatives for some 2000 years, and that the Nharo in particular have lived in close contact with the !Kung and possibly also the !Kõ (both non-Khoe-speaking Bushman peoples) for a considerable part of that time. The primary purpose of this article is to present a description of selected Nharo institutions and customs, with reference to sex differentiation; but first a brief look at the Nharo settlement pattern is necessary.
Ifa Divination in Igala
Authors: Boston J. S. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphAt the level of belief Igala religion is rather unsystematic and comprises belief in a number of different spirits whose mutual interrelationship is not very clear. A Western observer would tend to rank the various spirits in terms of their order of magnitude or degrees of power. At the top of the hierarchy would come Ojọ, the supreme being and creator. Another spirit with wide powers in Igala belief is Anẹ, the spirit of the earth. Then there are various oracle spirits known generically as ẹbọ, with the function of giving protection against witchcraft. Their congregation may be large or small according to the success of the spirit in unmasking witches by striking them with illness and making them confess to their wrongdoing. Operating within a more restricted range are the ancestor spirits who are the guardians of well-being in particular clans, lineages, or lineage segments. Within the complex of ancestor worship falls the dyadic relationship between an individual and his personal ọjọ or guardian spirit. The guardian has responsibility for the destiny of its ward. Finally there are fetishes, ode, which are made and worshipped by individuals, and which are believed to ensure success in daily life by affording protection against the misfortunes that witchcraft and sorcery can bring.
A reconsideration of the function of Àkó, Second Burial Effigy in Owo
Authors: Abiọdun Rowland 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphSo far only two scholars have done significant work on the institution of àkó, a burial ceremony in Owo. Àkó, particularly the effigy used in it, is of unquestionable importance in the stylistic interpretation of some bron2e and terracotta sculptures from Ile-Ifẹ. In fact, it is essentially for this reason that Justine Cordwell and Frank Willett have studied the àkó ceremony and effigy in Owo.
Yawon Dandi: a Hausa category of migration
Authors: Olofson Harold 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionSpatial mobility is one of the most striking characteristics of Hausa history and society. The Hausa provide us with an opportunity for exploring a number of emic categories of spatial mobility, including migration, and the cultural content and values which they attach to these categories. As Spradley has recently suggested, in order to achieve an integration of the anthropological study of migration, we need ‘systematic ethnography which seeks to describe theemicsof spatial mobility and … discussion of native categories for spatial movement (as well as) a systematic attempt to discover their definitions of migration’ (Spradley 1973 : 546). To achieve a cultural analysis of a category of migration in this spirit, this paper will concentrate on what the Hausa callyawon Dandi, ‘the walk of Dandi’ ,yawon duniya, ‘the walk of the world’, oryawon bariki, ‘the walk to the barracks’, terms used interchangeably by my informants. This category most typically comes into play when a migrant seeks liberation from social constraints, and it has played a significant part in the formation of the Hausa diaspora.
Slavery, Islam and the Jakhanke people of West Africa
Authors: Sanneh L. O. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIslam did not originate the idea or the practice of slavery, but it does admit, and in certain specific instances it enacts, the institution of slavery and establishes it upon firm legal and social foundations. The Sharī'ah, i.e. Islamic Law, takes a panoramic view of slavery in human societies and arrives at a cogent statement of slavery as a state endorsed by Divine Law. According to the legal authorities, the original condition of the race of Adam is freedom, but for their security one of two things is necessary: the religion of Islam, or the protection of the Muslim territory. This protection can be obtained by non-Muslims only on the condition of submission and since it is the duty of all men to embrace Islam this submission is incumbent on all non-Muslims. It is implied by this that non-Muslims (but not necessarily the ‘people of the book’, ahl al-kitāb) may have a state of war declared upon them by Muslims, and in the ensuing conflict captives may be taken. In the eyes of the Law unsubmitting non-Muslims are regarded as enemies (ḥurūb) living in dār al-ḥarb, i.e. the abode of warfare. They are judged to have refused the necessary conditions of freedom, i.e. submission to Islam or protection of the Muslim territory (dār al-Islām), and consequently they have forfeited the protection which would have secured for them the original freedom of the race of Adam.
