Indigenous Social Organization Research Articles

Role of Indigenous Social Organizations in Enhancing Food Security: A Case Study of Some Selected States in Niger Delta Region, Nigeria

The study examined role of indigenous social organizations in enhancing food security in selected states of in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It examined the farmers’ characteristics, years of experience and roles carried out by indigenous social organizations, ascertained perceived benefits of participating farmers, and; identified the factors that limit farmers from effectively participating in these organizations. Primary data used were obtained through the use of reliable and validated question instrument. The respondents numbering 224 were selected through multi- stage sampling technique. The generated data were analyzed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that most (58.48%) of the farmers were also civil servants and they (73.66%) were into part-time farming. Participants of indigenous social organizations (ISO) average farm size, farm experience, and farm income were 3.01 ha., 11.4 years and N280,750.00 respectively. The regular activities carried out by the respondents were savings and loans, provision of credits to members, crop farming, supply of farm inputs and processing of farm products (they had means ? 2.00). Perceived benefits achieved from participating in their groups include improvement of farm output, farm income, standard of living and farming skills. The difference in mean farm income between participants and non – participants was N116,964.29 (significant at the 5% level) and it was in favour of group participants. In addition, Logistic regression showed that farm size (b = 1.758), farming status (b = 0.839), farming experience (b = 0.259) and participation index (b = 0.243) were significant to respondents farm income. Based on findings the study recommends the need for the indigenous group leaders to seek and incorporate members’ views in times of designing activities for the group. Also, leaders of the groups should ensure that benefits accruing to the groups are equitably distribute

Undiagnosed Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B and C Virus Infections in the Community of Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

BackgroundDespite Ethiopia’s hepatitis endemic status with intermediate to hyperendemic level, there is no national strategy for monitoring, preventing, and controlling viral hepatitis. In order to advise community-based intervention programs, studies on the magnitude, determinant factors, and understanding of indigenous social organization are important. Thus, this study examined undiagnosed seroprevalence and associated factors for HBV and HCV infections among community members in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on 320 individuals from randomly selected two woredas in the Wolaita Zone to determine the magnitude of HBV and HCV. Multistage sampling was used to select participants. Relevant clinical and sociodemographic data were collected using a structured questionnaire. One test strip technique was used for the screening of hepatitis B surface antigen and for antibodies against HCV. Both tests were confirmed by ELISA methods. The associated factors were assessed using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.ResultsThe seroprevalence for HBV infection was 6.6% (95% CI: 4.22%, 8.69%) using a one-step HBsAg test strip and 5.6% (95% CI: 3.47%, 8.58%) using confirmatory test (ELISA). The two tests had a very good agreement (K = 0.918; SE = 0.047; P < 0.001). The overall seroprevalence for HCV infection was 1.9% (95% CI: 0.9%, 3.0%). All four of the one-step HCV test strip positives were also positive by ELISA. One (0.3%) of the participants was co-infected with HBV and HCV. Hospital admission (AOR = 0.22; 95% CI = 0.5–0.95) and needle stick (AOR = 0.15; 95% CI = 0.07–0.72) were independently associated with HBV infections.ConclusionAccording to the current study, in Wolaita community, there is endemic to HBV at a higher-intermediate level and to HCV at a low level. It would be imperative to increase awareness of transmission modes and prevention of infection, as well as vaccination, in order to reduce the burden of both HBV and HCV.

“We Have to Learn from Both Sciences”: Dilemmas and Tension Concerning Higher Education of Wichí Youth in the Province of Salta (Argentina)

This article analyzes the tension generated by the admission of Wichí youths to higher education in the province of Salta (Argentina). The main goal is to show how access to higher education generates continuities and discontinuities in the indigenous social organization. The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork that examined how young Wichí undergraduate students made sense of their schooling experiences.

Indigenous Tewa language regimes across time: Persistence and transformation

AbstractThis article attempts to trace and understand the historical development and transformation of the regimes of language Indigenous to the Village of Tewa (northeastern Arizona). It examines the social institutions and cultural practices that first cultivated a particular set of language ideologies and linguistic practices in the precolonial period. It also tracks more recent transformations involving contemporary Tewa adaptations to inclusion in the federally recognized Hopi Tribe and to the hegemony of the larger nation-state. Critical to my argument is the role of theocratic institutions and Indigenous social organization (e.g., clans and moieties) in providing a foundation for ideological production and elaboration. This account provides a better analysis of Tewa linguistic resistance to Spanish colonization than that of Edward Dozier, who attributed language contact outcomes to the historical circumstances of Spanish colonial oppression rather than to the expression of Indigenous language ideologies, including their regimes of temporalization and the crossing of temporal borders in subjective history.

