bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Letter-order of the Semitic Alphabets in Africa and the Near East
Authors: Honeyman A. M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Ethiopic syllabary employed for writing the classical Ge'ez and also, with certain modifications, the contemporary South Semitic vernaculars of East Africa, was formed by super-imposing a system of auxiliary vowel-marks upon a basic consonantal alphabet; this alphabet occurs, alongside of the syllabic script, in the Old Ethiopic inscriptions of the Axumite Kingdom in the fourth century of our era, and is a derivative of the Sabaeo-Minaean or Old South Arabic script found in the monuments of the south-west Arabian kingdoms. But although the Ethiopic syllabary is thus genetically connected with the other main branches of the Semitic alphabet, the traditional order of the signs, in which the consonantal component and the accompanying vowel are the primary and secondary determining factors respectively, does not agree with that of any Semitic alphabet hitherto known. There is no old or reliable native tradition as to the reason underlying the order of the signs; no help is to be had from numerical signs, which elsewhere, as will shortly appear, afford valuable testimony to the order of the letters; for Ethiopic borrowed Greek alphabetic signs for this purpose, while the South Arabian inscriptions used single strokes for the units, and for higher denominations the initial letters of the native words for five, ten, hundred, &c. The mnemonic word-groups reconstructed by Bauer and others are open to objection on grounds of language and sense. Other external criteria yield only tentative and inconclusive results, and the subject has accordingly remained one of speculation and controversy.
Funeral Friendship in Central Africa
Authors: Stefaniszyn B. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe basis of the funeral friendshipAmong the Ambo there exists a joking relationship based on the interrelations of clan objects, but to call it simply a joking relationship would hardly be appropriate, since the joking relationship is only accessory. The institution is first and foremost a real and close friendship which has for its aim assistance in the funeral of the friend, and this aim is never lost sight of, but is always alluded to even in joking. This social institution of the Ambo people may therefore aptly be termed ‘funeral friendship’ (bunungwe)
The Winged Solar Disk or Ibo Itεi Facial Scarification
Authors: Jeffreys M. D. W. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThis article is based on researches, undertaken in 1930-1 at the request of the Nigerian Government, into the magico-religious beliefs of the Umundri group of Ibo in the Awka Division, Onitsha Province, Southern Nigeria. Umundri means ‘children of Ndri’ (a ‘Sky-Being’).
Some Aspects of the Economics of Sixteen Ibo Individuals
Authors: Harris J. S. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphOf the various aspects of ethnology, perhaps that of economics has been most neglected. Within the past few years a number of books and articles have appeared with the intent to remedy this situation, but the study of the economic life of primitive peoples is still in its infancy. Particularly is this true of consumer economics in primitive societies. More and more data, especially of a concrete, quantitative nature, are needed. This study is a small contribution in that direction. It presents the annual monetary incomes and expenditures of sixteen Ibo natives living in the community of Ozuitem in south-eastern Nigeria.
Les Dialectes dogon
Authors: Calame-Griaule Geneviève 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphDans le pays dogon qui se situe au coeur du Soudan français, dans la boucle du Niger vit une population dl'environ 220.000 individus, race vigoureuse et homogène qui a conservé intacte une civilisation millénaire, peut-être héritée de célèbres civilisations méditerranéennes aujourdl'hui disparues. Au cours des dernières années, les travaux d'une équipe ethnographique française ont fait des Dogon une des populations les mieux étudiées de l'Afrique Occidentale sur le plan des institutions et des croyances. Il n'en est pas de même de leur langue, qui n'a encore fait l'objet d'aucune étude d'ensemble, et dont la situation parmi les autres groupes de langues africaines reste mal définie. Delafosse, après avoir hésité entre le groupe voltaïque et le groupe mandé, penche pour ce dernier dans la dernière édition des Langues du Monde, où il classe le dogon dans le groupe nigéro-sénégalais (sousgroupe de l'Est, avec le samogho et le sia). Par contre, le R. P. Bertho, dans une récente étude, rapproche le dogon des langues voltaïques. M. de Lavergne de Tressan, dans son Inventaire Linguistique de l' A.O.F. et du Togo, juge préférable ‘d’opter pour la prudence, tant que les catégories grammaticales n'auront pas été étudiées’ (p. 211). Cette attitude de prudence sera aussi la nôtre; il ne semble pas que l'on puisse aboutir à des conclusions valables dans le domaine du comparatisme avant qu'une description aussi complète que possible ait été donnée, sinon de la langue dogon, du moins d'un de ses nombreux dialectes.
