A Further Note on Joking Relationships

Africa ◽  
1949 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Radcliffe-Brown
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
African Society ◽  
The People ◽  
Joking Relationships ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphProfessor Griaule's article on ‘L'Alliance cathartique’ in Africa of October 1948 raises a methodological point of considerable importance. If we wish to understand a custom or institution that we find in a particular society there are two ways of dealing with it. One is to examine the part it plays in the system or complex of customs and institutions in which it is found and the meaning that it has within this complex for the people themselves. Professor Griaule deals in this way with the custom by which the Bozo and the Dogon exchange insults with each other. He considers it as an element in a complex of customs, institutions, myths, and ideas to which the Dogon themselves refer by the term mangou. He shows us also what meaning the natives themselves attribute to this exchange of insults (p. 253). As a piece of analysis the article is admirable, and is a most important contribution to our growing knowledge of West African society.

Structural Change in the Sierra Leone Protectorate

Africa ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Little
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
West African ◽  
African Society ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
New Class ◽  
The North ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Impact

Opening ParagraphIn recent centuries indigenous West African society has experienced the impact of two external cultural forces, the one personified by Moslem invaders and migrants from the north, the other by European colonists from the West. With the spread of Islam, the way of life of whole peoples has been largely transformed, but the main changes which have occurred in the structure of African society are the result of Western and Westernizing influences. It is the purpose of this article to examine a particular aspect of these structural changes which is exemplified by the appearance of a new class of ‘educated’ and ‘literate’ individuals and their relationship with traditional society in the Sierra Leone Protectorate. The Protectorate, with which this article is exclusively concerned, comprises the hinterland of the Sierra Leone Colony, and is under a Native Authority system of government. In the Colony, political and legal institutions are modelled mainly on the English system. As explained later, the terms ‘educated’ and ‘literate’ are used throughout to denote relative degrees of Westernization due to education.

The staff of life: Food and female fertility in a West African society

Africa ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Weil
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
West African ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Female Fertility ◽  
African Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThis paper is an examination of the dynamics of the kanyalangkafo, a cross-cultural fertility association. It first examines the changing economic and social environment of the Mandinka to clarify the factors relevant to the spread and acceptance of the fertility association.The second part of the paper describes the history and organization of the association.In the last part of the paper, the activities of the association and the ritually inverted sexual behaviour of its members are analyzed. Social integration is shown to be brought about in the presence of and partly because of the association and its activities. The integrative results include the manner in which the association organizes women and the social environment within which associational behaviour occurs. Models stemming from analyses of ritually inverted sexual behaviour are found to be generally supported by data from the Mandinka case.

An Historical Perspective of the Giriama and Witchcraft Control

Africa ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Brantley
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
African Society ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Protection And Control ◽  
And Control

Opening ParagraphWherever belief in witchcraft permeated an African society, fear prevailed and people demanded protection and control. Even though the degree of African concern about witchcraft was not always appreciated by outsiders, it was possible, at least in centralized societies, for such outsiders to discern the processes that were involved in its control. A king or a priest who failed to control the spread of witchcraft and to alleviate the fear was unlikely to maintain his authority for long. In non-centralized societies, the problem of witchcraft and the means of control were less clear-cut. Solutions were rarely obvious and easy.

scholarly journals The Role of Imperial Women in the Monetary Distributions (Liberalitas) in Rome in the Light of Numismatic Sources

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Balbuza
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Considerable Importance ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
The Third ◽  
The People ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
The Feminine

Abstract Liberalitas was one of the most important forms of social activities of the Roman emperors. In quantitative terms, it is also one of the five most important imperial virtues. It appeared on coins as Liberalitas Augusti, which gave this virtue an additional, divine dimension. The first Empress to depict the idea of imperial generosity on the coins issued on her behalf was Julia Domna. In this respect, her liberalitas coins mark a breakthrough in the exposition of this imperial virtue. The well-known female liberalitas coin issues, or imperial issues with empresses’ portraits, date back to the third century and clearly articulate the liberalitas, both iconographically and literally, through the legend on the reverse of the coin. Other coins, issued on behalf of the emperors (mainly medallions), accentuate in some cases (Julia Mamaea, Salonina) the personal and active participation of women from the imperial house in congiarium-type activities. The issues discussed and analysed, which appeared on behalf of the emperors or the imperial women – with a clear emphasis on the role of women – undoubtedly demonstrate the feminine support for the emperor’s social policy towards the people of Rome, including the various social undertakings of incumbent emperors, to whom they were related. They prove their active involvement and support for the image of the princeps created by the emperors through the propaganda of virtues (such as liberalitas). The dynastic policy of the emperors, in which the empresses played a key role, was also of considerable importance.