Understanding Ethnic Realities among the Grebo and Kru Peoples of West Africa
Authors: McEvoy Frederick D. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThis paper deals with certain implications of our ‘conventional understandings’ of the Kru and Grebo peoples of the Cape Palmas region of coastal West Africa. These ‘traditional’ scholarly understandings of ‘traditional’ political organization, when combined with misfocused questions about the nature of ethnicity, effectively preclude accurate knowledge not only of traditional polities but also of how a people's ethnic identity may be redefined with changing circumstances. Subjecting traditional perspectives as well as ethnographic data to re-examination may clarify the complex role of ethnicity among the Kru and Grebo.
On Misunderstandings Arising from the Use of the Term ‘Creole’ in the Literature on Sierra Leone: A Rejoinder
Authors: Wyse Akintola J. G. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn the middle of writing a paper on the ‘roots’ of the Krio of Sierra Leone my attention was drawn by a colleague to an article in a recent issue of Africa, written by David Skinner and Barbara E. Harrell-Bond, two scholars who have been doing some work on Sierra Leone (Skinner and Harrell-Bond 1977). Aware of my interest in this area my colleagues suggested that I might want to react to the article. My own views on the Krio (Wyse forthcoming) can be read when published, but I considered that a reply to this article was needed for two reasons. Firstly, the article queried the validity of the term ‘Creole’ as used in the literature to refer to a cohesive group. And since Sierra Leonean scholars have begun to favour the use of the term Krio as the more acceptable one, it is eminently desirable to bring this development to the knowledge of non-Sierra Leoneans concerned with the study of the Krio. Second and more importantly, the authors have raised certain controversial questions as to the chronological evolution of Krio society. It is suggested that there was no Krio society even before the 1940s and 1950s, and that the popular notion of a Krio society was a figment of the imagination of articulate ‘Creoles’ who felt compelled to erect an ideological framework as justification for retaining their privileged status in Freetown during the pre-Independence period. The evolution of a group of people as an identifiable social entity is inevitably open to interpretation; and we in Sierra Leone are always grateful to outsiders who point out aspects of our history that need looking into. In this particular case I do not entirely agree with the submission made by the authors, and I shall be replying to them in the course of this article.
Small-Scale Farming Systems in Ghana
Authors: Benneh George 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphAlthough classification of farming systems has been an important theme in the fields of agricultural geography and agricultural economics, there appear to have been no agreed criteria upon which a typology should be made (Grigg, 1969). The problem seems quite intractable as far as most of the developing countries of the tropics are concerned, because lack of statistical data on agriculture has made it impossible for the quantifiable criteria used by agricultural geographers in the advanced countries to be applied. It is therefore not surprising that ‘the notion that shifting cultivation is simple and varies little from area to area and continent to continent’ runs through much of the literature on tropical agriculture. This oversimplified picture of traditional agriculture in the tropics was drawn by earlier writers (Gourou, 1965) who established the framework for a regional differentiation of agriculture. It disregards the changes which have been taking place as a result of increased population pressure on available land, the introduction of cash crops, and the impact of agricultural innovations.
Right, left and the Banyoro
Authors: Beattie John 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe collection of republished essays entitled Right and Left: Essays in Dual Symbolic Classification, edited and with a substantial introduction by Rodney Needham (the University of Chicago Press, 1973), has been long awaited. All of the essays are of great interest, and all are concerned with the binary mode of symbolic classification, something which appears to be found, in greater or lesser degree, in all human cultures. The work will no doubt be widely reviewed in the appropriate journals. What follows is not an attempt at an over-all review. It is rather a response to, and a critical examination of, some of the arguments Needham advances in his introduction to the book. As such, I hope that it may contribute, however modestly, to our understanding of some of the problems involved in the application of the ‘binary’ mode of structural analysis to ethnographic data. The context is the symbolism of the Banyoro of western Uganda.
Some notions of ‘purity’ and ‘impurity’ among the Zulu
Authors: Ngubane Harriet 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphAmong the traditional patrilineal Zulu of South Africa, women are more often associated with mystical experiences than men. While on the one hand, as daughters or sisters, women may be associated with the positive mystical forces as diviners, on the other hand, as mothers or wives, women are often related to the negative polluting mystical forces. It is the logic behind these notions that I want to examine in this article.
