Cover not available

In:Anthropological Linguistics: Perspectives from Africa
Edited by Andrea Hollington, Alice Mitchell and Nico Nassenstein
[Culture and Language Use 23] 2024
► pp. 136–176

Get fulltext
PDF logo with download linkDownload Chapter PDF

Chapter 6
Conceptions of the make-up of a human person in Ewe

 | Leiden University
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 1 February 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.23.06ame
Abstract
Humans everywhere construct ethnopsychological models of a person which involves a physical body and non-physical aspects. There is variation in how the non-physical parts of a person are construed. Invariably, it is assumed that this other part is “invisible inside” (Goddard, 2018, p. 168; Levisen, 2017; Peeters, 2019a). The question of what the components of a human person in African culture(s) are has been discussed, and debated in the literature (see e.g., Cotzee & Roux, 2004). In this paper, I examine the conceptual model of a person in Ewe communities of practice in West Africa through the prism of language and the meanings of the terms for the ethnopsychological constructs of a person.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Setting the scene
    • 2.1Some anthropological views on personhood in Africa
    • 2.2Debates from African philosophy on personhood
    • 2.3The cultural semantics of the components of a person
  • 3.Ewe views on the make-up of a person
    • 3.1Background: How persons come into the world
    • 3.2The structural components of a person
    • 3.3Ewe ethnopsychological personhood constructs
      • 3.3.1“Soul”-like components
        • What is Luʋɔ?
        • What is gbɔgbɔ?
      • 3.3.2“Destiny”-like components
        • What is Gbetsi?
        • What is Sé?
        • What is aklama?
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (60)
References
Adams, G., & Dzokoto, V. A. (2003). Self and identity in African studies. Self and Identity, 2(4), 345–359. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akafia, S. Y. (1993 [1970]). Ku le xɔ me [Death is in the room]. Bureau of Ghana Languages.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akotey, K. (2014 [1988]). Ku ɖi ƒo na wo [Death satisfied them]. Bureau of Ghana Languages.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ameka, F. K. (1987). A comparative analysis of linguistic routines in two languages: English and Ewe. Journal of Pragmatics, 11(3), 299–326. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1996). Body parts in Ewe grammar. In H. Chappell & W. McGregor (Eds.), The grammar of inalienability. A typological perspective on body part terms and the part-whole relation (pp. 783–840). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). “He died old, dying to be dead right”: Transitivity and semantic shifts of DIE in Ewe. In M. Bowerman & P. Brown (Eds.), Crosslinguistic perspectives on argument structure. Implications for learnability (pp. 231–253). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012). Ewe. Its grammatical constructions and illocutionary devices. Lincom. (Slightly revised version of Ameka, F. K. (1991). Doctoral dissertation, Australian National University.)
Beattie, J. (1980). Representation of the self in traditional Africa: Review of La notion de personne en Afrique noire. Africa, 50(3), 313–320. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, D. E. (1991). Human universals. McGraw HillGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carrithers, M., Collins, S., & Lukes, S. (Eds.). (1985). The category of the person. Anthropology, philosophy, history. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chappell, H., & McGregor, W. (Eds). (1996). The grammar of inalienability. A typological perspective on body part terms and the part-whole relation. De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coetzee, P. H. & A.P.J. Roux (Eds.). (2003). The African Philosophy Reader. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comaroff, J. L., Comaroff, J. (2001). On personhood: An anthropological perspective from Africa. Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 7(2), 267–283. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Debrunner, J. H. (1959). Witchcraft in Ghana. Presbyterian Book Depot.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dieterlen, G. (Ed.). (1973). La notion de personne en Afrique Noire, Paris 11–17 Octobre 1971. Edition de Centre de la Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dzobo, N. K. (1992a). The image of man in Africa. In K. Gyekye & K. Wiredu (Eds.), Person and community (Ghanaian Philosophical Studies I) (pp. 123–136). Council for Research in Values Philosophy (CRVP).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992b). Values in a changing society: Man, ancestors and God. In K. Gyekye & K. Wiredu (Eds.), Person and community (Ghanaian Philosophical Studies I) (pp. 223–242). Council for Research in Values Philosophy (CRVP).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dzokoto, V. A. (2020). Adwenhoasem: An Akan theory of mind. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 26(S1), 77–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Egblewogbe, E. Y. (1987). The structure and functions of Ghanaian personal names. Universitas, 9(1), 189–205.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Engmann, J. (1992). Immortality and the nature of man in Ga thought. In K. Gyekye & K. Wiredu (Eds.), Person and community (Ghanaian Philosophical Studies I) (pp. 153–190). Council for Research in Values Philosophy (CRVP).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, N., & Wilkins, D. (2001). The complete person: Networking the physical and the social. In J. Simpson, D. Nash, M. Laughren, P. Austin, & B. Alpher (Eds.), Forty years on. Ken Hale and Australian languages (pp. 493–521). Pacific LinguisticsGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foley, W. A. (1997). Anthropological linguistics. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gbadegesin, S. (1998). Eniyan: The Yoruba concept of a person. In P. H. Coetzee & A. J. P. Roux (Eds.), Philosophy from Africa. A text with readings (pp. 149–168). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geurts, K. L. (2003). Culture and the senses. Bodily ways of knowing in an African community. University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gyekye, K. (1995). An essay on African philosophical thought. The Akan conceptual schema. Temple University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, C. (2018). Ten lectures on Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Exploring language, thought and culture using simple translatable words. Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(Ed.). (2021). Minimal languages in action. MacMillan Palgrave. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (2018). Minimal English and how it can add to global English. In C. Goddard (Ed.), Minimal English for a global world improved communication using fewer words (pp. 5–27). Palgrave MacMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, D. (2019). Longgu: Conceptualizing the human person from the inside out. In B. Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures and epochs (pp. 58–81). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, J. H., & MacLaury, R. E. (1995). The terror of Montezuma: Aztec history, vantage theory, and the category of “person”. In J. R. Taylor & R. E. MacLaury (Eds.), Language and the cognitive construal of the world (pp. 277–330). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kearney, M. (1984). World view. Chandler & Sharp.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kudadjie, J. N. (1992). Towards moral and social development in contemporary Africa: Insights from Dangme traditional moral experience. In K. Gyekye & K. Wiredu (Eds.), Person and community (Ghanaian Philosophical Studies I) (pp. 207–222). Council for Research in Values Philosophy (CRVP).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levisen, C. (2017). Personhood constructs in language and thought: New evidence from Danish. In Z. Ye (Ed.), The semantics of nouns (pp. 120–144). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Biases we live by: Anglocentrism in linguistics and cognitive sciences. Language Sciences, 76, 101173. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lienhardt, G. (1985). Self: public, private. Some African representations. In M. Carrithers, S. Collins, & S. Lukes (Eds.), The category of the person. Anthropology, philosophy, history (pp. 144–155). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matras, Y. (2019). Language contact (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyer, B. (1999). Translating the devil. Religion and modernity among the Ewe in Ghana. Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morphy, F., & Morphy, H. (2020). Locating ‘mind’ (and ‘soul’) cross-culturally. In H. Bromhead & Z. Ye (Eds.), Meaning, life, and culture: In conversation with Anna Wierzbicka (pp. 249–271). ANU Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Motte, S. Y. (1964). Mía Denyigba [Our Homeland]. Bureau of Ghana Languages.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nichols, J. (1988). On alienable and inalienable possession. In W. Shipley (Ed.), In Honor of Mary Haas. From the Haas Festival Conference on Native American Linguistics (pp. 557–609). University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nukunya, G. K. (1973). Some underlying beliefs in ancestor worship and mortuary rights among the Ewe. In G. Dieterlen (Ed.), La notion de personne en Afrique Noire, Paris 11–17 Octobre 1971 (pp. 119–130). Paris: Edition de Centre de la Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pawlak, N. (2014). Notions of SELF in Hausa. In M. Brenzinger & I. Karaska-Szlenk (Eds.), The Body in Language (pp. 140–159). Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peeters, B. (2019a). Delving into heart- and soul-like constructs: Describing EPCs in NSM. In B. Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 1–29). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(Ed.). (2019b). Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riesman, P. (1986). The person and the life cycle in African social life and thought. African Studies Review, 29(2), 71–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rongier, Jacques. 2015. Dictionaire ewe-français. Paris L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sarpong, P. A. (1975). Ghana in retrospect: Some aspects of Ghanaian culture. Ghana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spiro, M. E. (1993). Is the western conception of the self ‘peculiar’ within the context of world cultures? Ethos, 21, 107–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Surgy, A. (1973). Les puisances du désordre au sien de la personne evhé. In G. Dieterlen (Ed.), La notion de personne en Afrique Noire, Paris 11–17 Octobre 1971 (pp. 91–118). Edition de Centre de la Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spieth, J. (2011). The Ewe people: A study of the Ewe people in German Togo (M. Edorh, E. Tsaku, R. Avornyo, & M. E. Kropp Dakubu, Trans., and Komla Amoaku, Ed.). Sub-Saharan Publishers. (Original work published 1906, Die Ewe-Stämme: Material zur Kunde des Ewe-Volkes in Deutsch-Togo. Reimer)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teffo, L. J., & Roux, A. P. J. (1990). Metaphysical thinking in Africa. In P. H. Coetzee & A. P. J. Roux (Eds.), The African philosophy reader (pp. 134–148). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Westermann, D. H. (1973 [1928]). Ewefiala or Ewe-English dictionary, Gbesela yeye or English-Ewe dictionary. Nedeln: Kraus Reprint.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (1989). Soul and mind: Linguistic evidence for ethnopsychology and cultural history. American Anthropologist, 91, 41–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992). Semantics, culture and cognition. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Imprisoned in English. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Two levels of verbal communication, universal and culture-specific. In A. Rocci & L. de Saussure (Eds.), Verbal communication (pp. 447–481). De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilkins, D. (1996). Natural tendencies of semantic change and the search for cognates. In M. Durie & M. Ross (Eds.), The comparative method reviewed. Regularity and irregularity in language change (pp. 264–304). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Ameka, Felix K.
2025. Of saints and ancestors: The ethnopragmatics and cultural semantics of religious terms. Intercultural Pragmatics 22:4 ► pp. 661 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue