Midterm 2 Flashcards
Examples societies without states
Tiv
Yako
Nandi
An introduction to politics and law
- contemporary political crises due to adoption of foreign political systems and neglect of traditional African institutions
- onwuejeogwu explores traditional political systems that do not conform to the state model of political and legal organization
- ideally, knowledge of traditional systems can inform contemporary systems
Tiv: The lineage principle
- southern bantoid speaking horticulturalist a from the middle venue valley in northern Nigeria (roughly 2.5% nigerias population)
- social organization based on unilinear descent groups - patrilineal and agnatic
- minimal lineages have a depth of 3 to 4 generations and are the focal groups of daily life
Tar
- the land holding or territory of the Tiv agnatic ancestor of each minimal segment
- minimal segment associated with a Tar is the largest politically important unit
- through tar individuals gain right of citizenship
- the Tara both compete with and cooperate with each other
Ya
Tiv: minimal segment is divided into further compounds called ya
Tiv Tar
Ideally the tar of a minimal segment adjoins those of sibling segments and the segments merge upwards until all of the Tiv lands forms one indivisible territory
The political system includes four important cosmological factors:
- Akombo
- Tsav
- Swem and
- Tor
Akombo
Forces that interfere with the natural functioning of things and that can only be manipulated by individuals who have Tsav
Tsav
A force (witchcraft substance) which grows in the individual’s heart and gives him or her mystical power (can consume the souls of others as thereby increase his or her own power)
Mbatsav
(tiv) men with Tsav have their own society
- attempt to ritually transform deaths in the group into prosperity, health, and fertility
- positive results could either imply good work, or potential actions of self interest
Swem
- uses for taking oaths and making treaties (breaking oaths condemns and individual to death unless he/ she confesses)
Tor
- a dose of poison used to determine guilt (the guilty die while the innocent vomit it out)
Tsav and Akombo vs Swem and Tor
- Tsav an Akombo are ritual forces that define the locus of authority in the Tiv political system
- Swem and Tor are forces that provide checks and balances for the authority
Summary of Tiv political system
- political system is based on patrilineages that are defined genealogically and territorially
- rather than hierarchical control based on force (power, authority) the lineage system of authority is checked by mystical forces and ritual sanctions
Classic types of political systems & examples of each (Fortes and Evans Pritchard)
- Band level societies (Bushmen, Hottentots, Congo pygmies)
- Lineage system (Tiv, Tallensi, Nuer)
- Centralized authority based in fhiefship of kingship (Akan states, Hausa, Benin, Lozi, and Bantu)
What group did Forbe describe that didn’t fit the typology of Fortes and Evans Pritchard classic types of political systems?
Yako
Yako
- eastern Nigeria
- traditionally stateless, horticultural society
- speak Luko, a Benue- Congo langauge
- occupy Yakkur, a local government area with cross river state
- Bilineal (land inherited patrilineal, moveable property inherited matrilineal)
- population ~ 215 000 Yako
Yako political system
- doesn’t rely on lineages or centralized authority, but rather on membership of inter and intrawoven associations
- villages divided into wards each associated with political unit called a Yakemben, which had a head called Ognalia, and many other positions
- includes several associations that are independent of the ward groups
- these associations are made up of different cross sections of society for which they provide some form of political representation
Ebiabu
- yako association of hunters and fighters
- head of ward group has authority all other men’s associations according to ward group design without elimination association autonomy
- head of ward group recruits the middle grade of the Ebiabu to deal with offenders within the ward
Nkpe
(yako) a group that provides supernatural protection to its members
- protection against theft, deduction, and abuse of power by the men of the wars or by the village cult group
- leaders of wars look on Nkpe with suspicion
Okenga
- village leopard cult group (leaders of wards, deputies of Obalia, some members of men of the ward)
- membership conveys prestige
- leadership circulates betweeen men of one of oldest patricians
- failure to follow the cults directives lead to misfortune of offender and kin
- ward heads and other leaders use sanctions by cult spirit to settle disputes between ward, individuals, and groups
Yabot
(yako) council of village priests - the apex of governmental machinery with a yako village
- council speaker responsible for village drum and emblems of the village that symbolize unity and continuity
- ritual authority of village - jury for ritual offences and major disputes, controls external affairs
- disobeying cult orders can lead to excommunication, and cult judgements may entail punitive action by other associations
Okundom
(Yako) protects its members from theft
Ikpungkara
(Yako): made up of 40 people (including priests) from different parts of the village
- members concerned with land disputes
- backed up by priests council
Summary of Yako political organization
- government is based on cross- cutting cult spirit associations
- ritual authority is strengthened by physical coercion of
Recalcitrants - no centralized authority in ward or village
- government is achieved through overlapping of membership of various associations
Nandi
- pastoral agricultural people from western Kenya
- speak Kalenjin language
- inhabit Nandi hills and Kericho in the Rift Valley province
- number about 950000
Nandi geography territories
- 6 geographic territories (enmet), 16 porosiek, each further sub- divided into korets (smallest territorial unit)
- each Korea sub- divides into 20-100 scattered homesteads
- porosiek and Koret are territorial and political units - made up of members of different clans
Kokwet
(Nandi); coincides with Koret
- a council of
Old men past warrior age set
Porosiek
(Nandi); coincides with Pororiet
- a council made up of leaders from the korets, two senior military commanders, and two representatives of the Orkoiyot
Orkoiyot
(Nandi) a ritual official, he has 2 representatives in every pororiet - his office acts as a balance to the power of the military council in the pororiet
Military council (Nandi)
- consist of warrior age sets with control over the armies of the pororiet
Age grade system Nandi
- every male belongs to an age grade called Ipinda (7 of these)
- first two grades include small boys and initiates
- next grade warriors
- final four grades include old men
- system is cyclical
