Criticism and bibliography. Review

The name "Yoruba" is currently applied to a large ethnolinguistic community numbering at least 25 million people and inhabiting several states of Southwestern and Southern Nigeria (Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Lagos), part of the territory of the People's Republic of Benin, the Republic of Togo, as well as having extensive diasporas in other countries West Africa, Europe (primarily in the UK), and the Americas (most notably in Brazil).

In the past, the Yoruba were the creators of a number of powerful "monarchical" formations (Ife, Ondo, Oyo Empire, etc.) and the builders of large cities (Ibadan, Oyo, Abeokuta, etc.) that had no analogues in Tropical Africa. The complex traditional social and potestar-political structure of Yoruba societies was constantly in the field of view of many (primarily British and Nigerian) researchers of the last century.

The purpose of this paper is to review the main works of the colonial and postcolonial periods, which are devoted to the problems of socio - kinship relations in the traditional structure of pre-colonial Yoruba society.

More or less large-scale works describing socially related institutions of Yoruba traditional society appeared only at the beginning of the colonial period, i.e. at the end of the XIX-beginning of the XX century. They were mainly focused on the publication of material rather than on its analysis. Among the earliest works, one can mention the work of the Englishman A. Ellis, published in 1894.1, which contains well-systematized data on the social organization of Yoruba people with an analysis of individual facts of their social life. We should also highlight the well-known work of the English researcher P. Talbot ², which contains brief, but, unfortunately, not always provided with comments, information on all socio-related and age-related institutions of Yoruba and their distribution areas. To describe the Yoruba people, the author drew on the oral tradition not only of the Yoruba people themselves, but also of neighboring peoples (Ewe, Edo, etc.). Dennett ³, who described the structure, social and territorial organization of urban communities and described the institution of power of crowned rulers and other officials in Yoruba political entities.

These authors introduced new material on Yoruba mythology and folklore, paid considerable attention to the traditional pantheon, the cult of ancestors, images of rulers, public holidays and rituals that give an idea of the system of social values of the people in the pre-colonial era.

We have significantly expanded the source base of the work of Nigerian researchers of this period. The book of the non-professional Yoruba historian S. Johnson ⁴ contains both written sources and materials of a rich oral tradition, as well as genealogies of some representatives of the ruling elite of Oyo, which allow us to judge the rules of inheritance of titles among residents of this region. This work is the earliest eyewitness account of the state of Yoruba society in the second half of the 19th century. It is also necessary to mention a small book by A. Ajisafe ⁵, who described in detail the social norms and customs of several sub-ethnoses, primarily the Egba, to which the author himself belonged.

In the following decades, the works of Europeans D. Ford, W. Schweb, R. Bradbury, the early publications of W. Bascom, as well as in the dissertation of the Yoruba researcher N. Fadipe, written in 1939, characterized the structure and functions of the main socio-economic groups. -

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national Institutes of Yoruba ⁶ . However, they do not provide a complete description of the social structure of the Yoruba people. The use of a different system of scientific categories by each author in describing Yoruba institutions significantly complicates the comparison of materials. The evaluation criteria proposed by these scientists are different from those used by native speakers themselves, but until recently they were actively applied even by Nigerian researchers.

From all that was written during this period, I will single out the works of W. Bascom. After analyzing the basic social institutions of Yoruba, he identified the idile group (often referred to by the term "lineage" in European science) as the main primary social group, and the city as a secondary one. The author for the first time showed the interdependence of kinship ties and religious affiliation, assessed the importance of the principle of seniority in the social life of Yoruba. In addition, he raised a number of questions that determined the subject of many subsequent studies. These include problems of age-related institutions and double filiation, ⁷ as well as mechanisms of social continuity in traditional society ^.8

In the second half of the twentieth century, due to the need to solve specific practical problems facing the metropolis, the social structures of Yoruba continued to be most actively studied in British social anthropology. This specific discipline is characterized by a great consistency and unity of scientific views, which was especially pronounced during the period under review, when research was focused on finding explanations for social realities in the very structure of the society under study.

