Journal of African Studies

Anthropometrical Study of Some West-African Ethnic Groups in Relation to Techniques of the Body

Kazutaka Adachi, Ayano Kusumoto, Junzo Kawada, Michiyo Hosaka

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 1-30
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_1

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Kawada, a co-author of this study, has been interested in “Techniques du corps; Technique of the body”, which means the usage of the human body observed in common within a ethnic group but differently among groups, and which may be decided by the nature around and their culture. He has been studied it with a point of view of morphological and functional biology, ecology and culture in the field of West Africa, France and Japan. He has been investigated the reason of the peculiarity of techniques of the body among West African compared with French and Japanese in ecological and cultural condition. But he could not discuss it biologically for lack of research about biological condition. In this study we measured Bamanan-Fulbe people in Republic of Mali who live on the savannah and Yoruba people in Federal Republic of Nigeria who live in the tropical rain forest with the anthropometrical method for basic data to discuss it biologically. We measured also Japanese as a comparison.
The result indicates that the figure of Bamanan-Fulbe people is tall and slender and in case of Yoruba people small and little bit fat. Their extremities are longer than that of Japanese. But we can easily explain this phenomenon with neither Bergmann's rule nor Allen's rule.
The bending posture which is well observed in Bamanan-Fulbe people indicates a typical form commonly. This form is defined as a extreme anteversion of the pelvis, the straight thoracic and lumbar spine, and the lordosis at the cervical spine. This form is not observed among Japanese. This typical form might be caused by the well stretched hamstrings, which are made by a sitting posture with thrown-out legs observed in common in Bamanan-Fulbe people.

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De la cueillette de palmier à huile au propriétaire de plantation villageoise

Le développement de la plantation du palmier et le changement de travail chez les Adioukrou en Côte d'Ivoire

Toru Ibaraki

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 31-47
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_31

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Le pays adjoukrou, situé à 50km de l'ouest d'Abidjan, la capitale de la Côte d'Ivoire, avait traité l'huile de palme avec des Européens depuis XIX^e siècle. Cette société est organisée traditionnellement par le système de la classe d'âge. Chaque génération a sa tâche propre et le travail commune de village se divise entre eux jusqu'à présent.
Autrefois, les hommes des classes plus cadets ont dû grimper avec ceinture sur le palmier naturel pour couper des régimes. À cette époque, le jeune homme n'était pas traité comme adulte s'il n'avent pas été bon grimpeur. Après l'Indépendance, l'État a lancé le projet de développement de palmier à huile dans cette région. Les Adjoukrou ont exploité des plantations villageoises, abandonnant la palmeraie naturelle.
Aujourd'hui, les planteurs emploient totalement des mains-d'oeuvre étrangères pour leurs plantations. Les jeunes hommes qui ne savent pas couper des régimes avec la faucille, nouvel instrument de la récolte, ne veulent plus y travailler.
Nous considérons la raison de ces changements dans cet essai, en examinant l'histoire de l'utilisation du palmier et ses techniques, l'effet de l'exode rural et sa relation avec l'emploi de main-d'oeuvre.

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Consociationalism and the Management of Ethnic Conflict in Africa

Makiko Toda

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 49-62
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_49

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One of the problems that most African countries face today is that they have to deal with deep ethnic divisions. Since independence, a large number of ethnic conflicts have taken place in these countries.
There is a long argument that democracy is exceptional in severely divided societies. For this reason, the early modernization theorists suggested that ethnic identities needed to be erased. They anticipated that if a national identity were created, ethnic conflict would be reduced. Marxist theorists also argue that ethnicity will be weakended by class conflict. However, it is difficult to believe that such an assimilation of ethnic identities into a national identity will take place. We had better not make efforts to assimilate people, but arrange the political institutions which can reduce ethnic conflicts in order to establish peace and democracy.
A. Lijphart has shown one way, the consociational democracy model. He argues that consociational democracy enhances the democratic stability of a plural society not by making it less plural, but by making it more plural. Although his arguments are based on European small countries, we can apply the essence of consociationalism to the plural societies in Africa in order to reduce ethnic conflicts.
In this article, I will show the cases of The Gambia and Nigeria. The former has succeeded in keeping stable democracy with consociationalism, and the latter has changed its political institutions from the majority-rule model to the one closer to the consociational model. These case studies may help to develop the classical consociational model into a more general theory.

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The Role and Flow of Bridewealth in the Bongando of Central Zaire

Suehisa Kuroda

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 63-75
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_63

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Development of the Liberian Civil War

Ichiro Majima

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 77-97
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_77

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Beyond the Africa's ten years lost (1980's)

a tentative perspective of African Studies

Toru Komma

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 99-108
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_99

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Centre of West African Studies and African Archival Resources in the University of Birmingham Library

Takehiko Ochiai

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 109-111
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_109

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Junzo Kawada A Kingdom of the Savannah—Documents on “an inverted tradition”

Ryo Ogawa

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 113-114
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_113

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Shun Sato The Rendille: Camel Nomads m Northern Kenya

Reizo Harako

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 114-116
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_114

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Hiroshi Kadomura and Makoto Katsumata (eds.) On the Shore of the Sahara

Toshiyuki Wakatsuki

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 116-117
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_116

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Hideo Oda (ed.) Africa: Politics and Cultures

Jun Ikeno

1993 Volume 1993 Issue 43 Pages 117-119
Published: September 30, 1993
Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11619/africa1964.1993.43_117

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