Studies of African religions almost invariably include detailed discussions of various categories of spirits. Rarely, however, is spirit considered in the abstract; spirits are described, but not the spiritual. This paper will explore the concept of sunsum, ‘spirit’, as it is employed throughout Akwapim Akan philosophy. Sunsum will be shown to be the central, unifying theme which integrates the various domains of Akwapim Akan thought. The distinction between the exclusively spiritual (ye sunsum) and the inspirited (wo sunsum) figures prominently in the ontology, epistemology and theory of causality and constitutes a major premise of the philosophy. The paper will conclude with the assertion that the universe in traditional Akwapim Akan thought is not divided into separate spiritual and material worlds but is most accurately regarded as one inspirited universe.

The Beti are a Bantu-speaking people of approximately 500,000 persons, most of whom live between the Nyong and Sanaga rivers in central Cameroon. This article reconstructs aspects of traditional Beti society in the nineteenth century. It is based primarily on German and French archival sources available in Cameroon, German explorer's accounts and numerous oral interviews with Beti elders, some of whom were appointed chiefs, schoolteachers or functionaries under the Germans.

Only recently have precolonial African historical studies broken away from their fixation on dynastic histories and trade. In reassessing the dynastic traditions, historians of the African past have increasingly drawn on oral traditions from non-royal sources. In particular they have placed a great deal of emphasis on ‘clan traditions’ and the clan group has consequently served as an important building block in reconstructing the African past. But in Rwandan studies this has often been undertaken in a rather uncritical manner; in fact, historians may have been building on a foundation which is less enduring than they realize. For their new construct is often based on the assumption of ‘primordial’ clan units reaching far back into the past, antedating the dynastic political units of which they came to form a part. It is usually argued that these enduring clan units could absorb individuals from other clans or experience geographical expansion through migration; but the basic structure of clan identities is seen as unchanging.

The most significant movement of population in Ethiopia within the last 100 years has been the southward advance of northern Christians into areas inhabited predominantly by Muslim or pagan peoples. The initial impetus to this movement was given by the expansion of the Amhara Kingdom of Shoa in the 19th century when officers and men of the conquering armies were given land in the annexed territories. They were followed by a variety of adventurers, merchants and administrators all of whom benefited from their association with the Amhara rulers to carve a niche for themselves in the south. In these circumstances, it is understandable that analyses of inter-ethnic contact in Ethiopia have been dominated by the discussion of the relations between the Amhara and one or the other of the subordinate groups of the Empire.

Inequality based on privileged knowledge is an old topic in social analysis. It figures prominently, for example, in early works such as Condorcet's study of human progress. Condorcet argues that obstacles to progress arise when society is divided into two categories: ‘the one jealously hiding what it boasts of knowing, the other receiving with respect whatever is condescendingly revealed to it’ [1955 (1795): 17].

Orthodox theories of social change emphasise the importance of formal training in the structural transformation of traditional systems within less developed countries (Peil 1973; Dore 1978). It is assumed that through investment in human capital economically-backward societies will achieve modernisation and growth, and that a sequence of changes in the social and occupational structure following the typical Western model will occur. A close association between educational and occupational attainment is postulated which forms the basis for a new system of social stratification defined by educational qualification and income level (Foster 1977). Intervening between the academic achievement of individuals and their entry into the job market an important additional spatial variable is included in the dual sector model (Lewis 1954; Forde 1968). Given that rural-urban dichotomy exists between traditional and modern sectors the model suggests that considerable selective movement from countryside to town is an additional necessary condition for economic growth. Finally it is assumed that the resultant spatial separation of the educated from their traditional environment coupled by secure employment in town consolidates the process of acculturation into a Western value system (Foley 1977).

The performance of Yoruba hunters' funeral dirges is of great human interest. As an indispensable rite at all the major crises that may affect members of the hunters' guild, it is evidently a means of emotional outlet. These dirges are known as irèmòjé, a name which Yoruba mythology claims was coined by Ifá, the god of wisdom and of divination, to denote this type of lament. These songs are credited with a divine origin, and are demanded by the god Ogun to be performed by his followers as part of a rite of passage for deceased hunters from earth to heaven. Ogun himself was said to have set the model of the performance of irèmòjé for his followers to emulate. The observance of the ritual is seen by Ogun devotees as an act of worship, of propitiating their god, of communicating with the departed hunters, and of making a thorough appraisal of the successes and failures of deceased hunters in their professional career on earth. The task of making an oral evaluation of a man's career is always difficult. The device of artists who are vested in Yoruba history and folklore use, however, is to dwell on the lineage salutes — salutes which normally embody significant historical points relating to ancestors of the deceased. It is to be observed, however, that these singers of irèmòjé laments, as is the case with rárà chanters, usually emphasize the victories and heroic deeds of the deceased and carefully gloss over his failures; this is only to be expected since it is his fame that artists are gathered to celebrate. Thus they praise his fine character, his kind heart, his professional skills and techniques, commend his memorable deeds as a hunter, or at least the courage with which he faced ordeals in life.

In 1962 LeVine and Sangree attempted to answer the question of why some Bantu-speaking peoples in Kenya and Tanzania had adopted the age-group organization and associated rituals of their non-Bantu neighbours, while other Bantu peoples in the same region had not. They examined the Tiriki, who adopted the age-set system of the Kalenjin-speaking Terik, and the Gusii, who are also Bantu and who were also in close contact with the Kalenjin-speaking Kipsigis, but who did not borrow their age-group organization . The authors suppose that the age-group organization of the Kalenjin and Maasai had military functions and that their Bantu neighbours whom they attacked and defeated may have decided to copy this institution, because they would have attributed Kalenjin and Maasai success in warfare to it (LeVine and Sangree 1962:97-8).

In this paper we examine the differential implications of kinship practices and, specifically, Crow kinship terminology for two societies, one African, the other Oceanic. The comparison is undertaken for the following reason. Keesing (1970:765) suggested that the gulf between the way he conceptualized the Kwaio system and the way Fortes (1969) and Goody (1973) conceptualized the African systems may well be far wider ‘than the gulf between what the Kwaio and Africans do. And if the gulf is generated more by the models than by the facts, we had better look very carefully at the models.’ The question arises, therefore, whether classic African descent models are different from Oceanic kinship models because the anthropologists are following different intellectual traditions, or whether these two sets of models are different because they reflect a very real difference in the institutional make-up of African and Oceanic societies?