Der. Begriff ‘hamitisch’ gehört mit zu den bisher am schwersten zu fassenden Problemen der Afrikanistik. Die Gründe dafür liegen einerseits in der phänotypen Verschiedenheit innerhalb der als ‘hamitisch’ geltenden Volksstämme, andererseits aber in dem sichtlichen Mangel einer einheitlichen Linie des geschichtlichen Werdegangs der Sprachen solcher Völker, soweit man einen solchen nach den Methoden der modernen Linguistik theoretisch festzustellen versucht hatte. Hier versagen solche Methoden, wenn auch nicht innerhalb des Einzelidioms, so doch im Hinblick auf einen historischen Sprachstamm. Während sich demgegenüber die rassisch auch nicht einheitlichen sogenannten Bantu schon durch den linguistisch einwandfrei und exakt festzustellenden historischen Bantu-Sprachstamm als eine geschichtliche Schicksalsgemeinschaft denkassimilierter afrikanischer Völker erweisen, so fehlt es auf dem Gebiete des ‘hamitisch’ genannten Volkstums durchaus an auch nur einigermassen systemfähigen allgemeinen Sprachkriterien. Während nämlich der moderne Afrikanist heute an der Hand von Meinhofs Vergleichsmethodik jederzeit imstande ist, schon bei erster Durchsicht eines in einem bislang noch unbekannt gewesenen afrikanischen Eingeborenenidiom abgefassten Textes eindeutig festzustellen, ob das Bantu ist oder nicht, und wenn ja, welche Stellung dieser Sprache im Rahmen des Gesammtsprachstammes zukommt, so war man bezüglich der Kriterien der Hamitensprachen bis vor Kurzem in der Hauptsache genötigt, ein mehr oder minder irrational formuliertes Allgemeinbekenntnis zum Glauben an eine sprachliche Einheit des Hamitischen abzulegen. Wer dann der gehörten Botschaft gegenüber seinen fehlenden Glauben betonen zu müssen meinte, den konnte man auch nicht widerlegen, selbst wenn er den ganzen Fragenkomplex rundweg negativ abzutun bereit war.

The last twenty years have witnessed great activity among investigators in the field of nutritional science. The new knowledge which has thus accrued is of vital human interest and concern. Different lines of study converge to show that a vast amount of ill-defined disease and poor health may be identified with latent phases of malnutrition, and that the effective performance of individuals and communities may be seriously limited on account of lowered resistance to disease, resulting from faulty diet.

Everywhere in Africa contact with the European is causing change and disturbance, institutional dislocation and disintegration. If Bantu society is to survive the shock, its disintegrating institutions must eventually resolve themselves into new or modified forms better suited to the changed conditions. This transition can be accomplished only by gradual, often painful adjustments, in which the responses and reactions to the challenge of the more advanced culture might be investigated and the nature of culture growth analysed. One of the most fruitful approaches to the sociological processes involved in culture growth and the implication of the changes that occur is the study of the impact of a foreign culture upon the family and its associated institutions. Disturbances in these are often the reflection of widespread social and economic disintegration, and the extent of the disturbance may be regarded as a measure of the shock that has been sustained by the society. The purpose of this attempt at describing and analysing changing conditions in marital and parental relations is to show the extent of disintegration, the weaknesses and disadvantages of some of the institutions that are proving inadequate to meet the new demands, and the nature of the adjustments that are being made to regain equilibrium.

The contemporary development of African chieftainship is a question of considerable practical importance. The attitude which it will adopt towards the native chief in his relations with his own people is one of the major questions of policy which every colonial government has to decide. Some hold that a native society can only be satisfactorily ruled by—or through (the words are not quite synonymous)— its traditional head; others that the first duty of the civilizing power is to free its native subjects from the oppression and tyranny of their own rulers; others make it their aim to steer a middle course, and preserve the native authority in his traditional position while adapting his functions to the requirements of the present day. All have in fact considerably altered by their mere presence both the nature and the basis of the chief's authority.

In considering the effects of the contact between African societies and European civilization, one is apt to forget that the exploitation of Africa by Europeans began more than five centuries ago. To trace the consequences of this long intercourse between Africa and Europe is a legitimate and worthwhile task. But is it a task for the social anthropologist? Previous contributors to the present symposium have emphasized the necessity of historical reconstruction in order to understand the effects of contact with European civilization upon a particular culture. They have been fortunate in dealing with cultures where the initial impact of the white man is recent enough to be within living memory. On the West Coast of Africa no feat of skill or imagination would suffice to establish a reliable zero point of culture contact. One would presumably have to be content with the construction of an ‘ideal type’ based on the scanty literature and on descriptions of cognate cultures. But must we therefore abandon every hope of investigating the influence of European civilization in these areas, and confine ourselves to the regions of recent contact where the procedure sponsored by Dr. Hunter and Dr. Mair can be successfully employed? I do not think so; and I shall endeavour to describe an approach which is, I believe, equally applicable both in societies which have recently come under the influence of culture contact, and those which have reached an advanced stage of Europeanization.

