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Nyoro Symbolism and Nyoro Ethnography: A Rejoinder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

J. H. M. Beattie
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Extract

This paper attempts to clarify a little further certain of the symbolic categories of the Banyoro of western Uganda, and at the same time to refocus attention on some of the methodological difficulties involved in the analysis of ethnographic material through the framework of the binary mode of symbolic classification. This entails some consideration of a recent contribution to this journal by Professor Rodney Needham, in which he attempts to rebut my detailed criticisms of his version of some aspects of Nyoro symbolism (Needham 1976; Beattie 1968; see also Needham 1967; 1973; and Beattie 1976: 232 n. 4). In doing so he repeats certain of his earlier misrepresentations, as well as introducing some new ones. He also asserts, of a number of my own—and some other—publications on Nyoro ritual and symbolism, to which I had drawn attention, that ‘they were either not relevant to [his] train of argument or, in general, were redundant to [his] primary sources’ (Needham 1976: 237). These assertions must be very briefly considered before I go on to deal with the further arguments he now advances.

Résumé

SYMBOLISME NYORO; ETHNOGRAPHIE NYORO: UNE RÉPONSE

Dans un article récent (‘Nyoro symbolism: the ethnographic record,’ paru dans Africa 46: 236–46), le professeur Rodney Needham avait tenté de réfuter certaines critiques que j'avais formulées dans Africa 38: 413–42 à l'égard de la représentation de la nature du symbolisme Nyoro qu'il avait d'abord proposée (Africa 37: 425–51). Il affirmait également que plusieurs travaux sur certains aspects de la culture Nyoro, travaux réalisés par moi-même et par d'autres chercheurs et que j'avais cités, n'avaient aucun rapport avec ses propres arguments ou ne faisaient que les reprendre.

Ce sont ces affirmations que je rejette dans la première partie de ce rapport: j'y démontre l'incompatibilité manifeste des données ethnographiques présentées dans les sources indiquées avec un certain nombre des interprétations proposées par Needham. Dans la seconde partie, je passe en revue onze questions d'ordre ethnographique sur lesquelles avaient déjà porté mes critiques et que Needham avait alors tenté d'élucider. Pour ce qui est de quelques unes de ces questions, un nouvel examen du matériel ethnographique montre que les ‘faits’ (dans la mesure où ceux-ci peuvent être considérés comme tels), diffèrent énormément de la représentation qu'en donne Needham; quant aux autres questions, un tel examen montre que l'on peut aboutir à des conclusions solidement corroborées et qui sont contraires à celles auxquelles il avait lui-meme abouti, si l'on considère non pas une fraction seulement du matériel ethnographique, mais tout l'ensemble de celui-ci. En conclusion, en dépit des qualités indéniables de l'étude de Needham sur le symbolisme Nyoro, son analyse perpétue encore, dans un certain nombre de contextes, une présentation sérieusement erronée du caractère des représentations symboliques Nyoro.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 1978 , pp. 278 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1978

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