bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Social Systems of Africa
Authors: Thurnwald Richard 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe camel-herding peoples described in our last article differ considerably from the cattle-breeding tribes now to be discussed. Not only do the pastoralists mentioned in Section V accord to the camel the leading position as their standard of value, the ass, sheep, and goat being only of secondary importance, but they are also different in race. Like all herdsmen they have a strong pride of ancestry, which has led to internal gradations of rank, crossed by considerations of wealth. The North African Berber tribes are, however, Mohammedans, and therefore the whole structure of their civilization is different from that of the mainly ‘heathen’ cattle-breeders to be considered below. Their great natural gifts and their connexion with Islam set them apart from most of the remaining inhabitants of Africa ; on the other hand conditions of existence in desert and steppe, combined with specialization in pastoral life, have prevented their uniting to form large states or similar organizations.
The Development of the Education of the African in Relation to Western Contact
Authors: Dougall James W. C. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe three chapters of this essay occupy less than fifty pages in a book which contains a thousand. This proportion may be taken as evidence of the way in which African education is commonly regarded, but it is no index of the value of the material. Much of the labour which Mr. Scott has expended on the collection of data must be regarded as ‘original research into specific problems of Education’ such as the Preface to the Year Book has in view. The importance of the article is that Mr. Scott has brought out the connexion between the general development of British Africa and what has been happening in education during the same period of history, and that he has given to the consideration of African education a new outlook and interpretation.
Démographie Congolaise
Authors: Ryckmans Pierre 
Published: April 2006

Étudier, au point de vue quantitatif, la composition d'une collectivité humaine; la comparer à d'autres; prévoir son évolution: tels sont les objets de la science démographique.La démographie de l'Afrique centrale est fort mal connue. Les renseignements publiés sont rares, de valeur très inégale; la critique en est malaisée. Les pronostics sur l'avenir des sociétés indigènes sont le plus souvent dénués de toute base scientifique, fondés sur des impressions subjectives. Aucune comparaison entre démographie africaine et démographie civilisée n'a, croyons-nous, été tentée jusqu'ici.
Bushman Folklore
Authors: Bleek Dorothea F. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe name of Bushman has been given to a small and rapidly JL diminishing race of African natives who were, and in places still are, scattered over the central and southern parts of the continent from the Cape to near the Equator. They seem to be the survivors of very early inhabitants of this portion of the world, and were certainly here before the allied race of Hottentots or any Bantu-speaking people arrived.
L'Enseignement en Afrique Équatoriale Française
Authors: Perlstein Marcel 
Published: April 2006

Les principes qui ont réglé et règlent encore l'enseignement que nous délivrons aux indigènes de nos colonies, ont été parfaitement définis par M. Charton, Inspecteur Général de l'Enseignement en Afrique Occidentale Française, dans plusieurs études. Je ne les reproduis donc pas si ce n'est à l'occasion de leur application. Préférant faire œuvre plus originale, je vais essayer de vous esquisser comment est distribué cet enseignement. En prenant l'exemple d'une de nos colonies, en comparant ce qui s'y fait avec ce qui se fait en d'autres territoires, puis en exposant pourquoi et en vertu de quels principes, vous aurez une vue d'ensemble de la question. Nous choisirons donc l'Afrique Équatoriale Française, dont je peux vous parler plus particulièrement puisque je viens d'y passer treize ans – et puisque M. Charton dans ses études traite de l'Afrique Occidentale Française.Quelques mots d'abord sur la structure administrative et territoriale de l'Afrique Équatoriale Française, puisque l'organisation scolaire a dû nécessairement en tenir compte. L'Afrique Équatoriale Française se compose de quatre territoires: le Gabon, chef-lieu Libreville, le Moyen Congo, chef-lieu Brazzaville, l'Oubangui-Chari, cheflieu Bangui, et le Tchad, chef-lieu Fort-Lamy.
