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The Northern Bantu
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Historical SummaryThere are certain modifications and mutilations of the body which may be voluntarily undertaken and remain no more than personality expressions on the level of ornament and cosmetics, or they may accompany the long and often dangerous puberty ceremonies, entitled rites de passage by van Gennep, by which the older age levels of the tribe test, subordinate, and socialize the younger, and at the same time leave on their bodies marks symbolizing their classification as adults and their marriageability. Two types of definition of the situation are evident, the one where the individual undertakes or submits to transformations of the person for the sake of distinction, as in tattooing, staining, filing, and knocking out of teeth, boring the nose or lips for the insertion of ornaments, self-inflicted wounds, especially among women, for the sake of producing raised patterns on the skin. In the other case the motivation is discipline and social organization undertaken by society, which may employ some of the individual practices, like cutting, in a more radical form, or circumcision, which are not on the cosmetic level. Self-initiated scarification, for example, is thus described by Roscoe among an African cannibalistic tribe, the Bagesu, where the women carry the instruments of beautification constantly and improve their appearance gradually:
CHAPTER XII
Puberty Ceremonies
Women scarify their bodies freely, from the breasts to the pit of the stomach and also on the forehead, thus forming rows of small almond-shaped swellings. These are produced before initiation and their production is a painful and often prolonged operation. Those on the stomach a girl usually makes herself, while those on the forehead are made for her. The instrument used for making the sacrifications is an iron hook some four inches long, a quarter of an inch thick and bent to a crescent. One end is beaten fine to a needle point, the other end has a ring to slip on the finger to carry it on the back of the hand when not in use. The flesh is pinched up between the thumb and finger and the hook run through it. This is done in several places at a time and fine wood ashes are rubbed over to stop the bleeding; the wounds heal, leaving raised flesh.1
1Roscoe, J.n/an/an/an/an/a, , 165 (Cambridge University Press, By permission).
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Chicago: "The Northern Bantu," The Northern Bantu in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed May 10, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=3JWZ1YYQNXSH3EU.
MLA: . "The Northern Bantu." The Northern Bantu, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 10 May. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=3JWZ1YYQNXSH3EU.
Harvard: , 'The Northern Bantu' in The Northern Bantu. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 10 May 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=3JWZ1YYQNXSH3EU.
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