Hyena and Rabbit in Four Iraqw Folktales : As Another Sociological Model

Abstract

Out of 26 folktales collected by the author in 1966 from the Iraqw of Northern Tanzania, four have a hyena and her MoBr, Rabbit as heroine and hero in each story. This makes clear contrast to the similar stories of the matrilineal Kaguru people in central Tanzania found and analysed by Beidelman (Beidelman 1961 and 1963). Outlines of the four stories are given and some analysis are made in this article with some comparison to the Kaguru cases. While the Kaguru cases emphasis norms of MoBr (Hyena) and his SiSon (Rabbit) in a matrilineal context and re present a solidarity within a matrilineage, the Iraqw cases put more emphasis to soliderity of more than one patrilineage by a smart rabbit and his sister's daughter, a greedy hyena, who, belongs different patrilineage from her uncle. Despite the similar outlook of stories, they lead to form a different sociological model in a patri lineal setting from that of a matrilineal setting as the Kaguru.