The Spatial Separation of Generations in Ndembu Village Structure
Authors: Turner V. W. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn recent literature on the social structure of African peoples much attention has been paid to the role of the lineage in village and local organization. Among one Central African people at least–the Mwinilunga Ndembu of Northern Rhodesia–the spatial separation of adjacent genealogical generations is a structural principle of equal importance. Other anthropologists working in Angola and western and central Northern Rhodesia have obtained data which suggest that this principle is widespread in Central Africa.
Nyoro Marriage and Affinity
Authors: Beattie J. H. M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn a previous article I described the terminology of Nyoro kinship and the associated values and patterns of behaviour. In the present paper I give a brief preliminary account of Nyoro marriage, and of the terminology, social relations and values associated with and deriving from it. I discuss also what is usually called the mother's brother-sister's son relationship, the complexities of which in Bunyoro at least can only be fully understood in an affinal context. Here, as before, I seek understanding in terms of Nyoro concepts rather than our own.
Studies in the Ethiopic Syllabary
Authors: Ullendorff Edward 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Ethiopian script as known to us today is a quasi-syllabic script, each character consisting of one consonant followed by a vowel (or zero). This system developed in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.; we are, however, in possession of some inscriptions in which the early purely consonantal form of the Ethiopian alphabet has survived.When the Semites from South Arabia crossed the Bābel Mandeb and immigrated into that part of North-East Africa which is today the Tigre province of Ethiopia and Southern Eritrea, the South Arabian alphabet which they brought with them was, perhaps, the most important innovation they introduced into Africa. This South Arabian alphabet belongs to the Southern branch of the Semitic script, but we are still not quite certain at what time it severed its connexion with the Northern alphabet.
Zande Border Raids
Authors: Evans-Pritchard E. E. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Azande are one of the best-known peoples of Africa. Much was written about them by European travellers in the second half of the last century, and there are books on them by de Calonne-Beaufaict, Hutereau, Mgr Lagae, the present writer, and Mr. de Schlippe, as well as a considerable number of articles by various hands, notably by Major Larken. A summary of what is known about them and a full bibliography are contained in The Azande and Related Peoples, by P. T. W. Baxter and Audrey Butt, International African Institute, 195 3. It is therefore unnecessary for me to speak about them in a more general way before discussing the particular topic or this paper. I have only to observe that very little information is to be found in the literature on the subject of border raids and to state that my own research in Zandeland, carried out between 1927 and 1930, was mainly restricted to that part of it which comprised the kingdom of Gbudwe.
Von Totengebräuchen und Ahnenkult der Kɔsi in Kamerun
Authors: Ittmann J. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphDie Nachkommen des sagenhaften Ngoε wohnen etwa 90 km. nördlich des Kamerunberges an den Abhängen des Kupé und Manεnguba, im zerrissenen Bergland Mbidεhin und im Tale des Kyidε. Ngoε ist der Sage nach aus dem kleineren (edib e njom ‘Mannsee’) der beiden Seen im Ebuɔgε-Krater (<ebuɔg ‘Schüssel, Trog’) entstiegen und traf am Rande des edib e mwad ‘Frauensee’ Asum' Ejaŋ, die seine Frau wurde und ihm viele Kinder schenkte. Durch diese wurde Ngoε der Vater verschiedener Stämme. Sein Sohn Asumε gründete in seinen Nachkommen die fünf Unterstämme der West-Kɔsi: Mwa-Nyɔ, Mw' Etuk, Mw' Asumε Ndεm, Mw' Εtan und Mbogmud. Andere Nachkommen des Ngoε gründeten die Unterstämme der Ost-Kɔsi: Ninɔŋ, Nlilɔg und Eloŋ, auch die Kundu und Londo jenseits des Mongo zählt man unter Ngoε's Nachkommen.
