The Study of Native Court Records as a Method of Ethnological Inquiry

Abstract

Opening ParagraphWherever native courts have been established and maintain W records of their proceedings, there is available a mass of material concerning native law and custom which, properly regarded, may be of great value to the ethnographer as well as to the administrator. In Tanganyika Territory, from one portion of which the material for the present paper is derived, the making of elaborate records of evidence and judgements is deprecated at the present stage of development, as likely to interfere with the smooth working of the courts. A minimum is required of the names of parties, a brief statement of the subject-matter, and a short judgement signed by the holder of the court, be he chief, headman, or chairman of a council. Under such circumstances, a study of records will show, at the least, the types of social maladjustment which bring people to court, with the relative frequency of different kinds of case: the manner in which different types of case are viewed by the court, whether as offences against society or as affecting only families or individuals: and probably some general indication of the tone of the society. From this type of record there will be an upward range to the most valuable of all for the student, those containing a precis of evidence and a full reasoned judgement.