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Rethinking ancestors in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

John C. McCall
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Extract

Analyses of ancestor-related practices were a crucial component of structural-functional models of social organisations in Africa. In the 1970s the theories of lineage and segmentary social organisation upon which these studies depended were called into question. Ethnographic and historical research indicated a preponderance of migratory activities and a high degree of discontinuity and reorganisation in kin relations. As a result most anthropologists turned from lineage-based functional theory to historical models of social organisation. With the waning of lineage theory, studies of ancestors in Africa became a marginal issue for most scholars of African societies. Ancestor-related practices, however, continued to be important in the lives of many African people. On the basis of data from Ohafia, Nigeria, the article suggests that the structural-functional model of social structure and the historical model of social dynamics both have parallels in indigenous representations of the ancestral past. In academic discourse these two models are taken as 'schools of thought' which pro-pound incompatible explanatory arguments. However, these apparently contradic-tory representations unite as an irreducible whole in the lived experience of the people of Ohafia. It is suggested that this indigenous paradigm of knowledge about the past provides valuable insights, not only into how we might productively theorise the social, but also for how we evaluate the contributions of our own intellectual ancestors.

Résumé

Les analyses des pratiques ancestrales ont été un constituant crucial des modéles structurels-fonctionnels d'organisation sociale en Afrique. Dans les années 70, les théories de lignage et d'organisation sociale segmentaire sur lesquelles ces études dépendaient ont été mises en question. Les recherches ethnographiques et historiques indiquaient une préponderance d'activités migratoires et un niveau éléve de discontinuité et de réorganisation au sein des rapports familiaux. En conséquent la plupart des anthropologues se sont détourné de la théorie functionelle de lignage pour préférer les modéles historiques d'organisation sociale. Avec I'erosion de la théorie de lignage, les études ancestrales en Afrique sont devenues un sujet marginal pour la plupart des érudits des sociétés africaines. Cependant, les pratiques ancestrales ont continue à être importantes dans la vie de beaucoup d'africains. Se basant sur des données d'Ohafia, Nigeria, cet article suggère que le modèle structurel-fonctionnel de la structure sociale et le modèle historique des dynamiques sociales ont tous les deux des paralléles dans leurs représentations indigénes du passé ancestral. Au sein des discours intellectuels ces deux modelés sont percus en tant que “des ecoles de pensee” qui proposent des arguments explanatoires incompatibles. Cependant, ces arguments apparemment contradictoires s'unissent en un ensemble irreducible dans l'experience vécue de la population d'Ohafia. II est suggéré que ce paradigme indigéne de connaissance du passé permet de mieux comprendre non seulement comment nous pourrions théoriser le social, mais aussi comment nous évaluons les contributions de nos ancêtres intellectuels.

Type
Confessions and cults in West Africa
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , April 1995 , pp. 256 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

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