Sachgebiete

Beschreibung:

163 S.; Illustrationen (tls. auch farbig); 30,5 cm; fadengeh. Orig.-Pappband.

Bemerkung:

Ein gutes Ex.; Einband etwas berieben u. nachgedunkelt. - Englisch. - In publishing this part of the late missionary Karl Laman's work the same rules have been observed as in the publication of Part I. Thus Laman's chapter sequence has been followed while repetitions and contradictions have been eliminated as far as possible. A short, contradictory section with two genealogical tables has been excluded. The chapter on diseases has been rearranged with the help of Docent Ivar Werner, and the final check with the original manuscript, which is written in Kongo, has been performed by Fil. Dr. Efraim Andersson. The illustrated objects from Laman's collection were placed at my disposal through the kindness of Prof. Sigvald Linne (The State Ethnographic Museum, Stockholm). The drawings have been done, with unfailing interest and accuracy, by Mr. Harald Faith-Ell (Stockholm). The translation of what from many points of view proved to be a very difficult text has been carried out with great skill by Mr. Donald Burton (Stockholm). ... (Vorwort S. Lagercrantz) // INHALT : Preface. ----- 1. Childhood. ----- 2. Marriage. ----- 3. Family relations. ----- 4. Sickness. ----- 5. Death. ----- 6. Ownership. ----- 7. Civil law. ----- 8. The penal code. ----- 9. Social organization ----- 10. Administration. // ... When a nganga has been summoned he asks whether the woman giving birth or her husband have not been guilty of fornication. The culprit must then confess this to the other and the child will now be born. Many secret sins are revealed in this way, and the custom is still practised. If there is no such confession to be made and the confinement is nevertheless protracted, threats and even violence are resorted to. In this case the woman is said to be afraid of giving birth and wants to get rid of the child, and the husband and others therefore frighten her in many ways. The husband clamours and shouts grimly, whets his knife on the ground to cut a coil of rope and go and hang himself in wrath and sorrow. The chief of the village also makes a hullaballoo. The woman's brothers and others may also come and express their wrath in many ways. They may frighten her with guns, cover her eyes, threaten to choke her in the belief that through fear she may get the courage and the force to give birth. If despite all this she does not start expelling the child with force, and the child's head begins to appear, but vanishes again, then her female assistants commence to rail at her terribly, and twist her ears and nose, so that the strainings necessarily become forceful. Sometimes the pregnant woman is not allowed to enter the house, in spite of the chill of the night. The assistants tear off her rags of clothing instead, rail at her and say: "Why should you be tormented like this unnecessarily? Listen, how the water rushes forward. See, his head is pointed like a banana-flower. The ears are projecting and as big as the top of a mushroom. The eyes are protruding like the eyes of a hanged goat. Are you going to let another's child perish? I think that you, too, have been excreted (nenwa), eh? Well, how is it? Say, is there no difficulty in giving birth? Take your excrement, then, that you are expelling and make it into a child." They may also say: "Eh, squeeze strongly this spook! Eh, squeeze strongly this corpse. The fold of the neck is left. Eh, strain hard, or are you going to be rid of the child?" and so forth. Sometimes the husband of the woman sacrifices a hen and invokes Nakongo, Mak-wende or some other nkisi to drive away the spirits and bandoki that are preventing the delivery. The nganga may also assist by giving medicine to the woman. If the birth is proceeding passably, they must sing by way of encouragement: "Eh, hold fast (takalala). Eh, hold fast surely. Eh, only keep it up. Eh, only strain. Eh, strain. Eh, separate (baasa). Eh, split in two." After a short time: "Eh, the neck-ring. Eh, the neck." If it is a boy they cry: "Eh, a male nganga, his mother's glory." If it is a girl, they are quite silent. They say merely: "A big child, she was almost unable to give birth to it." ? (Seite 3)