bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
African Rhythm
Authors: Jones A. M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphMost people are vaguely aware that the characteristic feature of African music is its rhythms. Some would say with the late Professor Hornbostel of Berlin that ‘it is syncopated past comprehension’; others would claim that any competent Western musician could reproduce African rhythms. Does the truth lie with either of these views or does it lie somewhere between them ? It is time we knew what Africans really do: and it is the purpose of this paper to give some account of the bases of their musical practice.
Marriage of Near Kin among the Tswana
Authors: Schapera I. 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionIn a paper written at the end of 1946 (but not published until 1950), I discussed incidentally the types and frequency of marriages with kin among the Tswana tribes of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. I showed there that such marriages are more usual among nobles (descendants of chiefs) than commoners, and also that the two classes differ in the kinds of relative they mostly marry. Since then I have recorded several other genealogies of both nobles and commoners. This new material provides the opportunity for a more detailed analysis than was previously given of rates and types of kin marriage among the Tswana, and in particular for a discussion of the changes that have taken place during the past few generations.
New Sources for Research in Nigerian History
Authors: Perry Ruth 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphUnder the influence of two important developments of the past few years, studies in Nigerian history may be expected in the future to take on a new focus, using for the first time four categories of material which have been either unavailable or neglected in the past. The establishment of the University College Library at Ibadan, with a policy of making as complete as possible its collections of the indigenous publications of the country, and the appointment in 1951, by the Nigerian Government, of a Supervisor of Public Records for the purpose of surveying and preserving the archives of the country, whether official or unofficial, have already brought to light materials which will challenge the historian for many years to come.
Sociétés secrètes et Mouvements prophétiques au Congo Belge
Authors: Comhaire Jean 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphEn 1936, feu Édouard De Jonghe publiait dans Africa une revue des sociétés secrètes du Congo Beige qui est demeurée l'étude classique sur le sujet. Après tant d'années cependant, une mise au point paraît justifiée.
Urbanization in Southern Rhodesia
Authors: Ibbotson Percy 
Published: April 2006

When addressing the Congress of the Southern Rhodesia Municipal Association at the Victoria Falls in May 1944, Sir Evelyn Baring, then Governor of Southern Rhodesia, expressed the view that the historian of the future, when he came to write the story of Southern Rhodesia during the present period, would conclude his survey by remarking that the problem of the urban Native was one of the most vital of those which faced the colony during the 1940's, and that-steps taken then to meet it had a profound effect on future years.This article is an attempt to assess the importance of certain aspects of this problem and indicate directions in which thought, planning and action are necessary if the problem is to be satisfactorily solved. The implications of urbanization cannot be treated lightly nor can a laissez-faire attitude be adopted.
Principles of Phonetic Adaptation in Swahili Applied to Christian Names
Authors: Bühlmann Walbert 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIt is a well established fact that every culture contact has its effect on language. Every new thing or concept that is introduced requires a name. This is achieved either by coining a word in the language of the people to whom it is introduced or by the adoption of a foreign word. Thus it is possible to trace the different culture influences on any people by establishing the origin of the foreign words in their language. The fact that in Swahili most commercial terms are of Arabic origin (e.g. fedha = money, duka = shop, biashara = trade, &c.) would seem to prove that from ancient times Arabic traders sold their wares on the coast of East Africa. Today the increasing number of English words in Swahili is indicative of the influence of British administration and its introduction of modern amenities (baisikeli = bicycle, motakaa = motor-car, reli = railway, &c). The spread of Christianity in Africa may be seen by the general use of such words as padre (priest), ubatizo (baptism), Biblia (Bible), &c, as also from the use of Christian names now heard everywhere. Even among pagans there are so-called wapenda jina (people who desire a name), who are ashamed of their pagan names and call themselves Pauli, Kasiani, &c, in order to belong, by name at least, to Christianity, the religion of the day.
Hysteria in Sukuma Medical Practice
Authors: Tanner R. E. S. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIt is proposed to describe two specialized aspects of the practice of magicians in the northern part of Sukumaland, Tanganyika Territory, in curing patients who are assumed to be ill because of the malevolence of the spirits of their ancestors. Both the curative powers of these specialists and the diseases they treat are closely connected with the cult of the ancestors, which remains the basic spiritual force in the lives of the majority of the Sukuma people. This cult rests on the belief that the spirits of ancestors may take control of their descendants either partially or completely, and also that to establish contact with the ancestors requires the offices of a magician. It is alleged that these magicians become at times temporary and passive mediums through which their ancestors assist them to diagnose the ills of the people who have paid to consult them; this usually takes the form of self-induced hysteria. Certain other specialized magicians are able to induce hysteria in others as a means of curing them of sickness.