Plains Apache Tipis: Residential and Ceremonial Lodges

For many Americans, tipis symbolize the nomadic Native American culture and lifestyle. This understanding has been so extensively advanced by paintings, advertising, films, and television that tipis have come to be associated with Native American groups in almost all geographical regions. Tipis were, however, an integral part of residential and ceremonial life in the Great Plains where both construction and use were closely tied to indigenous social organization, politics, war, and spirituality. Among the Kiowa and Plains Apache, residents of the Southern Plains, some tipi covers were painted to reflect war deeds or spiritual blessings. This paper examines the construction, decoration, ownership, and destruction of historic Plains Apache tipis, as well as modern uses of the iconic structures.

Género, participación social, percepción ambiental y remediación ante desastres naturales en una localidad indígena, Cuetzalan, Puebla

En este trabajo se analiza la importancia de la perspectiva de equidad de género en la remediación de desastres naturales. Se indagó sobre las percepciones y reacciones diferenciales por género ante desastres naturales y sobre los efectos de cambios ambientales en el territorio de integrantes de organizaciones sociales locales en el municipio de Cuetzalan, Puebla. En particular de mujeres náhuatl organizadas en la Masehualsiuamej Mosenyolchiauanij, quienes desarrollaron acciones de remediación de los efectos del desastre natural ocurrido en 1999. Se examinó la percepción de los pobladores sobre sus prácticas productivas, sobre el desastre natural y sobre las estrategias de participación seguidas por las organizaciones sociales locales ante proyectos externos. En la metodología empleada se realizaron entrevistas en profundidad, observación participante y revisión documental. Se identificaron también acciones locales recientes que denotan la generación de un modelo de participación local de cogestión social, en donde integrantes de la sociedad civil organizada, autoridades municipales y organizaciones sociales indígenas buscan poner en marcha un ordenamiento ecológico de su territorio.

Dialéticas coloniais: a construção do estado e as transformações da organização social indígena sul-americana

O presente artigo tem como objetivo apresentar hipóteses sobre as relações dialéticas entre dois processos: o de construção do Estado nacional moderno no Brasil e o das transformações da organização social indígena sul-americana. Partindo de uma situação etnográfica específica - índios do Chaco/Pantanal brasileiro -, apresentamos hipóteses críticas alternativas às da etnologia evolucinista, estruturalista e estrutural-funcionalista sobre a relação da origem do Estado moderno. Enfatizamos a maneira pela qual as lógicas de segmentação e reciprocidade, descritas na etnologia, foram integradas por dialéticas coloniais, envolvendo processos de dominação e resistência política.

The Rock Art Scenes At Injalak Hill: Alternative Visual Records of Indigenous Social Organisation and Cultural Practices

This paper explores the potential of Indigenous rock art scenes from western Arnhem Land (Australia) as visual media in archaeological and ethnoarchaeological research into Indigenous social organisation and practices. Traditionally, the main visual media used to analyse Indigenous cultures have been ethnographic or ethnohistoric reports and photographs. Through three case studies from Injalak Hill this paper illustrates how rock art scenes may elicit complementary and alternative types of information and provide a different means of understanding Indigenous social behaviours and practices. Rock art scenes, as visual records of Indigenous social organisation, should be considered a key complement to photographs, since they provide crucial information that is quite different from, or not necessarily recorded in, photographs.

