Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
among the Umueleke people, however, who occupy the neighboring village and are of the same clan
with people from Umunakanu, the python was not a taboo and was hunted for food. Children of
Umunakanu women who married elsewhere were not required to observe the taboo, and the python
did not behave so nicely toward them. Similar examples of such restricted taboos to members of the
same ancestry abound all over Africa.
An example of the functional use of taboo is provided by the examination of the underlying rea-
son for the prohibitions imposed on the fishing and eating of fish from certain rivers. Some water-
courses, such as rivers, lakes, and streams, are used as shrines, and sacred groves of certain deities
are housed by their banks. It is usual for taboo prohibitions to be placed on the use of such water
or to fish from it. The same river or lake may not be an object of such restrictions a few kilometers
away from the “totemic” clan. What is more, members of the clan are only required to move to the
unprohibited area of the watercourse to use the water and its contents in any manner they may deem
fit. This therefore suggests that there may be some underlying societal reason for the taboo in the
first place.
Among the people of the Umuezeala-Umukabia clan (also in Ehime-Mbano), there is a taboo
regarding the killing or eating of fish from an all-season stream, Okwara Dibia. This prohibi-
tion has been observed religiously throughout living memory. Some members of the community
are believed to have been reincarnated from its very clear and sparkling spring water; moreover,
Okwara Dibia is revered as a benevolent and powerful deity, and the fish are believed to be some
of his children waiting for reincarnation into human form. He even owns a goat or two, which are
allowed to roam freely in the entire village. It is interesting to observe that the same watercourse
passes through a forest in the same village, and there is no prohibition on the use of water from the
lower part of the brook. When one considers the fact that the prohibited spot (just less than 20 feet
wide and about 10 feet long) is the only source of potable water for the entire community, then the
taboo becomes a functional need, regardless of any religious or mystical significance it may hold.
Simple logic demands that this water had to be protected from pollution by dead fish.
There are, of course, many taboos and totems associated with membership of animal societies.
In various parts of Africa, there are people who belong to fraternities that adopt a particular ani-
mal as the symbol of their deity or believe that they possess the powers to assume the form of their
patron animal at will. The common animal societies are those of the snake (python), leopard, tiger,
and antelope. Devotees are believed to derive enormous benefits from the wild animals belonging
to their society, and they are therefore not expected to eat the meat of such animals. Each society
imposes restrictions on its members to instill fear in them and maintain discipline within their ranks.
Finally, this section concludes by reiterating the salient features of the sociological framework,
beliefs, and values that inform the practice of traditional medicine in Africa:
1. One great god exists as an integral member of society, in contradistinction to the Western and
Christian idea of God, staying aloof in heaven in the community of good spirits, looking down on
the evil ones in hell, yet seeking to govern a mixture of sinners and the righteous on Earth.
2. There is belief in the perpetual existence of life, a cyclic continuum, in which there is a cycle of preg-
nancy, life, death, and a period of waiting in a universal pool of spiritual existence with a subsequent
state of reincarnation, by which it is possible to change one's lot for better or for worse. The Bantu
word for man, Muntu, includes the living and the dead, ancestors, spirits, the personal god Chi, and
the gods.
3. There is belief in the idea that a human is created free from sin and remains so until the human
becomes involved in some polluting circumstances in life, as opposed to the Jewish and Christian
idea that a human is born with original sin, which is said to have been inherited from his or her
ancestors, Adam and Eve.
4. Marriage is important as a criterion of social status and the ability to produce a child is a necessary
factor for the continuance of marriage; there is pervasiveness and stress on ceremony and ritual in
many aspects of social life and the influence of myths, taboos, and totemism in thought and action.
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