bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The East African Trade in Woodcarvings
Authors: Elkan Walter 
Published: April 2006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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