Ritual Resolution in Meta' Legal Process

Abstract

Specialists in conflict resolution by ritual means, such as the much discussed Nuer Leopard-Skin Chief, have long been familiar in the anthropological literature (Evans-Pritchard I940, I956; Howell I954), and a number of studies have shown how disputes may be resolved by linking social conflict and supernatural danger (Fortes I940, I945; Harper I957; Huber I959; Llewellyn and Hoebel I94I; Schneider I957; Winans and Edgerton I964). However, relatively little progress has been made in understanding ritual conflict resolution as a legal phenomenon. Specialists in the anthropology of law have rarely integrated it into their discussions of the variability of human legal systems (Nader I969; Nader and Yngvesson I973; Pospisil 197I). Moreover, those scholars now writing on ritual conflict resolution generally stress the symbolism and ritual involved while de-emphasizing conflict resolution itself (Douglas I966; Lienhardt I96I; Turner 1968, I969). As a result the debate continues as to how ritual conflict resolution really worked in classic examples such as the settlement of homicide cases by the Leopard-Skin Chief (Beidelman I971; Greuel I97I; Haight I972), and many important questions regarding the role of ritual resolution procedures in human legal systems remain unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to define those factors that are essential to the operation of ritual conflict resolution as a legal process. Data from Meta' society in the United Republic of Cameroon will be used to illustrate three distinct kinds of cases in which this approach to legal problem solving was employed in pre-colonial times.' The focus is on the immediate pre-colonial period (ca. 900o), as it was at this time that the Meta' relied on ritual resolution most extensively.2 As will be seen, the relationships of the disputants and the issues at stake may have varied from case to case, but common factors underlay the working of ritual conflict resolution in every instance. Specifically, ritual resolution is shown to have operated as a process of psycho-social intimidation.