Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland

CSAC Monographs 18

Hermann Gufler

cover image

First published 2003
by CSAC Monographs
Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing
Eliot College, University of Kent at Canterbury CT2 7NS
© 2003 Hermann Gufler and the Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing
All rights reserved.
ISBN 1-902671-35-X

Made avilable online for research and study, not for resale
October 2015 with permission of the author


About this book and the author

Father Hermann Gufler M.H.M. has lived and worked in different parts of the Western Grassfields (NorthWest Province) of Cameroon for more than forty years. He established Sabongari Parish in Nwa Subdivision in 1987 after spending the previous two years at Wimbum (Tang) Parish of Tabenken (which included the whole of Nwa Subdivision). After five years of living and working in Nwa Subdivision, more or less constantly on the move, he was ready to do more serious and systematic research which he did with two principal local informants: Pa Monday Kongnjo and Pa Sam Kobuin. This volume collects together articles previously published in academic journals and some material unpublished until now. It presents an introduction to the rich ritual heritage of the Yamba people and seeks to make the fruits of Gufler’s research available to the Yamba people themselves and to students of the Cameroon Grassfields.

Affliction and Moral Order: Conversations in Yambaland

Contents

The links below will load pdf files of the indivdual chapters

Chapter One: Introductory (3.1mb)
1
Chapter Two: Yamba Marriage Systems. Spouses and their Offspring between Protection and Affliction 23
Chapter Three: Social, Ritual and Religious Aspects of the Communal Hunt among the Yamba 55
Chapter Four: Yamba Spider Divination 83
Chapter Five: Cooking the Grave . Aspects of Yamba Ritual Symbolism 107
Chapter Six: Yamba Twin Ritual 127
Chapter Six: part 1 (3.2mb) 127
Chapter Six: part 2 (3.2mb) 142
Chapter Seven: Yamba Cults and Seasonal Dances 159
Chapter Eight: Yamba Witchcraft Beliefs (1.1 mb)
191
Chapter Nine: Crying the Death . Yamba Rituals of Death 223
Appendix A: Notes on Yamba Kinship Terminology 245
Appendix B: Glossary of Yamba terms. 258
Bibliography 271