Modern Local Government among the Makua
Authors: Whiteley Wilfred 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Makua, with their neighbours the Mwera and Makonde, form the most north-easterly extension of the great belt of matrilineal peoples stretching eastward from the Congo through Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia to Mozambique and South Tanganyika. They have been little studied, either by anthropologist or linguist, and the scanty literature, none of it later than 1930, reflects the passing impressions of travellers rather than the careful recordings of scientists.
Chagga Truth: A note on Gutmann's account of the Chagga concept of truth in Das Recht der Dschagga
Authors: Steiner Franz Baermann 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphGutmann's Das Recht der Dschagga is one of the classics of anthropology, for it is based on that sound and valid knowledge of a people which, even when outdated, sets standards for knowledge and its presentation. Here I wish to consider only one of the most stimulating chapters of the book, that containing Gutmann's analysis of Chagga concepts of truth, veracity, lying, and feeling guilty.Before turning to a critical appreciation of this Chagga material, I should like to outline, as briefly as possible, my own viewpoint. First, I must insist that any concept of truth to which observable behaviour relates and which can thereby be made the object of sociological study, is something very different from a logician's concept of truth. I do not mean by this that the Westerner, holding the logician's concept of truth, finds among the Chagga another and incompatible sort of concept.
Extra-Descent Group Ancestor Cults in African Societies
Authors: McKnight J. D. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn this paper I isolate for study a particular set of ancestors, the maternal ancestors in patrilineal societies and paternal ancestors in matrilineal societies. I call these the ‘extra-descent group ancestors’, for they are the ancestors of the parent who is residual with reference to the descent group of Ego. Thus among the Tallensi of northern Ghana, since membership of the descent group is traced patrilineally, the mother is the residual parent, and consequently the maternal ancestors are extradescent group ancestors, while the patrilineal ancestors are descent ancestors. Conversely, among the Plateau Tonga of Zambia, where there is a matrilineal system of descent, the father is the residual parent, and therefore the extra-descent group ancestors are the paternal ancestors, while the descent ancestors are matrilineal. It is with the character and actions of the extra-descent group ancestors that I shall be mainly concerned.
Federal Administration, Rank, and Civil Strife among Bemba Royals and Nobles
Authors: Werbner Richard P. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn the latter half of the nineteenth century, a change came about in the hereditary régime of the Bemba kingdom during civil strife between members of the kingdom's royal and noble strata. The rulers of the kingdom, who shared in the Central African trade of slaves and ivory for guns and calico, fought to defend their positions and to meet the competition from opponents who could enter into new relations of power. Past conceptions of the kingdom in terms of centralization have obscured this, hindering understanding of the specialized structures of authority among royals and nobles, the differences among the ruling strata, and the variable interlocking of their federal administrations. Richards has argued, in somewhat contradictory fashion, that the kingdom, primarily unified through ritual beliefs, was nevertheless centralized owing to an apparent concentrating of control over territorial administration in the hands of royals:In Northern Rhodesia the kingdom of the Bemba was kept united by the strong belief of the people in the ritual powers of their king. All district chieftainships were filled by princes of the blood who moved in succession by genealogical seniority from one chieftainship to another. Clan leaders were unimportant politically and the king's favourites never held office. A royal dynasty in control of all territorial posts seem to have been sufficient to achieve centralization of a loose type.
The Organization of Traditional Weaving in Iseyin, Nigeria
Authors: Bray Jennifer M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Yoruba town of Iseyin, 55 miles north-west of the city of Ibadan, is a traditional settlement with little economic specialization or division of labour other than according to sex. There is no factory development or industrial employment in the town. In the local tax returns for 1966, 88 per cent of the male taxpayers recorded farming as their primary occupation and the basis of the town's economy is still agricultural. Iseyin is now influenced by modern media of communication, however—by road, radio and the postal services—and its economy is responding to consumer demands in the large cities of Ibadan, Abeokuta and Lagos, in addition to those of its own locality. This applies also to the hand-weaving products for which Iseyin is well-known throughout Nigeria.