Preliminary Study of the Nyangwara System of Agriculture
Authors: de Schlippe P. , Batwell B. L. 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionThe present article is based on a report submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture in Khartoum (Sudan) by an agricultural research officer and an inspector of agriculture and is the result of a preliminary study of the agriculture of a tribe which had been earmarked by the provincial administration for commercial production of sorghum. Most tribes of the Southern Sudan are sorghum cultivators, but none has taken to growing this staple food for sale despite the increasing demand for grain in townships. It was realized that some limitations, possibly of a social or cultural character, stood in the way of such development and therefore it seemed desirable to study the tribal customary agriculture by the methods of social anthropology, instead of approaching it only from the point of view of agronomy.
The Significance of Descent in Tale Social Structure
Authors: Fortes M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Tallensi of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast furnish data of special interest for the study of comparative social structure among the peoples of West Africa. Large as the ethnographic literature on West Africa is, it is singularly lacking in analytical data concerning social structure. Some of the most useful collections of ethnographic information on West African peoples thus lack the foundation without which a coherent picture of a society is impossible. Tables of kinship terms, enumerations of kinship usages, catalogues of marriage and inheritance customs, and such-like information are no more than the raw materials for the construction of a systematic representation of social structure. And very often the raw materials are not sufficient. There are plenty of bricks but no mortar. The reasons for such lacunae are obvibys. A sympathetic amateur ethnographer can bring together material of inestimable value; but without a good theoretical grounding in modern social anthropology the field worker will not look for, and even if he stumbles across it, will not recognise the kind of material necessary for an understanding of social structure. He must; first of all, have the concept of a total social structure clearly in his mind; and he must look for the connexions, which are very often implicit, by which ostensibly discrete processes and institutions are related to one another in a meaningful pattern.
An Historical Sketch of Egba Traditional Authorities
Authors: Biobaku S. O. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Yoruba were probably first established in what is now Nigeria in the region of Nupe, whence they crossed the Niger and went southwards in search of a suitable settlement. They chose Ile-Ife where, according to tradition, they encountered no opposition from the aborigines. Ife was later idealized; it became their Holy City and the revered cradle of their civilization. They probably remained under a single government at Ife until they had consolidated their power sufficiently to undertake the conquest of their neighbours. The general drive was towards the south, although a counter-migration back to the north resulted in the foundation of Old Oyo. When the Yoruba fanned out from Ife, they left principalities in their wake as they drove towards the sea. This region was probably then occupied by the Fon or Egun people, who were either absorbed or expelled as the Yoruba, in various waves and in different directions, penetrated the tropical forest.
Sharing, Talking, and Giving: Relief of Social Tensions among !Kung Bushmen
Authors: Marshall Lorna 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThis paper describes customs, practised by the !Kung Bushmen in the Nyae Nyae region of South Africa, which help them to avoid situations that are likely to arouse ill will and hostility among individuals within the bands and between bands. Two customs which seem to be especially helpful and which I describe in detail are meat-sharing and gift-giving. I mention also the !Kung habits of talking, aspects of their good manners, their borrowing and lending, and their not stealing.
Kamcape: an Anti-Sorcery Movement in South-West Tanzania
Authors: Willis R. G. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphWhile doing field-work among the Fipa of south-west Tanzania between December 1962 and June 1964 I collected evidence about an anti-sorcery cult or movement called Kamcape which was then active in the area. The present article describes this evidence and seeks to assess its sociological significance.
Aspirations and Social Structure: a West African Example
Authors: Peil Margaret 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe has been considerable concern in recent years with the large number of young people in various developing countries who receive a few years of primary education and then prove a drain on the economy because they cannot or will not find employment. The usual complaint has been that they all want clerical jobs for which they are marginally, if at all, qualified, and the usual remedy suggested has been a return to the farm.
Some Swazi Views on Land Tenure
Authors: Hughes A. J. B. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphVirtually all sub-Saharan Africa is in the throes of rapid social and economic change. The recent fashion for meteorological allegories has merely served to stress the fact that these changes are also causing very considerable problems. The dilemma facing most administrations throughout the continent is that while much of the old way of life must inevitably disappear if the tribal groups involved are to hope to survive as viable populations in the modern world, this same process can, if it occurs too fast, threaten the whole social order and the systems of social control and social organization, which have hitherto bound them together as groups and governed the day-to-day lives of their members.
