Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 245
In Chapter 3.21 we will critically discuss the power of majority (gadghale), a concept to
which the British colonial power referred to as chiefly councils (gidegal or gadegal), by
showing that it had no chiefly aspect to it at all. Instead it was a form of lineage majority
which, in the context of an environmental crisis, might have led to a majority decision in
favour of carrying out a ritual at a community shrine such as the Durghwe mountain shrine.
This might have involved a sequence of other sacrifices in which a sacrifice to the local
lineage shrine (khalale) might first have been obligatory, and the lineage priest responsible
(thaghaya) would perhaps have carried out a sacrifice to his house shrine prior to that. This is
only an assumption, but we know that the ritual custodian of the Btha lineage in Ghwa'a
would always carry out a har khalale before a sacrifice at Durghwe. Maintaining the
sequential order from house shrine to group shrine would most likely have been equally
essential in this case, to stop the chance of any bad luck taking root were any stage in the
sequential sacrificial order to be omitted.
In our next chapter section we present a list of the thaghaya (seventh born) as lineage priests
across Dghweɗe, but apologise for not being able to connect them with the group sites for
which they were responsible. Instead, Table 6a is concerned only with the custodial function
of beginning planting and harvesting for the settlement unit, in which each respective clan or
lineage group that presents a majority because of their demographic superiority in terms of
number is noted. We will see that higher population number did not apply when it came to
custodianship across the whole of Dghweɗe, as in that case the role belonged to the thaghaya
of the Gaske specialist lineage.
List of thaghaya (seventh born) as custodians across Dghweɗe
The list below shows thaghaya custodianship positions for starting planting and harvesting
for local groups, which is on a similar scale to Var ga Ghuna for all Vaghagaya:
Table 6a: List of thaghaya across Dghweɗe responsible to start planting and harvesting
Name of settlement unit
Dghweɗe as a whole
Name of thaghaya (1995)
Taɗa Nzige
Gharaza, Hudimche, Kurana
Basa, Kurana Kwandame
Hembe
Gudule
Gathaghure
Kunde
Tatsa
Ghwa'a
Kwalika
Var ga Ghuna
Wudza Kute
Shigwa Haya
Ndula Naghuwe
Ndasa Tsakiya
Kalakwa Dungwa
Ghamba Vunga
Gwa ma Taɗa
Role and/or function
Senior Gaske rainmaker
starts planting and harvest
before all other Dghweɗe
Thaghaya for all
Vaghagaya
Thaghaya for all Hembe
Thaghaya for all Gudule
Thaghaya of all Gathaghure
Thaghaya for all Kunde
Thaghaya for all Tatsa
Thaghaya for all 'Thakara'
Thaghaya for all Kwalika
The settlement units listed in Table 6a were represented by a particular thaghaya (custodian)
because his descent group belonged to the demographically dominant clan or lineage section
of that particular settlement unit, except for the thaghaya of the Gaske rainmaker lineage who
represented Dghweɗe as a whole. We will learn later in Chapter 3.18 and 3.21 that a thaghaya
lineage was not necessarily the most numerous lineage of a local group, but that its ritual
entitlement was connected with being considered the representative of the seventh born on the
lineage level. We know that this was the case for the Btha lineage of Ghwa'a, and also for the
Ghuna lineage of the Vaghagaya. While the former was represented by Ghamba Vunga, the
lineage priest of the latter was Var ga Ghuna.
For all the other settlement units listed in Table 6a, we are not certain of the name of the
lineage representing the custodianship of the seventh born (thaghaya), but we know that for
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