Heretics and Colonizers: Forging Russia’s Empire in the South Caucasus by Nicholas B. Breyfogle, and: Herrschaft, Recht und Islam in Daghestan. Von den Khanaten und Gemeindebünden zum рihād-Staat by Michael Kemper (review)

517 Ab Imperio, 1/2007 Wim van MEURS Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Heretics and Colonizers: Forging Russia’s Empire in the South Caucasus (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2005). 376 pp., ill. Maps, Index. ISBN: 0-8014-4242-7. Michael Kemper, Herrschaft, Recht und Islam in Daghestan. Von den Khanaten und Gemeindebünden zum рihād-Staat (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2005). 480 S., 2 maps. (=Caucasian Studies; Vol. 7). ISBN: 3-89500-414-6. By the mid-1990s, when interest in the post-communist transition in Eastern Europe and especially in the former Soviet Union was waning, Russian studies at Anglo-American and German universities seemed doomed. Since then, a spate of highly sophisticated studies has been published, opening up new fields of enquiry. One of the most prominent new fields is the study of Russia’s borderlands and the encounters between locals and immigrants. These authors no longer understand “area studies” as the privilege to ignore theoretical insights from the political and social sciences. At the same time, they have made good use of the opening up of archives, not only in Moscow and Petersburg, but (in the case of the two monographs under review) also in Tbilisi and Makhachkala .Although Breyfogle’s footnotes are full of references to archival and other unpublished sources, the actual text hardly offers the reader an inkling of the sources’ content: most of the lengthy quotes are from official documents after all. Nicholas Breyfogle and Michael Kemper share a bottom-up perspective . They are both interested in nineteenth century Russian empire building, but avoid the bias of the official Petersburg perspective by focusing on the realities of daily life in the imperial periphery of the Caucasus: “embed[ding] people and their communities in the most abstract of historical processes without losing sight of what it was like to live through those processes” (Breyfogle, P. 7). Breyfogle looks at Slavic heretics (non-Orthodox Christians) who were used as colonists , ironically becoming the face of tsarism for the indigenous Islamic populace, and thereby playing their part in the consolidation of the empire that failed to tolerate them in the core regions of the state. Conversely , Kemper looks at Islamic forms of indigenous social organization and interaction with the interfering Russian colonial power. Although both authors sympathize with their object of research as underdogs in fated defiance of the Russian Empire , the grey zones of local realities rather than the ex post construction of bilateral confrontation between Russian colonial agents and local 518 Рецензии/Reviews resistance determine these studies. As Breyfogle argues: “[W]hether they supported or opposed tsarist power, the sectarian settlers … performed a range of military, economic and administrative functions essential to Russian empire-building – sometimes unwittingly” (P. 3). In sync with recent studies of Western nineteenth century colonialism, his assumption is that metropole and colony/periphery co-produce each other. In fact, the tsarist policy of “heretic colonization” actually produced the heretic communities by concentrating the scattered groups from all over the empire in a fairly small region. Kemper for his part demonstrates that the various forms of societal organization and rule in Dagestan prior to Russian conquest were by no means static or primitive – debunking the typical view of a civilizing colonial power. The argument is well stated, even though two hundred pages and a historical narrative starting with the earliest recorded political histories from the seventh and eighth centuries may be somewhat overdone with regard to demonstrating the dynamics of autochthonous developments and the role of Islam.1 Strictly speaking , Kemper’s argument, that this golden era was later used to legitimze new rulers and regimes, does not very convincingly explain two hundred pages worth of historical reconstruction. “What actually happened ” is essentially irrelevant for a better understanding of the later instrumentalization of historical legitimization (Kemper, S. 65-66). Kemper also underlines that in Dagestan (unlike in the Southern Caucasus) the dynamic relations between princedoms and free communities were not swept away by the Russian conquest of 1750 – 1828, but rather redefined: for some rulers the Russian advance proved to be the right opportunity to restore authority over unruly communities (S. 211-216). Breyfogle’s choice of the heretic colonists is partly...

Health care in remote Australian Indigenous communities

Health care in remote Australian Indigenous communities

Schooling and traditional collaborative social organization of problem solving by Mayan mothers and children.

Traditional indigenous social organization in the Americas has been characterized as involving horizontal multiparty engagements, in contrast with schooling, which often relies on hierarchy and division of labor. This study examined whether the social organization of problem solving of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous mothers and children varied with the mothers' extent of experience with school. We observed 47 mothers as they constructed a puzzle with 3 children (ages 6-12 years). Mayan mothers with little schooling (0-2 grades) were involved more in horizontal, multiparty engagements, whereas Mayan mothers with extensive experience with schooling (12 or more grades) were involved more in hierarchical, division-of-labor engagements with the children. The results suggest that Western formal schooling contributes to the reshaping of traditional collaborative social organization among indigenous Mayan people.

Schooling and traditional collaborative social organization of problem solving by Mayan mothers and children.

