Meyer Fortes

Kinship and the social order : the legacy of Lewis Henry Morgan

Part 1: Retrospect 1. Morgan: The Founding Father 2. The Line of Succession: From Morgan to Radcliffe-Brown 3. Morgan and the Analytical Approach 4. Radcliffe-Brown and the Development of Structural Analysis 5. Toward the Jural Dimension Part 2: Paradigmatic Ethnographical Specimens 6. A Methodological Excursus 7. The Kinship Polity 8. Cognatic Systems and the Politico-Jural Domain 9. the Ashanti: State and Citizenship 10. The Lineage in Ashanti 11. Ashanti Patrilateral Kinship and its Values Part 3: Some Issues in Structural Theory 12. Kinship and the Axiom of Amity 13. Filiation Reconsidered 14. Descent and the Corporate Group

Food in the domestic economy of the Tallensi.

The hinterland of the Gold Coast north of the 10th parallel N. Latitude is a land of sparse forestation lying within the Sudanese Zone. The continuous plains the monotony of which is in the dry season broken only by scattered trees occasional patches of low bush or a low range of hills have been described as belonging to an Orchard bush type of country. The Tale settlements occupy an area of some 200 square miles immediately north of the White Volta river and have a population density of over 170 to the square mile in the settled parts. Agriculture is the basic industry of the Tallensi and their neighbours but their farms yield only a bare living to the majority of the populace. Unduly late rains or a visitation of locusts spells food deficiency bordering on famine for thousands. Food therefore is a major practical issues in Tale social life. It is also as in all primitive societies a fundamental constituent of innumerable social situations not directly connected with nutrition e.g. sacrifices to ancestral spirits or funeral ceremonies. How diverse are the functions of food in a primitive society may be gathered from Dr. A.I. Richards Hunger and Work in a Savage Tribe. The comprehensive approach adopted by her is impossible in this short paper; nor shall we able to take up all the questions enumerated in Dr. Raymond Firths paper on native diet. We shall confine ourselves to an ethnographical description on the place of food in the domestic economy of the Tale. It must be regarded as merely a tentative account. (excerpt)

Parenthood, marriage and fertility in West Africa

This article is a detailed description of parenthood marriage and fertility from an anthropological perspective. The author is particularly concerned with the qualitites and incidences of reproductive constraints and of their counterparts the institutions and ideals that distort natural fertility.

Marriage in Tribal Societies

Preface Introduction Meyer Fortes 1. Conjugal separation and divorce among the Gonja of Northern Ghana Esther N. Goody 2. Taita Bridewealth and affinal relationships Grace Harris 3. Gisu marriage and affinal relations Jean La Fontaine 4. Complementary filiation and marriage in the Trobriard islands: a re-examination of Malinowskis material Marguerite S. Robinson Bibliography Figures.