bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The making of men: the relevance of vernacular psychology to the interpretation of a Gisu ritual
Authors: Heald Suzette 
Published: April 2006

INTRODUCTIONIn 1909 the Rev. J. B. Purvis wrote of the Gisu people of Eastern Uganda that they ‘distinguish themselves as a race apart from others by the name Basani, i.e., men, whilst all men of uncircumcised nations are called Basinde, i.e., boys’ (Purvis, 1909: 271). In modern Uganda the idea of the Gisu as a nation of circumcised men remains as strong as ever. The biennial circumcision ceremonies act both as a focus for such sentiment and as a dramatic display of its power. From the blowing of horns which ushers in the circumcision year to the final aggregation ceremonies during the following December the entire ritual cycle takes about a year. The actual operations are performed in August, in strict order of clan precedence, with the clan where the practice is believed to have originated cutting their boys first. The day after, the circumcisors move to the next clan territory and so on throughout Bugisu. At their height it would be no exaggeration to claim that the festivities involve the entire population of the District– some 500,000 people– from the young children carried along with the circumcision dancing parties to the elderly who are visited as relatives of the novices, approached for guidance on ritual matters or who act as spectators. At the centre are the novices, with the ordeal of circumcision acting not only to validate their own claim to status as adult men but also to demonstrate the values of the entire community.
Agnatic and uterine relations among the Fante: male/female dualism
Authors: Chukwukere I. 
Published: April 2006

INTRODUCTIONOne of the outstanding features of Akan social organisation emphasised by ethnographers since Rattray's monograph on the Asante (1923: Chap. 2 esp.) is the interlacement of fundamental matriliny with prominent patrilineal traits. With particular reference to the Fante, on whom this paper is based, Christensen (1954: 5, 107) claims, on some wrong premiss though, that his study of 'the role and importance of the paternal line' leads him to conclude that ‘the Fanti manifest a system of double descent’. My own fieldwork (1966-70) on the Fante asafo – the most distinct social manifestation of their patrilineal tendency– indeed confirms the fact that the Fante still lay strong stress on agnatic descent groups, which in Asante and other Akan sub-groups have become more or less ‘obsolete’ (Fortes 1950: 265f, Busia 1954: 207, with reference to ntoro). This notwithstanding, the combination of patrilineal and matrilineal principles of reckoning descent remains a fundamental attribute of Akan culture as a whole. That is to say, the so-called Fante peculiarity is in fact only a slight variation of a general Akan type.
Female farming and the evolution of food production patterns amongst the Beti of south-central Cameroon
Authors: Guyer Jane I. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn his Economic History of West Africa (1973) Hopkins points out that relatively little attention has been paid to the history of food production by contrast with export crops, even though it has been clear since early research on African food systems (e.g., Johnston 1958) that patterns of production have been changing. The determinants of shifts in land use and crop rotations are complex but two major factors have been suggested: population pressure on land resources, and the relative prices of different crops. The population pressure argument tends to assume that subsistence is maintained, so that any change in the relationship of population to food land requires shifts in farming practice to allow the maintenance of the same level of living (Boserup 1965). The price argument tends to assume that the agriculture system is penetrated by the market principle, so that farmers' decisions to maintain subsistence production patterns depend on projections about the prices of the cash crops available for sale and the food items needed to purchase (Chibnik 1978). From work on African farming systems comes a modification which suggests that the management of both these constraints depends to some extent on the broader social and economic context in which decisions are made. In particular it has been suggested that the position of women farmers in both indigenous social organisation and national economies is different from men's; they work under different constraints in their farming and have different opportunities for alternative employment (Boserup 1970; Meillassoux 1975). If the sexual division of labour is an important aspect of farming, men's and women's differential access to resources might be expected to have an independent effect on cropping patterns.
Land and food, women and power, in nineteenth century Kikuyu
Authors: Clark Carolyn M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIt has only been in recent years that anthropologists have begun to investigate women as actors with resources important in the political field and to broaden the concept of political system to include the activites of women (see Collier, 1974 and Nelson, 1974 for another statement of the problem). The analysis of the political processes of the nineteenth century Kikuyu (Kenya) presented here lays the framework for the inclusion of women's subsistence activities and domestic decision making with the field of public or political relations.
Masking in Mende Sande Society Initiation Rituals
Authors: Phillips Ruth B. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphPublic masquerades constitute extremely important symbolic forms among the Mende of Sierra Leone. Masquerades are a means of mediating between the secret Societies which dominate Mende social life and the general community. Through masking performances the public is kept informed of important events which occur in the secret domain and is allowed carefully limited participation in the experience of Society members. The masquerades make visible the powerful ‘medicines’ (haleisia) of the secret Societies without revealing their essential mystery. Maskers personify and dramatize the powers of the ‘medicines’ and exact respect and tribute from the spectators. At the same time, participants and audience are drawn into a common experience, which is aesthetically heightened by techniques of theatre, dance, music, and the plastic arts. The resultant feeling of unity and harmony helps to overcome the threat of disunity implicit in the division of the community into separate secret factions.
