Social, Political and Knowledge Systems: Section Index
Guide to the twelve files on Yoruba social institutions, what each covers, and the order to read them in.
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Guide to the twelve files on Yoruba social institutions, what each covers, and the order to read them in.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Dis section dey cover how Yoruba society take arrange itself: who be family, who senior who, how people dey marry and divorce, how dem dey govern town and checkmate king power, how dem dey settle dispute, how economy and market take dey work, how dem dey treat sickness, wetin people dey chop and wen dem dey chop am, how dem dey pass knowledge without writing, wetin dem believe say complete person suppose be, and how everything look like today. E focus on social institutions instead of religious practice or political story, since dose ones get their own sections.
Read file 01 first. Seniority and di difference between person wey belong to lineage and outsider dey run through every other file, and without dem, wetin remain go just look like collection of customs instead of proper system.
01. Kinship and the Compound. Ìdílé, ẹbí and agbo ilé; di compound as building and social structure; how flexible patrilineal descent really be; di ọmọ ilé and ìyàwó distinction wey make di rest of di section clear to understand; and seniority as ranking wey depend on context instead of something wey fixed.
02. Marriage and Family. Courtship and di alárinà, ìdána and wetin bridewealth really dey do, polygyny and di inside politics between ìyálé and ìyàwó, di two different inheritance rules wey make dat politics stay permanent, divorce and why di reasons no balance for man and woman, child fostering and how modern life don change am, and wetin Christianity, Islam and cost of living for city change.
03. Gender. Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí argument say gender no be primary category wey Yoruba take organize society and say na seniority do di work, as she take put am for her own words; Bibi Bakare-Yusuf detailed criticism of di method, how e treat power, and di reconstruction of pure precolonial past; Insa Nolte relational account as di way to join di two together; and di record wey dem document about Ìyálóde, Ìyálọ́jà, market power, female rulers, palace office, priesthood, and àwọn ìyá wa.
04. Political Structure. Di ọba as sacred person wey still get limit to im power, di beaded crown and di Ifẹ̀ claim, di three categories of chieftaincy title, di palace and im officials against di council of quarter chiefs, Ògbóni and Òṣùgbò as judiciary and constitutional check, age grades, and di three clear ways wey dem dey take remove king.
05. Law and Dispute Resolution. Di five-level court structure from papa household reach Ògbóni, di procedure rules wey proverb preserve, why civil case dey produce person wey guilty pass and person wey guilty less instead of winner, oath and ordeal as way to bring evidence, di three colonial validity test with di cases wey establish dem, how dem bring customary law down from law to fact, and where customary law, family land, and inheritance stand for Nigeria today.
06. Economy and the Market. Ọjà for front of palace, di four-day market cycle wey be commercial and ritual at di same time, how women control trade and di three consequence of dat, ẹgbẹ́ and di craft guilds, èsùsù and how e take dey work without collateral, family land, apprenticeship, and wetin di cocoa century do to all of dem.
07. Medicine and Healing. Oyebola seven categories of practitioner, di categories of oògùn and why "medicine" and "charm" na one single field for Yoruba, ewé and botanical knowledge, clear breakdown of wetin pharmacology research don really prove about specific antimalarial plants and wetin e never prove, two-way diagnosis, and di quantitative outcome evidence about bone-setting.
08. Food. Di agriculture foundation, yam and di new yam festival, di main food and soups with their regional markers, palm oil, eewọ̀ for lineage, òrìṣà and personal form, and how feeding na physical way to show duty and settle quarrel.
09. Time and the Calendar. Di four-day week and im òrìṣà, di disputed Ifá verse about who get di days, di thirteen-month lunar calendar wey dem rebuild from Ọ̀yọ́ practice with di limits clear, why di year no get fixed start, and how dem give Yoruba names with Yoruba meaning to seven-day Christian week.
10. Education and Knowledge Transmission. Where dem dey teach, memory methods including di 256-part structure of Ifá, apprenticeship as way to transfer handwork skill and social standing, initiation as way to teach and why some parts of dis knowledge must stay secret, di groups wey hold special knowledge, and wetin mission school bring and wetin e push comot.
11. Values and Social Ethics in Practice. Wetin greeting mean and why di language dey force person to know who senior, ìdọ̀bálẹ̀ and ìkúnlẹ̀ and wetin dem mean and wetin dem no mean, hospitality, ọmọlúàbí with where di word come from and di eight good characters wey make am up, and shame, alájọbí and community duty as mutual insurance scheme wey get real cost.
12. Contemporary Yoruba Society. Lagos and Ìbàdàn and how connection to home town still strong, di jàpá migration and im effects for both sides, where traditional institutions really stand under constitution, religion inside family including wetin Pentecostalism change, and four-part breakdown of wetin still remain intact, wetin empty inside, wetin don disappear completely, and wetin dem create newly.
If you want di shortest honest route: 01, den 11, den 12.
If na how authority take work you dey find: 01, 04, 05.
If na di argument about women and gender you want: 01, den 03, den 02 and 06.
If na everyday life you dey look for: 01, 08, 09, 11.
If you dey here because you want know wetin remain: 12, den any of 01 to 11 wey e send you go back to.
Tori of politics, di wars and di colonial conquest dey under 03-history. Religious practice, di òrìṣà and dia festival dem belong to 06-orisa. Ethics and wetin make pesin pesin for philosophy level, ìwà, orí, àṣẹ and destiny, belong to 04-cosmology. Ifá as divination system belong to 05-ifa. Dem treat proverbs, oríkì and naming as language for 02-language and use dem here as evidence. Sculpture, textiles, drumming and masquerade belong to 07-arts. Di Atlantic diaspora belong to 08-diaspora, and dis section dey point out di places wey dem document say Yoruba social institution, especially èsùsù and di food complex, cross follow am go.
How a Yoruba person is located among relatives, in a physical compound and in a descent group, and why seniority rather than sex does most of the organizing work.
Oyeronke Oyewumi's argument that gender was not the primary organizing category of Yoruba society, the serious criticisms of it, and the documented record of women's authority.
Lagos and Ibadan, the emigration wave, where traditional institutions actually stand in the Nigerian state, religion in the family, and an honest account of what has persisted and what has gone.
Courtship and ìdána, bridewealth, how polygynous households actually worked from the inside, divorce, fostering, and what Christianity, Islam and the city changed.
The oba and why Yoruba kingship was sacred and constrained at the same time, the chieftaincy title system, the palace, the town council, Ogboni as judiciary and check, and how a king was actually removed.
The Yoruba court hierarchy from the compound to the palace, how evidence and oaths worked, why the aim was restoration rather than blame, and what the colonial and Nigerian legal systems did to all of it.