5 Nov 2002
Anthro 306:The Tiv

• In non-centralized, "the lineage structure is the framework of the political system" -- "segmentary lineage"
• EP's e.g. = Nuer triebe, pastoral group in southern Sudan (EP published famous ethnography of Nuer, also 1940)
• more ethnog of seg groups; 1958 follow-up collection (Middleton & Tait) just on seg systems. One of most interesting examples was Tiv, ethnography by Paul & Laura Bohannan (a/k/a/ Elenore Bowen, author of Return to Laughter); showed how social and political systems were close linked to settlement pattern and agriculture
• Tiv homeland described by Bohannans. Examined interplay of local pop density, intens and mobility closely.
• Settlement pattern in which you live close to closest kin; agric pattern of heavy reliance on shifting cultivation.
• Tiv were constantly losing land to neighboring Tiv; neighbor encroaches you, you encroach another; so whole thing was pushing outward like a steamroller -- a creeping expansion in which lineage groups continually encroached the adjacent territories of other lineages. The steamroller examplified Sahlins's "predatory expansion". Bohannan also described "leapfrog migration": individuals or small groups moved to areas controlled by agnatic kin.
• high interest in seg system; Sahlins writes about "Predatory Expansion" by segmentary systems (1961). This analyzes seg lineage as an adaptive systems that evolves in inter-cultural env, adapted for predatory expansion -- moving into an occupied niche. The e.g.s were Nuer & Tiv (Nuer vs pastoralist Dinka; Tiv steamroller to S & N).
• much discussed idea ever since, although less interest in evo angle. Continued research on Nuer by Kelly, Hutchinson, but next to nothing on Tiv.
• I had several reasons to study. Bohannan ethnography was fine, but he never saw the steamroller to the north. So famous exemple of pred exp, but we didn't even know it was a steamroller. Who would the Tiv have been steamrolling to the N? Kofyar on the frontier.
• On northern frontier, no Tiv pushing so no creeping expansion; villages stable (Ukwese started 1940, still there today). But altho settlements stable, pop highly mobile; incessant movement -- between locations on frontier, between Tivland-frontier. Not leapfrog or a steamroller than it is like popcorn.
• Moves attributed to tsav: talent, charisma, science, witchcraft; every male elder has; may turn it to harmful ends. Each illness, accident, or reprod prob attributed to tsav. Tsav operates at close range, so move to escape it.
• Refugees from tsav taken in by immediate kin, or by a host who provides protection, like Chia. If you have a host, you are called ovanya (guest) of protector; it is a patron-client relationship in which host provides access to land and protection from tsav, while you support on local social/political issues. (Some Tiv say the reliance on protectors dates to time of slaving; plausible.)

• Movement possible because it's part of larger cultural package, including soc institutions that facilitate movement, make it cheaper and less risky than it is for the Kofyar
  
  
• maintain lower pop density: Ukwese's holdings 3.5 km, 200 people; pop density of 57/km
• Boserup model predict more extensive ag with this land and this is true. See image of Tiv fallow
• Boserup model predict lower work demands with ext ag, and this is true also
• Asamu Tiv have half the pop density of the Kofyar in Core Area even though Tiv have been on frontier much longer; Tiv put in 1/3 hrs/ha
• less time in fields; more time fishing and expecially travelling
• travel to frontier, homeland, etc. and esp to funerals; funerals certainly festive but underlying purpose is serious: building & maintaining soc networks. Even have a work society that supports funeral travel by giving travel grants.
• Note Sara Berry's comparative historical anth in 4 Afr countries; one common strategies = plying social networks to secure land when resources tighten. And for the Tiv, it's the networking that facilitates movement
• So movement keeps landbase
• Another key element to Tiv landbase is kicking out others like Kofyar who are "intruding". Who are rightful owners of the land? Actually land ownership is totally ambiguous.
• Tiv here since 30s. In the 1970s, a district head (not Tiv or Kofyar) became nominal chief of area where Tiv were
• in previous times, a chief would provide land for a token gift, but w/immigration, land becomes valuable; started selling land. Kofyar spilling out of Core Area; bought land at interstices of Tiv settlements, looked unused but Tiv considered it theirs.
• Tiv saw their territories as contiguous; didn't see the land as unused, they didn't recognize the Kofyars ' right to any land in their midst, and they were incensed by someone in a 3rd tribe selling THEIR land - So these interstitial communities have been the scene of rising conflict, agrarian terrorism.
• The legal basis for land rights is utterly ambiguous. The Nigerian Land Use Act is based on colonial misconceptions: leaves control of most rural lands to "customary law," assuming single "community" in any area. But Africa has pop movements, cultural mosaics. Anyway, local courts weak & corrupt.
• So what can Tiv do? Intensified a little, grudgingly. Mainly ran a campaign to publically demonstrate their local hegemony, establish territory, drive off non-Tiv population
• waged thru tactics ranging f/mischief to terrorism. Make pt. of displaying their presence. Chia's village located ON road. Also steal animals, crops, and property, trash Kofyar fields. Use cassava hedge on border to lure & kill goats.

Discussion

• Both K and T have farming economies, and both show integration of agriculture and other aspects of society
• Both are "sustainable" in having access to needed inputs and not destroying productive capacity of land
• However they take different routes re:intensification
• Comparison shows how basic production (farming in both cases) shapes social institutions and is also shaped by social institutions. Agriculture shapes social institutions like group labor, land tenure, settlement pattern. But with population pressure, intensification promoted by Kofyar labor institutions, social value of beer, knowledge, even values; while extensive/mobility promoted by Tiv conflict & travel institutions, witchcraft.