The Symbolism and Communicative Contents of Dreadlocks in Yorubaland
Coutumes et cultures
Audio avec voix de synthèse, Braille automatisé
Résumé
Thisbook offers an interpretation of Yoruba people's affective responses to anadult Yoruba male with a 'deviant' hairstyle. The work, which views hairstylesas a form of symbolic communicative signal that encodes messages that areperceived and interpreted within a culture, provides an… ontological andepistemological interpretation of Yoruba beliefs regarding dreadlocks withreal-life illustrations of their treatment of an adult male with what they termirun were (insane person's hairdo). Based on experiential observationsas well as socio-cultural and linguistic analyses, the book explores thedynamism of Yoruba worldview regarding head-hair within contemporary beliefsystems and discusses some of the factors that assure its continuity. Itconcludes with a cross-cultural comparison of the perceptions of dreadlocks,especially between Nigerian Yoruba people and African American Yorubapractitioners.