Eland Hunting Rituals among Northern and Southern San Groups: Striking Similarities
Authors: Lewis-Williams J. D. , Biesele M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe prominence of the eland in San thought is suggested by the frequency with which this antelope was depicted in rock paintings and also by the myths and rituals in which it features. In this paper we describe and compare certain eland beliefs and hunting rituals drawn from two San groups, the !Kung of Botswana and the now extinct \Xam of the Cape Province. The relevance of material obtained from the northern !Kung to the explication of the limited southern \Xam ethnographic record and rock paintings has been regarded as questionable in view of the ecological and linguistic differences between the two societies. Using the results of recent field work among the !Kung, we attempt to show that, in spite of the linguistic and ecological differences, there is evidence for a conceptual framework common to both groups.
Ethnicity in Rwanda: the Case of Kinyaga
Authors: Newbury M. Catharine 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe nature of ethnic interaction has been at the heart of a longstanding debate on the characteristics of Rwanda's precolonial political system. Until recently, the historical referents for such discussion, and in particular the origins of the Rwandan state and its social institutions have been seen as far too remote to base conclusions on empirical data. Consequently the debate has tended to be formulated in terms of logical constructs, rather than in terms of empirical reconstruction of the historical processes involved.
Some Aspects of Ọyọ Yoruba Masquerades
Authors: Ọlajubu Chief Oludare , Ojo J. R. O. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe word egungun, masquerades, is often used to describe all masked figures found among the Yoruba of Nigeria. It is, strictly speaking, applicable only to those found among the Oyo Yoruba, hence Egungun Oyo, Oyo masquerades (cf. Adedeji 1969: 6; Beier 1958: 5). This type has diffused to other sub-groups where it occurs with local types such as Gelede in Egbado, Agemo in Ijebu, and Epa in northern Ekiti. Its ubiquity may be due to the movement southwards of Oyo Yoruba elements, the extent of Oyo and later Ibadan Empires, peaceful migration and cultural contacts with neighbouring sub-groups (see Fig. 1 inset).
Approaches to the Study of African Oral Literature
Authors: Beidelman T. O. , Finnegan Ruth 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphDr. Ruth Finnegan's studyOral Literature in Africa(The Oxford Library of African Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970, pp. xix+558, £5) is likely to become an influential book. It surveys and summarizes much of our knowledge regarding the basic forms of African oral literature. Although there have been a number of essays published discussing some of the issues involved in recording, analysing, and appreciating such literature, as well as on the use of oral tradition for historical studies, this is the first modern attempt to take stock of our general knowledge in this field and to suggest how and along what paths future research should proceed.
Praise Poems as Historical Data: the Example of the Yoruba Oríkí
Authors: Awe Bolanle 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe importance of oral traditions in the reconstruction of the history of non-literate peoples has virtually ceased to be a matter for debate and is now generally acknowledged. Indeed, within the last few years, historical research, based on such traditions has made possible histories of many societies in Africa. But in spite of this general acceptance, the diversity of oral traditions has not been so fully recognized as to make possible the analysis of each type as historical data. In this regard, the history of the Yoruba provides a good example. Their culture has accumulated around it a rich variety of oral traditions whose study has made significant contributions towards the understanding of their past. For the earlier period of their history, their historians have had to rely mainly on oral traditions; even for the latter period, in spite of the existence of written documents, oral traditions have still proved very useful in giving a balanced view of events. The tendency, however, has been for the historians of the Yoruba people to regard oral traditions as no more than personal recollections and generalized historical knowledge. In the main, they have failed to give cognizance to oral literature; experience elsewhere, however, has shown that a meaningful utilization of oral traditions in historical reconstruction cannot afford to neglect this third category, which is for historians of non-literate societies what literature is for the cultural and social historians of literate societies. Moreover, the Yoruba themselves treat some forms of oral literature as quasi-historical records.
Rites de la Naissance et de l'Imposition du nom chez les Azza du Manga (République du Niger)
Authors: le Cœur Marguerite , Baroin Catherine 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphLes Azza appartiennent au vaste groupe culturel formé par les Teda et les Daza, qu'on appelle communément Toubou, population islamisée dispersée au Nord du Tchad sur un territoire d'environ deux millions de km2 et que se partagent les deux Républiques, celle du Niger et celle du Tchad.Artisans castés, les Azza dépendaient autrefois des Daza: émancipés depuis quelques années, ils adoptent petit à petit le mode de vie de leurs anciens maîtres, éleveurs de bovidés dans cette zone sahélo-soudanaise où ils côtoient d'autres populations pastorales: Arabes Choa, Arabes Ouled Sliman, Peuls.