Traditional indigenous social organization in the Americas has been characterized as involving horizontal multiparty engagements, in contrast with schooling, which often relies on hierarchy and division of labor. This study examined whether the social organization of problem solving of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous mothers and children varied with the mothers' extent of experience with school. We observed 47 mothers as they constructed a puzzle with 3 children (ages 6-12 years). Mayan mothers with little schooling (0-2 grades) were involved more in horizontal, multiparty engagements, whereas Mayan mothers with extensive experience with schooling (12 or more grades) were involved more in hierarchical, division-of-labor engagements with the children. The results suggest that Western formal schooling contributes to the reshaping of traditional collaborative social organization among indigenous Mayan people.

Nomadic fantasies: producing landscapes of mobility in German southwest Africa

In nineteenth-century Germany, ‘nomadism’ was an epithet frequently applied with little distinction to pastoralist, hunter-gatherer and semi-agriculturalist societies. It was used as a description not only of actual indigenous social organizations or economies, but also of a propensity to wander, an inconstancy and hence an obstacle to civilization. This was not confined to anthropological and ethnographic discourse. It also influenced policymaking in the colonies, particularly in discussions of land rights and land utilization. At the same time, discussions of nomadism, when applied to indigenous populations, awakened associations with a key theme in German national identity and national history - that the German nation had once shared this love of wandering. Debates on nomadism in the colonies expressed certain perceptions of German identity, but also anxieties about the mobility of labour and capital. The example chosen in this paper is German southwest Africa at the turn of the century.

Social Organization and Disorganization in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala

The Tz'utujil Mayan community of Santiago Atitlan has written a most remarkable chapter in recent Guatemalan history. Following a decade of unprecedented violence, in late 1990 the Atitecos (the name for the people of Santiago Atitlan) stood up to one of the more notorious national armies on the contemporary world scene, and won. Although the Atitecos fired not one shot, today not one soldier now treads on their soil (Loucky and Carlsen 1991). When the Guatemalan Army periodically tests that arrangement, the Atitecos merely repeat their earlier success, confronting the intruding soldiers en masse until the army backs off (Scott 1991; Carisen 1994). The current drama is only the latest episode in a lengthy history, a past that at once promotes community solidarity, yet also provides fertile ground for factionalism. The struggle between the forces of local autonomy and those of state integration overshadows another ongoing confrontation, the conflict between Atiteco customary subdivisions and emergent local factions. A complex of destabilizing ecological and economic factors fuels dissension within the community. In a word, Atitlan is simultaneously coming together and falling apart. This article traces the evolution of Atitlan community organization from the period shortly before the Conquest to the present. In the process, it challenges certain prevailing orthodoxies about pre-conquest social organization in the Tz'utujil area, and demonstrates that prior to the Conquest the local Mayas were organized into atomized polities. They were not united into a single kingdom or other such state. It is erroneous to assume that Spanish disruption and control of the area led to an abrupt appearance of fragmented polities. Quite the opposite is true. The people we now call Atiteco survived the Conquest largely intact due to the strength of indigenous social organization and the relative absence of intensive Spanish colonization. Throughout the subsequent centuries, the Atitecos adapted their social configuration as necessary to incline colonial relations in their favor and influence the course of their own history. Over time, almost no aspect of Atiteco culture was left untouched by contact with Guatemala's dominant sector, but most features of the culture could nonetheless be traced to pre-conquest antecedents. Many of the changes that have transformed Atitlan over the last 500 years have been relatively gradual and orderly, perhaps at times nearly invisible to the community. Importantly, by normalizing cultural intrusions, such as the Catholic cult of the saints, the Atiteco social configuration proved capable of adapting to its changing environment. Stated differently, the Atitecos were able to change so as to stay the same. In contrast, current transformations of Atiteco society are abrupt and spasmodic, and reflect serious sociocultural instability. This difference between past and present is thrown into high relief by Protestant Atitecos' purposeful rejection, indeed the Satanization, of their own cultural past. In the course of the last 100 years, the consolidation of the Guatemalan state has eroded the adaptive capacity of local communities, including Atitlan. Major elements in this transformation have been the expropriation of large amounts of Mayan land, and the development of the infrastructure and military apparatus necessary to protect the interests of the emergent landed class. Added to these external factors is the explosive population growth within Mayan towns. The net result for Atitlan has been increasing poverty, heightened competition for scarce resources, factionalization, and the undermining of customary subdivisions. Yet, as the success of the Atitecos in evicting the army from their territory attests, it is inaccurate to say that the dynamics of Atiteco autonomy have been entirely overwhelmed. As part of their efforts to prevent the army from reoccupying the town, the Atitecos have reinstituted certain earlier features of their social organization which serve to buttress community autonomy. …

