essay

Names among the Tallensi of the Gold Coast

Afrikanistische Studien, herausgegeben von J. LukasBerlinPublished In 1955 • Pages: 337-349

By: Fortes, Meyer.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This short article gives a description of names and name-giving among the Tallensi. Each person has a public and a private name, the latter not being secret. The private name refers generally to an ancestor who is the guardian spirit of the owner of the name. The public name can refer to almost any circumstance of interest to the name-giver. The article closes with a brief discussion of names taken at the investiture of chiefs and the ten'daanas. Fortes is Willliam Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Personal names
Naming
Spirits and gods
Luck and chance
Sacred objects and places
Eschatology
Clans
Techniques of socialization
Community heads
Priesthood
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Tallensi
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2010
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Western Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Social Anthropologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Timothy J. O'Leary ; 1957
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1934-1937
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1934-1937
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Tongo village, Ghana
NotesAdditional notes
Meyer Fortes
Includes bibliographical references
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
56035614
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Tallensi (African people)