A special place in the study of social and kinship structures of Yoruba is occupied by the research of P. Lloyd, which is included in the classics of Yoruba studies. Working on the instructions of the colonial authorities, who were striving to improve the British system of indirect government, he proceeded from the position that kinship relations are the most important part of the entire socio - potestar system. P. Lloyd continued the analysis of inheritance and social succession mechanisms initiated by D. Ford and W. Bascom, and showed that social-kinship relations in Yoruba are a system of connections between groups of people. The social status of an individual is determined by the relative age and attitude to a particular group, and the status in it depends on belonging to smaller social units - sibling groups ^.9 He also analyzed the change in land inheritance rules and titles belonging to related groups due to the development of commodity farming in Yorubaland, thus showing the dynamics of traditional social structures. ¹⁰ Based on his own field observations, P. Lloyd initiated the analysis of socially related groups based on the Southern Nigerian material. The first work was devoted to the south-eastern neighbors of Yoruba-Itsekiri (in the terminology of P. Lloyd - "proto-Yoruba"), who speak one of the dialects of the Yoruba language, but have experienced a strong cultural influence of Edo (bini) ¹¹ . Subsequent studies included a description and study of the differences between agnate (patrilateral) and cognate (bilateral) related (in the terminology of P. Lloyd - "descentral") groups. During the analysis, correlations were found between the type of socio-political structure of the Yoruba northern and southern groups (Ijebu and Ondo) and the principles of social kinship and inheritance accounting ^.12

W. Schweb and, later, his compatriot D. Bender also found a certain conventionality of the concepts of "agnate" and "cognate" in Yoruba, since in the first case matrilineal connections are of great importance, and in the second, despite the normative equality of the two branches, female generations are considered much less and there is a widespread tendency to relate themselves to the group Rm (father), Rm Rm (father's father), etc., which greatly increases the status of an individual in society. The merit of these authors is also that in their works they showed the meaning of the concept of "social kinship" and pointed out the problem of the functions of kinship terms ¹³ .

I would like to consider the problem of studying the system of Yoruba kinship terms separately, somewhat violating the chronological principle in the presentation of the material. A. Ellis was the first to address this issue at the end of the 19th century. He recorded the latest descriptive terms of kinship and connected them with the "collapse of the Yoruba clan system" ¹⁴. R. Lowy attributed the Yoruba kinship system to the Hawaiian type ¹⁵. S. Johnson drew attention to errors that occur when fixing the system of kinship terms, which are associated with the desire of European researchers to find words that correspond to English concepts and mark gender, whereas Yoruba kinship terms indicate primarily relative age. According to S. Johnson, the words "senior" and "junior" are used without regard to gender in relation to pra-

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direct and collateral relatives of any generation ¹⁶ . In the early 1950s, the general principles of grouping relatives were first systematized by D. Ford based on materials provided to him by O. Biobaku in 1951,17 The same was done by N. Fadipe in relation to the terms of Yoruba kinship of the early XX century. 18 D. Ford also found in the terms of Yoruba kinship a number of special descriptive terms used only in within a group that lives in the same compound and indicates the specific position of the individual in this group ¹⁹ . In addition, he defined the main directions of all subsequent studies of the system of kinship terms and the social organization of Yoruba.

Among Russian Africanists, D. A. Olderogge used the material on the terms of Yoruba kinship in a number of his works ²⁰ . He believed that such terminology is based on several concepts that denote a group of closest relatives. According to the Soviet scientist, they represent a simplified version of the Turanogan model of the system of kinship terms and are associated with a large family. Descriptive terms in such systems, from the point of view of D. A. Olderogge, essentially indicate the absence of genuine kinship terms.

In the light of this topic, the work of the Danish researcher R. Paarup-Larsen on the main potestar institutes of Yoruba is interesting ²¹ . It contains three fairly complete lists of kinship terms recorded in the Yoruba subethnoses-oyo, Ekiti, and ife. The author tried to find correlations between the system of kinship terms and the system of inheritance in each of the listed subethnoses.

Summing up, it should be recognized that a comprehensive study of the socio - related institutions of the studied people is not yet available, and most of the questions posed by British social anthropology remain open.

