“It was an era of climatic change and ecological crisis, innovation in technology and social organization, and unprecedented scale of migration. More important, the period also marked the beginning of the splitting of proto-Yoruboid into new daughter languages and dialects. [...] The adjustment to and consequences of the ecological crisis of the Archaic period also instigated other processes of cultural change that launched the proto-Yoruboid people on the path of sociopolitical and demographic differentiation from several of their proto-Benue-Kwa peers in the confluence area. Until the beginning of the first millennium AD, the proto-Yoruboid were undifferentiated from the other confluence language communities in group size, modes of subsistence, and technology. But as the nine-month dry season became the new normal in the guinea savanna and as several water sources dried up, it became more frequent for communities, households, and individuals to branch off from the older units in search of greener pastures.” [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 42)
| Early Formative Proto-Yoruba |
| continuity |
| UNCLEAR: [continuity] |
| quasi-polity |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| 1. Most widespread | Orisha Religion (Vast majority) |
| Orisha Religion |
| Orisha Religion |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| Year Range | Proto-Yoruboid (ni_proto_yoruboid) was in: |
|---|
"The adjustment to and consequences of the ecological crisis of the Archaic period also instigated other processes of cultural change that launched the proto-Yoruboid people on the path of sociopolitical and demographic differentiation from several of their proto-Benue-Kwa peers in the confluence area. Until the beginning of the first millennium AD, the proto-Yoruboid were undifferentiated from the other confluence language communities in group size, modes of subsistence, and technology. But as the nine-month dry season became the new normal in the guinea savanna and as several water sources dried up, it became more frequent for communities, households, and individuals to branch off from the older units in search of greener pastures.” [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 42)
(Relationship): "The adjustment to and consequences of the ecological crisis of the Archaic period also instigated other processes of cultural change that launched the proto-Yoruboid people on the path of sociopolitical and demographic differentiation from several of their proto-Benue-Kwa peers in the confluence area. Until the beginning of the first millennium AD, the proto-Yoruboid were undifferentiated from the other confluence language communities in group size, modes of subsistence, and technology. But as the nine-month dry season became the new normal in the guinea savanna and as several water sources dried up, it became more frequent for communities, households, and individuals to branch off from the older units in search of greener pastures.”
[1]
(Entity): "The proto-Yoruboid was one of the language communities that developed from the proto-Benue-Kwa expansion between ca. 4000 and 2500 BC."
[2]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 42)
[2]: (Ogundiran 2020: 35)
The following quote, which refers to changes in the Late Formative period, suggests that, at this time, people were largely organized into single independent households or hamlets. "As a result, a new social configuration featuring formalized association and integration of multiple households under a single leadership became necessary as a means of organizing and safeguarding land and labor. It was the beginning of a departure from the two- to three-generation households and hamlets that had been the preferred unit of social organization in the preceding centuries." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 47-48)
NB The following quote refers to the Late Stone Age predecessors of this quasipolity. "Over the next one thousand years, the descendants of these migrants from the dry grassland developed a new branch of the proto-Niger-Congo language. Today, we call these pioneer farmers in the guinea savanna the proto-Benue-Kwa speakers." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 35)
"According to Christopher Ehret, we can reconstruct a specific word for the Creator God, Nyambe, in the proto-Benue-Kwa language to the sixth millennium BC, and he also noted that the wide distribution of the term in contemporary Niger-Congo languages indicates that it may well go back to the very beginning of Niger-Congo civilization in the twelfth millennium BC. For [...] proto-Yoruboid people, that Creator God lived on the top of and beyond the massive and ageless granitic hills of the southwest confluence. In a tradition that continues till today among many Yorùbá subgroups, the sky god is believed to reside on those hills and is associated with “the making of rain and the creation of the day.” The proto-Yoruboid believed that the sky god ruled over the elements of the sky—thunder, lightning, and rain—and their earthly implications—fertility of the soil, water, and agricultural productivity. Those bare granite formations were the anchor of the hamlets and homesteads that dotted the lower slopes of the rugged landscape in the last quarter of the first millennium BC. They were more than the backdrop for the proto-Yoruboid communities. They were also the compasses that provided individuals and communities with a sense of direction and their location in space and time. Not surprising, [...] these massive rocky hills were also gendered feminine, as evident in the names many of them still bear and the fertility attributes they are accorded. The Creator God of the proto-Yoruboid world was likely androgynous but may have been more feminine than masculine in the gender spectrum. However, the Creator God was a distant figure in the everyday religious lives of the proto-Yoruboid and other proto-Benue- Kwa groups. The focus of worship was on the territorial deities presiding over the hills, valleys, drainages, and other landscape features as well as on the ancestors—the deceased heads, priests, and priestesses of houses, families, villages, and communities. The ancestors were incorporated into the pantheon and called upon to intercede with the greater and more distant Creator God and the territorial deities during the daily devotions, seasonal festivals, and times of crisis." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 38-39)
levels. The following quote, which refers to changes in the Late Formative period, suggests that, at this time, people were largely organized into single independent households or hamlets. "As a result, a new social configuration featuring formalized association and integration of multiple households under a single leadership became necessary as a means of organizing and safeguarding land and labor. It was the beginning of a departure from the two- to three-generation households and hamlets that had been the preferred unit of social organization in the preceding centuries." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 47-48)
levels. The following quotes suggests the existence of at least one level of priesthood among the Proto-Yoruboid. "However, the Creator God was a distant figure in the everyday religious lives of the proto-Yoruboid and other proto-Benue- Kwa groups. The focus of worship was on the territorial deities presiding over the hills, valleys, drainages, and other landscape features as well as on the ancestors—the deceased heads, priests, and priestesses of houses, families, villages, and communities. The ancestors were incorporated into the pantheon and called upon to intercede with the greater and more distant Creator God and the territorial deities during the daily devotions, seasonal festivals, and times of crisis." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 38-39)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
The following quote suggests that a Yoruba written alphabet was invented in the nineteenth century. "Àjàyí[...] returned in 1841 to the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. Now officially known as Samuel Crowther, he [...] was the architect of Yorùbá modernization through his efforts as a linguist to reduce the Yorùbá language to writing, a major revolution in Yorùbá cultural and intellectual history. His accomplishments in this regard included the translation of the Bible into Yorùbá and the development of the first Yorùbá dictionary." [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 391)
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
"During the Archaic through the Late Formative periods, the proto-Yoruboid and proto-Yorùbá in different localities had accumulated elaborate mythologies, ritualized ceremonies, and epistemological frameworks that formed the templates for their worldviews. Each local pantheon was a hierarchy of deities, with overlapping relationships in which each deity ruled over one or more spheres of the human condition. However, several of those deities (òrìsà) that were conceptual in nature, rather than ancestral, had regional appeal because they addressed broad human conditions and derived from common origins and deep-time experiences. [...] Their origins had a deep history, and they spread with the waves of proto-Yorùbá expansions throughout the first millennium AD." [1] "However, the Creator God was a distant figure in the everyday religious lives of the proto-Yoruboid and other proto-Benue-Kwa groups. The focus of worship was on the territorial deities presiding over the hills, valleys, drainages, and other landscape features as well as on the ancestors—the deceased heads, priests, and priestesses of houses, families, villages, and communities. The ancestors were incorporated into the pantheon and called upon to intercede with the greater and more distant Creator God and the territorial deities during the daily devotions, seasonal festivals, and times of crisis." [2]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 128-129) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
[2]: (Ogundiran 2020: 39) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
"During the Archaic through the Late Formative periods, the proto-Yoruboid and proto-Yorùbá in different localities had accumulated elaborate mythologies, ritualized ceremonies, and epistemological frameworks that formed the templates for their worldviews. Each local pantheon was a hierarchy of deities, with overlapping relationships in which each deity ruled over one or more spheres of the human condition. However, several of those deities (òrìsà) that were conceptual in nature, rather than ancestral, had regional appeal because they addressed broad human conditions and derived from common origins and deep-time experiences. [...] Their origins had a deep history, and they spread with the waves of proto-Yorùbá expansions throughout the first millennium AD." [1] "However, the Creator God was a distant figure in the everyday religious lives of the proto-Yoruboid and other proto-Benue-Kwa groups. The focus of worship was on the territorial deities presiding over the hills, valleys, drainages, and other landscape features as well as on the ancestors—the deceased heads, priests, and priestesses of houses, families, villages, and communities. The ancestors were incorporated into the pantheon and called upon to intercede with the greater and more distant Creator God and the territorial deities during the daily devotions, seasonal festivals, and times of crisis." [2]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 128-129) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
[2]: (Ogundiran 2020: 39) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
"During the Archaic through the Late Formative periods, the proto-Yoruboid and proto-Yorùbá in different localities had accumulated elaborate mythologies, ritualized ceremonies, and epistemological frameworks that formed the templates for their worldviews. Each local pantheon was a hierarchy of deities, with overlapping relationships in which each deity ruled over one or more spheres of the human condition. However, several of those deities (òrìsà) that were conceptual in nature, rather than ancestral, had regional appeal because they addressed broad human conditions and derived from common origins and deep-time experiences. [...] Their origins had a deep history, and they spread with the waves of proto-Yorùbá expansions throughout the first millennium AD." [1] "However, the Creator God was a distant figure in the everyday religious lives of the proto-Yoruboid and other proto-Benue-Kwa groups. The focus of worship was on the territorial deities presiding over the hills, valleys, drainages, and other landscape features as well as on the ancestors—the deceased heads, priests, and priestesses of houses, families, villages, and communities. The ancestors were incorporated into the pantheon and called upon to intercede with the greater and more distant Creator God and the territorial deities during the daily devotions, seasonal festivals, and times of crisis." [2]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 128-129) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
[2]: (Ogundiran 2020: 39) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW
Suspected unknown due to the antiquity of this quasi-polity, the nature of the data, and the fact that this aspect of the quasi-polity’s culture is not mentioned in a recent and comprehensive cultural history of the Yoruba, Ogundiran 2020. [1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020) Seshat URL: Zotero link: ADQMAKPW