GREEN, M. M.2024-03-132024-03-131964https://nigeriareposit.nln.gov.ng/handle/20.500.14186/1399Except for corrections to the text and the addition of a short new preface this book has been left unaltered. Any value it has is in the specific picture it offers of life as it appeared to be lived in an Igbo village at a particular stage of its history. It is twenty six years since I lived in Umueke. Eighteen months ago, when I was staying in Umuahia, I paid it a flying visit of an hour—all that was practicable at the time. Many of my friends had died but I found the one I was specially looking for, and his wife. I had been told that “ progress ” everywhere was such that I should not know the place. And so far as the big towns and the main roads arc concerned much material improvement has taken place. But in the rural areas one wondered. No doubt “ progress ” is bound to be uneven, but one hopes, as many of my African friends hope, that it is not making the rich richer and the poor poorer. The people of Umueke crowded round me and my companion and urged us to help them with their agriculture or by coming and starting up a “ business ” of some kind among them. On the spot the significance of this was impossible to assess. But there was no mistaking the problem of unemployment in Eastern Nigeria, especially among the young people. Nor was there any doubt about the need to increase the production of home grown food. It is good to know that the present Prime Minister of Eastern Nigeria stresses the importance of agriculture. If it were possible, one day, to live again for a time in Umueke as an ordinary individual, and to supplement scientific detachment by personal involvement, the result might be illuminating. To be a social anthropologist in the field is a severe strain both on one’s own humanity and on that of the people one is among. One can but be grateful for their tolerance.Village Organisation: introduction; The Village-Group; The Structure of the Village; The Economic Side of Village Life; Village Organisation and the Supernatural Sphere; The Military and Civil Aspects of Village Organisation;. The Law in Maintenance; The Law in Breach (I); The Law in Breach(II); Law Making; Dual Division; Exogamy: The System of Exogamy; The Implications of Exogamy; Women’s Organisation: Women’s Work; Groups based on Place of Marriage; Groups based on Place of Birth.enBook