Wealth is King: The Conceptualization of Wealth in Igbo Personal Naming Practices

IF 0.8 3区社会学 Q3 ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropological Quarterly Pub Date : 2022-01-22 DOI:10.1353/anq.2021.0043

Eyo O. Mensah, Queendaline I. Iloh

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引用次数: 6

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Personal names among the Igbo people of South-eastern Nigeria can also be understood and contextualized within the fringes of their cultural values, worldviews, emotions, and economic resources. This article explores the conceptualization of wealth in Igbo personal naming practices from an ethnopragmatic paradigm, which uncovers the hidden meanings underlying the interpretation of language. Drawing on ethnographic data sourced through participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and informal conversations with 30 participants (name-bearers, givers, and users) in the eastern heartland of Owerri (Imo State) and Abuja, Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory, we contextualize the pattern of wealth-inspired names among the Igbo as symbolic capital aimed at securing the welfare and future life trajectories of their bearers. We conclude that the concept of wealth has an intrinsic value among the Igbo for social class distinction, and it is reinscribed in the onomastic system to reflect parental aspirations for enduring social status, positioning, and belonging in the institutionalized class system. In this way, Igbo personal names function as economic resources for identity construction and social status classification.

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财富为王:伊博人个人命名实践中的财富概念

摘要：尼日利亚东南部伊博人的名字也可以在他们的文化价值观、世界观、情感和经济资源的边缘被理解和语境化。本文从民族语用学范式探讨了伊博人命名实践中财富的概念化，揭示了语言解释背后隐藏的含义。根据通过参与者观察、半结构化访谈以及与奥韦里东部中心地带（伊莫州）和尼日利亚联邦首都阿布贾的30名参与者（姓名持有者、提供者和使用者）的非正式对话获得的民族志数据，我们将伊博人中受财富启发的名字模式作为象征性资本，旨在确保其持有者的福利和未来生活轨迹。我们得出的结论是，财富的概念在伊博人中具有社会阶级区分的内在价值，它在经济学体系中被重新描述，以反映父母在制度化阶级体系中对持久的社会地位、定位和归属的渴望。通过这种方式，伊博人的名字起到了身份建构和社会地位分类的经济资源的作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Anthropological Quarterly ANTHROPOLOGY-

CiteScore

1.60

自引率

11.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Since 1921, Anthropological Quarterly has published scholarly articles, review articles, book reviews, and lists of recently published books in all areas of sociocultural anthropology. Its goal is the rapid dissemination of articles that blend precision with humanism, and scrupulous analysis with meticulous description.