essay
The Yoruba of Nigeria
Peoples of Africa • New York • Published In 1965 • Pages: 549-582
By: Lloyd, Peter Cutt.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This summary article on the Yoruba was written by a British social anthropologist especially for this volume. The author's descriptions are authentic and reliable, deriving as they do from a decade of primary field research among the Yoruba. Due to its recency and comprehensiveness, this document should be read as a general introduction prior to consulting other specific material in the Yoruba file. While the author's framework is structural-functional, his analytical statements on the change and continuity in sociopolitical forms do not detract from the excellence of the ethnographic survey. Much of the recent economic dominance and political power of the Yoruba derive from maintaining patterns of wide market commerce. Historical evidence points to phases of empire formation and collapse, to the stage where Yoruba society now consists of a set of independent hereditary kingdoms--with considerable structural variability among them. But the administrative hierarchy of all is on some form of territorial-kinship basis, with the king and his council ultimately controlling the political and economic operations of lesser regional or district chiefs--common geneology or religion legitimating the state. Unifying the Yoruba now, in view of much rapid sociopolitical and economic change, is a sense of national Yoruba identity in language, culture, and myth. Some distinctive features of the society which the author stresses are: the extreme degree of traditional nonindustrial urbanization (possibly on a city-state pattern) and an urban settlement pattern combining both aristocratic noble elite and agrarian lower class peasantry; the anomalous economic and social status of women in their roles within the family and in the market; and the stabilizing of conflicts within the power structure, and principles of royal succession.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Ethos
- Settlement patterns
- Cities
- Urban and rural life
- External relations
- Ethnosociology
- Traditional history
- Mythology
- Cultural participation
- Form and rules of government
- Chief executive
- Territorial hierarchy
- Regulation of marriage
- Polygamy
- Clans
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Yoruba
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- 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
- Gilbert Winer ; 1967
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1949-1959
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1800-1960
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nigeria
- NotesAdditional notes
- Peter C. Lloyd
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 580-582)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 65010276
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Yoruba (African people)