ABSTRACT
In general, the fruits of any trees growing on farm-land belong to the owners of that land, whereas anyone is free to pick fruit from trees grow ing in the bush. Among the Tallensi, however, the chief owns the products of all dawa-dawa trees in his clan settlement, and Rattray says that in the old days such trees belonged to the tengdana among the Kusasi, but “when the tree was growing on a man’s own home-farm, the tenedan would share the fruit with h i m”. (2)
L I F E C Y C L E
1. PREGNANCY AND BIRTH
In the native view both men and women have equally vital roles in the act of procreation, conception being believed to be due to the mingling of the male and female sexual fluids after the sexual act. Fortes says the Tallensi have a somewhat vaguely formulated notion of a procreative essence, or active principle, the naamis, which is distinct from the sexual fluids and on which conception finally depends.(3) There is no evidence regarding the existence of a similar belief among other peoples in the area.