An Outline of the Traditional Political System of Bali-Nyonga, Southern Cameroons
Authors: Kaberry P. M. , Chilver E. M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphA survey of the traditional political organization of a number of chiefdoms in the Bamenda Grassfields of the Southern Cameroons was made by the writers from May to mid-September 1960. Bali-Nyonga (sixteen miles to the west of Bamenda Station) was one of the chiefdoms studied. Our inquiries were directed mainly to situations and events in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, within the living memory of a few aged informants and of the parents of present title-holders. A few contemporary accounts of conditions exist for Bali-Nyonga for the last decade of the nineteenth century: those of Zintgraff (who was the first European to reach Bali-Nyonga), Hutter, Esser, and scattered notices in administrative, scientific, and missionary publications. These provide a rough chronological framework for Bali-Nyonga affairs for 1889–1914. British administrative officers in the course of tax assessment, the establishment of native courts and the resolution of land cases, collected oral traditions from the Mfon (Chief) of Bali-Nyonga and his elders, and accounts of earlier judicial and executive institutions from informants who had experienced them before the establishment of the German Imperial Military Station at Bamenda in 1902. We are not directly concerned in this paper with the expansion of the German administrative, trading, labour-recruiting, and missionary frontier, but with Bali interpretations of their own constitution at the period of contact (1889) and a little before and after. We hope to show that this constitution developed in intelligible circumstances which its special characteristics reflect.
Esquisse sur l'Habitat Guerzé
Authors: Mengrelis Thanos 
Published: April 2006

Emplacement et MilieuLes villages guerzé (kpèllè), et ceux des groupes ethniques apparentés de la région forestière de la Guinée, sont généralement bâtis sur une hauteur, à proximité d'un point d'eau, mais jamais dans un bas-fond auprès d'un ruisseau. Us sont situés à l'orée d'une forêt ou au milieu d'une clairière. Le village est souvent entouré par une ceinture d'éléments de forêt secondaire. Cette zone est respectée pour protéger les habitations des tornades violentes. Elle est indispensable pour la pratique des coutumes d'initiation et des sacrifices, et, très probablement, dans le passé, elle était utilisée à des fins défensives, ce rideau de forêt dense étant favorable aux guérillas. Souvent l'endroit choisi est l'emplacement d'anciens champs de culture abandonnés. Ainsi, les habitants ont l'avantage d'occuper un terrain épuisé et en même temps défriché.
Remarques Préliminaires a une Étude des Emprunts Arabes en Peul
Authors: Lacroix P. F. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphQuiconque s'est quelque peu penché sur les sociétés peules ne peut être que frappé par la rareté des traits culturels qui leur sont propres et la quantité considérable d'emprunts que les fulbe ont fait, dans les domaines les plus divers, aux sociétés et aux civilisations avec lesquelles ils se sont trouvés en contact. Cette perméabilité aux influences extérieures a naturellement entrainé l'assimilation au peul d'une grande quantité d'éléments signifiants provenant d'autres langues. Parmi ces apports, les emprunts faits à l'arabe occupent une place particulière tant de par leur mode particulier de transmission que par leur importance numérique et leur présence dans tous les dialectes de la langue.
Legal Innovation and Social Change in a Peasant Community: A Senegalese Village Police
Authors: Snyder Francis G. 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionMany strategies of rural development in Africa propose greater reliance on local institutions (Girard 1963; Seibel and Massing 1974; The World Bank 1975: 33–40; Tall 1976). Sometimes these proposals are primarily political rhetoric (Migot-Adholle 1970; Cliffe 1970); but they may, on the contrary, genuinely take account of rural social organization and history (Hamer 1967; Magid 1972; 1976: 154-69). Despite their merits, such proposals often fail to consider sufficiently the changing social and economic bases of rural institutions. One factor which deserves more emphasis is the dependence of rural dwellers on wider economic forces. As producers of cash crops, purchasers of imported goods, and suppliers of wage labour, rural Africans are integrated into the national and ultimately international economy. Integration and dependence are facilitated and encouraged by numerous government policies. Peasants are increasingly drawn to the cities by the symbiotic, subordinate relation of rural villages to the urban capitalist export sector, whose interests require a supply of cheap labour (Amin 1974a; 1974b; Meillassoux 1975; Seidman 1974) and predominate in the making of policy. The consequent dislocation and disintegration of rural communities limit severely the possibilities of delegating new tasks to existing rural institutions or of using them to decentralize authority, foster mass participation, or promote self-reliance.
