Ritual Territories as Local Heritage Discourse on Disruptions in Societ

Africa 77 (1), 2007

RITUAL TERRITORIES AS LOCAL HERITAGE?DISCOURSE ON DISRUPTIONS IN SOCIETYAND NATURE IN MAANE, BURKINA FASO

Sabine Luning

The focus of this special issue is on nature as a local heritage. The notionof nature has been shaped by Enlightenment thought as embeddedin complex dichotomies such as nature/culture and nature/society.In modem thought nature is commonly considered an object to bemastered through knowledge (science), an assumption suggesting thathuman beings and social life are external to nature (see Leach andMeams 1996). At present, this ideology is under fire, in particular inenvironmental studies and discourse. The arrogance in modem attitudestowards nature is leading to large-scale destruction and exhaustionof natural resources. In order to stop this process humans have toacknowledge that they are part of nature.

Often protagonists of this critique suggest that this awareness has beenforgotten. 'We have been persuaded to forget that like the forests wedestroy, or the rivers we try to tame, we are nature' (Griffin 1989 citedin Adam 1996: 91). This romantic image of the pre-modem is easilytransposed to societies that are supposedly not modem yet; traditionalsocieties in which the social and the natural are 'still' intertwined. Inturn this romanticism can be criticized, since it is part of a long traditionin which, from a Eurocentric point of view, societies that are 'out there'are portrayed as societies of 'back then'. Spatial differences are cast astemporal differences (Fabian 1983).

In debates on the relationship between nature and society the issueof time comes up in more than one way. First of all, the urgency ofenvironmental issues is underscored with reference to a disastrous timeframe: time is running out; we risk degradation and even depletion ofthe natural environment. This results in a plea to safeguard nature forthe future. The issue we address in this collection of articles resonateswith this timeframe. Nature as heritage insists on the idea that natureis something inherited; it is transmitted from generation to generationover time. Interestingly, the term heritage, like its French counterpartpatrimoine, emphasizes transmission from the past to the present, fromthe previous generation to the one in the present. However, the intendedeffects of proclaiming nature as heritage are situated in the future: natureas heritage is not owned by present users, but should be preserved for

SABINE LUNING is Lecturer at the University of Leiden and the African Studies Centre in thesame city. She is the author of a book and several articles on ritual practices and politics in theMoose chiefdom of Maane, Burkina Faso. Her current work focuses on money, markets andsocialities, and her recent fieldwork considered the different players in the gold-mining sectorin Burkina Faso, with emphasis on the social practices of policing, protecting, prospectingand exploiting.

SOCIETY AND NATURE AMONG THE MOOSE 87

generations to come. In Indonesia this idea is expressed in a sloganused by environmental organizations: 'We have borrowed it from ourchildren and grandchildren' (Persoon and van Est 2000: 19). Hence thetopic of the relationship between nature and society concerns variousideas about temporalities: loss of knowledge, degradation of the naturalenvironment, and the transmission of a valued common good over time.

This article is concerned with these ideas as they are shaped inlocal discourse and practices in the Moose (formerly spelt Mossi)chiefdom of Maane, in the present administrative structure of the MaaneDepartment in Burkina Faso. The focus is on the ritual territories ofso-called earth priests. The chiefdom contains in all 33 ritual territories,the creation of which is a topic addressed in oral histories.

The focus on the institution of earth priests and their ritual territoriesallows us to take the articulation between nature and society as a pointof departure. The tasks of the earth priests are connected to ideas ofaccess to the locality as a potential source of wealth. For a good harvestthe local farmers consider themselves to depend upon the ritual work ofearth priests as guardians of specific ritual territories. However, in orderto contest romantic and static portrayals of 'traditional' society/naturerelationships, I am most interested in how earth priests and their ritualtasks are evaluated over time.

• How do people speak about the creation and the development of ritualterritories in Maane from its foundation to the present?

• How do people define 'traditional' rituals in relation to the earth, and howdoes this evoke issues of heritage and transmission over time?

• What are the features of ritual territories and the related ritual practicesand how are these supposed to evolve over time, and in particular underthe present circumstances?

We will see that in the assessment of the dynamics of 'traditional'rituals over time, the articulation between the social and the natural isa key factor. People in Maane are pessimistic about the present and thefuture. The circumstances under which they try to obtain a harvest fromthe land are considered to be deteriorating fast. The state of degradationof the land is causally connected to processes of social erosion: loss ofknowledge and morals. A major question is whether this degradation ofnature and society should be considered to be characteristic of presenttimes only, or is inherent in the passage of time at whatever moment inthe history of Maane since its foundation. In Maane, people say that thetransmission of knowledge and ritual practices are inherently connectedto loss of ritual efficacy and control over nature as resource (rain, goodharvests). However, particular aspects of the present condition are seenas the cause of much more rapid and drastic forms of degradation insociety and hence in nature than used to be the case in the past. Thepresent predicament concerns the disappearance of the 'bush', a part ofthe environment that should stay beyond ordinary social use. We willsee that a fruitful local social existence is thought to depend on a balancebetween socialized, lived-in space and a beyond, associated with the

88 SOCIETY AND NATURE AMONG THE MOOSE

'bush', a spatial referent that should lack the presence of ordinary socialactivities.