Politics, Procedures, and Norms in Changing Chagga Law
Authors: Moore Sally Falk 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn his book on the Arusha, the agricultural Masai of Mount Meru, Professor Gulliver concludes with a general theoretical statement in which he suggests a way of classifying processes of dispute settlement. Gulliver says that there are ‘two polar types of process—judicial and political—between which there is a graduated scale where, ideally, particular systems could be placed according as to whether they were more judicial or more political in their nature’ (Gulliver, 1963, p. 297).
Kenisan: Economic and Social Ramifications of the Ghost Cult Among the So of North-Eastern Uganda
Authors: Laughlin Charles D. , Laughlin Elizabeth R. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphMajor P. H. G. Powell-Cotton, an early East African explorer, was the first European to contact a small mountain group calling themselves the So (singular: Sorat) in 1902 on the upper slopes of Mount Kadam and Mount Moroto during his exploratory trip through what is now Karamoja District, Uganda (1904, pp. 305 ff.). From that time until we carried out field-work among them in 1969-70 very little has been written about the So. Today they inhabit three of the four tertiary volcanic mountains in Karamoja: Mounts Kadam, Moroto, and Napak. The approximate distances between these mountains in statute miles are: Moroto-Kadam, 40; Moroto-Napak, 38; and Napak-Kadam, 32. The So are surrounded on all sides by semi-nomadic pastoral groups including the Karamojong, Turkana, and Suk. In our census of the Lia and Naukoi valleys on the western slopes of Moroto Mountain—the area primarily covered by our study—we found approximately 1,700 So. The total population probably does not exceed 4,800 on all three mountains.
The Ashanti Rubber Trade with the Gold Coast in the Eighteen-Nineties
Authors: Arhin Kwame 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionThis study of the Ashanti rubber trade with the Gold Coast in the closing years of the last century explores further a theme with which I have for some time now been occupied. The theme is the nineteenth-century background to Ashanti economic development in the present century. In an earlier study of Ashanti trade with Hausa, Mande, and Mossi caravans I suggested that Ashanti experience with the kola trade provided a significant foundation for the successful introduction of cocoa cultivation early in this century, and that an adequate explanation of the latter requires a knowledge of the tools and the social framework of kola production and also of the organization of kola distribution from the areas of production to the kola markets in modern north-central Ghana in the previous century (Arhin, 1970). The rubber trade was complementary to Ashanti trade in the north, and a close look at it should throw more light on the economic outlook and organizational methods developed in the previous century which account for the eagerness with which the Ashanti took to cocoa cultivation and the success they made of its distribution before the era of the lorry. Secondly, there was an interesting link between the rubber trade and the domestic slave trade with Samory which presents the Alymany in the role of a stimulant to the Ashanti economy; one tends to think of him solely in terms of his military-politico activities. Thirdly, the Government of the Gold Coast, which took a keen interest in the rubber trade, sent officials to observe its production and sale in the interior so that written reports may be compared with oral information. After a brief note on changes in the basis of, and the personnel involved in, Ashanti trade with the European establishments on the Gold Coast in the nineteenth century, I shall examine the beginning, growth, and importance of the rubber trade; the categories of traders and the different modes of rubber collection; and lastly, the organization by which rubber reached the exporting agencies. The emphasis throughout will be on those features of the rubber trade which are significant for twentieth-century developments.
Song and spirit: The use of songs in the management of ritual contexts
Authors: Jules-Rosette Bennetta 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Apostolic Church of John Maranke (Vapostori or Bapostolo), an indigenous Christian church founded in Umtali, Rhodesia, now has congregations across Central Africa. For the Church's central ritual event, the Sabbath kerek, and other occasions of worship, singing constitutes the core of ritual practice and is used to invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit. These songs combine traditional Bantu rhythmic patterns with a unique Apostolic form. Often drawn from biblical themes, the songs are composed by members as spiritually inspired pieces.
Accumulation: wealth and belief in Asante history: II the twentieth century
Authors: McCaskie T. C. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn Part I of this article (McCaskie, 1983a) I discussed the relationship between accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante to the close of the nineteenth century. In this concluding part I analyse these and cognate themes in the twentieth century. I remain wedded to the approach outlined in detail in Part I; an attempt to locate action and motive within a cognitive or ‘intellectualist’ framework. But this article is more episodic and less directly narrative than its predecessor. There are reasons for this change of stylistic gear.
