Aspects of Mende Life and Culture: An Anthropological Perspective (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798858982173)

As human beings we express practically every aspect of our daily lives through our cultural beliefs. Such may be gender relations, kinship terminology, religion, economic transactions, politics, modes of education, conflict resolution, architecture, modes of production, culinary and dietary habits and many more. In short, culture is a people's way of life.
One of the constants or characteristics cultural anthropologists point out to us is the tremendous variability of culture; cultural beliefs and practices vary from place to place even within the same country.
An inevitable consequence of this variability is that culture can easily become a site for misunderstanding, miscommunication and misrepresentation. The cultural beliefs and practices of other people do not always make sense to us and vice versa. By way of illustration, let us take the example of the use of kinship terminology. Such terms are used with great precision in western cultures. A brother or sister in such cultures means just that. By contrast, one finds that among the Mende, kinship terms are far more elastic. People coming from the same town or region may consider themselves as 'brothers' and 'sisters.' It is a fairly common practice in Sierra Leone to hear people referring to someone as 'auntie' this or 'uncle' that where virtually no family ties exist. This can cause confusion in the minds of outsiders.
My own lived experience of culture in and outside Sierra Leone, teaching Cultural Anthropology at the St Paul's Major Seminary, Regent, Freetown for a number of years has alerted me to this aspect of culture.
Aspects of Mende Life and Culture is an attempt to deal with this issue. This work underscores the fact that Mende cultural beliefs and practices are informed by an underlying logic even when this may not always be apparent to both the insider and outsider. It is an invitation to figure out such logic before giving way to misunderstanding. Mende religion, names and naming, proverbs, notions of personhood all have their rational explanation.
Hopefully the work makes a contribution to minimising the conflicts that arise in our country and in the world at large originating from cultural misunderstandings.
Joseph Tamba Kamanda
Department of Sociology and Social Work
Fourah Bay College

Author: Joseph Tamba Kamanda
ISBN-13: 9798858982173
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 08/25/2023
Pages: 118
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.37lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.25d