This disappearance of the bush occurs at different levels. First of all, atpresent there are no more empty spaces available from which new ritualterritories can be created. Second, even within the ritual territories,places that used to be void of social presence are disappearing rapidly.This process is perceived as irreversible and this makes the presentdifferent from the past, a past with dynamics of its own. In order toappreciate the distinctive dynamics in the various timeframes, the articleaddresses the three central questions formulated above.

The first issue, the creation of ritual territories in Maane, is elaboratedin oral narratives about migration and settlement. The second themerequires an analysis of the local notions people use when talking about'tradition' and the effects of ritual practices, as well as the ways in whichthese notions are being reproduced over time. This section allows usto address the question whether a ritual territory can be considered toconstitute a local heritage. The third issue leads us to the discourse onpresent-day social and natural disruptions. The conclusion addressesideas of a gradual loss of proper articulations between nature andsociety, and how in present times 'the clock is ticking'.

THE CREATION OF RITUAL TERRITORIES IN MAANE

In Moose societies migration is the norm rather than the exception.When talking about the past history of their families and ancestors,people will often mention migration. Moving was and is a major optionin people's lives in this region. The importance of migration is stressedin oral history. Local society in Maane always implies neighbourlyrelations between people widi different (places of) origin who sharea place of settlement in the present. This is illustrated in narrativessituated at all times, firom the beginning of the chiefdom till the present.

At first glance the narratives about Maane's foundation seem to fitthe general image of Moose chiefdoms: immigrant Moose obtainedpolitical rule over autochthones of different ethnic origins, a processextending from the mid-fifteenth century onwards (Izard 1970). Evenat present, only those who can claim to be patrilineally related to theimmigrant chiefs - so called nakombse - can obtain political titles. Theycontrast with tengabiise, literally 'children of the earth', who are referredto as 'autochthones'. This status position is also linked to patrilinealgroup membership and is often associated with the ritual tasks of earthpriests.

The arrival of strangers has primarily been interpreted as a triggerto transform one type of society (small-scale village) into anothertype (stratified chiefdom) (see Kiethega 1993: 16-17). Moreover, thequalification of 'children of the earth' as 'autochthones' suggests thatthey have not migrated. In order to contest this dominant reading ofMoose oral histories, let me briefiy outline some of the features of thenarratives about the beginning of Maane.


The chiefdom of Maane consists of three zones, made up of amultitude of ritual territories of earth priests, each of them headed by asuperior earth priest. These three superior earth priests are patrilinealdescendants of local beings encountered by the first chief of Maaneand his court officials. These autochthonous beings are qualified asbombande, often translated as 'genii'. They are explicitly portrayed aspre-social. In the narratives, different features of their life form arehighlighted. Often the narrator mentions that these beings were notbom, but emerged from the earth or from the sky. They are said not tohave lived in houses, but in a hole in the earth. In one story the beingis asked to tell its age and he replies: 'If you know the age of the earth,you know my age.' What is always stressed is the fact that these beingsdid not die and did not increase in numbers: they just appeared anddisappeared; if one went, another came.

The strangers forced these beings to settle in their houses in order toperform rituals to the earth. From then on these beings died as mortalsand had to have tombs. These beings are not associated with a societythat precedes the arrival of chieftaincy; rather they became ordinarysocial beings in the course of the encounter. In the narratives, socialityis associated with the temporal movement of life and death, which leadsto an increase in numbers; new living people are added to those whohave lived and who, after death, remain as ancestors. This increase innumbers forces people to start moving in space (migrating). Moreover,these autochthonous beings are associated with the local/the earth asit precedes a social presence altogether. These beings could be calledthe local, in the double sense of the term: a particular place as well asthe being who belongs there. This local and his particular place arecontrasted to the house of the strangers in which the 'locals' are forcedto settle. The house is associated with social space in contrast to abeyond, the bush, weogo. In Maane the distinction between immigrantchiefs and autochthonous earth priests is first of all a distinction betweenrepresentatives par exce//ewce of the domain of sociality, on the one hand,and the domain of the earth associated with a pre-social beyond on theother.

For our present purposes, the reading of foundation myths providesinteresting elements. First of all, the presence of new social life ata place requires the establishment of a relationship with the local,with the bush as a beyond. The first earth priests were literallymade to assure a good articulation of a place and a social presencethrough ritual. Second, social life is portrayed as a temporal processin which movement in space and the filling of space are central.Sociality implies processes of fission and migration in which moreand more places in the bush serve to accommodate social presence.This second aspect comes out most clearly from the narrativessituated after the absolute beginning of the chiefdom of Maane.After the foundation, social time started for everybody, so to speak.Ever since, even 'autochthones' have been implicated in migrations.Consequently, the term autochthone should not be taken literally,since it does not exclude migration. On the contrary, in Maane most


groups with the status of 'children of the earth' say that they havemoved away from their place of origin. However, they will alwaysclaim to have a pre-social ancestral beginning, either in Maane orin another Moose chiefdom. Family narratives relate how specificencounters have turned these ancestral beings into ordinary mortalsand from then on nothing prevented their descendants from moving inspace.