Liberal democracy andaylludemocracy in Bolivia: The case of Northern Potosí

Economic and political reforms imposed on Bolivian indigenous communities (ayllus) in the name of modernisation and democracy have actually furthered long‐standing colonial forms of oppression. Both liberal reformers and nationalist revolutionaries promoted a concept of citizenship which displaced and undermined indigenous social organisation and political practice. Even in the 1980s, progressive and leftist parties, unions, and development organisations continued to marginalise the democratic internal life of the northern Potosi ayllus.

Female farming and the evolution of food production patterns amongst the Beti of south-central Cameroon

Opening ParagraphIn his Economic History of West Africa (1973) Hopkins points out that relatively little attention has been paid to the history of food production by contrast with export crops, even though it has been clear since early research on African food systems (e.g., Johnston 1958) that patterns of production have been changing. The determinants of shifts in land use and crop rotations are complex but two major factors have been suggested: population pressure on land resources, and the relative prices of different crops. The population pressure argument tends to assume that subsistence is maintained, so that any change in the relationship of population to food land requires shifts in farming practice to allow the maintenance of the same level of living (Boserup 1965). The price argument tends to assume that the agriculture system is penetrated by the market principle, so that farmers' decisions to maintain subsistence production patterns depend on projections about the prices of the cash crops available for sale and the food items needed to purchase (Chibnik 1978). From work on African farming systems comes a modification which suggests that the management of both these constraints depends to some extent on the broader social and economic context in which decisions are made. In particular it has been suggested that the position of women farmers in both indigenous social organisation and national economies is different from men's; they work under different constraints in their farming and have different opportunities for alternative employment (Boserup 1970; Meillassoux 1975). If the sexual division of labour is an important aspect of farming, men's and women's differential access to resources might be expected to have an independent effect on cropping patterns.

NON‐CORPORATE SECTOR FINANCE AND FINANCING OF SMALL INDUSTRIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

AbstractThis paper attempts to report the author's findings regarding the role of the non‐corporate sector in providing investment finance for small‐scale industries in Nigeria, through co‐operative efforts.It specially underlines the role of indigenous social organizations and group relations in solving the economic problems of a developing economy which places emphasis on industrial development.Though these sources provide short‐term consumption finance, they certainly constitute an inadequate source of long‐term finance for industry in a situation where the importance of small‐scale industry development is officially greatly emphasized, and existing financial institutions are designed to serve only the financial needs of large industrial enterprises.The role of government in the context of the dilemma of the small‐scale entrepreneur is examined and suggestions made for improvements. The paper reflects what is probably the experience of many developing countries trying to industrialize.

Prefatory Findings in the Sociology of Missions

Sociological aspects of missionary activity are analyzed via a review of relevant literature. Two major strategies are identified, one oriented mainly toward social systems and the other toward individuals; the strategies appear to be associated with variations in the parent institution and the congregation of converts. Missionary tactics relate in part to types of opinion change postulated social psychologically; tactics also are aimed at dealing with structural conflicts between native and foreign sociocultural systems. Receptivity to religious innovations is found to increase under conditions of disorganization, a finding which fits current theories of value-oriented social movements. Foreign churches often are rejected if their social organization is too dissimilar to native patterns; further, the indigenous social organization, especially the ranking and kinship systems, channels diffusion.

The Village Headman in British Central Africa

Opening ParagraphThe Rhodes-Livingstone Institute is attempting a comparative study of the tribes of British Central Africa and of the processes of change affecting their lives to-day. Social anthropologists have been sent to tribes selected both for the variety of forms in their indigenous social organization and for the different ways in which they have been absorbed in the modern world-system. Though we, of the Institute's staff, are spread over thousands of square miles, and have had very different trainings, we have tried to collect our data on comparable bases and to study similar problems. This short symposium, which opens what we have come to consider a crucial problem, is the first-fruits of our collaboration.