Browsing by Author "Schapera, Isaac"

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    The nature and significance of bride wealth among the South African Bantu
    (1948) Hammond-Tooke, William David; Schapera, Isaac; Simons, H J
    Perhaps the most controversial topic in the whole field of South African Bantu ethnography is that of the institution known variously as lobola (Zulu-Xhosa), bohadi, boxadi, bohali (Sotho) or mala (Venda). In its simplest form it can be defined as the handing over of some consideration, usually cattle, by the father of the bridegroom to the father of the bride on the occasion of a marriage between their children. No subject has been so widely discussed nor, unfortunately, given rise to so many misconceptions in missionary, administrative and lay circles, and it is imperative that some scientific investigation be made to ascertain, as accurately as possible, the exact nature of this institution and its significance in Bantu society. A glance at the literature shows that this topic has certainly not remained unnoticed by travellers, missionaries and others who have come into contact with our native peoples, either professionally or otherwise, but many of their observations are vitiated by prejudice and such subjective evaluations as: "The individual woman is less than a human being, she is merely a channel through which the children are delivered to the purchaser. It is truly not woman purchase, it is a wholesale transaction in child-life.", and the use of such terms as "sale" and "wife barter". Others say it plays an important stabilising part in native marriage. Thus in all contact situations, but particularly in the native Church and in the law courts, there is marked perplexity - and inconsistency - in dealing with the custom, all tending to increase the confusion and maladjustment of our native peoples - especially among native Christians. It is submitted, therefore, that the time is propitious for a detailed study of this institution, and this the following thesis attempts to do.
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    The age system of the Nilo-Hamitic peoples : a comparative analysis.
    (1952) Bernardi, Bernardo; Bernardi, Bernardo; Schapera, Isaac
    The aim of the present work is a comparative study of the age-systems of the Nilo-Hamites and of their functions in the whole setting of the Nilo-Hamitic social organisation. It was our original plan to cover the whole area of East Africa influenced by the Hamites, and study the age-systems of such peoples as the Hamitic, the Nilotic, the Nilo-Hamitic, and the Bantu-Hamitic peoples. The reason for such an ambitious plan was the still widely held opinion that the age-systems of all those peoples originated from the Galla. This opinion is voiced by Driberg under the issue "Age-grades" in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. He writes: "The Galla, with their very complex system (of age-grades), are the centre and source of this (Hamitic) culture; and from them it has permeated all the Nilo-Hamitic tribes which cluster round them, the Masai, the Nandi, the Topotha, the Turkana and the Didinga." A superficial comparative examination of the age-systems of all these peoples is sufficient to convince oneself of the essential di£ferentiations which make a borrowing of the systems from the Galla a rather improbable Hypothesis.