Indigenous Customs Research Articles

The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and Performance by Richard Schechner

Reviews387 Richard Schechner. The Future ofRitual: Writings on Culture and Performance . London: Routledge, 1993. Pp. ? + 283. $25.00. Richard Schechner begins The Future ofRitual by casually relating his commission of the most serious of scholarly offenses: engineering a false "conversion" to Hinduism (including accepting a new name and a certificate testifying to his new religious "commitment")—an action explained as follows: "were I not denied entry into temples because temples are reserved for Hindus, I would not have chosen this path" (p. 4). This act of deliberate deception implies that for him other people's rituals are merely performances by actors pretending a role for the nonce. That integrity, belief, or commitment figure little in his understanding of others' ways is sadly confirmed by such ambivalence as he displays over the matter of deceiving Indians. Oblivious to the effect of his insincerity on his guests, he is concerned only that he might somehow compromise his own religion by claiming for a brieftime "with my fingers crossed" (p. 4) to be a Hindu. An experienced specialist observer of both theater and ersatz performance, Schechner supplies us with many very interesting insights. What value these might have is dissipated by die controlling image of the book—that of a superficial voyeur who shows up with notebook and recording devices in order to "get" the most obvious features of other people's most sacred or most dramatic moments so that they can be relayed back home. As in network television, the focus is not on the ostensible subjects with all their histories and complexities, but on the commentator, who highlights his own cleverness through reinterpreting (within the severe limits of understanding he has brought with him) what little his brief time has permitted him to record. The parallel to the reporter-commentator turning the story into his saga ofbeing there is sharply etched in the way in which Schechner describes the street-as-the-stage performance in the fall ofthe Berlin wall and in the Tiananmen Square tragedy in China. At the time ofthe latter, he was actually in Shanghai (not Beijing) as a visiting artist. He notes with pride that he co-directed "the last play with 'democratic political content' performed in China before the crackdown" (p. 62), which suggests fraternal participation in China's struggle for freedom. (The book is peppered with flashbacks ofhis participation in demonstrations in the U.S., thus enhancing the image of himself as an activist.) But then, when government force seemed certain, "people hunkered down. Rice hoarding began; I changed my residence from the Shanghai Theatre Academy to a hotel to be out of the way of the army should it decide to move against the Academy, a focus of radicalism" (p. 62). There should be no blame for anyone getting out of harm's way, but it is shameless thereafter to capitalize on implied identification witii a tragedy that occurred five hundred miles away. How much inherent acuity and even goodness are lost through Schechner's inability to remove himselffrom the center ofhis own view 388Comparative Drama is epitomized in his discussion of the Yaqui Waehma (Lenten) ritual. Intuitively sensing the ambiguities ofthe syncretism between European Catholicism and indigenous customs and beliefs, Schechner helpfully recounts how the "Yaquis responded to the Jesuits' impositions by interiorizing pre-Spanish spaces" (p. 98), the key to which is a three-part spatial division with a center which moves with the participant. He realizes that space is indeed the key dimension of Yaqui interpretation: The quintessential Yaqui task is to keep open a road between the everyday world and the huya aniya, the modern and the originary, the Catholic and the Yaqui, the "civilized" and the idyllic wild. . . . While this drama is part of the overall Waehma scheme, it also exists in itself as a paradigm of the Yaqui situation, (p. Ill) Schechner's discussion of Javanese wayang is similarly enlightening. Reducing the scholars' dispute concerning the nature of the authentic wayang to a commonsense look at history, he notes that Java was subject to waves of invasion and consequent cultural mixture and that "the normative wayang so beloved today by connoisseurs both Javanese and Western ... is a rather...

The impact of colonial administrative policies on indigenous social customs in Tahiti and New Caledonia

Tahiti1 in 1842, and New Caledonia in 1853. Following a period of joint admin istration,2 the two colonies continue to be run by administrative personnel answering to the same higher authority, some of whom serve successively in both Territories.3 Yet this Administration rules over two very different indigen ous societies. The first Europeans are quick to notice these differences and to exaggerate them greatly.4 Furthermore, between the two Territories, the colonial objectives are somewhat different, and the potential for colonisation unequal. The establish ment of the protectorate in Tahiti in 1842 stems from the personal initiative of Rear-Admiral Dupetit-Thouars, whose only commission from the French gov ernment was to take possession of the Marquesas Islands,5 with the intention of providing a refitting station for the whaling fleet and a logistics support base for the navy in the Pacific. So, there is no colonial policy at the time of the estab

Origins of the AmaWasha: the Zulu Washermen's Guild in Natal, 1850–1910

Research into the perspectives of both worker and consumer has shown the social history of Zulu washermen to be far more complex than was previously thought. Viewed from the standpoint of Zulu men, washing clothes was not a humiliating female task into which they had been coerced by adverse circumstances. Laundering recalled the specialist craft of hide-dressing in which Zulu males engaged as izinyanga, a prestige occupation that paid handsomely. These astute tradesmen, a number of whom may have come from artisanal families, recognized they could play a crucial role in the European household economy. ‘Craft conscious’, building on indigenous institutions and customs, they combined not merely to secure their position and bar entry into ‘the trade’, but also to impose standards of wages and regulate the labour given by the younger men. In this manner they became one, if not indeed the most, powerful group of African workmen in nineteenth-century Natal.The social history of the AmaWasha guild compels a re-evaluation of notions regarding openness to change in traditional societies; indeed, it underscores their capacity for innovation. Moreover, it has a fundamental bearing on the structural nature and patterns of resistance of early black working populations in South Africa. This study indicates that there were intimate historical links between precolonial artisanal associations and subsequent worker organizations, activities and consciousness.

Christians, Colonists, and Conversion: a View from the Nilotic Sudan

The majority opinion of those who have contributed to the literature on conversion in sub-Saharan Africa suggests that Islam has been more ‘successful’ than Christianity in attracting the faithful. The standard inventory of explanations for this state of affairs include the following: first, it has been commonly noted, Islam has proved to be more compatible than Christianity with indigenous customs, cosmology, and morality. A second point that has been argued with some consistency (though evidencing not a small measure of ethno-centric bias) is that ‘it is easier for the African to govern himself by the few rules set forth by Mohammedanism…than…by the all-embracing stringent laws of Christianity’. A third, more encompassing stance, implies that conversion to Islam can be accounted for sociologically, ‘while the acceptance of Christianity involves the recognition of divine truth’, in which case a similar line of analysis is uncalled for. Thus, according to William Arens, a thorough review of the voluminous literature indicates that there is an ‘ideological flavour’ in much of what is accepted as objective and authoritative material on this topic, and that a more balanced understanding of the facts could be realised if greater attention was given to the study of the social context of evangelical Christianity in Black Africa.

Rust never sleeps : M. Inglis Petrol. Rev. June 1980, 34(402), 29–33

The city of Ibadan in Oyo State, Nigeria is one of the few large precolonial cities in Africa. Founded in the early 1820s and with a population today of about a million, it is a unique city. The emergence of British colonial administration in 1893 encouraged the development and coexistence of two physically and culturally distinct ‘cities’. One, a core inner city focused on indigenous customs and popular traditions and the other shaped by modernizing influences, drawn largely from the West. The evolution of the city's planning and policy features reflects this divergent development. Most residential districts, particularly in the core inner indigenous city, are in a state of decay and slum formation. The formulation and implementation of an urban master-plan to guide the city's development to the year 2000 has been largely elusive owing to the general apathy expressed towards planning efforts by sections of the city community and the conflict between citizens and numerous agencies engaged in the city's management.

Cultural Change and Literary Expression in Mozambique

The problem of cultural change in the People’s Republic of Mozambique can be reduced to the question: how can certain indigenous traditions, values, customs, and art forms be combined with other domestic or imported values and modes of cultural expression and brought into line with new social structures?

Problems of child health in a Peruvian shanty town.

The basic child-health problems in the shanty towns of Lima are protein-calorie malnutrition and infectious disease. The background of social, economic and cultural conditionsa are related to these main health problems. The basic problems are poverty, lack of sewage disposal and running water, and the maldistribution of public expenditure between city and countryside on one hand and curative and preventive medicine on the other. Despite official statistics, which show a steadily decreasing infant mortality rate in Peru, and all other Latin American countries, it seems that the Infant Mortality Rate is almost twice the official states rate. Health education, particularly in nutritional matters, is not adapted to indigenous foods and customs, but attempts to promote westernized conceptrs. Medical care in Peru is by large directed to the needs of the middle class, and the middle class by and large dictates the type of medical care available.

The Judicial Agreements in Yorubaland 1904–1908

The role of law in British expansion in Africa has received insufficient attention from historians, yet there is nothing new in the use of law as an instrument of imperial or colonial expansion. Law occupied an important position in the organization of the Roman Empire. The Norman kings strengthened their hold on medieval England by centralizing the administration of justice through the establishment of royal courts whose varied jurisdictions eventually became predominant throughout the whole country.This paper discusses the circumstances in which English law was introduced into Yorubaland early in this century largely through a series of judicial agreements signed with a number of indigenous rulers. The primary consideration behind the making of the agreements was the protection of British commercial interests, but the importance of the agreements really transcends this objective. They provided a firm basis for the establishment of British colonial rule in this part of Nigeria—by making provisions for the punishment of criminal offences, by introducing a machinery of justice which struck at the sovereignty of the Yoruba states, and by ensuring the supremacy of English law over the indigenous laws and customs. The agreements also marked the beginning of the introduction into Yorubaland of new legal ideas and principles, which were a potent factor of social change.