- each age- grade is cross- cut into 4 groups - this forms ties across generations
Summary d Nandi political organization
- based on an age grade organization which is cyclic and transcends lineage or clan
- territorial units coincide with political units, each dealing with specific matters
- age grade cuts across the territorial and political units
- political organization is centralized in the various councils but their power is checked by office of the Orkoiyot
3 ethno- geographical zones in west Africa
- coastal forest region: tan belt, not conductive to centralized states- poor communication
- deciduous forest regions - more centralized states than in coastal forest region
- sudan - savana scrubland zone - largest number of states
Persistence of segmentary unilinear stateless societies
- dispersal of population and segmentation of lineages inhibits internally the emergence of an overall leader and encourages resistance against imposition of an external authority
- there are cases where state system gets superimposed on a lineage system
Tiv
- politically acephalous, horticultural society in the middle venue valley of northern Nigeria
- Largest pagan tribe in northern Nigeria
- successful at gaining and retaining territory through collective effort and yet lack centralized political authority
Bohannan’s view of the Tiv
- counterintuitively, territorial expansion occurs most frequently in areas where there is no land shortage, or land shortage is a relatively minor problem
- the paradox can be explained by dividing the movement of the Tiv into two processes: expansion and disjunction
Expansion
- movement that increases the lineages territorial holding
Disjunction
- movement that separates groups in space and affects the juxtaposition of lineage territories
Tiv lineage system:
- a genealogical charter for the internal differentiation and external arrangements of lineage segments
- not possible to functionally classify lineages in terms genealogical depth
- segment 3-6 generations in depth and associated with smallest discrete territory is a minimal segment
Nawngo
- Tiv word for lineage
Ipaven
Tiv word for segment
- a lineage associated with a territory
Ipaven ken: you
- smaller lineages are “segments within the hut”
Tiv land rights
- 83% men live in territory of minimal segment which they belong
- individuals get rights to land held by other minimal segments, but only have right to sufficient land within territory of their own minimal segment
- compound heads grant land rights to their compound members - no centralized authority when it comes to granting land rights within minimal territory
Expansion of minimal segment
- every minimal segment is expanding
- expansion occurs towards land help by people from outside the segment from which individuals can draw the most social support
Expansion in minimal territory and larger lineage territeoy
- Segments within the hut move away from each other and thereby expand the minimal territory
- same process happens at scale of larger lineage territory
- every lineage knows where it is going as well as where it has been
- the system puts pressure on non- related peoples (Marshall salons said it’s predatory)
Fusion
- members of different smaller segments move together to settle new territory
Fission:
Segments split into two and territory is divided but not depressed
Expansion
Fission or fusion
- does not alter juxtaposition of lineages or the disjunction of sibling lineages
Disjunction
- a type of movement that does alter the juxtaposition of lineages and the disjunction of sibling lineages
- can occur as a movement of individuals and movement of groups
- individuals: ex compound head dies and compile splits - to avoid social unrest and conflict, individuals move away
- movement of groups involved a “man out in front” : a person who founds a new compound/ settlement in another area
- new settlements grow as other individuals emigrate in from territories where there are land shortages
- overtime, new communities are assimilated into larger social/ spatial pattern
Conclusions: Tiv
- expansion migration function of lineage and territorial systems
- disjunction is it a function of lineage and territorial systems
- rates disjunction and/ or expansion due to extraneous factors (cash crops = no land, land shortages people leave minimal territory)
- disjunction occurs more frequently within southern areas where there is high population density and land shortages
- in northern and eastern areas expansion is occurring at an increased rate even though there is less economic pressure (no land shortage) –> areas expanding for all Tivland, procinfinf locales for emigrants from other areas
Dirty smith:
- smell as a strategy of social discrimination, through the cultural definition of dirt and cleanliness
- complex social relations are expressed through definitions of odours
- social differences between smiths and non- smiths among Kaspiki/ Higi
Kapsiki/ Higi background
- live on western edge of Mandara mountains
- on the Cameron side they are kapsiki while on the Nigeria side they are Higi
- cereal farmers
Rerhe
- smiths
- views by non- smiths with ambivalence (dirty yet important)
- smiths have specific institutions and relations, and serve a variety of roles (particularly important in ritual belief and practice)
Being dirty
- Non- smiths definition of smiths as dirty stems from food habits
- smiths are dirty or polluted because they eat foods that are forbidden to non- smiths
- the food taboos of non- smiths extend to food prepared by smiths, dishes used by smiths, and to marriage
Why are smiths dirty?
- biased question
- rerhe have a different version of things, yet pollution, dirt and social hierarchy are also part of the rerhe world view
- how social hierarchy and pollution appear in smith view
- his method is to record how different groups within k/ h society perceive and conceive odour
Smelling in Kapsiki
- 14 lexemes referring to smell
- smells tend to be defined according to the criteria of edibility
- some differences in appreciation and connotation of smell can be found between melu and rerhe, often associated with a food taboo
- women’s definitions for smell are intermediate to that of men
- non- smiths cosider smiths to be malodorous because smiths are undertakers
- Ndaleke, the smell of the corpseC to non- smith; smell of
Rotting meat to both - corpse epitome of ambivalence and smith undertaker also symbolizes ambivalence
History of Nandi
- “pacified” by British in October, 1905 after 8 year period of resistance
- Oct. 19th Orkoiyot shot dead bu military of East African protectorate st peace negotiation: death many Nandi warriors
- next 30 years, British set up administrative headquarters, Christian missionaries set up shop, government school, European settlers colonize, Nandi lose land