Girls' Puberty Songs and their Relation to Fertility, Health, Morality and Religion among the Zulu
Authors: Krige Eileen Jensen 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn the tradition of van Gennep anthropologists have studied puberty rites mainly as rites of passage marking changes in status at the crises of life and, more recently, the role which these ceremonies play in the ordering and reordering of social relations. My purpose here is to approach Zulu puberty rites from a different angle: to examine them in the context of a system of beliefs and values underlying a whole group of ritual activities for the welfare of the community—for health, for rain, for fertility in man and beast. This context was suggested to my mind when, a few years ago, I attended a spring ceremonial in the form of hoeing a field in honour of Inkosazana or Nomkhubulwana, a maiden deity. These rites, long thought to have died out, have not only survived in outlying parts of the country, but have lately been revived in many areas, some quite close to Durban. When I heard the songs that were being sung in this ceremony it was suddenly brought home to me that this rite to secure good crops was conceived of in terms of a girl's puberty ceremony. Inkosazana, personification of nature, was symbolized as standing on the threshold of summer like a girl at her puberty ceremony, ready for marriage and procreation. These puberty songs form part also of a number of other rituals associated with Inkosazana rites to combat pests and epidemics and the herding of the cattle for a day by girls, a rite which Gluckman, mistakenly in my opinion, has interpreted as a ritual of rebellion. My main concern in this paper is to present and analyse some of the Zulu girls' puberty songs (reproduced in Appendix II), to show how they are connected with ideas of morality and to indicate briefly the relation of puberty rites to rituals associated with the deity Inkosazana.
The Organization and Functions of the Ragbenle Society of the Temne
Authors: Dorjahn Vernon R. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThe Temne of the Northern Province of Sierra Leone are second only to the Mende in the Protectorate, numbering over half a million and inhabiting some 10,500 square miles of land. In general, they are culturally similar to their neighbours, especially in their possession of a number of societies, some secret, some not, which play integral roles in their lives. Of the societies found in this westernmost section of the Guinea Coast area, the Bundu or Sande for women and the Poro for men have been described by various writers for a number of groups. The emphasis placed on these two societies in the literature is justifiable in view of their multi-tribal geographic distribution, their general membership embracing most of the adult population and much of the adolescent segment in the groups where they are found, and the important functions they serve. In addition, however, there are a number of societies in this general area which, although they have a more restricted area distribution and less general membership, nevertheless also serve important functions for one or more groups. Such a society is the Ragbenle, also known as Maneke, which is centred in the eastern section of Temne country, where it is closely connected with the chiefs, particularly in conducting the ceremonies associated with their death, burial, selection, instruction, and installation, and, in addition, purifies violators of incest prohibitions, heals the chief and anyone else seeking help, divines witches, and provides other supernatural services. The purpose of this paper is to consider the membership of the society in terms of both supernatural and human members, and its functions in various aspects of Temne life.
The Origin of the Masai Passive
Authors: Greenberg Joseph H. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThere are two methods by which facts concerning the unrecorded past of a language may be recovered. The first may be labelled the external method. By confrontation with comparable facts of other languages to which it is related, we may reconstruct in some measure the past of a particular language. This is the familiar comparative method. Sometimes, however, another procedure, that of internal reconstruction, may be applied, independently or as a supplement to the comparative method. The facts of the language as described at a given time suggest certain hypotheses regarding its own past. The present study involves a combination of these two methods. An interpretation strongly suggested by the Masai language in its present form receives further confirmation and elucidation by the subsequent application of the comparative method.
Death, Property, and the Ancestors: A Reconsideration of Goody's Concepts
Authors: Keesing Hilary 
Published: April 2006

IntroductionDr. Jack Goody, in his study of Death, Property, and the Ancestors among the LoDagaa of Northern Ghana, shifts his level of analysis from time to time. On the one hand, in analysing the pattern of sacrifice to the ancestors (i.e. the relationship of donor to recipient in the sacrificial situation), among the two communities of the LoWiili and LoDagaba (collectively referred to as the LoDagaa), he maintains that the crucial variable is the locus of tension in the holder-heir relationship, and the consequent guilt a man feels since he can only inherit the property on the holder's death. Thus individuals sacrifice to those people from whom they also inherit. We are told that sacrifice follows the pattern of inheritance of movable property, which in the case of the LoWiili falls within the patriclan and in the case of the LoDagaba falls within the matriclan. Goody makes much of this holder-heir relationship but does not follow up the implications in his analysis of the cases of sacrifice which he records in Table 12 on p. 398. Rather he shifts his level of analysis and relates the relationship between donor and recipient to the more diffuse level of the relationship existing between members of the corporate descent group, treating all members for these purposes as holders or heirs. In this sense the sacrificial obligations of the heirs are dependent on the continuing interest of the deceased members, together with their rightful expectation to a part of the property which is held by the living members of the corporate descent group in which movable property is inherited. A situation which arises because the descent group is conceived of as being made up of the living and certain dead members, i.e. the ancestors. In the most general sense Goody is maintaining that individuals sacrifice the sacrificial object (cows, goats) to those categories of people from whom they did in fact inherit, or might have inherited, these same objects of sacrifice.
Household Organization and Intensive Agriculture: The Kofyar Case
Authors: Netting Robert McC. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphAmong the Kofyar of Northern Nigeria the organization and composition of the household is ecologically adapted to certain features of the subsistence technology and the physical environment. While reductionist arguments of environmental determinism or diffuse functional interconnexion are not adequate, it is possible to demonstrate specific reciprocal influence. This paper considers the kinds of evidence available for empirically determining the connexion between a particular social pattern and the productive activities of a society, providing an example of the analysis Steward called ‘cultural ecology’ (1953: 30).
Sexual Life, Marriage, and Childhood among the Efik
Authors: Simmons Donald C. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphThis paper describes the infancy, childhood, adolescence, and marriage customs of the Efik of Creek Town, Calabar Province, Nigeria.In former times, when polygyny was widespread, the husband was expected to have coition with his wives unless he was ill or the wives were either menstruating or nursing a child. Although he might have coition with any wife during the day, he was expected to sleep in strict rotation with the wives at night in order to prevent quarrelling and jealousy. If he possessed only three wives, a weekly rotation called urua mbri ebe, ‘weekly mat of the husband’, was expected, while a man with two wives performed ɔfiɔŋ mbri ebe, ‘monthly mat of the husband’. If he possessed several wives the husband followed usen mbri ebe, ‘daily mat of the husband’. The one with whom he slept prepared his food and bath water, and washed his clothes. Efik nicknamed wives iban ufip, ‘jealous women’, because of their frequent quarrels and feuds.
Modern Political Movements in Somaliland,
Authors: Lewis I. M. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn this article I give a brief outline of Somali social organization and describe the constitution and aims of the main political parties as they existed in 1957. It is hoped in a second article to examine the activities of the parties in individual Somali territories in the light of particular events in these territories and in relation to recent constitutional changes already effected or proposed.
Sheep and Sheep-Herders in South Africa
Authors: Willcox A. R. 
Published: April 2006

Opening ParagraphIn a recent paper Mr. C. K. Cooke, F.S.A., discusses the questions of the introduction of sheep into Africa and their arrival in southern Africa (Cooke, 1965).Mr Cooke quotes Zeuner's conclusion (Zeuner, 1963) ‘that the first sheep in Africa were screw-horned hair sheep from Turkestan or Persia which reached lower Egypt about 5000 B.C. and Khartoum by 3300 B.C. This breed disappeared with the Middle Kingdom when it was replaced by a wool sheep and the fat-tailed sheep reached Africa only from the Roman period.’ Zeuner further asserts thatOne breed of sheep descended from the Egyptian hair-sheep had reached South-West Africa before the arrival of the Europeans. In these animals the profile is convex, the eyes are placed high on the skull and close to the drooping ears. The rams carry thick horns and a long ruff on the throat.