Suchergebnisse

A study of oriki, or oral praise poetry, which is a major part of both traditional performance and daily Yoruba life.

A randomly selected clinic population of 400 pregnant women in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, were interviewed for complaints of psychological disorders during the last trimester of pregnancy and the post-partum period. The study shows a considerable degree of psychological disturbances during pregnancy which later decreased significantly dur ing the post-partum. While the complaints of worrying, guilt-feeling, nausea and vomiting and "heat in-the-head", were significantly more common in younger women, insomnia and anorexia were more common in older women. The incidence of psychological complaints among the women decreased with increasing parity. There was no significant difference in the incidence between women with monogamous and polygamous marriages.

SummaryData were analysed from the 1973 surveys of the Nigerian segment of the Changing African Family (CAFN) Project which covered Yoruba women and men in Ibadan and the western state of Nigeria. The Yoruba women in monogamous unions and those in polygynous unions show slightly varying levels of fertility, measured as mean number of children ever born. Most of this variation can be attributed to other variables; type of union of the women does not significantly affect their fertility level.

SummaryThis study employs multiple classification and regression techniques to determine the influence of marital, sociodemographic and selected intermediate variables on duration of breast-feeding and post-partum sexual abstinence among a sample of 300 Yoruba women of western Nigeria. Only education and place of residence appeared to be significantly related to the post-partum variables. Breast-feeding was shown to exert a significant positive effect on abstinence. The effect of contraception on the post-partum variables appeared to be a function of socioeconomic status.Reductions in the duration of the post-partum variables due to relative affluence can result in increases in fertility. Planners may do well to encourage women to go back to the use of these traditional child spacing practices in the absence of large scale and effective use of contraceptives.

Der Beitrag untersucht die Probleme der Kinderbetreuung, die aus der vor allem bei den Yoruba in West-Nigeria üblichen Berufstätigkeit der Frau entstehen, und Ansätze zu deren Lösung. Er zeigt die gesellschaftlichen und politischen Aspekte auf und kommt zu dem Schluß, daß eine wirkliche Lösung des Problems für alle Schichten nur in einer veränderten Gesellschaft möglich sei. (DÜI-Gbh)

A case study of a Yoruba city of pre-colonial origin, Ilorin, Nigeria, reveals a movement of rural women to marry into wealthy polygymous compounds in the city and the return of some of these women to their rural natal compounds later in life. This movement may be an explanation for the high proportion of women in indigenous towns, and perhaps also in some newer medium-sized settlements. It can also be seen as a reflection of the unequal and exploitive relationship between the towns and their rural hinterland.

Reviews Power and Performance: Ethnographic explorations through proverbial wisdom and theater in Shaba, Zaire, by Johannes Fabian. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1990; and I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, women and the past in a Yoruba town, by Karin Barber. Edinbrugh University Press for the International African Institute (International African Library 7), Edinburgh, 1991. (PAS)