'Children of the earth' did however move differently from theircounterparts, the descendants of immigrant chiefs, the so-callednakombse: ̂ nakombse walk about empty-handed, whereas "children ofthe earth" carry something'. Indeed, migrating 'children of the earth'would bring along a small portion of their original earth shrine. Thisportion could be planted at the place of arrival and as such it servedas the first earth shrine in the construction of a ritual territory. Thismeant that 'children of the earth' could maintain their ritual positionof earth priest even after migration. If 'children of the earth' aspiredto become earth priests in their new locality, so the narratives indicate,they had to be hosted by 'children of the earth' already present in thatarea.

Analysis of narratives shows that, in Maane, migration is highlyvalued as part of processes of creating new chiefdoms, villages andritual territories. However, the discourse also indicates that this processof differentiation has its limits. For quite some time now, social space inMaane has been said to be saturated.The process of creating new villagesand the formation of new ritual territories has ceased. 'Everything is fullwith "children of the earth" and "immigrant chiefs".' No new ritualterritories can be added to the 33 that cover the surface of the 3 zonessupervised by the superior earth priests. 'Children of the earth' can anddo still migrate, of course, but in their new place of settlement theyno longer obtain the position of earth priest. After a quarrel, there areno more possibilities to start anew elsewhere as earth priest or villageheadman. The disappearance of the option to leave with a position orritual title puts more pressure on social life in a particular locality.

Narratives about the creation of the 33 ritual territories in Maaneshould be studied with reference to temporal processes. The foundationnarratives are about the creation of the first articulation between theplace and the social. Real 'locals' {bombande), beings of the bush, aredragged into the domain of sociality (the house) as earth priests byimmigrant chiefs who represent the first social presence in a place.Subsequently, migrating descendants of'locals', 'children of the earth',have obtained new ritual areas in their encounter with a fellow earthpriest who has served as host. However, the relationship between earthpriests is almost always said to have deteriorated over time (Luning2003). Moreover, the process of creating new ritual territories hasreached its limits. The saturation of social space is given as one of theexplanations for the increase in social pressures and confiicts in localarrangements. Let us look more closely at the issue of time as a factorin deteriorating local social life.


THE EARTH PRIESTS AND THEIR TERRITORIES: ISSUES OF TRANSMISSION,HERITAGE AND FUTURE GOALS

The data indicating that relationships among earth priests may behostile and competitive run counter to the images in the literature. Earthpriests are portrayed as peaceful guardians of unchanging customs. Forinstance, Hammond (1966) states that earth priests are peaceful andassociated with the harmonious nature of the deity Earth, whereasthe immigrant chiefs are supposed to be power-hungry, expansiveand competitive. When, at a conference in Ouagadougou, I arguedthat this image of earth priests does not correspond with data fromMaane, the opinion was severely contested. I was told that earthpriests are caretakers of the fertility of the earth, and this responsibilityis incompatible with quarrels. Quarrels among earth priests wouldendanger custom.

When people talk in Moore about customs and rituals they use thecentral Moore notion of rogem miki, literally translated as 'to havebeen bom' {rogem) and 'to have found' {miki). Francophone Burkinabegenerally translate the notion as la coutume, and in the French literaturea recurring translation is ne-trouver (Badini 1994: 108^ Izard 1992: 125;Pageard 1969: 24). In Maane, the term rogem miki is used in differentways, but the literature primarily stresses one meaning: rogem miki refersto rules and knowledge that are supposed to have been passed on forgenerations. This equation of. rogem miki with customary rules is relatedto the supposedly static and unchanging nature of customs. MichelIzard writes, for instance: 'Ce qu'on est "ne trouver" c'est la coutumeenvisagee comme un ordre immuable, a propos duquel ne se posent queles questions de sa preservation et de sa transmission' (Izard 1992: 125).The interpretation of Pageard goes even further, when he states that thenotion indicates that the Moose have 'une societe conservatrice toumeereligieusement vers le passe' (Pageard 1969: 24).

On the basis of my research data, I want to contest this image ofpeaceful and backward-looking earth priests, keepers of immutablecustoms inherited from the past. In Maane, the notion rogem miki isused in a much more interesting way. Here, too, rogem miki can referto rules and knowledge that are supposed to have been passed on forgenerations, but much more is involved than just a set of transmittedideas: the rogem miki consists of all that has come into existence priorto the people in the present. The rogem miki is not just the ancestralpast, but is synonymous with these ancestors as they live and may actin the present (Badini 1994: 108). Moreover, the ritual acts directedtowards these preceding entities are also referred to as rogem miki. Acommon invocation of libations is: 'We are going to give the customs{rogem miki) water', and the announcement of the performance of aritual is: 'We are going to do the customs {rogem miki).' The notion ofrogem miki refers to the ancestors and the earth, as well as to the ritualrelations through which one is engaged with these entities.

