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Rape-Related English and Yoruba Proverbs Journal article by Yisa Kehinde Yusuf; Women and Language, Vol. 21, 1998 Journal Article Excerpt See below... Ads by Google 7 Star Purchasing Report Shows the 7 Things you must do as a Purchasing Manager. Get Report Here purchasing-procurement-center.com Rp. 300.000 in Free Ads Gain New Customers In Just 30 Mins With Google AdWords. Sign Up Now! www.Google.com/AdWords Orchid Virus Test Fast and easy orchid virus testing Detect ORSV/CymMV in minutes www.agdia.com Rape-related English and Yoruba proverbs. by Yisa Kehinde Yusuf Introduction A proverb has been defined as a short, repeated, witty statement or set of statements of wisdom, truth and experience which is used to further a social end (see Mieder 1989a; Seitel 1981; Egblewogbe 1980). About the truth of proverbs, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (1973:821) notes, following Malof (1966), that Neat symmetries and witty convergences of sound and meaning, tight formulations of logical relations, highly patterned repetitions, structural balance, and familiar metaphors encapsulate general principles and contribute to the feeling that anything that sounds so right must be true. She states that, contrary to this feeling, a proverb "expresses relative rather than absolute truths" (p. 821). She justifies this claim with the fact a proverb may express more than one meaning which may contradict one another. According to Albig (1931:529), "the proverb is a social definition of a situation." Oduyoye (1979:5) also notes that "proverbs, aphorisms and other pithy sayings serve as socialisation maxims." Similarly, Page and Washington (1987:50) observe that Once internalized, proverbs, like values, become unconscious as well as conscious standards for action and attitudes toward self and others . . . Proverbs, like values, protect the self against feelings of inadequacy and frustration, allowing us to rationalize beliefs, attitudes and actions that would otherwise be personally and socially unacceptable. The foregoing views accord with what is referred to as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the belief that language may influence thought and behaviour (see, e.g., Sapir 1949; Whorf 1956; Fishman 1982). The views also agree with Taylor's (1981) belief that, in difficult social situations, people who turn to proverbs find answers there. One such difficult situation is created by the prevalence of rape which the present study defines as engaging in a sexual act with a woman, without her consent, usually through the use of force, coercion or deceit (see Herman 1989). According to Sheffield (1989:9-10), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report for 1987 estimates that in the United States "a rape occurs every two minutes." Relatedly, based on information from the Federal Bureau of Justice (1992), Shugart (1994:12) notes that, in the United States, "current statistics indicate that one in three women will be raped in her lifetime, and conditions appear likely that these statistics will be even higher by the turn of the century." A series of studies link cultural rape myths from a heterogeneous set of sources with these alarming statistics (see, e.g., Herman 1989; Margolin & Moran 1989; Shugart 1994). Such sexist rape myths include: "All women want to be raped. No woman can be raped if she doesn't want it (You-can't-thread-a-moving needle argument). She asked for it. She changed her mind afterwards. When she says no she means yes. If you are going to be raped you might as well enjoy it" (Sheffield 1989:14; see, also, Kanin and Parcell 1977). Related rape myths exist in and can be said to be the basis for the various forms of rape that occur in the Yoruba culture of southwestern Nigeria. However, statistics of the kind cited above for the United States are not readily available for the incidence of rape in the Yoruba society. All the same, useful insights can be gained from studying the Anglo-American and Yoruba cultures comparatively in relation to rape-related myths from a single (and probably the most authoritative) folkloristic source, proverbs. This is precisely what the present study intends to do. Basing the study on English and Yoruba proverbs from a number of published and unpublished (misc.) sources derives justification from the fact that proverbs from different cultures may express similar attitudes towards a particular phenomenon (see, e.g., Whiting 1931; Perumal 1986; Litovkina 1990; Paczolay 1993). Moreover, a proverb from one of the cultures may articulate a situation in the other culture quite or even more precisely (see Lewis 1974). This fact is especially important when the two cultures significantly co-exist and, to some extent, diffuse as the Western and Yoruba cultures do in southwestern Nigeria due to the British colonisation of the country, Christianity and the trans-Atlantic trade in African (including Yoruba) slaves. The Proverbial Rape Myths The most basic of the proverbial rape-related myths in both languages is that women are by nature licentious or adulterous. English and Yoruba proverbs propagating or sustaining this sexist view include the following: i. He that has neither fools, whores nor beggars among his kindred is the son of a thundergust (Whiting 1977:162). ii. Why does the blind man's wife paint herself?. (whiting ... Read this entire Journal Article and more with a FREE trial. Read more than 5,000 classic books FREE! Free Newsletter Get helpful how-to's, writing tips, search strategies, quizzes & more! Search the Library Customize Customize your search: Search within the topic [refine search] Search in: Books Journals Magazines Newspapers Encyclopedia Research Topics * Type your specific word or phrase in the box above after the word and, then click Search. * Put exact phrases in double quotation marks. Do not put single words in quotation marks. AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget Add a link to this page Link to This © Questia Media Inc. 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