Date: 2008-02-28
Format: pdf
Pages: 488
Volume 1 of The Greenwood Library of World Folktales includes continental Africa and those islands such as Madagascar customarily classified as belonging to this geographic region by virtue of their proximity to the continent’s coast. The volume also includes those North African nations such as Egypt and Morocco that have been classified as Middle Easte according to some systems. The climate on the vast continent ranges from tropical to subarctic and from rainforests to arid deserts. Cultural exchanges have been documented between indigenous African cultures and Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, and Persia by 300 B.C.E. and between Arabia, China, and the European nations from the seventh century to the present. Therefore, the ecological divisions and the cultural pattes of Africa are extraordinarily diverse. To accommodate this diversity, within the usual geographic divisions of the continent into Northe, Easte, Weste, Central, and Southe Africa, tales as a general rule have been categorized according to the cultural groups from whom they were collected. Thus, within Nigeria are found Efik, Hausa, and Yoruba contributions. This method is practical in contexts in which cultures commonly cross politically imposed national boundaries.
Format: pdf
Pages: 488
Volume 1 of The Greenwood Library of World Folktales includes continental Africa and those islands such as Madagascar customarily classified as belonging to this geographic region by virtue of their proximity to the continent’s coast. The volume also includes those North African nations such as Egypt and Morocco that have been classified as Middle Easte according to some systems. The climate on the vast continent ranges from tropical to subarctic and from rainforests to arid deserts. Cultural exchanges have been documented between indigenous African cultures and Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, and Persia by 300 B.C.E. and between Arabia, China, and the European nations from the seventh century to the present. Therefore, the ecological divisions and the cultural pattes of Africa are extraordinarily diverse. To accommodate this diversity, within the usual geographic divisions of the continent into Northe, Easte, Weste, Central, and Southe Africa, tales as a general rule have been categorized according to the cultural groups from whom they were collected. Thus, within Nigeria are found Efik, Hausa, and Yoruba contributions. This method is practical in contexts in which cultures commonly cross politically imposed national boundaries.