These customs are inherently subject to change for at least tworeasons. First of all, they are so demanding that they are (in particular


at present) difficult if not impossible to live up to. Sacrificial tasksare such a heavy burden that people say: 'The customs make ussuffer.' People do their best, but very often they are forced to adaptthe obligations to realistic proportions. Second, when people wish toindicate the demanding nature of customs, they refer to the fact that itis hard to maintain the required knowledge. Customs change becausethe knowledge about them diminishes over time, as one informant putit:

Since the beginning of the world, knowledge is gradually lost. This isinevitable, because people are forgetful. Listening properly to knowledgeableelders may help to limit the loss. These days, loss of knowledge goes fast.Someone who has become a Muslim may take the position of earth priest.He may pretend to know the customs, but he does not. Loss of knowledgeof the rogem miki is inevitable. In the past an earth priest could make it raineven in the dry season, we cannot do that any more. These days we have tosacrifice days on end to get a result, even in the rainy season.

These assessments of the ritual practices - the excessive nature of theirrequirements in combination with a loss of ritual knowledge - implythat for every ritual performance the question 'how are we going todo it, adapt it, adjust it this time' is addressed explicitly. Ritual isnever a self-evident undisputed replica of a past performance, but anattempt - accepted by some, contested by others - to do it to the bestof the available abilities. Adjustments can be acknowledged but peopleshould - at least at that moment, and with those speaking out - agreethat the effects aimed for are not jeopardized. Hence changes can beaccommodated as long as the future effects can be expected. And, eventhen, people have been forced to settle for less over time, as the abovequotation indicates. Customs in Maane are adapted time and again,and they are goal-oriented. Hence, they are by no means static andbackward-looking. On the contrary, they are adjusted, but always inanticipation of concrete results in the future (Luning 2006).

The competitive nature of the relationships between neighbouringearth priests has to be understood with reference to the anticipatedeffects of their ritual activities. The ritual work of every earth priestaims at enhancing the fertility of the crops in his territory. In this taskneighbouring earth priests are competitors. The ritual capacities of earthpriests require them go out stealing souls of millet {siise, sing, siiga) inother earth priests' territories (Hammond 1966; Zahan 1961; Liberski1984: 110; Dieterlen and Griaule 1965; Izard 1984). These imaginativejourneys take place in the period when the crops are ripening in thefields (September-October), and are indexed by passing dust storms.In this period of the year, the passage of a dust devil always gives riseto comments by witnesses. The direction may indicate which earthpriest is supposed to have visited which neighbouring territory. Uponits return the earth priest's raiding party is said to imprison the stolensouls in earth shrines in the bush zones of home territory, close to thelimits. These journeys are a prelude to the annual ritual in which everyearth priest performs sacrifices to the earth shrines in his ritual territory.


the so-called tengana (Luning 1997: 196-201). One of the aims of thesacrifices during the tengana is to unlock the earth shrines so as to makethe souls of the millet available to the crops (to be) grown in the ritualterritory. Only in this way can crops become nourishable food. Thediscourse shows that the task of assuring abundant and fruitful harvestsdepends upon antagonistic relationships among earth priests.

What is the relationship between this discussion of earth priests andthe ideas evoked in the local heritage discussions? First of all, thenotion of rogem miki refers to inheritance as a form of (unsuccessfully)transmitted knowledge about the ritual relationships that are requiredfor a fruitful social presence at a particular place. What is inheritedis knowledge about ritual relationships, rather than a ritual territoryas a substantive object. This is supported by discussions about thetranslation of the term for earth priest, tengsoba. The word is composedof two parts, teng and soba. Cartry (1996) writes that in many Voltaiclanguages ten, or teng, at times means land, village or locality, butalso: 'celui de lieu "sacre" determine du territoire villageois, Celuid'une etendue de terre con?ue comme le domaine sur lequel s'etend lajuridiction d'un seul "maitre de la Terre", celui, enfin de Terre dansson aspect de puissance mystique unique et universelle dont tous leshommes dependent' (Cartry 1996: 258).

Soba, on the other hand often means owner, hence the usagein Francophone literature of the term 'maitre de la terre'. It isacknowledged, however, that this translation is unfortunate. Cartrydescribes this ritual officiant as a personage 'qui est vouee a la terre'(Cartry 1983: 87), 'who is devoted to the earth'. Cartry cites Rattray(1932) who tried to do justice to the engagement of the earth priestwith 'his' ritual territory by inversing the relation of ownership. Cartry,quoting Rattray, states that 'C'est l'autel de la terre qui la possede; leschefs de terre sont seulement des enfants de l'autel de la terre' (Cartry1983: 88).

