| dc.contributor.author | Ogbomo, Onaiwu Wilson. | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-10-21T12:33:26Z | |
| dc.date.available | 1993 | |
| dc.date.issued | 1993 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.other | AAINN93719 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10222/55392 | |
| dc.description | Drawing upon narrative tradition and totemic observances, shrine and goddess legends as well as festivals and re-enactment ceremonies, this study examines gender relations between c.1320 and the onset of colonialism around 1900, among the Owan people of southern Nigeria. Writing the history of a people in an age without one written primary document, it has been necessary to create a chronology by the fusion of numerous genealogies cross referenced to the generations of the kings of Benin as set forth in that kingdom's royal chronicle. | en_US |
| dc.description | The major conclusions suggest that the Owan people lived in acephalous (chiefless) possibly matrilocal communities, following matrilineal descent patterns. Goddess traditions and festivals suggest female authority figures so that the era before c.1320 may be referred to as matriarchal. | en_US |
| dc.description | Beginning about c.1320, a migration of patriarchal-inclined settlers flowed into Owan, seeking to enhance the status of males through the introduction of titles, attempts at chieftaincy and control of historical tradition. They created male founders and community charters as if there had been no pre-existing society. These male efforts were hindered by the sustained demand for raw cotton, cotton thread and cloth all of which fell under female control. | en_US |
| dc.description | When the cotton demand collapsed c.1700, the status of women sharply declined. The new economic asset, palm products, belonged to males. The age of patriarchy had begun and flourished with patrilocality and patrilinealism enhanced by Islamic forces in the nineteenth century and crowned by the installation of male chiefs by the colonial British about 1900. | en_US |
| dc.description | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 1993. | en_US |
| dc.language | eng | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Dalhousie University | en_US |
| dc.publisher | | en_US |
| dc.subject | History, African. | en_US |
| dc.title | Men and women: Gender relations and the history of Owan communities, Nigeria c.1320-1900. | en_US |
| dc.type | text | en_US |
| dc.contributor.degree | Ph.D. | en_US |
