The calabash and the horn
The calabash and the horn are objects of great cultural value in the bakossi and ngemba ethnic groups in the South West and North West regions of Cameroon respectively. While the calabash Is typical to the bakossi and the horn to the ngemba, both are sometimes used together in some cases. To a stranger, the calabash is simply a bottle gourd or a calabash gourd which is a large vine fruit and a horn is a hard curved and pointed outgrowth on the head of some animals like the cow but to the indigenes of these two ethnic groups, these objects are valuable materials to their culture. For the purpose of clarity, we will look at these two objects separately relating to the culture of these two ethnic groups.
The calabash …show more content…
It is used for drinking palm wine and it is owned and used exclusively by men but however, in the Ngemba culture, the drinking horn is owned and used only by titled men in the Fun’s (the ruler) palace and heads of families. Like the calabash, women are only permitted to drink from the horn on special occasions with permission from their husbands or the Fun but unlike in the bakossi culture, the ngemba women cannot drink the wine directly from the horn in the ngemba culture. They have to squat , hold together their hands like a funnel or a trench to their mouth and a man pours in the wine for her to drink. Like in the bakossi culture, Ngemba women own and keep large calabashes for similar purposes but the men also keep the big calabashes because of its size to store wine from where it is poured in to the drinking horn for …show more content…
These material objects are naturally very strong and durable and it is their material content that made it to be used by these communities in this way. (Tim Ingold 2007, 1) These objects are crafted in to their cultural value by special crafts men in the community who change their form from an ordinary object to a cultural material object. The forms and the value that these materials in these cultures take do not depend with a preconceived image of the finished product in the mind, but rather arises out the engagement between people and the material world through skilled practice. (Ingold 2007)
These crafts men also use their skills to make other benefits for themselves by giving out some of their finished products say a male calabash or a drinking horn as gifts especially to visiting elites of their tribe and in turn, such elites will give them items from the city like hot drinks or money in appreciation for the gifts they receive. here, although reciprocity is not expressly intended in such exchange, it is however practiced as gifts objects are never truly free. This safeguard the economic interest attributed to the concept of the gift.(Marcel Mauss
The calabash and the horn are objects of great cultural value in the bakossi and ngemba ethnic groups in the South West and North West regions of Cameroon respectively. While the calabash Is typical to the bakossi and the horn to the ngemba, both are sometimes used together in some cases. To a stranger, the calabash is simply a bottle gourd or a calabash gourd which is a large vine fruit and a horn is a hard curved and pointed outgrowth on the head of some animals like the cow but to the indigenes of these two ethnic groups, these objects are valuable materials to their culture. For the purpose of clarity, we will look at these two objects separately relating to the culture of these two ethnic groups.
The calabash …show more content…
It is used for drinking palm wine and it is owned and used exclusively by men but however, in the Ngemba culture, the drinking horn is owned and used only by titled men in the Fun’s (the ruler) palace and heads of families. Like the calabash, women are only permitted to drink from the horn on special occasions with permission from their husbands or the Fun but unlike in the bakossi culture, the ngemba women cannot drink the wine directly from the horn in the ngemba culture. They have to squat , hold together their hands like a funnel or a trench to their mouth and a man pours in the wine for her to drink. Like in the bakossi culture, Ngemba women own and keep large calabashes for similar purposes but the men also keep the big calabashes because of its size to store wine from where it is poured in to the drinking horn for …show more content…
These material objects are naturally very strong and durable and it is their material content that made it to be used by these communities in this way. (Tim Ingold 2007, 1) These objects are crafted in to their cultural value by special crafts men in the community who change their form from an ordinary object to a cultural material object. The forms and the value that these materials in these cultures take do not depend with a preconceived image of the finished product in the mind, but rather arises out the engagement between people and the material world through skilled practice. (Ingold 2007)
These crafts men also use their skills to make other benefits for themselves by giving out some of their finished products say a male calabash or a drinking horn as gifts especially to visiting elites of their tribe and in turn, such elites will give them items from the city like hot drinks or money in appreciation for the gifts they receive. here, although reciprocity is not expressly intended in such exchange, it is however practiced as gifts objects are never truly free. This safeguard the economic interest attributed to the concept of the gift.(Marcel Mauss