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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Um discurso conjugal em relevo para uma (des)codificação posicional das figuras esculpidas nos 'Mabaia Manzangu' de Cabinda |
Author: | Vergani, Teresa |
Year: | 1988 |
Periodical: | Revista internacional de estudos Africanos |
Issue: | 8-9 |
Pages: | 93-155 |
Language: | Portuguese |
Geographic terms: | Angola Cabinda |
Subjects: | proverbs sculpture |
Abstract: | This article examines a particular category of proverbs, traditionally used by the people of Cabinda, Angola, at crucial moments of matrimonial life, and expressed in the form of sculptured figures ('mabaia manzangu'; sing. 'libaia linzungu') on the lids of cooking pots which are brought to the 'table' at meals. Through the use of mabaia manzangu husband and wife are able to express - in a codified but public form - feelings which need an urgent reply in terms of behaviour. On the basis of a mathematical analysis of the messages represented on 17 mabaia manzangu, the author shows the spatial opposition of clusters of 'men's words' and 'women's words'; the specific nature of the central figures and the horizontal separation of the proverbial right and left regions; the cultural importance of diametrical lines; disjunctions and configurations of dual proverbs; and the violence of the sexual division in certain proverbial expressions. Notes. |