What Do “Message-Names” Say? The Management of Kinship and the Act of Naming among the Bwa (Mali) - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue L'Homme - Revue française d'anthropologie Année : 2011

What Do “Message-Names” Say? The Management of Kinship and the Act of Naming among the Bwa (Mali)

Résumé

Among the Bwa, as in other African societies, an individual’s name often convey a message addressed to a third person. These messages, conveyed by the names that grandparents have given to children, provide a way to state what may not be said outright, in particular about family relations or marriages. In a context where language is thought to have a strong performative value, uttering one’s opinion in veiled terms when a child is born provides proof of the person’s skills not just in using language but also in managing relations with kin. Even though a person’s common names seem anecdotal and circumstantial, their pragmatic function should not be over-looked, especially in relation to the facts of kinship. In this context, the act of naming in the form of a message-name apparently serves to adjust the normative aspects of kinship to actual practices.
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halshs-01408996 , version 1 (05-12-2016)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-01408996 , version 1

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Cécile Leguy. What Do “Message-Names” Say? The Management of Kinship and the Act of Naming among the Bwa (Mali) . L'Homme - Revue française d'anthropologie, 2011, 197, https://www.cairn-int.info/revue-l-homme-2011-1-page-71.htm&wt.src=pdf. ⟨halshs-01408996⟩

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