Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T11:24:05.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Of souls and bones: the living and the dead among the Rukuba, Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Jean-Claude Muller
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The relationship between the living and the dead looms large in Africa, but the study of such interactions is notoriously fraught with pitfalls and perhaps only now are we equipped with a valid conceptual framework to enable us to deal adequately with the problems posed by ancestor worship and by the various spirits of the dead in Africa. Fortes (1965: 16—20; 122—142) first gave us a comparative framework of ancestor worship in Africa but part of his conceptualization has been recently questioned by Kopytoff (1971) who argues that the distinction between elders and ancestors is not as clear cut as our own implicit dichotomy would seem to imply. However, his argument, stressing a continuity between the living and the dead, leaves out the fact that elders, when they die, very often become ancestor spirits and, even if they do not become such, take on new qualities and new powers that are different in nature from those they held when alive (Brain 1973; Sangree 1974).

Résumé

A PROPOS D'AMES ET D'OSSEMENTS: LES VIVANTS ET LES MORTS CHEZ LES RUKUBA, BENUE-PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Cet article examine la place que tiennent les morts dans la pensée et la pratique des Rukuba. On trouve deux sortes d'individus qui auront un destin différent à la mort; certains ont une âme qui se réincarnera alors que les autres en ont une qui disparaîtra sitôt après le décès. Celles qui se réincarneront peuvent, en attendant leur métempsychose, venir tourmenter les vivants sous forme de fantôme que l'on saura facilement chasser ou éliminer. L'influence des morts sur les vivants se manifeste surtout quand une malédiction d'aîne à cadet n'a pas été levée avant le décès de l'aîné. Dans ce cas, on agit comme si le mort était encore vivant en demandant à ses os de lever la malédiction. Les ossements sont investis d'une puissance maléfique que l'on craint mais il suffit de prendre certaines précautions pour qu'elle soit neutralisée.

Cependant, les ossements des chefs—en particulier leur crâne—sont physiquement utilisés dans certains rituels où ils jouent le rôle de sanction sociale en aidant à perpétuer les normes et les coutumes. Les ossements des chefs des deux villages rukuba rituellement les plus importants sont l'objet d'un rite annuel incluant une divination, un remerciement aux chefs décédés ainsi qu'un rite des premières semailles dont le facteur le plus important n'est cependant pas—aux dire des Rukuba eux-mêmes—l'influence des feus chefs mais celle de la tribu voisine, les Irigwe. Les relations entre les vivants prennent toujours le pas, chez les Rukuba, sur celles entre les vivants et les morts et l'article montre aussi qu'on ne doit en aucun cas assimiler les aînés rukuba à des presqu'ancêtres comme l'ont suggéré récemment certains auteurs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , July 1976 , pp. 258 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ames, G. C. 1934. Gazetteer of the Plateau Province. Jos: Niger Press for Local Administration.Google Scholar
Barnes, J. A. 1962. ‘African Models in the New-Guinea Highlands’, Man, lxii, 2, 5–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beattie, J. H. M. 1964. ‘The Ghost Cult in Bunyoro’, Ethnology, iii, 2: 127–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradbury, R. E. 1965. ‘Father and Senior Son in Edo Mortuary Ritual’, in Fortes, M. and Dieterlen, G. (Eds) African Systems of Thought, London: Oxford, University Press for International African Institute, 96–121.Google Scholar
Bradbury, R. E. 1966. ‘Fathers, Elders and Ghosts in Edo Religion’, in Banton, M. (Ed.) The Anthropological Study of Religion, London, A.S.A. Monographs 3, Tavistock Publications: 127–153.Google Scholar
Brain, J. L. 1973. ‘Ancestors as Elders in Africa—Further Thoughts.’ Africa, xliii: 122–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colson, E. 1954. ‘Ancestral Spirits and Social Structure among the Plateau Tonga’, International Archives of Ethnography, 47, 21–68.Google Scholar
Counsell, E. H. M. 1936. A Reorganisation Report on the Rukuba Tribe. Unpublished Manuscript, Kaduna Archives.Google Scholar
Goody, J. R. 1962. Death, Property and the Ancestors London, Tavistock Publications: Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1962. ‘Ritual and Office in Tribal Society’, in Gluckman, M. (Ed.) Essays on the Ritual of Social Relations. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 53–88.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1965. ‘Some Reflections on Ancestor Worship in Africa’ in Fortes, M. and Dieterlen, G. (Eds.) African Systems of Thought, London: Oxford University Press for International African Institute: 16–20; 122–144.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1969. Kinship and the Social Order. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1973. ‘On the Concept of the Person among the Tallensi,’ in La notion de personne en Afrique Noire. Paris, Editions du C.N.R.S.Google Scholar
Kopytoff, I. 1971. ‘Ancestors as Elders in Africa’, Africa, xli1: 129–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middleton, J. 1960. Lugbara Religion. London: Oxford University Press for International African Institute.Google Scholar
Muller, J. C. 1969. ‘Preferential Marriage among the Rukuba of Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria.’ American Anthropologist, lxxi. 6: 1057–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, J. C. 1971. ‘Pouvoir mystique, sorcellerie et structure sociale chez les Rukuba (Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria).’ L'Homme, xi. 3: 71–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, J. C. 1972a. ‘Ritual Marriage, Symbolic Fatherhood and Initiation among the Rukuba (Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria).’ Man (n.s.) vii. 2: 213–295.Google Scholar
Muller, J. C. 1972b. ‘Quelques réflexions sur l'auto-restriction technologique et la dépendance économique dans les sociétés d'auto-subsistance.’ Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, xii. 48: 659–665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, J. C. 1973. ‘On Preferential/Prescriptive Marriage and the Function of Kinship Systems. The Rukuba Case (Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria).’ American Anthropologist, lxxv. 5: 15 63–76.Google Scholar
Muller, J. C. 1974. ‘Mythes et structure sociale chez les Rukuba (Benue-Plateau State).’ Archives Suisses d'Anthropologie Générale, 38. Fas. II: 135–42.Google Scholar
Muller, J. C. 1975. ‘La royaute divine' chez les Rukuba. Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria.’ L'Homme, xv (1): 15–27.Google Scholar
Muller, J. C.and Sangree, W. H.. 1973. ‘Irigwe and Rukuba Marriage: A Comparison.’ Canadian Journal African Studies, vii. 1: 27–57.Google Scholar
Sangree, W. H. 1974. ‘Youths as Elders and Infants as Ancestors: The Complementarity of Alternate Generations, both Living and Dead, in Tiriki, Kenya, and Irigwe, Nigeria.’ Africa, xliv: 65–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar