The Symbolism and Communicative Contents of Dreadlocks in Yorubaland

This book offers an interpretation of Yoruba people's affective responses to an adult Yoruba male with a 'deviant' hairstyle. The work, which views hairstyles as a form of symbolic communicative signal that encodes messages that are perceived and interpreted within a culture, provides...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Agwuele, Augustine
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2016
Springer International Publishing AG
Springer
Edition:1
Series:African Histories and Modernities
Subjects:
Africa-Politics and government
African Culture
African Politics
Cultural History
Dreadlocks
Hairstyles
HISTORY
History of Sub-Saharan Africa
ISBN:3319301861, 9783319301860, 9783319301853, 3319301853
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This book offers an interpretation of Yoruba people's affective responses to an adult Yoruba male with a 'deviant' hairstyle. The work, which views hairstyles as a form of symbolic communicative signal that encodes messages that are perceived and interpreted within a culture, provides an ontological and epistemological interpretation of Yoruba beliefs regarding dreadlocks with real-life illustrations of their treatment of an adult male with what they term irun were (insane person's hairdo). Based on experiential observations as well as socio-cultural and linguistic analyses, the book explores the dynamism of Yoruba worldview regarding head-hair within contemporary belief systems and discusses some of the factors that assure its continuity. It concludes with a cross-cultural comparison of the perceptions of dreadlocks, especially between Nigerian Yoruba people an d African American Yoruba practitioners.
ISBN:3319301861
9783319301860
9783319301853
3319301853
DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-30186-0