22.

Ritual Festivals and Tribal Cohesion in the Hinterland of the Gold Coast

M. Fortes

Man, Vol. 36. (Feb., 1936), pp. 24-25.

Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28193602%291%3A36%3C24%3A2RFATC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K

Man is currently published by Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained
prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in
the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/journals/rai.html.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic
journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,
and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take
advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

http://www.jstor.org
Sat Dec 29 16:37:53 2007
Nos. 21-22] MAN
Sarmatians, and he repeats his earlier suggestion
that the ' animal style ' quite possibly originated
in China (see also his article, J. R. Asiatic
Society, 1935, p. 474) ; but, as he says, there can
be no certainty in the matter until further dis-
coveries definitely settle the question of priority.
(4) With regard to the Chinese adoption of
military equipment, especially for cavalry, from
the western ' barbarians,' details were published
by Pelliot in T'oung Pao, 1929, pp. 137 ff-a
reference for which I am indebted, with other
help, to Professor Yetts. He quotes the case of a
prince of Chao, Wu-ling, who is recorded as
fitting out mounted bowmen in the ' barbarian '
style as early as 307 B.G., fifty years before the
conquest by Ts'in--evidently an exceptional case.
The peculiar belt-buckle then introduced was
actually called after the Huns in a Chinese poem
written about this date.
An additional circumstance pointing to cultural
connections in the regions concerned is the
practice of horse-sacrifice, at the burial of chiefs,
followed by the Scythians, as recorded by
Herodotus (IV, 71) and by the early Chinese (see
Bishop White, ch. 11, and Illustrated London
News, 3 November, 1934, p. 697). The reconstruc-
tion of a Chinese tomb figured in the latter
publication shows a casing of timbers and other
features much like those of ancient Horsemen-
Chiefs of Central Asia who used such casings till
a t least the end of the seventh century A.D. (see
the article on the Antiquities of Katanda (Altai)
in J.R.A.I., LV, 1925). The bronze canopy from
Lo-Yang (Illustrated London News, 4 November,
1933, p. 724) is comparable to the canopies
erected over coffins of Horsemen-Chiefs mentioned
on p. 84 of my previous article.
De Tizac supports the conclusions of Tallgren
and Borovka, mentioned in my former article
(p. 84, last paragraph) ; he says : " If sedentary
" China has created the forms, nomad Turan has
" supplied much of the decoration " ; and sets out
to make good his assertion (L'Art Chinois classique,
p. 31).
ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE : PROCEEDINGS.
Ritual Festivals and Tribal Cohesion in the Hinter-
land of the Gold Coast. .Yu?n?nary of a com-
22 munication presented
14 January, 1936.
bg DT. M . Fortes.
In the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast,
tribal cohesion seems to be completely absent
bet,ween the very autonomous settlements. The
[February,1936.
(5) The object of these discussions is, strictly,
to suggest a derivation, not for the dragon itself,
or lung, but for the partly serpentine form with
which the Chinese have usually clothed their idea
of it since the days of Han. The idea pre-dated
this form by unknown centuries and its origins
are hardly discernible; it has assumed various
concrete forms a t different times, sometimes so
various, as L. C. Hopkins says (J.R. Asiatic Soc.,
1931, p. 805), that they do not even suggest one
another. The dragon, in fact, to the Chinese mind,
can take a t will any form he chooses; he rules
cloud, rain and storm and may accordingly derive
from the thundercloud, beneficent, like it, to man,
though of an aspect fierce and threatening. I n
this connection he is also associated by L. C.
Hopkins with the rainbow (J. R. A. S., 1931,
pp. 603 f f ) which he suggests was the origin of the
penannular disks ending in dragon-heads men-
tioned on p. 80 of my first article, with a reference
to Mr. Oscar Raphael's specimen. The Chinese
seem to have adopted the writhing serpentine
form for the dragon, within historical times, from
the appearance of the storm-clouds of their
country which, as observant travellers tell us, are
often very dragon-like in their twisting shape;
also the common Chinese representation of
dragons appearing in the sky usually shows them
as taking shape out of dark storm-clouds.
(6) I n my first article (p. 86, line 6) mention
was made of turtle carapaces as used in oracle-
giving. Bishop White tells me that the actual
part of the shell used as the belly-plate, or ' plas-
' tron ' (line 9) :-oracles on bone and turtleshell of
the Shan-Ying period havelately been foundin great
quantities, andrefer not onlv to that chief source of
prosperity, rain, but also to the times propitious
for sacrificial rites, war, hunting or harvesting.
(7) Corrigenda :-MAN, 1933, p. 80, line 15, for
' Gula and his dog ' read ' her ' ; last par, line 5,
for ' vol. XXII, pl. viii,' read ' XXVJI, pl. iii ' ;
p. 83,3rd par. line 6 : for ' B .c.,' read ' A.D .' ; p. 85,
3rd line from bottom-in some copies : for
' crocodile ' read ' alligator.'
Tale settlements, the subject of this paper, have
no central political authority. They comprise two
major groupings, the Namoos and the Tallis, living
side by side, intermarrying, in continuous social and
economic intercourse. Namoos are said t o be of irnrni-
grant origin, the Tallis the primordial inhabitants.
The former have chiefs ( N a n ) ,the latter have Ten-
February, 1936.1 MAN [Nos. 22-24
daanas (lit. owner of the land) as their clan heads. The
Dissensions between the Chief of the Kxatla and
two communities are separated by politico-religious his paternal uncle, who had formerly acted as regent
barriers, expressed symbolically in the taboos whichon his behalf during his minority, came to a head
define the chief and the tendaana towards each other.
in 1934, when the Administration found it necessary
The overt mutual hostility of the two communitiesto intervene. As the result of an extensive inquiry
seems, however, to be limited by their homogeneous the ex-regent was severely punished. The ostensible
economic and social relations. Thus is engendered causes of the feud, as was revealed in the inquiry,
a basic polarity, an equilibrium of mutual respon- were that the ex-regent had ever since the accession
sibility. This is both expressed and annually of his nephew failed to show him the respect due to
re-established in the ritual festivals celebrated byhim as Chief, and had even attempted to interfere
each group, in succession. with his ruling of the tribe. But the underlying
These are New Year and First, Fruit festivals. causes, which were not brought to light, go back
Ceremonial and dance form the two components of much further; and show how even in a tribe where
each festival. The ceremonial of each group differs Christianity has been the accepted religion for over
completely from that of the other group's. The forty years, ancient customs still exert considerable
Namoos ceremonial is built round the chieftainship influence. The popular belief in the powers of the
which is their prerogative ; that of the Tallis round
Chief to make rain still affects t,he attitude of the
their cult of the bo ar, the supreme earth-shrine tribe towards its ruler; and the present feud, in one
which is the dwelling-place of t'he ancestors of each
of its aspects, may be regarded as arising from t'he
clan. The Tallis have a sensational initiation attempts of the ex-regent to obtain control of the
ceremony for their young men, which forms the main rainmaking medicines and objects associated with
part of their festival ; the Namoos have no initiat,ion.
the Chieftainship, in the hope that he could thus
But the divergence thus expressed in the content also retain control of the Chieftainship itself. A
of some of the rites is balanced by the equilibrium more powerful, but less well known, factor in pro-
and dependence expressed in ot,hers In these, Chief ducing hostilit'y. between the two men was the
and Tendaana re-impose upon each other the refusal of the ex-regent to conform to the ancient
responsibility which each has for the other's welfare
custom of the levirate, whereby he should have
and which both have for the common good. The been responsible for looking after the mother of his
essential theme of the festivals is reunion of family
young nephew. These two sources of feud were
and clan, renewal of the religious and magical traced out in some detail, and it was t>henshown
bulwarks of social life, and especially the compulsory
that owing to them the problem confronting the
and inescapable mutual dependence, despite the Administration was really far more conlplex than it
barrier of taboo and office, of Chief and Tendaana, appeared to be. The fact that such information
and hence of Namoos and Tallis. was not available to the Administration points to
Social cohesion among the Tallis settlements the necessity of a more intensive study of tribal
thus appears to be not some ultimate attribute of politics than has yet, been attempted or sponsored
Tale society, but an equilibrium established upon officially. To the theoretical anthropologist the
a basic polarity which underlies all Tale political whole situation is of intense interest, both as an
relations. I t is significant that both the polarity and
instance of the way in which ancient customs persist
under Christianity, and for the moral that the st'udy
the equilibrium are expressed andestablished in ritual.
of institutions such as the Chieftainship cannot be
Tribal Politics, Rainmaking, and the Levirate among successfully carried out unless the personalities
the Christianised Kxatla of Bechuanaland concerned are also studied. In tribal politics it is
23 Protectorate. ,Szrmm*lrg of a co~nmunication the actors who shape the trend of events, and a
presented by Professor I . Bchapera, M.A., purely formal account of political organization lacks
Ph.D., .F.R.S.S.Af. 28 January, 1936. all semblance of reality.

P R O C E E D I N G S O F O T H E R SOCIETIES.
UNIVERSITY O F MADRAS : CATALOGUS Bengal, Lahore, Bombay, Baroda, Dacca, Benares,
C A T A L O G O R U M O F SANSKRIT M A N U - Travancore, Central Provinces and Berar, Mysore
94
LT
SCRIPTS. and other centres. Highly valuable as are the
All Orientalists and Indologists are materials contained in Dr. Aufrecht's great work, it
familiar with Dr. Aufrecht's monumental work is now found to be defective and incomplete, chiefly
-the Catalogus Catdogorum-as an indispens- in view of the vast accession to the stock of know-
able piece of apparatus for Oriental research. Since ledge about the literary treasures in Sanskrit that
1903, thirty-two years ago, when Dr. Aufrecht has been made available within the thirty-two years
completed his Catalogus Catalogorurn, many impor- subsequent to the completion of Dr. Aufrecht's work.
tant collections of Sanskrit manuscripts within and The need for supplementing Dr. Aufrecht's work was
outside India have come to the notice of scholars and recently brought to the notice of the Madras Univer-
several volumes of catalogues, giving reliable sity, which, in view of the large number of Sanskrit
information regarding some thousands of Sanskrit manuscripts in South India, has decided to
manuscripts, have become available in Madras, undertake the preparation and publication of a