Some Comments on Land Tenure in Egba Division, Western Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akin L. Mabogunje
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Land Law ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
The West ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphDuring the sitting of the West African Lands Committee in 1912, the witnesses who were called before the Committee from Egba Division emphatically stated that sales of both farm and town lands had been going on in Egbaland for some considerable time and had become accepted as normal. Equally significant was the vigour with which witnesses from all the other Yoruba sub-tribes countered the suggestion that sale of land existed or was permitted by the traditional land law and custom. H. L. Ward Price in his report also pointed out that sales of land had been going on in Egbaland for at least sixty years before he was writing in the 1930's. From the evidence he collected, it would seem that land sales dated back to between 1860 and 1880.

Migratory Labour from North-Wester Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Mansell Prothero
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Labour Migration ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
The North ◽  
The People ◽  
Limited Scale ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphReaders of Africa will be well aware of population migration as a characteristic feature of a continent where movement between one part and another is largely unrestricted as compared with the more settled parts of the world. There is much evidence of large-scale tribal migrations in the past, of the age-old seasonal wanderings of herders, and of recent labour migration to centres of mineral and industrial production, the last particularly in Central and South Africa. Information is more limited concerning the features of labour migration in West Africa at the present day. In general it is thought that migrants leave their home areas, after the harvest at the commencement of the dry season, to seek work elsewhere for a period of from three to six months and then return to take up farming with the commencement of the next rains. The major source area for these migrants is to the north of the tenth parallel where the wet season is concentrated into a period of about four months, thus severely restricting agricultural activity. Cultivation during the dry season is possible only on a very limited scale. There is thus a considerable period of the year when the primary economic activity of the people is not possible. It is logical that they should seek work elsewhere.

Mary Kingsley 1896–1899

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
Sarah LeFanu
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
West African ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Mary Kingsley ◽  
South African War ◽  
The People ◽  
British Colonial

This chapter explores how Mary Kingsley believed the British merchants and traders in West Africa were better placed than missionaries or colonial officials to understand West African beliefs, laws and social practices; she supported the liquor trade. It looks at her two major books, Travels in West Africa and West African Studies, analyzing Kingsley’s literary style and the challenges her observations and arguments posed to the British colonial authorities and the Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. In this chapter we see the emergence of Kingsley as a political campaigner for the rights of Africans, as she campaigns against the Hut Tax that was imposed on the people of Sierra Leone in 1898. The South African War offered her an excuse to leave England and return to the Africa she loved.

Saving and Indebtedness among Cameroons Plantation Workers

Africa ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Warmington
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
West African ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Main Field ◽  
The West ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Economic Studies

Opening ParagraphFrom 1953 to mid-1955 a team from the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research was investigating various problems caused by the employment of a large labour force in the plantations of the Southern Cameroons. The whole survey, which it is hoped soon to publish, covered a fairly wide field of social and economic studies. The purpose of this paper is to examine only one small aspect, somewhat outside the main field of the investigations.

Patterns of Authority in West Africa

Africa ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Brown
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Political System ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Size And Structure

Opening ParagraphThe development of large centralized states in West Africa has long been recognized. The complexity of organization of the few well-known kingdoms, but not their differences in size and structure, is constantly emphasized in the literature. The number and variety of West African groups which have not developed states have, on the other hand, frequently been underestimated. In a comparative review by Professors Fortes and Evans-Pritchard two types of political system, centralized and segmentary, have been described for Africa as a whole, with examples of each in West Africa. A survey of West African societies suggests, however, that finer distinctions are possible and that not all these societies can be placed in one or other of these two categories. In particular, this classification omits consideration of ‘stateless’ societies in which associations, rather than a segmentary lineage system, regulate political relations; and it fails to distinguish different types of authority and political structure in states.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document