Changing Family Structures among the Rural Hausa
Authors: Goddard A. D. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn a predominantly agricultural society, the family unit has remained a fundamental element underlying economic organi2ation among the Hausa. There is, however, surprisingly little reference in the literature to the organization of this unit since it was described by Greenberg (1946; 1947) for pagan Hausa, and by Smith (1955) for Moslems. This paper discusses those aspects of the family structure which are directly related to the organization of rural production. In particular it is concerned with the family farming unit which may be defined as those members of a kinship group who combine their farming operations under a common leadership and organization, to form the basis for a common unit of domestic economy.
Histories and Political Opposition in Ahafo, Ghana
Authors: Robertson A. F. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphTowards the end of my 1968–9 period of study in Ghana an audience was arranged for me with the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II. He was ailing at the time and his readiness to see me was largely attributable to his acute interest in the political affairs of Ahafo, the district in which I was working. One of the first questions he asked me was whether I had been told in Ahafo about a certain ‘Asibi Entwi’. I replied that I had heard a great deal about this person. Otumfuo then assured me emphatically: ‘Asibi Entwi is a lie. No such man ever lived.’
Seasonal hunger among the Ngoni and Ntumba of central Malaŵi
Authors: Nurse G. T. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe cultural significance of regular ‘hunger periods’ in tropical Africa, however much it may be disputed by anthropologists, has for a long time been apparent to less objective observers. It is generally accepted by those concerned in the engagement of migrant labour that at certain regular times of the year the supply is greater than at others: and it is believed that the number of men presenting for engagement is related to the quantity of food available in the villages. This view, as will be shown below, is an over-simplification. Ogbu (1973), though he relates seasonal hunger among the Poka to labour migration, sees die latter as a cause rather than a result of the former. He apparently considers that migration reduces the number of agricultural workers to below an unstipulated critical level above which it might still be possible to produce a sufficiency of food at all seasons, provided that animal pests could be controlled and agricultural techniques made more efficient. Seasonal hunger among the Ibo of Onicha he blames on shortage of farmland, low yield, and high storage loss of foodstuffs. At first sight it might appear that the cultural concomitants of the hunger period contrast rather strikingly between the two populations; and yet the recurrent hunger period is recognized by the FAO and other authorities (though Miracle (1961) questions its existence) as being a phenomenon widespread in sub- Saharan Africa, and one which might in consequence be expected to result from similar or related causes in most of the situations in which it occurs.
The Missions and Political Development in the Congo
Authors: Markowitz Marvin D. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe history of European colonization in Africa is to a large degree a story of Christian missionary penetration. Yet, relatively scant attention has been paid to their political activities and influence, especially during the period following the First World War. This paper is an attempt to deal with this problem as it manifested itself in the former Belgium Congo. For reasons that I hope will become obvious to the reader, the Catholic missions will receive greater attention than the Protestant.
The Masked Figure and Social Control: the Mandinka Case
Authors: Weil Peter M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphWithin a historical and comparative context, the following paper describes and analyses the role of masked figures in social control among the Mandinka of the Gambia. A direct relationship will be demonstrated between the problems of rule-application in hierarchical communities, where authority for rule-making and rule-application is dispersed, and the presence and behaviour of masked figures. In such communities secular actions taken in the rule-application process by individuals or groups bear a load of potential conflict. Masked figures in this context provide a mechanism through which the probability of sustained, divisive conflict is decreased by converting secular actions of rule-application into sacred, suprasocial actions. The integration of the hierarchically ordered elements of the community is thus accomplished in two ways: (1) through the capacity of the masked figures to apply rules while remaining above all elements of the community and (2) through the organized actions involved in creating and maintaining the masked figures and the ceremonial context in which they operate. It will be shown that the socio-cultural milieu in which sacred masked figures have functioned has changed, and that with the changes masked figures are becoming secularized and are disappearing.