In this analysis ritual territory appears as a common good that cannotbe owned, not even by ritual officiants, but with which precariousrelationships should be maintained. However, this inheritance does notapply to a general common good, nor to the ftiture of all generations tocome. An earth priest is not devoted to, or responsible for, the Earthin the singular, but for his specific local portion: his ritual territory.His ritual knowledge and work aim at assuring fertility within theboundaries of that local unit, and for the people cultivating their landsat that moment. Since the souls of the millet are considered to be alimited good, abundance in one place may cause shortage in another.

If we are to consider a ritual territory as local heritage, the first thingto conclude is that it is indeed very local, that is partial and multiple. InVoltaic literature, the word Tenga is often written with a capital, and sois its translation: Earth, Terre. However, it is important to contest theidea that in these societies the Earth is a singular deity. On the contrary,people in Maane only engage in relation to this Earth with a capital Ethrough a plurality of ritual territories and a multitude of competitiveritual actions. As we will see, this feature of multiple places also comes


back when we turn to the characteristic features of an individual ritualterritory.

THE RITUAL TERRITORIES OF EARTH PRIESTS

The focus of this article is on narratives about acts and situations thatconstitute a threat to a good and fruitful social life at a particular place.In order to develop this theme, I must first deal briefiy with the notionof ritual territory of earth priests in Maane.

The term with which to indicate a ritual territory for which anearth priest is responsible is weogo, often translated as 'bush', brousse.The word weogo can be employed in different ways and with differentmeanings:

• If someone lives and works in Cote d'lvoire, people say: 'he is in the bushiweogo)'; that is, he is elsewhere, far away from home;

• If someone is at work in the fields, people will also say 'he is in the bush{weogo)'.

In these examples the bush is contrasted to the place of residence; itseems to indicate a space beyond, outside where one lives. It refersto a space where one is not at home. Apparently, the notion of theearth priest's territory emphasizes that it lies outside the social habitat.Specific features underline this idea. An earth priest's territory requiresthe presence of zones that do not serve any social function, either asa place where people live or as a source of human exploitation. Sucha territory can be fully implicated in rituals only if it includes zonesexempt from social presence - zones, for instance, where agriculture isimpossible (so-called zipeelse, literally 'white zones') like hills or smalldense patches of bush that serve as sites for sacrifices (kaamse, sing.kaongo).

Such places can be made into earth shrines. Ancestors of the presentearth priest are supposed to have done this by the act of placing/planting{lugli) something. Usually piles of stones or claypots have been placedunder a tree, in a cave, at the foot of a hill, in a dense bush, and/ornear a river bed. The generative name for earth shrines refers to this actof placing/planting: tengkuga can be translated as 'stones of the earth'.Every tengkugri has an individual name, and once planted the shrine willbe identified with a larger whole, a particular natural site such as a smallbush or a hill. A territory of an earth priest may easily contain twentytengkuga. At these fabricated shrines, yearly sacrifices are performed.Every earth shrine has its individual preference for sacrificial food: thehill called A takes a goat, the bush called B takes a red rooster, theplateau on top of the hill should be fed with a white chicken. The earthpriest walks through his territory to feed every individual earth shrine.He may go to the shrine itself, or he may sacrifice from a distance.He can put his ritual hoe on the ground, and sacrifice on this in thedirection of the hill, the bush to be fed.


The bush, weogo, of an earth priest thus includes:

• Residential zones (places characterized by the presence of houses arecalled tempeelem, literally 'white earth');

• Zones suitable for agriculture and cattle grazing;• Zones beyond the places characterized by human activities.

In whatever meaning weogo is employed, it always refers to a distinctionbetween, on the one hand, a zone that is qualified as home, a place forhuman and social activities, and, on the other, an exterior, a beyond. Inour analysis of narratives of the foundation of Maane a similar contrastwas noted. In these narratives the immigrant chiefs are associated withthe house, the socialized space into which they drag the pre-social'locals' of the bush. Narratives as well as the features of the ritualterritory insist on this distinction between a space of social presence anda beyond.

Cartry (1979) presents similar findings for the Gourmantche,neighbours of Moose, and their notion of bush, fuali. He borrowsfrom Malamoud (1976) in calling this bush 'the other of the village'.Central to his analysis is that this space comes about through projection;it is what the village is not. This means that the spatial distinction doesnot simply refer to physical or geographical realities. A good exampleof such a negative projection is that Moose think that in this space theymay lose their minds and their capacity for moral judgement (Izard1992; Bonnet 1988). Wandering too long in the bush, a place that lacksthe distinctive features of the village, can threaten one's capacity formaking moral and social distinctions, one's capacity to reason.

