13th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research

Presentation Abstracts

ROBINSON, Jacqueline

A Cultural Analysis of the Ciwara Headdress in Mali

Jacqueline Robinson is unable to attend the congress and present this paper.

The paper uses the Ciwara headdress phenomenon of Mali, West Africa as a case study to explore how societies and their cultural manifestations, e.g. ritual symbols, adapt to changing socio-cultural environments. The research question that guide this study is: What is the evidence of the social transformation of the Ciwara headdress in Mali from a symbol used to encourage optimal agriculture production to a symbol of hard work and merit in non-agricultural sectors? I argue that the Ciwara tradition and its associated sculpted antelope headdress underwent a social transformation in response to social and political change in Mali.

Anthropological theories of cultural change (Naylor 1996) and symbolic theories (Turner 1967) are used to investigate the Ciwara phenomenon. Library research and qualitative fieldwork methods are used to research the Ciwara headdress icon. Findings from the data suggest four points: The Ciwara headdress is used in multiple ways. It is worn by excellent farmers, it is a trophy awarded on the basis of hard work and achievement, and the headdress is an iconic image that is put on government buildings, NGOs, restaurants, and hotels. Second, the Ciwara headdress is used in multiple social contexts. It is used in sacred and secular Ciwara ceremonies, and is used in symbolic contexts. Third, the significance of the Ciwara headdress symbol is the same in these various contexts, suggesting cultural continuity of these meanings and functions of the Ciwara headdress over time. Fourth, the Ciwara headdress has been adopted to represent excellence in non-agricultural sectors.