| dc.description.abstract | Among the Mbeere, a Bantu people'of Central Kenya,
two types of conflict provide the motive force for
the performance of initiation ceremonial and oath taking
ritual. Structural conflict occurs when contradictory
social principles lead people into disagreement,
and the initiation ceremonial plays upon
this conflict. Specifically, men are faced with
greater bride wealth obligations than their resources
at any given time permit them to meet. It is im-
.possible to satisfy at once the just demands of
affiances and the equally compelling demands of
patrilineal kinsmen. At the time of 'the initiation
of a youth, the father of the initiate must confront
his wife's patrilineal kinsmen who ,make claims they
assert have been avoided they demand respect and
hospitality, both symbolizing their just claims
for providing a wife and indirectly her children for
another patrilineal descent group. The failure
of an agnatic group to meet their moral responsibility
to affines because that group must also
satisfy other pressing obligations creates structural
conflict which stimulates much of the dramatic
agony at initiation.
Litigious conflict expressed in oath-taking
rituals is part of legal procedure and differs
from structural conflict. Litigious conflict
is not the result of the incompatibility of
social principles or values. Instead, litigious
conflict stems from legal disputes over such matters
as theft, land ownership, or violations of the norms
of interpersonal relationships. Such conflict
is settled through traditional legal procedure
supervised by local councils of elders or by the
court. The ritual oath requires the consumption
of goat's blood ritually prepared to insure
truthful testimony, punish perjurers, and alleviate
antagonism between litigants. Traditionally,
the oath's power lies in its threat of supernatural
.'
sanctions in the form of illness or death for those
who swear falsely or fail to follow the injunctions
of the oath. Recently, the impact of education and
Christianity has eroded faith in the efficacy of
the oath. In the recent spate of disputes over
land ownership, the oath has failed to settle
litigious conflict but has latetly functioned to
affirm competing alliances.
The focal themes of the ritual oath and the
ceremonial initiation are played out for different
reasons. Oaths are sworn because of the inevitable
failure of human behavior always to conform to ideal
rules. Initiation, on the other hand, reflects the
inability of human action to satisfy differing and
situation ally incompatible moral rules. In the
first instance, a breach of a single rule or value
brings about litigation and the formalized recreation
of the original conflict, successful
litigation and the reaffirmation of the abrogated
rules are sought through the ritual oath. In the
second instance, personal aspiration or morally
sanctioned obligations to agemates may interfere with
moral obligations to affines; the initiation ceremonial
provides one means for upholding affinal
relationships paradoxically by emphasizing
the very conflicts which both threaten and define
those relationships. In agreeing to 'disagree, that
is to mime the conflict, affines formally emphasize
the ties binding them together incular life. | en |
