1st Edition
Valenge Women Social and Economic Life of the Valenge Women of Portuguese East Africa
When first published in 1933, this monograph shed new light on the life of the Valenge women of Portuguese East Africa. It discusses their social organisations, family relationships, education, tribal customs, and contains detailed information concerning initiation rites, religion, magic and sorcery. The volume collects a large number of native texts, rituals and formulae, thereby converting oral tradition into material of great value not only to students of Africcan ethnography but also to anthropologists more widely.
1. Origin and History
2. Social Organization and Kinship System
3. Valenge Women: Their Homesteads
4. The Agricultural Year 5. Material Culture 6. Birth Rites 7. Early Education 8. Games 9. String Figures 10. Tatuing, Scarification and Tribal Marks
11. Puberty, Initiation
12. Marriage, Relation Between the Sexes
13. Death
14. Dances
15. Religion, Magic and Sorcery
16. Folklore and Proverbs.
Conclusion.
Appendix: The Sibs of Gazaland
Biography
E. Dora Earthy
The International African Institute might well authorize the publication of a book planned and executed in so scientific a spirit.' Times Literary Supplement