The bush is not qualified only as negative, however. On the contrary,for both Gourmantche and Moose it is a necessary referential space,a resource. In rituals, earth priests in Maane explicitly address theseplaces in search of social wealth: that is a good harvest and the birthof children {rogem). These places are not considered to be empty. Onthe contrary, sacrificial sites are normally said to be populated by bushbeings, in particular ziindamba and kinkirse. The latter are consideredto be important in the context of pregnancy. A pregnancy starts with akinkirga settling in the womb of a woman. Adding sperm of the husbandin the space of the house is necessary for the child to grow and obtain thequalities for becoming a social being. Clearly children originate in thebush and come to settle in the house. This leads to strict rules stipulatingthat sexual activity is strictly forbidden outside the homesteads (Bonnet1988; Badini 1994; Cartry 1976, 1979; Izard 1992). These places areconsidered as sources of life (for people and crops) on condition thatthey remain free of ordinary human and social activities. Paradoxically,keeping certain zones free of social presence requires considerablesocial effort and prohibitions such as sexual taboos; certain bushesshould never be cut; making a noise at particular spots in the bush isprohibited. Moreover, as we have seen, earth shrines have to be madefor sacrifices. The social act of making a place of sacrifice turns this


natural site into a place at which requests can be made for good cropsand children, and at the same time a place to be avoided. Once a placehas been made into a sacrificial site, ordinary social usage is not allowedthere any more. It is in reference to these places that, for the secondtime in our analysis, we come across the idea of saturation of socialspace.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BUSH: MORALS IN THE PRESENT

We first encountered the idea of saturated social space when dealingwith the narratives about ritual territories. This in itself did not turnnewcomers into unwelcome guests. Migrations have been part andparcel of historical developments in this region. Mobility is still, perhapseven more than in the past, a dominant feature of social life in thepresent. Since the beginning of colonial times and until very recently,migrations in the direction of Cote d'lvoire have obtained considerablemomentum (Cordell, Gregory and Piche 1996). But also within Burkinaitself, and within the region of Maane, mobility remains the norm ratherthan the exception.

When people move within the chiefdom of Maane, their requestsfor a place to build a house and for lands to cultivate will seldom berefused. The procedures for obtaining lands and a place to settle aresimilar for everybody. In Maane there are no longer agricultural landswithout claims to ownership. A newcomer always has to ask the owner(who may or may not be a child of the earth) for permission to startusing particular stretches of cultivable land. Even though land is scarce,it is still difficult to refuse land rights to newcomers.

In the present, however, settling in a new place is considered highlyproblematic. There is overall agreement that nowadays the bush is onthe verge of being completely occupied. There are no more emptyspaces left. This process is to be regretted, but it is also inevitable. TTiisdevelopment is not perceived as a simple consequence of populationgrowth, or intensification of forms of exploitation of the naturalenvironment. The filling of the bush and its negative consequencesare also the result of changes in the field of morality. People behavebadly:

• They cut wood in the sacred bushes {kaamse);• They cultivate in places where they should not and did not in the past;• Their animals are left to stray and can destroy trees and undergrowth;• When they gather, they take unripe fruits as well as grains to the house (in

particular shea butter nuts).

These transgressions are not limited to the domain of economicexploitation of the environment. There is a growing disrespect forall the rules that aim to keep the balance between zones characterizedby forms of social presence and those that should stay devoid of social


activity. For instance, the prohibition to engage in sexual activity inthe bush is not observed properly any more. This rule is important forengendering good children in the house. In the past, so the discoursecontinues, these transgressions hardly ever occurred, and if they diddirect punishment would be inflicted upon the transgressors. The bushbeings themselves would be the punishing agents. A sacrifice by theearth priest was the only means to prevent the guilty being devoured bywild animals (lions and serpents). However, there are hardly any wildanimals left. More generally, today the bush is no longer sufficientlystrong to seek vengeance for itself. Under these conditions, transgressivebehaviour increases rapidly. Some people even destroy places of sacrificein the bush; others ask earth priests to remove the cult objects, so thatthe bush can be used to cut firewood.

In this discourse the task of the earth priest is defined as one ofprotecting the environment, and in particular the balance between zoneswith and without social presence. This task is sometimes compared tothe surveillance task of agents of the Ministry of Forestry, who shouldregulate hunting and the cutting of firewood. It used to be the taskof the earth priests to protect the earth shrines. Sometimes, they evenplanted trees around sacrificial sites in order to keep ordinary peopleaway from these places. 'Children of the earth' have always put a lotof effort into protecting and supporting their territory, and their taskwas hard and difficult. But today they no longer succeed in arrangingtheir territory — tengabiise pa toin n manege eb ziig ye — since they cannotcorrect the attitudes of people. More and more, people destroy thecustoms.

In their explanations of the deplorable state of affairs in the present,the Moose often blame Fulani livestock producers. The Fulani arecattle-keeping peoples who have in recent times been forced to take upagriculture. They figure as emblematic strangers; they have a differentmode of livelihood (often competing with the agricultural Moose for thesame natural resources) and tfiey practise a different religion. In theirnarratives explaining the decline of the bush, the Moose refer to theFulani's Muslim identity as the source of a destructive attitude towardsearth shrines. Let me give one example of a narrative I have been told by'children of the earth'. The narrators insisted that the events occurredduring their lifetime. They witnessed them personally, in contrast toevents in the past about which they had only heard. In their view, thisclearly gave their testimony more force.