Since the 1980s, there have been studies in which socio-kinship groups have been considered as the socio-cultural basis of developing pre-state structures. The general principled position of a number of scientists has become the position that it would be wrong to proceed from the dichotomy between kinship-based communities and proto-state institutions. From their point of view, such social phenomena exist in harmony with each other, and the genesis of potestar institutions is directly related to the structure of related groups. Thus, P. Lloyd considered descendant groups as a primary social, economic and potestar unit, and the "city-state" as a community, where all related groups are represented in government ^.22 He called the political formations "tribal kingdoms" and noted that they were based on a system of related groups, the institution of a sacred ruler and a complex form of government. Conflicts between landing groups influenced the way the ruling elite of the "kingdoms"was recruited. The four types of simultaneously existing power systems identified by this author do not, in his opinion, represent different stages of evolutionary development. ²³ In recent years, the intensity of such research abroad has decreased.

According to the Russian researcher N. B. Kochakova, the governance institutions (and the rules of inheritance of power) of the Yoruba" city-states " copy the structure and functions of socially related institutions. ²⁴ Analyzing the system of the most important officials surrounding the crowned ruler of Yoruba, and relying on the thesis of V. M. Misyugin [²⁵] about the existence of a stadium-like intermediate legal structure consisting of three brothers, N. B. Kochakova traced its effect in the succession of higher titles in the political formation of Oyo and in neighboring "monarchies" [²⁶].

In the 1960s and 1980s, a number of studies appeared on the problems of functioning and transformation of traditional socio-related institutions in modern conditions. As a result, a block of the most stable characteristics was identified, which were not only preserved, but also inherited by some of the new social structures that emerged in post-colonial Nigerian society ^.27

Since the 1970s, many generalizing works of African scholars on the early history of Yoruba have been published, providing insight into the social realities of that time. Most of these works are written by people who were educated at universities in Europe and America, or their students, and have not only descriptive, but also theoretical value ^.28

In recent decades, the social and kinship structures of Yoruba have been actively studied in the framework of gender research programs conducted by research centers in the United States and Europe.

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A distinctive feature of these works is their focus on studying the functions of social phenomena in culture as a whole. The researchers focused on the genesis and dynamics of gender social roles, functional changes in matrilineal institutions in the colonial and postcolonial periods, and the importance of matrilineal ties in Yoruba society ^.29 As most authors show, women were at the center of the religious, economic, and social life of society. Data on the role of Yoruba women in trafficking were used for this purpose. The problem of socially related groups in the structure of pre-state entities is also addressed in research on the topic "women and power", which is currently being actively developed in foreign historiography30, mainly based on the material of southern subethnoses (Ijebu and Ondo), which have the most developed pyramid system of female titles. The conclusions of these studies, although mostly abstract in nature and do not provide large theoretical models, make a great contribution to the study of social behavior and ethnic psychology of Yoruba people.

Unfortunately, in the last decade, even European and American scientists have noticeably lost interest in the topic under consideration, and the intensity of research has significantly decreased. At the same time, the problem of finding new combined methods for studying kinship relations in the traditional structure of Yoruba society, using all the rational methods developed by science in the last century, remains relevant.

notes

^{Ellis AV, Sir.} 1 The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa. Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, etc. L., 1894.

^{Talbot P.A.} 2 Peoples of Southern Nigeria. A Scetch of Their History, Ethnology and Languages. Vol. III. L., 1926.

^{Dennet R.E.} 3 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind, Or Notes on the Kingly Office in West Africa. L. -N.Y., 1906; idem. Nigerian Studies, Or the Religious and Political System of the Yoruba. L., 1910.

^{Johnson R.S.} 4 The History of the Yorubas. From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of British Protectorate. L., 1921.

^{Ajisafe A. K.} 5 The Laws and Customs of the Yoruba-People. L., 1924.

^{Ford D.} 6 The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria // Western Africa. Pt. 4. L., 1951. P. 10 - 13; Bradbery R.F. The Historical Uses of Comparative Ethnography with Special Reference to Benin and the Yoruba // The Historian in Tropical Africa. London-Ibadan-Accra, 1964. P. 145 - 164; Bascom W.R. The Principle of Seniority in the Social Structure of the Yoruba // American Anthropologist. 1942. Vol. 44. P. 37 - 46; idem. The Sociological Role of the Yoruba Cult Group // American Anthropologist. 1944. Vol. 46. N 1. Pt. 2; Fadipe N. A. The Sociology of the Yoruba. L., 1970.

^{Bascom W.R.} 7 The Principle of Seniority. P. 18 - 20.

^{Bascom W.R.} 8 Social Status, Wealth and Individual Differences Among the Yoruba // American Anthropologist. 1951. Vol. 53. N 4. Pt. 1. P. 490 - 505.

^{Lloyd P.С.} 9 The Yoruba Leanege // Africa. 1955. Vol. 25. N 4. P. 235 - 251; Divorce Among the Yoruba // American Anthropologist. 1968. Vol. 70. P. 67 - 81.

^{Lloyd P.C.} 10 The Yoruba Land Law. L., 1962.

^{Lloyd P. С.} 11 Itsekiri // Ethnographic Survey of Africa. 1957. Vol. 13.

^{Lloyd P. С.} 12 Agnatic and Cognatic Descent Among the Yoruba // Man. 1966. Vol. 1. N 4. P. 484 - 499.

^{Shwab W. B.} 13 Kinship and Leanege Among the Yoruba // Africa. 1955. Vol. 25, N 4. P. 352 - 373; Bender D.R. Agnatic or Cognatic? A Re- Evaluation of Ondo Descent // Man. 1970. N 5.

^{Ellis A.B.} 14 The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples. P. 125.

^{Lowie R.H.} 15 Culture and Ethnology. N.Y., 1917. P. 115.

^{Johnson R.S.} 16 The History of the Yorubas. P. 96 - 99.

^{Ford D.} 17 The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples. P. 13 - 15.

^{Fadipe N. A.} 18 The Sociology of the Yoruba. P. 29.

¹⁹ African Systems of Kinship and Marriage / Ed. A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and D. Ford. N.Y., 1987. P. 7.

^{Olderogge D. A.} 20 Descriptive systems of kinship of the peoples of Western Sudan. Moscow, 1964; on. Malay kinship systems // Proceedings of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow-L., 1951, vol. XIV, pp. 28-66.

^{Paarup-Laursen R.} 21 Some Social Institutes of the Yorubas. Copenhagen, 1999.

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^{Lloyd P.С.} 22 West African Kingdoms and the Early State: a Review of Some Recent Analyses // The Study of the State. The Hague, 1981. P. 223 - 238.

^Idem. 23 P. 227 - 229.

^{Kochakova N. B.} 24 The birth of African civilization: Ife, Oyo, Benin, Dahomey, Moscow, 1986; idem. The Sacred Ruler as the Ideological Centre of an Early State: The Precoloneal States of the Bight of Benin Coast // Ideology and the Formation of Early States. Leiden, 1996. P. 60.

^{Misyugin V. M.} [Three brothers in the system of archaic forms of inheritance of power]. Istoriya, etnografiya [History and Ethnography], Moscow, 1983, pp. 85-133.

^{Kochakova N. B.} 26 The birth of the African civilization ... pp. 205-209.

^{Izzet A.} 27 Family Life Among the Yoruba in Lagos, Nigeria // Social Change in Modern Africa. L., 1961. P. 305 - 316.

^{Obayemi A.} 28 The Yoruba and Edo-Speaking Peoples and Their Neighbours Before 1600 // History of West Africa. L., 1976. Vol. 1. P. 196 - 263; Akinjogbin J.A. The Oyo Empire in the Eighteenth Centuary. A Reassessment // Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria. 1966. Vol. 3; Dahomey and Its Neighbours 1708 - 1818. Cambridge, 1967; The Expansion of Oyo and the Rise of Dahomey 1600 - 1800 // History of West Africa. Vol. I. L., 1972.; Akintoye S.A. Ife's Sad Century // Nigeria Magazine. 1970. N 4.

²⁹ Women in Africa. Stanford, 1976; Danabar M. Kinship Theory in the Patriarhal Narrative // American Academy of Religion. Abstract of Proceedings. Missolina, 1976. P. 11 - 27; Marshall G.A. Women, Trade and the Yoruba Family / Thesis. Columbia University. 1964; idem. Religion and Kinship in a Nigerian Community: A Phenomenological Analyses of Ondo Yoruba Festivals. Stockholm, 1991.

³⁰ Stateless Societies in the History of West Africa // History of West Africa. Vol. I. Harrow (Essex), 1985. P. 87 - 128; Lopasic A. Gender and Traditional Village Art in Benin Province, Nigeria // Queens, Queen Mothers, Priestesses and Power. N.Y., 1997. P. 425 - 442.

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