Documenting the Significance of the Ibibio Traditional Marriage Gift Items: A Communicative Approach

Abstract

Marriage is one of the culture universals being that it is contracted in every society of the world, but its mode of contract varies from one society to the other. This paper unravels the significance and reasons for the traditional marriage gifts in Ibibio traditional marriage. Gifts in general, have meanings attached when given or received but most importantly, they communicate the culture of the people and other forms of emotions. Through this work, the different items given and the significance of the gifts in Ibibio traditional marriage/ culture are shown. The theoretical framework is the semiotic approach which has to do with the science of sign system or signification which is amenable to this paper. This work was a purely qualitative research, where participant observation and unstructured interviews were employed. The scope of the study is the Ibibio ethnic group of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.