There were Fulani who had asked the earth priest of Lessatenga for lands onwhich to live and cultivate. When the earth priest had given them a place,he had warned them: 'Your house will be very close to one of our earthshrines. Do not destroy the things (teedo) that have been put there.' In thefirst year, the Fulani saw the sacrifices the earth priest performed close totheir house, during his tengana. They complained, saying that the feathersof the sacrificed chicken were blown into their courtyard by the wind. Thiswas an infraction of their religious observances. They insisted that the earthpriest should refrain from sacrificing at this earth shrine. The earth priestapproached this sacrificial site and talked to it. He said: 'We do not have any


more chicken or beer to give to you. In the future you do not have a choice;take the Fulani and their cattle instead.' In the past, these Fulani and theircattle were plentiful, but after the incident their numbers have diminished.The Fulani spoil the bush: Silmiise eb saama weogo.

In the narratives the Fulani are destroyers of the bush par excellence,since they do not share the customs of the Moose. They cannot anddo not respect earth shrines and the sacrificial obligations connectedto them. However, so informants sadly admit, transgressions are notthe exclusive doings of the Fulani. Moose themselves are also blamedfor bad behaviour. These days, even children of the earth can becomeserious transgressors. One child of the earth gave an example takenfrom his own family history. Again the narrator stressed that he hadbeen a witness to the event, which had occurred in the lifetime of theformer earth priest of the village of Sondo:

A member of his family called Yaabre wanted to build a very large house,one with five rooms. People from two other villages helped him to thatchthe roof, a job that took tliem three days. Yaabre took a large wooden polefrom the sacred bush, called siudge. This was used to support the centre ofthe roof. During the second day of beer preparation of the following year'sfirst fruit ceremony, the roof of the large house caught on fire. The fiamewas seen in the neighbouring village of Liliga. Nothing of the house or in thehouse could be saved; the fiames destroyed all the money, cloths etc. Yaabrefled to Ouahigouya - a big town in the north of Burkina - only to come backhome years later.

People who transgress these critical/fundamental rules of social life aresaid to lack shame (yande). They 'do not fear the eyes of other people',that is to say they cannot be corrected, since disapproval of close friendsand kin does not affect them. They do not care what other people thinkof them. Of course people can only be reminded of particular moralobligations if they care to be connected socially and to be valued in theeyes of others. This, so the argument goes, is less and less the case. Inthis discourse the destruction of the bush is as much the result as thecause of this deplorable situation in the present. The more the bush isdisappearing, the fewer good kinkirse are available for good pregnancies.Very frequently, the children of today are engendered on the basis ofziindamba. Such children can hardly be subjected to moral correction.They do not fear the eyes of other social beings. They are too tough;they do not have mercy or pity. The more the bush is disappearing, themore destruction is caused by young people - destruction that, in turn,makes the bush disappear at ever-faster rates. The earth priests are notcapable of stopping or even slowing down this process. They cannotarrange their territory any more.

CONCLUSION

The title of the article poses a question: ritual territories as local heritage?In answering the question, I have chosen to focus on the local notion

SOCIETY AND NATURE AMONG THE MOOSE 9 9

of rogem miki, that which precedes the present and that to which thepresent has to be properly connected.

In Maane the notion of heritage applies more to knowledge andpractices transmitted from the past than to the ritual territory as asubstantive spatial entity. The earth priest is not an owner of something,but a caretaker of a particular engagement (Ingold 2000) with hisweogo, bush. This engagement requires ritual connections to that whichprecedes. In Maane people say 'we are going to do our rogem miki',and 'we are going to give our rogem miki water'. Ritual territoriesas heritage imply three key elements: transmission of knowledge, adiversity of proper ritual relations, and a temporal perspective. Thistemporal perspective applies in a double sense: in rituals one connectsto that which precedes, and how this is done deteriorates over time.

In Maane, nature as local heritage concerns first of all the transmissionof knowledge about how people can take from the environment. Keepingintact certain spaces in the bush that are not marked by social presenceis a precondition for taking from nature. Maane subscribes to the Widerpattern of African societies, that do not consider nature as something tobe conserved integrally, but as a resource that is to be accessed properlyin search for abundance (Dugast 2002).

The process of taking from nature, without destroying it, dependson a particular articulation of the social and the natural. In Moosenarratives and ritual practices, the natural is envisaged as a 'beyond'that is a projected mirror image of sociality. This space lacks features thatare emblematic of sociality. In this space two forms of differentiation,social distinctions and moral discriminations, are absent. Taking fromnature requires the articulation between the social domain and thisnon-social space. In this articulation the two forms of differentiationplay a prominent role. First of all, social distinctions shape the forms oftapping from nature. This is clear from the social distinctions betweenimmigrant chiefs and 'children of the earth', as well as between differentearth priests who act as caretakers of a multitude of ritual territories.Second, continuity in tapping from nature depends on maintainingsocial morajs.