Child Health in the Tropics

In most underdeveloped countries a variety of medical assistants and nursing aides assist the relatively few qualified doctors in the treatment and prevention of sickness. The greatest proportion of morbidity is among the infants and young children. Resources of staff and equipment and “know how” are needed for all the varying types of medical skill available from the fully qualified doctor to the nursing aide. In this book the child is followed from birth, and its development is described with special reference to the indigenous customs and cultural background. The prevention and treatment of the various infections so common in the undeveloped countries are well described. The major part of the book is devoted to feeding and the results of errors in feeding. A section is devoted to parasites. The whole book stresses the importance of social and cultural background, and of working with these forces and not against them.

India Under the Impact of Western Political Ideas and Institutions

HEREAS, IN EARLIER TIMES, the East was the fertile womb of great religions, spawning them across the face of the world, in these times Western political ingenuity is reciprocating in an awesome compliment by transmitting to the politically infertile East viable political ideas and institutions. The phenomenon of liberated, underprivileged peoples seizing upon the political institutions and ideals of their former Western masters has become commonplace-so common that the significance of it needs analysis. A commentary par excellence on this political impact of West on East is the fact that all former colonial countries have embraced the outward forms of Western representative institutions. The departing captains and kings may or may not have left a legacy of enmity behind, but they have always left an admiration for their political talent. This largess to the Asian and African by the West is the great impact of these times. Hardly without exception, these freed people are creating constituent assemblies, writing constitutions, electing representative parliaments, making laws, organizing political parties, debating the merits of federal vs. unitary systems, separation of powers, ministerial responsibility, universal suffrage, human rights, independent judiciaries, economic planning and foreign policy.1 As often as not these political amateurs encounter a diversity of difficulties grafting imported political institutions onto indigenous customs and traditions and making them work. The absence too often of a strong sense of national unity, the paucity of democratic experiences, the weakness of political parties, and the impotence of other voluntary political groups plague them. The insidious interplay in a world of bipolar powers competing for allies and subverting new regimes before they are firmly set on their courses all contribute to the political instability so much in evidence today. Were it not that the prolonged struggles for freedom from alien Western rule have proven fruitful in breeding familiar Western instruments of revolutionary action there would be even more disorder.2

Native Custom, its Similarity to English Conventional Custom and its Mode of Proof

The rules respecting custom in Ghana (the Gold Coast) are found in the law reports, the statements of chiefs and elders, the works of textbook writers, both lawyers and anthropologists, and in the unreported decisions of the courts. It is important, however, to distinguish between the rules which have the force of law and those which have not. Here it is proposed to outline the mode of proof required before custom can be recognised as law, bearing in mind that an English judicial system has been imposed upon Ghana, working through a system of case law with its attendant precedents. It is further hoped to point the way to a possible method of ensuring the preservation of the indigenous customs, which is believed to be desirable in order to ensure their natural development.

Federation for Nigeria

L. Gray Cowan* October first of this year, Nigeria quietly celebrated the inauguration of the latest step in its constitutional development the formation of the Federation of Nigeria. Following along the path taken by the neighbouring territory of the Gold Coast, the Nigerian constitution has been in a state of almost constant change since the end of World War II. Each successive stage has placed a greater degree of control in the hands of the Nigerian people and has widened the basis of popular representation. With a population of over thirty million Nigeria covers 372,674 square miles of African bush and plain. The task of introducing democratic government into this territory is a formidable one, since the vast majority of the electorate is still illiterate and is accustomed to depending upon traditional tribal leaders for guidance. Even more complex, however, has been the concomitant problem of making three essentially separate countries into one. The people of the three regions into which the country is clearly divided differ in temperament, language and indigenous social customs. British administration was able to amalgamate these divergent groups under central control only in 1914. The Northern Region, predominantly Muslim in religion, has a long and proud history of rule by the Fulani Emirs who set up an empire in the wake of an invader from the Sahara, Usuman dan Fodio, early in the nineteenth century. Despotic and often cruel, they nevertheless pacified the country and established a system of local government whose structure the British left largely undisturbed when they assumed control over fifty years later. Basing his administration on the theory of indirect rule, Lord Lugard, the most famous of the early governors of Nigeria, required his resident officers to deal with the people through the local rulers exclusively; to this day the district officer, in theory (and very largely in practice) acts only through the intermediary of the Emir's representative. In the Western Region the traditional rulers were the Yoruba Obas, while in the East local rule revolved around the extended family system in village units of relatively much smaller area than the Northern Emirates or the Yoruba kingdoms.