Book
Tiv religion
Ibadan University Press • [ibadan, Nigeria] • Published In 1971 • Pages:
By: Downes, Rupert Major.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Major Downes, a colonial officer in 1930s Nigeria, presents a first hand account of Tiv religion as practiced in that period. For the Tiv, the natural, social and supernatural world are inextricably linked. For example, the TAR is a concept that refers to the lineage, the land it occupies and the souls of all the ancestors. Every natural object has a counterpart in a supernatural energy or force. Only elders initiated into specific rites can affect these forces for good or ill. Elders are the cause of all the good and evil in Tiv society, their good intentions augment fertility and productivity, but their bad intentions bring sickness and death. Elders carry out the AKOMBO rites which counteract evil and right wrongs. Also, in secret rituals at night, the souls of elders meet and consume the souls of agnates in a sacrificial act that benefits the TAR. Witches 'eat flesh' for selfish ends, and sometimes cause a person to unwittingly eat the soul of kinsman creating a flesh debt between groups which must be reciprocated, yet can never be annulled.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Representative art
- Lineages
- Sorcery
- General character of religion
- Animism
- Eschatology
- Sacred objects and places
- Purification and atonement
- Ethnozoology
- Ethnoanatomy
- 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
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Government Official
- 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
- Ian Skoggard ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1930s
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1930s
- 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
- by R. M. Downes ; with a foreword by James W. Robertson
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 72191270
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Tiv (African people)