Anthropology: The paradox of success.

Like many African people native to sub-Saharan Africa, funeral rituals play an important role in the lives of the Igbo people of Nigeria. (Smith 2004:569). For the Igbo people, funerals appear to be the greatest community demonstration of the scope of kinship that an Igbo family has attained. In the paper I will demonstrate to you the reader how funeral rituals of the Igbo people express ideas on kinship, solidarity and tension. We will then look at how funeral rituals express ideas on wealth, prestige and the importance of patron-client relations and finally we demonstrate how urban-rural transitions and the influence of modernity affect ritual performance.

In Igbo culture there is a paradox of success. Patron-client relations are evident in the relations between all kin. According to Smith, everyone in Igbo culture is a patron to a lesser person and a client to a more powerful person. (2004:570). Everyone is encouraged to succeed in all aspects of their lives. This attitude means that there is social competition between kin. As a result of this, tension develops as kin experience resentment when someone else attains wealth.

Rural-urban migration is an important aspect of the Igbo culture. The further relatives have migrated, the more honour is endowed upon that person’s family. (Smith 2004:572). Igbo people feel that this is the highest form of success one can attain. What you have then is an immediate patron-client relationship developing. Relatives in urban areas are expected to share their success with relatives back in their rural homelands. This can come in many forms but is usually in the form of financial support. Paranoia may develop arising from the question is the patron sharing a fair amount of their success with the clients? (Smith 2004:572).

Now that we understand some of the social dynamics in Igbo culture, we can go on to analyze funeral rituals and central ideas that are express hereof. Before Christians arrived in Nigeria, the Igbo were buried on the same day that they died. The political economy that colonialist brought with them changed this ritual. (Smith 2004:573) Because of the modernity of the economy, industrial centers were much too far away from homelands to allow for same day funerals. As a result of modernity, the funeral rituals of the Igbo people have changed.

Funerals reveal the social dynamics behind the Igbo’s status quo. We have also seen that rituals, which are normally against change, do so in order to maintain priority rituals, namely the importance to be buried in one’s homeland.

Bibliography:

· Jordan Smith, D. 2004. ‘Burials and belonging in Nigeria: Rural-urban relations and social inequality in a contemporary African ritual.’ American Anthropologist. 106(3): 569-589.