Nigeria and Tiv Culture

Know location of Nigeria and Tonga- Tiv in south eastern corner of Nigeria
Importance of Rivers
1. Potential source of food
2. Ways of transportation- good for trading
Environment

Grassland/shruby type of area where Tiv live

Homes

Mans house, womans house. For every 1 of a mans house, there are
many womens house because a man usually has more than 1 wife.
Each wife lives separately from man with their children

Traditional Tiv Economics

Production, distribution of goods and services

Subsistence Practices (how they get their food)
o Farming
o Yams,
Gender based division of labor
o Both men and women engage in subsistence activities
Men plow the field
Women plant crops and weed
Market System
o People come and bring their surplus produce and craft items for
sale
o Economic & Social activity
o Crafts: making containers out of gords, textiles

Kinship

Extended families
o Multigenerational
Patrilineal descent
o Measure relatives/ define their Kin only by their fathers side

Polygyny

Polygamy: Pleural marriage

More than 1 wife
Advantages for husband
o Legally- can have sex with more than one person
o Can have more children (source of labor)
Advantages for wives
o If one of them needs help, there are many around
o Share responsibilities for farming, household chores, child chores
o Co-wives have a stronger personal relationship with one another
than with their husband
Have to be able to afford getting a wife

Stratified

The Tivs are a little stratified- not all equal

Positions of authority by older men- one main chief
Kako settles disputes, voice carries more weight, deals with the British,
but limits to that authority, assigns people to different responsibilities,
but not the ruler

Witchcraft

The practice of sorcery

A belief system that functions as a mechanism of social control by
channeling anger towards others
The ability to harm others by harboring malevolent thoughts about
them
Conscious and intentional use of magic, which is a religious ritual
believed to produce a mechanical effect by supernatural means
Tiv witchcraft is associated with
o Interpersonal relations
o Enforcing norms
Motivates people to behave themselves
o Politics
Yabo is accused of being a witch by Kako
Yabo sees it as political power- people will be afraid of him
o Kinship
If you have strong family relationships and age set
relationships you have supporters that will stick up for you
o Age sets

Supporters that will stick up for you, defend you and put
that rumor to rest
Sickness
No modern medicine
Accusing every sickness as a witch putting a hex on them
was it so difficult for Bohannan to learn about Tiv witchcraft
They think shes a witch
Shes a stranger/British woman and they know that witchcraft is
something Europeans disapprove of
Its dangerous to talk about with strangers
It is a profound belief

Why
o
o
o
o

Bohannons Fieldwork
Small Pox

Highly deadly disease

Spread rapidly to high numbers of people
Spread by airborne saliva
Can spread the disease before you even know youre sick
Fatality rate: 15%-50%
Most dramatic symptom: the rash you get
Can happen anywhere, not only in the Tiv culture
Last known documented place of small Pox: 1977

Ethics: Did Bohannan act ethically when she left during the smallpox
epidemic?

When smallpox hits the Tiv community she is staying in, she leaves
She had been vaccinated
She has obligated as an anthropologist to assist these people
But
If she stays shes affecting change in the community
They may have unreasonable expectations
They may have thought she were a more powerful witch for not getting
sick (shes responsible for epidemic)

The Book Title

What are the two meanings of the book title Return to Laughter
For Bohannan

o She goes back to the Tiv at the end of the book

o Return to the Tiv
For the Tiv
o During the epidemic, they all disperse and leave eachother then
they all come back and are not only a community again but they
also have a storytelling/comedy show, laughing with one another.
In very good spirits.
o Laughing is the way the Tiv are able to cope with difficult
experiences in their life
The lesson Bohannan takes from the Tiv
o Dont dwell on the negative, instead embrace the people around
you, enjoy their company and have fun

Tiv and the Nigeria Culture Change

1480s people started to migrate to Nigeria
Nigeria came under control of great britian
Colonialism in Return to Laughter

The station
Mr.Sackerton, district administrative officials and their families
Mission bookstore
Schools
Roads
Trucks
Tribal politics

Oct 1, 1960: Nigeria became an independent country

Lagos

Urbanization population growth poverty

2nd most populated city in Africa

Cultural Impacts

Extreme poverty/stratification

Globalization

Nigeria today is part of global system

Large companies come in to Nigeria

Multinational corporations to get resources & raw materials they need
(OIL)
8th largest exporter of oil world wide
Environmental damage is the result
Movement of people
o Large numbers of Nigerians leave Nigeria for economic and
political reasons

Ethnic Conflict

The boundaries of the country to Nigeria is a creation of colonialism

Ethnic tribal groups have been split up bc colonialism

Video:

System D: self reliance, informal economy (not government

regulated, people dont pay taxes, black market individual. Ex. Of
informal economy= mowing lawns, babysitting. Not part of company,
getting paid cash under the table, no taxes withdrawn)
Is system D, globalization 4.0 or does it fit someplace else
o Still part of 3.0 because its still the individual acting as
entrepreneurs
o But 3.0 relies on the internet, system D does not
o System D= 4.0
In system D the internet is nowhere to be seen
Goods from multinational corporations get sent to
individuals to sell