In devoting the present number of Africa to the problems of native diet, the Institute is dealing with a question of immediate practical importance, for there is at present very little accurate knowledge as to the food supply of the different African peoples. The influence of Western civilization is changing the native's mode of life throughout the African continent. In mining and industrial areas he often has to adapt himself to a different climate and altitude and new systems of housing and clothing. He usually has to work for longer hours and with greater intensity than before and is subjected to unaccustomed nervous strains and difficult psychological conditions.

I. The Ngoni People. Before I made my first camp in an Ngoni village, many Europeans had said to me, ‘There are practically no Ngoni left to-day. They are all hopelessly mixed with other tribes. None of them keep to the Ngoni customs any longer. Their chiefs are no good.’ From the doorway of my hut I saw people coming all day long to the Paramount Chief, behaving towards him with profound respect, bringing him presents, working for him. His children formed a special group in the village, easily recognizable by their bearing and their manners. Old indunas came to instruct me, as they had instructed chiefs in their day, on the duties of a ruler, and the code of Ngoni laws. Old warriors in war dress came and danced by the cattle kraal and sang praise songs. Courts were held with scrupulous regard for order and justice. Other chiefs came visiting from distant parts with their retinues, and were received ceremonially. It soon became apparent that here was the centre of a political state, whose head was invested with prestige and authority over a wide area, and where behaviour to the Paramount and to every one else was strictly regulated by custom, and as strictly observed. These were Ngoni, and they and their fellow Ngoni in other areas for the next ten months introduced me to the Ngoni people. The European assertion, that they no longer existed as a people, they laughed at, and proceeded to demonstrate that the contrary was true.

Although the term culture contact implies the existence of several cultures in mutual contact with one another, the African anthropologist is primarily interested in the one-sided effect of European or Asiatic culture upon native African culture. The opposite influence of Africa on Europe and Asia in Africa he can for his purposes discard with a brief survey of those factors that in turn affect the native contact situation, such as the influence of native labour on the system of European farming, or the specific social and economic attitude which the existence of a large native majority calls forth among the European and Indian minorities.

When we speak of a co-operative society we usually mean a financial organization somewhat in the nature of a bank. In Europe, indeed, this is the prevailing type. The best definition of this type is ‘financial co-operative society’, since money is the binding factor or the object of such a society, either in the form of members' subscriptions, credit, or in any other form. This journal has published two articles on the problem of co-operative societies as it occurs in Africa. Both Strickland and Mumford lay particular stress upon the financial aspect of co-operation; the former suggests the regulating of the native financial position as the main task of African co-operative societies, and the latter advocates Peoples’ Banks and co-operative societies on plantations with common capital, somewhat after the manner of the Raiffeisen and Schultze-Delitzsch associations. These are but suggestions, and they can point to the complete success of this kind of co-operative society in Europe, the importance of which can also be proved from tropical lands such as India. But how do matters stand in Africa, with its peculiar conditions? Here financial co-operation has scarcely made its appearance, and it is important from the ethnological point of view to study the background which makes it difficult for financial co-operation to gain an entry. The anthropologist must ask first and foremost, whether the native knows any form of co-operative work of his own, and if so, whether this indigenous form may not be made use of to build up a system of co-operative societies which is both modern and congenial. That is the question which the practical colonial politician addresses to the anthropologist: What are the natural sources of native co-operation, and what conditions must we observe if we wish to introduce a European form of co-operation? It is obvious that if the anthropologist considers these questions, a sound principle for co-operative work among the natives can be established. Even if we ascertain that financial co-operative societies are fundamentally foreign to the native, that does not affect the necessity of introducing them to-day. We must, however, determine the difficulties which beset the introduction of a system of financial co-operation, and thus help to overcome them.

Our knowledge of the linguistic groups in the Lake Chad area of Central Africa is very incomplete. In many respects the work of H. Barth, Central-African Vocabularies, 1862, is our only source of information. This source is incomplete, especially phonetically, and therefore of little value. The study of the sounds of African languages has developed very much recently, and there is no important school of African linguistics in which descriptive phonetics does not play an outstanding role.

Food and nutrition together provide a subject with many ramifications, and yet one on which but little direct research has been attempted in Africa. To gain an all-round view one must digress on the one hand into subjects such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, economics and sociology, in order to understand what food supplies exist for the native, and how they are being or might be used; while on the other hand there are involved medical and physiological studies on the native himself in health and disease, in order to estimate the results of nutrition whether good or bad.