Red and School: a Quantitative Approach
Authors: Dubb A. A. 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionIn his recent study of urbanization among the Xhosa in East London, Mayer (1961) reveals a new dimension in the pagan/Christian opposition. The Xhosa-speaking tribes, Mayer points out, distinguish between what they call Red people (abantu ababomvu) and School people (abantu basesikolweni). The former are conservative traditionalists, adhering to Xhosa custom; the latter are already westernized to a degree and value many aspects of European material and non-material culture. But, Mayer emphasizes, Red Xhosa must not simply be regarded as a backward residue of unfortunates who have lacked the opportunity, one way or another, of becoming westernized. On the contrary: the Red Xhosa, no less than School Xhosa, have probably had more opportunity than any other population in Africa to experience and adopt western culture. The point is that Reds are not only conservatives, they are positive conservatives. They represent those Xhosa who have deliberately rejected white civilization and chosen instead to maintain their traditional way of life. And theirs is not an easy choice: it is a constant struggle against the forces of change.
From Tribute to Tax in a Tikar Chiefdom
Authors: Chilver E. M. , Kaberry P. M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThis historical reconnaissance is not concerned with the economic consequences of direct taxation or its relation to the dogma of colonial self-sufficiency but rather with what McPhee calls its ‘political, moral and social nature’. A revenue system reflects not only the circumstances in which the authority of governments is exercised, but some of its ideal premisses—a truism which can be illustrated from the tax history of British West Africa in general and by the comparison of the Northern and Southern Nigerian systems before the post-Amalgamation reforms of Lugard and his successors. Since direct taxation is an aspect of colonial administration which affects members of a tribal society regularly and generally and demands a voluntary or enforced accommodation, its study in a particular tribal area may provide some useful insights to students of social change. Where the tribal society already has a system of tribute or provisioning, the introduction of a different system presents the colonial Government's native agents with problems of reinterpretation as well as procedure.
Anthropology and the Development of African Studies
Authors: Forde Daryll 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe foundation and the broad policies of our Institute emerged from what proved a fortunate conjunction of diverse interests and opportunities that developed after the First World War. The initial phase of modern economic advance in tropical Africa, following the introduction of the telegraph, railways, all-weather roads, was by the twenties making apparent a wide range of needs and opportunities for further progress in Africa—progress in which both the interests of, and contribution by, its peoples would be closely concerned. Within African territories the demand for literacy and training in new skills both more extensive and at higher levels was becoming more and more obvious and pressing. The significance of the increasing and inevitable association of Africans and their communities with a world economy was beginning to be more widely appreciated. With this growing recognition of the need for a more positive and constructive response many questions arose concerning not only the means of fostering such developments, but also their effects on the attitudes, beliefs, and institutions that had hitherto sustained the cultures and the social life of largely autonomous tribes and chiefdoms.
Bangwa (Western Bamileke) Marriage Wards
Authors: Brain Robert 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIt is not uncommon in West Africa for lineage heads and chiefs in patrilineally organized societies to retain important bridewealth rights in their daughters or marriage wards and their descendants. My own field-work, on which this paper is based, was done among the Bangwa, a Bamileke group of the Cameroons. The Bamileke have been described as practising a special form of marriage, known as ngkap marriage. The principle is simple: a girl is given in marriage without transfer of bridewealth from her husband; as a result, the marriages of the daughters of this union are arranged by their maternal grandfather, who becomes known as their tangkap (ta ngkap = father [of bride] wealth). In ‘ngkap marriage’, unlike marriage with normal bridewealth transfers between a husband and his wife's kin, husbands only obtain rights in uxorem (in the woman as a wife) and not rights in genetricem (in the woman as a mother). If the tangkap continues to give his wards in marriage without receiving bridewealth from their suitors, he continually increases his capital stock of marriage wards. Chiefs among the Bamileke, heads of large polygynous compounds, give daughters and wards to their impecunious subjects, sons, and servants who cannot afford the marriage payments. Hurault estimated that in one chief-dom with a population of approximately 20,000, the chief had 1,500 female wards and was linked, through ngkap marriage, to the majority of his subjects. On a lower level lineage heads are able to increase the size of patrilineages through ngkap marriage, since wards and their children are incorporated into the group of their tangkap, not that of their father.
Marriage Patterns and Trends in the Nomadic and Settled Populations of the Sudan
Authors: Henin R. A. 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionThis study is based on data collected as part of a series of demographic surveys conducted in 1961–2 in different parts of the Sudan. The primary aim of the surveys was to study fertility differentials in the country.The study of marriage patterns, however, is a prerequisite for any serious investigation of fertility especially in a country like the Sudan where birth control, as understood in countries of the West European type, is almost unknown.