Some Structural Features of Ingessana Marriage and Affinity
Authors: Jȩdrej M. C. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Ingessana represent one of the archaic pre-Nilotic cultures on the Sudanese margins of the Western Ethiopian highlands and may be regarded as belonging to that complex of ‘montagnards paléonigritiques’ extending west by way of, among others, the Nuba Mountain peoples, the Hadjeray in Chad and the numerous hill dwelling peoples of northern Nigeria. The customs with which this article is primarily concerned, such as the avunculate, brideservice, mother-in-law avoidance, the construction of a special bridal chamber, are prominent features of this complex but they are neither universally nor exclusively so. Thus, although the principal objective is to contribute to the documentation and comprehension of the marital customs of this ethnological zone, judged to be ‘ancient and probably prior to bridewealth systems’ by Froelich (1968: 202), the analysis necessarily engages with more general and often controversial issues. Perhaps the most pertinent and least distracting approach in these circumstances is that which confines itself to delimiting the set of structural features which the subsequent account draws upon in comprehending the ethnography.
Islamic Affiliations and Urban Adaptation: The Sisala Migrant in Accra, Ghana
Authors: Grindal Bruce T. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThis study sets out to explain the relatively high incidence of Islamic affiliation among traditionally non-Islamic Sisala migrants living in the migrant community of Mamobi in Accra, Ghana. In the course of the presentation, I intend to demonstrate that the migrants' relationship to Islam and the urban Islamic community is directly related to insecurities resulting from leaving one's native area and confronting an alien and often dangerous, urban environment, and that Islam provides the migrant with the instrumental means by which to facilitate his adjustment to urban life.
African Conversion
Authors: Horton Robin 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphFor nearly fifty years the Aladura or ‘prayer’ churches have been a prominent feature of the Nigerian scene. Their drumming and singing can nowadays be heard at almost any time of day or night in most of the larger southern Nigerian towns. Their prophets and pastors exert a guiding influence on the lives of an everlarger proportion of the population. And recently they have even been credited with an important part in bringing rebel resistance to an end in the Nigerian civil war. Similar churches, usually labelled ‘Zionist’, have been described and analysed by sociologists, social anthropologists, and comparative religionists working in many African countries. Hitherto, however, no full-length sociological monograph on the subject has appeared from Nigeria. So John Peel's Aladura, a full-length study of two of these churches in Yorubaland, meets a long-standing need.
On the rationality of conversion (Part II)
Authors: Horton Robin 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionIn the first part of this paper I began by dealing with those of Fisher's objections to the Intellectualist Theory which seemed to me to require short, sharp, and destructive answers. I then went on to consider an objection which seemed to require a longer and more constructive answer. This was the objection that the Theory did not account adequately for variation in the concept and cult of the supreme being in settings uninfluenced by Islam and Christianity. I suggested that, although the evidence was probably insufficient for a decisive verdict, the Theory appeared to give a rather good account of religious dynamics in such settings. A demonstration of its plausibility in this context was, as I pointed out, an important preliminary to my main argument. For it was crucial to the credibility of the thesis that Islam and Christianity were more than anything else catalysts for changes that were ‘in the air’ anyway.
Becoming Hausa: Ethnic identity change and its implications for the study of ethnic pluralism and stratification
Authors: Salamone Frank A. 
Published: April 2006

Statement of problemAn interesting problem emerging from recent studies in complex societies is that of the relationship between ethnic identity and the interaction between various ethnic groups in a pluralistic society. In much of the sociological and anthropological literature, writers have treated ethnic groups as isolates and ‘givens’. Such categorization dismisses the potential investigation of factors responsible for permanence and change in ethnic groups. This paper will focus on a specific example of ethnic identity change, that of the Gungawa of Yauri Emirate, North-Western State, Nigeria, who have long had a pattern of ‘becoming’ Hausa. The paper will suggest some ways in which the possibility and mechanism for ethnic identity change functions to structure interethnic relationships and ease tensions resulting from such contact.
Some Observations on the Family Unit, Religion, and the Practice of Polygyny in the Ife Division of Western Nigeria
Authors: Driesen I. H. Vanden 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionIn an age so overwhelmingly dominated by the planner, statistics and statisticians have come to assume a crucial importance; and so seriously have the latter taken their new responsibility that, in recent times, a veritable flood of data on every conceivable aspect of socio-economic behaviour has engulfed us. In the newly emergent nations this task of collecting and collating information, spurred on no doubt by the knowledge that much remains to be done, has proceeded with a rare enthusiasm, and in all of them the periodic ‘Digest of Statistics’ has become a familiar document.
