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The staff of life: Food and female fertility in a West African society1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Peter M. Weil
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Extract

This paper is an examination of the dynamics of the kanyalangkafo, a cross-cultural fertility association. It first examines the changing economic and social environment of the Mandinka to clarify the factors relevant to the spread and acceptance of the fertility association.

The second part of the paper describes the history and organization of the association.

In the last part of the paper, the activities of the association and the ritually inverted sexual behaviour of its members are analyzed. Social integration is shown to be brought about in the presence of and partly because of the association and its activities. The integrative results include the manner in which the association organizes women and the social environment within which associational behaviour occurs. Models stemming from analyses of ritually inverted sexual behaviour are found to be generally supported by data from the Mandinka case.

Résumé

UN FACTEUR VITAL DÉTERMINANT: LA PRODUCTION ALIMENTAIRE ET LA FERTILITÉ DES FEMMES DANS UN SOCIÉTÉ D'AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE

Les sociétés rurales africaines se voient forcées à l'adaptation par les pressions de plus en plus fortes qu'exercent sur elles les marchés commerciaux auxquels elles participent. On examine ici l'acceptation d'un rapport direct avec la fertilité et le rôle que joue celui-ci dans le mode d'adaptation à ces pressions qui a été adopté par une société, les Malinké de Gambie. Ainsi, le déclassement des hommes par les femmes dans le processus de la production alimentaire, l'importance nouvelle qui est placée sur la famille élémentaire en tant que cellule de production, et le travail de l'individu en tant que moyen de production ont contribué à l'établissement d'un lien entre la production alimentaire, les naissances et les femmes. L'analyse montre que ce rapport est une innovation d'ordre social qui a pour résultant d'aligner le statut des femmes et de les intégrer, ainsi que de fournir, par le biais d'une inversion sexuelle rituelle, des mécanismes svmboliques permettant de surmonter un manque de fertilité tout en offrant une voie légitime à la compétition dans le domaine de la production alimentaire et des naissances.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , April 1976 , pp. 182 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1976

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