Abstract
Sex determines most of what happens in the rest of the social life of the Orring, a minority ethnolinguistic group in Nigeria’s Southeastern districts. Like in most so-called simple societies, rules on sexual conduct also govern such relational principles as marriage, descent and kinship. But here they go a little further than this because propriety or otherwise of sexual conduct is not limited to the acts of sexual partners. It affects also the status of children of such partners or those that may be socially connected with them at other levels. For example, a category of children that are called gbụati [sing. waati] ẹ lakpe (evil children), are in their category because they are held to be those who earn their condition as a result of unconfessed infraction of sexual rules by, usually, their parents. Gbụati ẹ lakpe include those of breach birth, those that cut their upper incisors first or those with such rare physiological condition as six instead of five fingers. The Orring society is patrilineal and patrilocal which facts seem to help in explaining why rules of sexual conduct place a heavier burden on women than on men. This paper results from a participant observation of the Orring from 1998 to 2003. It is suggested in this paper that any policy on population that ignores local custom at the present stage of development in Africa may not deliver their expected impact. What is needed is a cross-disciplinary co-operation that will enable ethnologists, demographers, medical scientists, bureaucrats and so on to work together for effective results. Key words: Sexual conduct, sexual offences, sexual behaviour, Nigeria.
Highlights
The participant-as-observer variant method was used since the author has gained a working knowledge of Korring, the Benue-Congo language that this group spoke, as well as establish a network of informants and other social contacts
Sanction, the definition of Banard and Spencer (1998: 620) is adopted, “A reward for socially correct behaviour or, more commonly, a punishment for socially incorrect behaviour." In this work, the latter is focused upon, except when such a reward produces an effect on another party that fits the conditions which this paper reports. An example of this is when a co-wife loses an entitlement to her rival as a punishment for unapproved sexual conduct
There are broadly two sexual offences: The one against Lose, the Earth force that is the central divinity of the Orring
Summary
Like in most so-called simple societies, rules on sexual conduct govern such relational principles as marriage, descent and kinship. Here they go a little further than this because propriety or otherwise of sexual conduct is not limited to the acts of sexual partners. It affects the status of children of such partners or those that may be socially connected with them at other levels. Waati] ẹ lakpe (evil children), are in their category because they are held to be those who earn their condition as a result of unconfessed infraction of sexual rules by, usually, their parents.
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