The Small Urban Center in Rural Development: Kita (Mali) and Testour (Tunisia)
Authors: Hopkins Nicholas S. 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionThis paper examines the role of the small urban center in promoting rural development through an analysis of two cases, one West African and the other North African. Kita (Mali) and Testour (Tunisia) are approximately the same size, have something of an urban atmosphere in contrast to their surrounding countryside, and play a roughly analogous role within the political economy of their nations. Both were in single-party states at the time of research; had had French colonialism for about the same period; and have modern institutions that owe something to the French pattern. Both have experienced attempts to build socialism.
How man makes God in West Africa: Yoruba attitudes towards the Orisa
Authors: Barber Karin 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe idea that gods are made by men, not men by gods, is a sociological truism. It belongs very obviously to a detached and critical tradition of thought incompatible with faith in those gods. But Yoruba traditional religion contains built into it a very similar notion, and here, far from indicating scepticism or decline of belief, it seems to be a central impulse to devotion. The òrìṣà (‘gods’) are, according to Yoruba traditional thought, maintained and kept in existence by the attention of humans. Without the collaboration of their devotees, the òrìṣà would be betrayed, exposed and reduced to nothing. This notion seems to have been intrinsic to the religion since the earliest times. How can such an awareness be part of a devotee's ‘belief’? Rather than speculate abstractly, as Rodney Needham does (Needham 1972), about whether people of other cultures can be said to ‘believe’ at all, it seems more interesting to take a concrete case like the Yorba one where there is an unexpected–even apparently paradoxical–configuration of ideas, and to ask how these ideas are constituted. Only by looking at them as part of a particular kind of society, with particular kinds of social relationships, can one see why such a configuration is so persuasive. The notion that men make gods is by no means unique to Yoruba thought. It is present to some degree in a number of traditional West African religions, and in some, such as the Kalahari one, it can be seen in an even more explicit form than in the Yoruba one. A comparison may help to show how it is the constitution of social relationships which makes such a notion not just acceptable but central to the religious thought of the society.
Capital formation and management among the Muslim Hausa traders of Kano, Nigeria
Authors: Yusuf Ahmed Beita 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionThis paper attempts to comment on the various techniques by which Kano Hausa traders and businessmen raise capital and invest it for diverse economic and social returns. Rather than proposing anything new, I will seek mainly to point to areas of needed future research among the Hausa traders. Moreover, although the paper is primarily concerned with the economic behaviour of a particular people, no clear effort is made at quantification, since very little statistics for Kano trade exist at the time of writing.
Accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante history: I. To the close of the nineteenth century
Authors: McCaskie T. C. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe present article is intended as the first of two contributions to the economic and social– but above all to the intellectual– history of the West African forest kingdom of Asante or Ashanti (now located in the Republic of Ghana). Both papers will attempt to pull together and to situate in a ‘mentalist’ framework a number of recent and confessedly disparate research findings concerning a cluster of concepts, ideas and beliefs that, merely for the sake of brevity at this point, I will assign simply to the embracing ‘neutral’ rubric of general transformations in the ideology (or ideologies) of wealth. The first article will be concerned with developments in Asante society up to the close of the nineteenth century (defined here interpretatively rather than in strictly chronological terms); its successor will concentrate on a highly detailed examination of a sequence of crucially telling events in the early colonial period, and upon selected developments thereafter in the twentieth century. The articles are designed and intended to be read sequentially; the first, it is hoped, will assist in making sense of the significantly denser context (and more detailed content) of the second.
Women in Freetown politics, 1914–61: a preliminary study
Authors: Denzer LaRay 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe study of women in Sierra Leone has been well launched. Except for the work of Carol P. MacCormack (formerly Hoffer) on political leadership and socio-economic development among Mende and Sherbro women (1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982), most of this scholarship focuses on women in Freetown, mainly the Krio. Filomena Steady (1975, 1976) has analysed Krio women's leadership in church and political organisations. The history of their economic contribution to the evolution of the city has been discussed by E. Frances White (1976, 1978, 1981a, b). Gender relationships in modern marriage have been examined by Barbara Harrell-Bond (1975). In addition, there are a number of biographical studies of prominent leaders: Paramount Chief Madam Yoko (Hoffer, 1974), Adelaide Casely Hayford (Okonkwo, 1985; Cromwell, 1986), Constance A. Cummings-John (Denzer, 1981, forthcoming a, b), Hannah S. Benka Coker (Metzger, 1973: 50–2), and Lottie Hamilton-Hazeley (Metzger, 1973: 52–3). On the basis of this body of work it is possible to study more closely the contribution of women in modern politics in Freetown and the socioeconomic forces behind their participation. This account covers the period from the emergence of the proto-nationalist movement, the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA), up to the campaign for independence.