Les malentendus que provoque fatalement dans les colonies la rencontre d'une civilisation supérieure avec des civilisations inférieures, dégénèrent de temps en temps en troubles violents. Ces mouvements de révolte se produisent plus fréquemment aux époques de crise économique. Si nous recherchons les causes profondes de ces mouvements, et de ces troubles, nous finissons presque toujours par y découvrir l'action de quelque panacée mystérieuse, détenue par une société secrète, ou mise à la disposition de la collectivité tout entière.

A Snake was out riding on his horse (runs a Hausa fable) when he met a Frog. ‘That is not the way to ride,’ said the Frog,‘all curled up in the saddle. If you get down, I will show you.’ The Snake dismounted, and gave his horse to the Frog. The Frog mounted, and sitting firmly in the saddle galloped twice down the road and back. ‘That is the way to ride,’ he said, as he dismounted. ‘Very good indeed,’ said the Snake; ‘and now give me back my horse. Having is better than knowing how. Since you have no horse, your horsemanship is of little use to you. I, on the other hand, having a horse, need not learn to ride, unless I wish.’

The biochemist and the anthropologist look at native food problems from very different points of view, but it seems clear that research on African diets will be of scientific value only if there is co-operation between the two. Without chemical analysis it is impossible to know the composition of any particular native diet. Without a knowledge of the customs and language of any tribal area the necessary facts cannot be collected. The present article describes an attempt at co-operation along these lines, based on a study of the diet of a Northern Rhodesian tribe.

In Nigeria there are two principal methods of contracting marriages (a) by the payment of a bride-price, and (b) by exchange.

I use the well-established term ‘bride-price’ in preference to the newfangled term ‘bride-wealth’ because the exact equivalent of the term ‘bride-price’ is used in many native Nigerian languages, and also because the term connotes a standard rate payable for a bride, whereas ‘bride-wealth’ is a vague term which seems to suggest the goods and chattels or wedding-presents of a bride.

Depuis la publication de nos diverses études sur l'allume-feu des populations du Congo Belge, nous avons reçu de divers collaborateurs d'Afrique de nombreux documents nouveaux sur les mythes et légendes qui se rapportent à l'origine et la première fabrication du feu chez diverses peuplades de l'Afrique Centrale.

Mawu, dieu le créateur, n'est pas le seul à intervenir dans les affaires de ce monde, tous les esprits inférieurs sont capables d'y jouer un rôle eux aussi. Il y a en particulier des esprits qui président à la vie des nations, des villages, des families; chaque homme a aussi durant toute sa vie un esprit tutélaire qui préside à son existence. Il est done tres important pour l'homme de connaître l'esprit tutélaire qui préside à sa destinée, ainsi que la manière de s'en faire un ami et un soutien. C'est cette connaissance que prétendent acquérir les devins, et nous allons nous appliquer à exposer leur méthode de divination d'après les renseignements qui nous ont été fournis par des devins eux-mêmes.

La fondation de l'État Indépendant du Congo date du Ier juillet 1885. Le 15 novembre 1908, cet État cessait d'exister pour être annexé à la Belgique et devenir le ‘Congo Belge’. Au cours des premières trente années, le Gouvernement eut, comme tâche principale, la pacification des populations indigènes, l'organisation des services d'intérêt public, l'étude des ressources économiques et le développement de leur outillage. La mise en valeur réelle de la Colonie ne débuta qu'en 1910. Le développement économique marqua depuis cette date une progression rapide et considérable.

This paper is an attempt to introduce the subject of morality for scientific discussion after a new manner. It is inspired throughout by that part of Professor Malinowski's work which relates to Primitive Law, and which he has developed in Crime and Custom in Savage Society, in his introduction to Dr. Ian Hogbin's Law and Order in Polynesia, and in his oral teaching at the London School of Economics in recent years. In his analysis of law Professor Malinowski finds himself driven to the study of the whole body of sanctioned custom, and of all the various attractions and compulsions that lead men to conform to a social tradition of right behaviour. A certain portion of that field is here delimited for separate description, namely morality, which is that part of right custom that is sanctioned by religion.

A Bird's eye view of the present Ibo linguistic situation is not in one sense an inspiriting prospect. A rich profusion of dialects makes intercommunication a problem both for the 3 1/4 million Ibo-speaking people themselves and for the Europeans who live among them. The European attempt—a gallant effort in the face of extreme difficulty—to produce a lingua franca known as Union Ibo will be regarded either as a mitigating factor or an added complication according to the onlooker's point of view. In any case it has become to some extent a bone of contention as has also the question of orthography. Two different scripts are at present in use in the country, adding thus to the difficulty of the Ibo who wants to read and write his own language and of the European who wishes to learn it. And the lot of the Europeans faced by a difficult tonal and dialect-riven language is made harder by the fact that few if any of them get adequate linguistic training before going to the country or enough time to work at the language after arriving in it.