Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Blog #8


A text that I found that addresses to culture is about an African tribe's culture. The tribe is called Bemba, or "forest people" and they are located in in the northeastern part of Zambia and are the largest ethnic group in the Northern Province of Zambia, which consists of about eighteen different groups of Bembas. The temperature is very favorable, yet their soil is poor and covered with brush or low trees. They live in rural villages with huts made up of wattle and daub with grass as the roof. Their main job in the village is a type of subsistence farming in the form of shifting cultivation. Each family is in charge of growing their own food and providing for their families. The main crops are finger millet and cassava, but they still grow beans, peas, corn, sorghum, peanuts, gourds or squash, sweet potatoes, bananas, pumpkins, cucumbers, and cowpeas. This is a wide range of food, but the downfall to farming is that the soil is so poor they have to quit farming after about two years and find other land. Material possessions are very rare in these areas. Diseases such as malaria and bilharzia are still common in this tribe, including malnutrition and their life expectancy is low. Since the Bembas are the most dominant group, Bemba is the most common language that is spoken, but it is not uncommon for a Zambian to be multilingual. The most common type of clothing was made from a bark that women wore as clothes and today the women wear dresses that still have designs on them that are of Zambian or African culture. Men wear shirts, pants, and shorts. There is no ceremony for boys when they go into puberty, but there is for girls and the ceremony is called Chisungu. If a girl becomes pregnant before this ceremony, they are banned. In order for engagement, the man offers her parents' a present of small value. Once they are married the boy moves in with the parents' of the girl. Television is known, but not many people can afford them. The Bembas are known for having manufactured a complex folk art culture.


Sources: Google Images, World Book

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