ABSTRACT

When first published in 1933, this monograph shed new light on the life of the Valenge women of Portuguese East Africa. It discusses their social organisations, family relationships, education, tribal customs, and contains detailed information concerning initiation rites, religion, magic and sorcery. The volume collects a large number of native texts, rituals and formulae, thereby converting oral tradition into material of great value not only to students of Africcan ethnography but also to anthropologists more widely.

chapter |2 pages

Prologue

chapter I|8 pages

Origin and History

chapter II|9 pages

Social Organization and Kinship System

chapter III|8 pages

Valeŋge Women. Their Homesteads

chapter IV|5 pages

The Agricultural Year

chapter V|28 pages

Material Culture

chapter VI|23 pages

Birth Rites

chapter VII|6 pages

Early Education

chapter VIII|5 pages

Games

chapter IX|7 pages

String Figures

chapter XI|28 pages

Puberty. Initiation

chapter XII|16 pages

Marriage, Relation Between the Sexes

chapter XIII|19 pages

Death

chapter XIV|10 pages

Dances

chapter XV|44 pages

Religion, Magic, and Sorcery

chapter XVI|12 pages

Folk-lore and Proverbs

chapter |2 pages

Conclusion