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Culture Contact as a Dynamic Process an Investigation in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

M. Fortes
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Extract

In considering the effects of the contact between African societies and European civilization, one is apt to forget that the exploitation of Africa by Europeans began more than five centuries ago. To trace the consequences of this long intercourse between Africa and Europe is a legitimate and worthwhile task. But is it a task for the social anthropologist? Previous contributors to the present symposium have emphasized the necessity of historical reconstruction in order to understand the effects of contact with European civilization upon a particular culture. They have been fortunate in dealing with cultures where the initial impact of the white man is recent enough to be within living memory. On the West Coast of Africa no feat of skill or imagination would suffice to establish a reliable zero point of culture contact. One would presumably have to be content with the construction of an ‘ideal type’ based on the scanty literature and on descriptions of cognate cultures. But must we therefore abandon every hope of investigating the influence of European civilization in these areas, and confine ourselves to the regions of recent contact where the procedure sponsored by Dr. Hunter and Dr. Mair can be successfully employed? I do not think so; and I shall endeavour to describe an approach which is, I believe, equally applicable both in societies which have recently come under the influence of culture contact, and those which have reached an advanced stage of Europeanization.

Résumé

LE CONTACT DES CIVILISATIONS, PROCÉDÉ DYNAMIQUE

Le contact entre civilisations est considéré ici comme un procédé dynamique d'interaction entre les Européens et les communautés africaines. La présente étude porte sur des observations faites dans les territoires du Nord de la Gold Coast. On distingue un certain nombre d'agents de contact et leur influence dans la vie indigène. Ainsi le Commissaire de district fait partie intégrante de l'organisation politique indigène. L'influence et l'efficacité du dispensaire sont limitées par l'abondance des routes et les besoins médicaux de la population; il est fait des suggestions pour étudier l'influence des missions. En outre, l'influence du contact est étudiée dans les territoires du Sud qui sont plus avancés. Le lien le plus important entre la communauté tribale et ces territoires est constitué par les hommes et les femmes émigrant pour travailler ou pour visiter l'Achanti, la colonie proprement dite. Parmi les causes de migrations de main-d'œuvre on signale les conflits à l'intérieur de la famille et les liens de parenté qui causent de nombreux cas de migration. L'influence de ce type de contact est tellement répandue qu'on ne peut l'isoler de la vie normale du peuple. Toutefois, les institutions fondamentales et les croyances de la tribu semblent avoir permis de résister suffisamment pour éviter la démoralisation que certains observateurs ont constaté dans l'Afrique du Sud. Des raisons expliquant ces phénomènes sont suggérées.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 1936 , pp. 24 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1936

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References

Note. This article is the sixth in the series of articles on Methods of Study of Culture Contact, which Dr. L. P. Mair is editing.

page 24 note 1 ‘Methods of Study of Culture Contact’, Africa, voi vii. no. 3.

page 24 note 2 ‘The Study of Culture Contact as a Practical Problem’, Ib. vol. vii. no. 4.

page 25 note 1 Cf. Malinowski, B., ‘Practical Anthropology’, Africa, vol. ii. no. 1.Google Scholar

page 26 note 1 I shall, in the rest of this paper, refer to the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast as the ‘Northern Territories’ for the sake of brevity.

page 26 note 2 Indeed, the same uniformity of custom prevails over an area of about 1,000 sq. miles inhabited by several tribes, to speak only of the area known to me person ally; for the same type of culture extends right into the French Haute Volta.

page 27 note 1 I., Schapera, ‘Labour Migration from a Bechuanaland Reserve’. J.A.S., Oct. 1933 and Jan. 1934.Google Scholar

page 27 note 2 Tallensi (sing. Talena) is the native name. It should be translated ‘Tale people’. I shall hereafter use the root form Tale as the adjective corresponding to Tallensi.

page 27 note 3 Until 1931 a District Commissioner was stationed at Zuarungu, 6 miles away.

page 29 note 1 The records go back to 1920. From 1920–4, 200–300 new patients were treated per annum, practically all being prisoners or policemen and their families. It was not till 1928–9 that large numbers of yaws patients began to come from the population at large. This was due in part to the energetic propaganda of the Resident Medical Officer.

page 30 note 1 A. I., Richards, ‘Anthropological problems in N.E. Rhodesia.’ Africa, vol. v. no. 2.Google Scholar

page 31 note 1 Travels, p. 24; p. 28.

page 32 note 1 This, I find from inquiries, holds also in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

page 35 note 1 B., Malinowski, ‘Magic, Science and Religion’, in Science, Religion and Reality. Ed. J. Needham. 1925.Google Scholar

page 38 note 1 Most women, especially the younger ones, have, however, a gaudy cloth or two for festive occasions.

page 38 note 2 This applies strictly to the Tallensi. Their neighbours, the Nankanni of Zuarungu and Bolga, have been more radically affected owing to the proximity of contact factors, such as the motor road and missions.

page 39 note 1 I subsequently discovered (in March 1935, when I was preparing to leave the field) that a similar device had been satisfactorily employed by Dr. Richards among the Babemba. My experiences coincided with those of Dr. Richards in regard to the value of this instrument of field technique, not only as providing the reassuring check of numbers upon sociological interpretations one might be inclined to advance upon the strength of a unique instance, but also as a specially useful means of opening up new lines of inquiry. It is perhaps worth noting as an example of how a common source of methodological inspiration can independently lead to the use of similar field techniques. I should add that I found that a random sample of individuals, however conformable to the best statistical canons gave me much more meagre sociological information than a sample of social units, families, lineages, &c., which constitute the determining context of an individual life-history in a preliterate African society. (See A. I., Richards, ‘The Village Census in the Study of Culture Contact’, Africa, vol. viii. no. 1.)Google Scholar

page 40 note 1 Two months earlier, in December 1934, the number of men permanently away, i.e. whose date of return could not be predicted, was 21. During these two months 1 absentee died, and 5 returned home, 2 after an absence of 12 years, and completely unexpectedly.

page 40 note 2 I speak of men all the time, to simplify the succinct exposition necessary here; but women, too, participate in the drift to the towns and back, though, of course, far less numerously than men.

page 41 note 1 This boy is an extreme example of that solidarity between brothers which will be referred to later as one of the main motives of emigration.

page 43 note 1 There are, I think, about half a dozen Tallensi boys at school and the only literate member of the tribe at home was in my employment.

page 49 note 1 Some years ago the Administration fixed the bride-wealth at two cows instead of four. Needless to say I did not come across one single case of a marriage contracted with two cows.

page 50 note 1 Loc. cit. J.A.S.; and his articles in Western Civilization and the Natives of South Africa, ed. by I. Schapera, Routledge, 1934.

page 54 note 1 It should be noted that the contact agents are not by any means ‘free’. They are, to a considerable extent, socially stereotyped characters, both from the native point of view and from the point of view of the organs of European civilization whose instruments they are.

page 55 note 1 I am indebted to Dr. L. P. Mair and Miss Margery Perham for helpful criticism of the first draft of this paper.