scholarly journals Anomie in Ashanti?

Africa ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Goody

Opening ParagraphMiss Ward, in her paper on Some Observations on Religious Cults in Ashanti, maintains that the spread of ‘new witch-finding cults’ in Ashanti results from an emotional malaise deriving from structural changes in the society. The hypothesis is one which has been put forward on other occasions to account for the reported increase in such activities. The basic propositions appear to be four: firstly, that major changes in the social system increase the overall malaise in a society: secondly, that such increased malaise will be reflected in an increase in witchcraft: thirdly, that an increase in witchcraft will be reflected in an increase in witch-finding cults: fourthly, that there has been such an increase in Ashanti.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1241-1247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serhii S. Ordenov ◽  
Hanna M. Кleshnia

The purpose of the article This article deals with the notion of demodernization as a form of hybrid modernization of a traditionalist society, which is being transformed into the system of global capitalism. The following thesis is substantiated that demodernization is a form of transformation that allows traditionalist societies to adapt to the economic requirements of the global world-system without carrying out structural changes in the social system. Materials and methods: This research deals with the notion of demodernization as a form of hybrid modernization of a traditionalist society, which is being transformed into the system of global capitalism. This is a review of international interpretations. The article goes through works written by Acemoglu & Robinson (2016), Ordenov (2017), etc. Results of the research: It is shown that demodernization mechanisms tend to be superimposed on the cultural period of our time, called Postmodern. Postmodern Culture cultivates the possibilities of demodernization in a global dimension since it is based on the perception of the world under the relativistic conditions of weakening values and integrity and dilution of the axiological and moral bases. Applications: This research can be used for universities, teachers, and students. Novelty/Originality: In this research, the model of Demodernization as a hybrid form of modernization of traditionalist society in the globalized world is presented in a comprehensive and complete manner.


Africa ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryll Forde

Opening ParagraphThe policy of adapting ‘for the purposes of local government the tribal institutions which the native people have evolved themselves, so that the latter may develop in a constitutional manner from their own past’ depends for success on more than a general grasp of the outlines of native social organisation. Native standards of value as expressed in individual and collective behaviour, the operation of balances and checks in the social system, current trends which are tending to cause some institutions and customs to lose strength at the expense of others, and the economic forces that have been or are in the future likely to be operative in the society, must all be analysed and assessed in their mutual relations as interrelated elements in a complex process.


Africa ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Middleton

Opening ParagraphIn this paper I consider some Lugbara notions about witches, ghosts, and other agents who bring sickness to human beings. I do not discuss the relationship of these notions, and the behaviour associated with them, to the social structure. The two aspects, ideological and structural, are intimately connected, but it is possible to discuss them separately: on the one hand, to present the ideology as a system consistent within itself and, on the other, to show the way in which it is part of the total social system. Here I attempt only the former.


Africa ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustav Jahoda

Opening ParagraphThe effects of major changes in the social system on the mental state of individuals have been the subject of a recent controversy. Miss Ward (1956), in a paper discussing the significance of an alleged increase in the number of witch-finding cults in Ashanti, argued that this can be taken as evidence of a widespread rise in the general level of anxiety resulting from rapid structural changes. In a subsequent rejoinder Goody (1957) challenged not only the view that such cults have in fact become more numerous, but also the underlying assumption, shared by many social scientists, that rapid social change produces an emotional malaise in the people caught up in it.


Africa ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. H. Crosby

Opening ParagraphPolygamy is a social system, and is intimately bound up with the subject of property, of labour, and of the difference in status between men and women. If this paper appears to trespass into other fields it is because of the complexity of the subject and because polygamy is not something that can be abstracted from the social organization generally and be examined by itself; it is both symptom and cause of widespread difference in Mende society from that of our own.


Africa ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Krige

Opening ParagraphThe Louedu of the NE. Transvaal are patrilineal and marriage, which is patrilocal, involves (as it does among other S. Bantu tribes) the transfer of munywalo. This,institution has been variously interpreted as the legalization of the marriage, as a guarantee of a wife's status or good behaviour, and in terms of compensation, economic or ritual. But these interpretations are rather like parodies in which the emphasis on the features mentioned is not so much wrong as a caricature. We have, often complacently, projected our own values and motivations as universally valid. Much might be said in favour of such a caricature, if it is infused with the life of a character in Dickens, especially when the purpose has been to ennoble an institution which many regard as degrading. The kindly cartoon is better than the derogatory stereotype. It would, however, be better still if we could accommodate ourselves to a system in which the social arrangements are incommensurable with our own. More specifically, and that is the purpose of this article, we might try to discover the real place of munywalo in the social system. The manner in which we phrase the subject, that is, as the relation of the cattle exchanges to the social structure, is not meant to disguise our approach. It is intended to focus attention on the facts that cattle constitute the essence of munywalo, and that the exchanges of cattle involved are both the basis of important social arrangements and by far the most important use to which cattle are put in the society.


2020 ◽  
pp. 305-318
Author(s):  
Thomas Leng

The Conclusion considers the significance of the decline of the Company of Merchant Adventurers in light of the broader structural changes that English overseas commerce underwent in the early modern period. It argues that, although the Company of Merchant Adventurers can not straightforwardly be associated with a precapitalist commercial order rendered irrelevant by the emergence of capitalism, the story of the Company’s decline does cast light on a process of commercial restructuring which involved the breakdown of certain boundaries, geographical and occupational, and the possibility of new synergies. These changes had implications for the role and career of the overseas merchant, and the place of merchant companies in structuring access to foreign trade. Survival for merchant companies depended on their ability to attract and accommodate new members and retain their loyalty, as well as to survive external attack. Changes within the Merchant Adventurers’ ranks made this increasingly difficult, and the Company’s failure to maintain its privileges was in part a consequence of the dissolution of the social system of its trade.


Africa ◽  
1956 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 354-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Banton

Opening ParagraphThis paper presents a study of what is sometimes called detribalization—the process by which tribal people, especially those who have left their homeland and obtained paid employment in towns, are separated from the social and cultural heritage of their tribe. But this is too superficial a statement of the matter. It is necessary to define the problem in sociological terms before attempting a systematic analysis of the process. Accordingly I shall start by describing the system of social relations prevailing among Temne in Freetown, and shall examine the forces which, over the past fifty years, have influenced its character. At the beginning of this period relationships among the Temne immigrants appear to have been relatively close and stable, but, from the 1920's, disintegrative tendencies became progressively more marked until, at the end of the 1930's, the young men carried out a series of swift changes which resulted in a more successful adaptation of the system and its closer integration.


Africa ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Tait

Opening ParagraphIt is useful to review existing ethnographic writings from time to time in the light of advancing theory. The data considered here are contained in an impressive body of first-rate material collected in accordance with the best descriptive methods on which French ethnographers rely. This paper is in no sense a summary of the data collected by the various Missions Griaule; it is an ‘analytical commentary’ dealing only with the social system of the Dogon of Sanga that a structural analysis of the material reveals. Its purpose is to direct attention to some problems of structure for which further investigation is needed. It can most usefully be read side by side with the principal works on this people so far published.


Africa ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold K. Schneider

Opening ParagraphThe purpose of this paper is to describe the production and settlement system of the Bantu-speaking Turu of central Tanzania and to discuss its effects on the social system. Save for certain other peoples of this area who are historically close to the Turu, the practice of manuring of land and strictly sedentary settlement without slash-and-burn horticultural techniques or bush fallowing (except as ancillary to the main production processes) are an unusual combination in Africa.


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