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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Secrets and Society: The Beng of Cote d'Ivoire |
| Author: | Gottlieb, Alma |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Periodical: | Mande Studies |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Pages: | 129-151 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ivory Coast - Côte d'Ivoire |
| Subjects: | Beng indigenous knowledge Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/44078794 |
| Abstract: | Despite the absence of formal secret societies, much of Beng society (Côte d'Ivoire) is constructed around a broad imperative to secrecy that is evident not only in formal and/or ritual settings, but in multiple daily encounters as well. This article discusses the nature of secrecy in Beng society and its implications for Beng epistemology. The author emphasizes the ways that secrecy can pervade individual consciousness not only through ritual events performed on an occasional basis, but also in the myriad acts performed and decisions made as people go about living their lives. She addresses the relationship that such a generalized engagement with secrecy holds to other segments of Beng society, highlighting a contrasting set of expectations and behaviours that emphasizes publicity for actions that many Westerners might expect to be kept private. She further considers the implications that this dual-layered system holds for an understanding of culture at large and suggests that secrecy may be as intrinsic a defining feature of even a face-to-face, tight-knit society as is the more classically accepted factor of shared knowledge. The article is based on research carried out among the Beng in 1979-1980, 1985, and 1993. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |
