Beyond Merry-Making: Customs of Indigenous Peoples and the Normative Functions of Ceremonies in Precolonial Igbo Societies

Abstract

Precolonial societies in the eastern part of Nigeria had intricate normative regimes for social governance. The norms, laws, rules, and institutions often interacted in complex webs. One of the least studied institutions for social control and governance is ceremonies. Ranging from ceremonies associated with the birth of a child to those associated with various aspects of infancy, puberty, adulthood, marriage, death, and burials, the various ceremonies were not merely instruments of social governance but also veritable vehicles for the transmission and diffusion of knowledge about the environment and ecology. This chapter examines the salient and multifaceted dimensions of ceremonies in traditional Igbo societies and the ways in which those ceremonies were often deployed to educate the young and prepare them for life in the traditional settings.