Migration and Socio-Economic Links Between Urban Migrants and their Home Communities in Nigeria
Authors: Adepoju Aderanti 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionThe observation that migrants in most of Africa's towns maintain close ties with their home communities, initially made with respect to labour migrants, has been extended to include all kinds of migrants—seasonal, semi-permanent, and permanent (Van Velsen, 1960: 265–78; Gugler, 1971: 405; Caldwell, 1969: 140; Mitchell, 1959: 12–47).It has been stated that a migrant who spends most of his working life in the town still regards his community of origin as his real home, owes social allegiance to it, ‘and reduces rural-urban migration to a mechanical process involving forward and backward movement between the town and country’ (Imoagene, 1972: 4).This paper investigates the nature and the role of such links between urban migrants and their various places of origin–both rural and urban–in Nigeria. The study is approached from a micro-level by examining the pattern of socio-economic relationships between individual migrants and their families at their various places of origin rather than using aggregate data.
The silika: a co-operative labour institution
Authors: Charsley S. R. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThere is a type of labour agreement encountered in agrarian societies, which almost inevitably gets labelled ‘traditional’. This is the arrangement, occurring in a variety of styles which I discuss elsewhere (Charsley 1974a), whereby members of a rural community co-operate to perform collectively tasks which belong to them individually. The use of such a label has often, as will be seen, some justification in that these arrangements typically form parts of institutional complexes embedded in the diffuse and multiplex social relationships of small-scale communities. They usually imply a lack of specialization both of task and of skill.
The outsider and the insider in Tigania Meru
Authors: Mahner Jurg 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe point of departure for this paper is Rodney Needham's article, ‘The left Hand of the Mugwe: an analytical Note on the Structure of Meru-symbolism’ (Needham, 1960: 20–33). I will not try here to give further evidence for the system of dual classification which he presents in that article in order to prove or disprove it, but will dwell on his suggestion that it might be possible to draw conclusions about the origin of the Meru of Kenya by examining their symbolic structure (ibid: 27). My argument will lead not so much to conclusions about the origin of the Meru, but to conclusions concerning the ‘making’ of a society, particularly that of Tigania, a subtribe of the Meru people. My conclusions are based on a discussion of the theoretical and historical implications of the allocation of distinctive rights and duties to different divisions within Tigania.
Population, economy and domestic groups – the Kitui case
Authors: O'Leary Michael 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphMajor factors which influence the pace of change in rural districts of Kenya relate to the nature of the local environment and traditional economy, population density and the degree of integration with the national economy and polity. In general change takes place more rapidly in the better watered high potential areas than in the semi-arid or arid areas. Kitui is a district in the semi-arid zone of the Eastern Province, Kenya. Traditionally its residents – the Kitui Akamba – were agro-pastoralists. With the establishment of British rule they expanded cultivation into former rangelands, and grazed their animals‘cattle and small stock – in areas once the preserve of wild life. This generated a resurgence in the local economy mirrored in the fact that the young men adamantly resisted administrative pressure to induce them to become labour migrants.
Interactions between plant and insect diversity in the restoration of lowland calcareous grasslands in southern Britain
Authors: Mortimer Simon R. , Hollier John A. , Brown Valerie K. 
Published: April 2006

Abstract. The lowland calcareous grasslands of northwestern Europe are highly prized by ecologists and conservationists as a result of the diversity of their plant and invertebrate communities. Large areas of such grasslands have been lost this century as a result of changes in agricultural land use. Recent changes in agricultural policies, in particular the introduction of agri‐environmental incentive schemes, have resulted in an increasing area being managed for the restoration of these communities.This paper reviews the management techniques employed in the restoration of lowland calcareous grasslands and the factors that govern their success. Constraints on the enhancement of the plant diversity of restoration sites include high soil fertility and the presence of undesirable species in the soil seed bank. However, it is thought that the primary constraint is the availability of propagules from which new populations can be established. Similarly, the dispersal mode and ability of insect species is likely to be the major factor limiting the enhancement of insect diversity.Evaluation of the success of restoration management usually involves monitoring changes in the plant community. However, as a result of their short life‐cycles and sensitivity to small‐scale environmental conditions, insects may respond more rapidly to changes resulting from restoration management and therefore provide better indicators of success. With the exception of a few high‐profile butterfly species, the use of insects as indicator taxa has largely been neglected in terrestrial systems. This paper illustrates their potential use with reference to lowland calcareous grasslands in southern Britain.