Swazi Royal Ritual
Authors: Beidelman T. O. 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionIn his Frazer Lecture of 1952, Rituals of Rebellion in South-East Africa (1954), Professor Max Gluckman considers certain types of ritual behaviour as institutionalized expressions of rebellion against authority. He maintains that this expression is an important function of such ritual. The following quotations present the gist of his interpretation:I shall therefore consider the social components of ceremonies, analogous to those which concerned Frazer, among the South-Eastern Bantu.…Here there are…performed, as elsewhere in Africa, national and local ceremonies at the break of the rains, sowing, first fruits, and harvest.…But whatever the ostensible purpose of the ceremonies, a most striking feature of their organization is the way in which they openly express social tensions. Women have to assert license and dominance as against their formal subordination to men, princes have to behave to the kings as if they covet the throne, and subjects openly state their resentment of authority. Hence I call them rituals of rebellion. I shall argue that some ritual rebellions proceed within an established distribution of power, and not about the structure of the system itself. This allows for instituted protest, and in complex ways renews the unity of the system (1954, p. 3).We are here confronted with a cultural mechanism which challenges study by sociologists, psychologists, and biologists, the analysis in detail of the process by which this acting of conflict achieves a blessing—social unity. Clearly we are dealing with the general problem of catharsis set by Aristotle … the purging of emotion through ‘pity, fear and inspiration’. Here I attempt only to analyze the sociological setting of the process (1954, p. 20).
Strangers in West African Societies
Authors: Skinner Elliott P. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe difficulties attending the attempt of the new African polities to weld their disparate elements into viable nation-states have been popularly attributed to ‘tribalism’. Certainly, in some cases groups indigenous to a region did come into conflict as new states arose there, but a hard look at tribal relations in modern Africa shows these relations to be of a different order from those of pre-European times. One element in the so-called ‘tribalism’ in modern Africa, and one which has so far escaped systematic treatment, is the conflict which arose between Africans indigenous to an area and African ‘strangers’—those groups which for various reasons had moved out of their homelands and had established relatively long-term residence in the territories of other groups—as political autonomy and independence became a reality. An examination of the factors which made for conflict between ‘locals’ and ‘strangers’ in West African societies would not only give us the opportunity to understand this phenomenon in a time-perspective, but would also enable us to see whether the status and role of the ‘stranger’ in these societies could throw light on the universal problem of the ‘stranger’.
The Political Function of the Poro. (Part II.)
Authors: Little Kenneth 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn the concluding paragraphs of Part I of this article it was pointed out that in addition to its judicial functions the Poro society possessed some important powers of administration. On the other hand, there was also evidence to suggest that the society carried on this wide range of activities, amounting almost to government of the country, as an instrument of the chiefs.
Interpretation of Evidence on the Introduction of Maize into West Africa
Authors: Miracle Marvin P. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphFrank Willett, in scrutiny of the evidence cited by M. D. W. Jeffreys to support the hypothesis of pre-Columbian maize in Africa, has helpfully reopened the controversy concerning the introduction of maize to tropical Africa, but on three points he curiously comes dangerously close to committing the major error he shows Jeffreys to be guilty of, viz., drawing ‘…on all manner of evidence, with more industry than discretion…’.
The Dynamics of Multilineality on the Mambila Plateau
Authors: Rehfisch F. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Mambila social structure, unlike the majority of those studied in West Africa, is characterized by the presence of kinship groups with corporate functions which are not unilineal. All members of these units claim descent from a common male ancestor or his sibling, but descent may be traced through males, females, and in some cases through links including both sexes. A knowledge of the changes in both the traditional and present marriage practices is essential for obtaining an understanding of this kinship system. Changes in the two principal Mambila kinship groups—the memin and the man—over the past three or four decades will also be analysed.
Relations between the sexes among the Nuer: 1930
Authors: Hutchinson Sharon 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphAs this important Nuer myth suggests, men's control of the disruptive forces around them is limited and problematic. In part this limitation stems from relations of mutual dependence which continually restrict the power and authority of men in Nuer society. In speaking of their dependence upon cattle, Nuer say: ‘“They will be finished together with mankind”, for men will all die on account of cattle and they and cattle will cease together’ (1940:49). Similarly, the dependence of men upon the reproductive and nurturing powers of women assures the latter an important source of control: mutual dependence implies a mutual independence. Women have an exclusive realm of activity and hence an exclusive domain ofxontrol and influence. Moreover, they can subvert political alliances and aggravate divisions within the male hierarchy through the manipulation of their children's loyalties. In this essay, I examine these bonds of mutual dependence uniting men and women in Nuer society so as to outline some of the sources, characteristics and limitations of male domination and authority.