Rank and class among the Asante and Fante in the nineteenth century
Authors: Arhin Kwame 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe starting point of this article is what I see as the contrasting contemporary Asante and Fante views about the admirable man. The Asante say of such a man that ‘ose ohene’, lit. ‘he is like a chief’; the Fante say of him that ‘oye krache dodo’, lit. ‘he is extremely well educated’. For the Asante the ‘ohene’ remains the model of social achievement, while for the Fante it is the apparently well educated who lives and behaves like a ‘gentleman’ who is the model of social excellence.These statements about what may be called the ‘ideal’ man among the two Akan sub-groups express the actual social position of traditional rulers and educated persons among them (Sarbah, 1897,1906; Casely-Hayfordj 1903; Manoukian, 1950: 9). The Asante respect a traditional ruler, known as nana, of any rank, more than an educated person, whatever his degree of education. For the Fante it is the reverse. An Asante, however well educated or rich, aims at some kind of chiefship as the supreme index of social achievement. The Fante aims at the acquisition of repute as a highly educated man.
Rural protest, land policy and the planning process on the Bakolori Project, Nigeria
Authors: Adams W. M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn the literature and accumulated folk wisdom of development in rural Africa there are numerous instances of government projects which are expensive, ineffective and unpopular. These include now classic failures of the past, such as the Tanganyika Groundnuts Scheme (Wood, 1950; Frankel, 1953), which are still cited as cautionary tales demonstrating the need for proper project appraisal. There are also numerous more recent examples, for the phenomenon of failure has persisted and governments and international agencies continue to implement schemes ‘little better planned than their more spectacularly misbegotten predecessors’ (Hill, 1978: 25). Among recent initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa the large-scale irrigation projects developed in northern Nigeria during the 1970s have attracted particularly extensive adverse criticism. This has focused on the social and economic impact of the introduction of irrigation and particularly on questions of land tenure (inter alia Wallace, 1979, 1980, 1981; Oculi, 1981; Adams, 1982, 1984; Palmer-Jones, 1984; Andrae and Beckman, 1985; Beckman, 1986). A number of accounts discuss technical aspects of the land survey carried out at Bakolori {Bird, 1981, 1984, 1985; Griffith, 1984), while others focus on economic problems (e.g. Etuk and Abalu, 1982). However, although economic and technical aspects of these developments have been criticised, it is the social impacts of project development and more particularly the political responses to those impacts which are of greatest interest (Wallace, 1980; Adams, 1984; Andrae and Beckman, 1985; Beckman, 1986). This paper examines the bature of the response of farmers affected by one of these schemes, the Bakolori Project in Sokoto State.
The myth of the Zulu homestead: archaeology and ethnography
Authors: Hall Martin 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphTo those outside the anthropological disciplines, the Zulu are probably the best known chiefdom of southern Africa. Zulu military prowess acted as a sharp break on the process of colonial expansion in the nineteenth century and led to a series of battles which have been immortalized on celluloid and in the more popular historical accounts of the era. Despite this, the Zulu have prompted a comparatively sparse ethnography that is based largely on the work of nineteenth-century observers and is less comprehensive than the literature on some other southern African communities.
The god of smallpox: aspects of Yoruba religious knowledge
Authors: Buckley Anthony D. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe idea that the knowledge of an individual is an articulation of a culturally shared paradigmatic framework of concepts is now familiar in anthropology. It is one derived from the work of T. S. Kuhn (1962), who argued that, for natural scientists, the definitions and solutions of problems normally take place within an existing framework provided by the paradigmatic work of a great scientist. Since then several attempts have been made to indicate that, in fields other than the strictly scientific, the knowledge which people have of their physical and social environments is similarly an articulation of paradigmatic ideas (Ardener, 1971, 1978; Barnes, 1969; Buckley, 1976, 1982, 1983; Willis, 1967, 1972, 1978). This article will attempt to develop this methodology in the field of Yoruba religion. Its focus will be Sònpònnó, the Yoruba god of smallpox, a ferocious and vindictive god who not only causes smallpox, but who is also responsible for a form of madness.