essay

Three source notebooks in Tiv ethnography

Human Relations Area FilesNew Haven, Conn.Published In 1958 • Pages:

By: Bohannan, Paul, Bohannan, Laura.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This source represents an experiment in putting anthropological field notes into the Files. These notes contain excerpts from official documents, selected and commented upon by the authors in addition to original field materials. The source is divided into three parts or notebooks. The first part is a compilation of official reports on Tiv history and political organization. Of particular interest to the ethnographer are the reports on the Nyambua cult, a mass movement with political overtones. The second part deals with subsistence, technology, and economics. It is organized entirely from the authors' field notes. The last part consists of information on Tiv life cycle. Materials on infant and child care, adulthood, senescence and death, and life histories are also included. There is a compilation of official and missionary correspondence on the institution of exchange marriage and the effects of its abolition. It is the authors' opinion that official reports on Tiv family groups, sub-clans, clans, and tribes should be properly looked upon as descriptions of different aspects of the Tiv lineage system; and they have been coded as such in this source. The authors, professional anthropologists, organized and prepared these notes especially for the Human Relations Area Files.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Historical and archival research
History
Mode of marriage
Districts
Political movements
Congregations
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Tiv
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
1998
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.
Ethnologist
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
Robert Lee ; 1958 ; Leon G. Doyon ; 2022
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1949-1953
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1910-1953
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Benue State, Nigeria
NotesAdditional notes
Paul and Laura Bohannan
unpublished manscript
Includes bibliographical references (p. 480)
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Tiv (African people)