In Maane, morality is crucial in the proper articulation between thesocial and the 'other of the village'. Morality is a constitutive feature ofsociality. In contrast to this, the bush is the beyond where a person maygo mad; children who are too strongly connected to the bush do notknow mercy or pity, nor are they sensitive to the moral judgement ofother people. Morals are part and parcel of the social. In turn, they arecrucial for keeping a good balance between the domain of sociality andthe bush beyond. A proper articulation must be maintained throughrituals and social rules. Unfortunately, at present the degradation ofmorals is rapidly causing the degradation of the bush. People aresocially active where they should not be (sex in the bush, cutting woodeverywhere), and they destroy social markers, such as earth shrines,that facilitate the articulation of the social and the bush. In the present,a strong decline in morals risks leading to rapid degradation of theenvironment.


Maane is tiot unique in making a connection between degradationof morals and nature. The Dogon of Mali stress that time is a processcharacterized by losses. On the one hand, social norms are transgressedor negated: 'people have no more morals these days, no more respect'.On the other hand, rains become more erratic (van Beek 2000: 45).For Dogon, this process of moral and environmental degradation isconnected to a loss of power and to a projected future of depletion. VanBeek presents rituals as attempts to contradict this projected future ofdecay. For the Dogon, rituals aim to deny change and try to negatedegradation (van Beek 2000: 45).

In Maane, rituals relate to time and its effects altogether differently.Rituals imply relationships that are situated on a time frame; present-day people relate to that which precedes. Narratives inform us howthis precedence has been shaped in time. In the beginning of Maane,locals {bombande) at the place encounter immigrant-chiefs that bringalong social presence. The arrival of the latter has started the clock ofsocial time and triggered processes of migration and settlement in theframework of an existing society. The descendants of the locals havecontinued to be associated with that which is beyond sociality, in thedouble sense of that which precedes the start of social time, as well asthat which is outside of social space.

Ritual practices in Maane can be defined as an engagement inrelationships created and unfolding in time. These practices do notnegate time, nor change. On the contrary, ritual practices depend onknowledge that is inherently subject to change. The (unsuccessful)transmission of knowledge inevitably leads to loss of competence overtime. The result has been a permanent process of decrease in ritualefficacy, ever since the beginning of time. The present decline in moralshas only added to this permanent process of demise in ritual knowledgeand efficacy. Degradation in morals accelerates the ongoing process ofdiminishing returns. It does so in a most alarming way, since it threatensto disrupt the balance between the social and the bush altogether. Inthe perception of people this disruption is what makes the presentsituation very different from and much more serious than past timesand processes of change.

The analysis of the case of Maane contrasts with the messageof Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns (1996) on discourses aboutdegradation of nature in Africa. They argue that the modern axiomsabout the mastering of nature are combined with ideas about pristinenature: any human impact is considered to disturb the forest vegetationand the wild, life-rich wilderness. Any conversion of such vegetation isseen to constitute 'degradation'. They argue that this modern perceptionmay run counter to the ideas of local inhabitants, who may value suchconversion positively: 'What is "degraded and degrading" for somemay for others be merely transformed or even improved' (Leach andMearns 1996: 12). This contrast suggests a discussion on the level ofconcrete physical parts of nature: a specific forest, a wildlife reserve.Opinions about the effects of human presence in these areas may differ.I hope to have shown that in Maane discussions about degradation are


about much more than the state of particular places. Local social life inMaane is about the right fit between social presence and the bush. Thisbush is tangible but also a projected space. Accessing and protectingthis projected space requires great care in how to place sociality, asis emphasized in narratives and rituals. In Maane, nature as heritagedoes not concern a tangible object that should be conserved; it refers todifferent efforts - rules and practices - in which multiple relationshipsbetween the social and the bush are created and should be maintainedover time. This particular configuration of nature as local heritage isdegrading. Can this process be stopped or reversed? At present evenearth priests cannot manage the bush. As it is, they have difficultykeeping up the standard of their own ritual performances; they are inno position to keep up the moral standards of other people.

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ABSTRACTThe issue of nature as local heritage refers to temporalities: the transmission ofa valued common good over time, as well as the assessment of causes leadingto degradation of the natural environment. How are such ideas shaped in localdiscourse and practices in the Moose chiefdom of Maane? The article focuseson the creation, development and main features of the ritual territories ofearth priests over time. A pessimistic discourse on the present environmentalsituation connects the degradation of the land to processes of social erosion:loss of knowledge and morals. Is this degradation considered to be a recentphenomenon, or is it inherent in the passage of time at whatever moment inthe history of Maane?


RESUME

La question de la nature en tant qu'heritage local renvoie a des temporalites : latransmission dans le temps d'un bien commun valorise, ainsi que revaluationdes causes de la degradation de l'environnement naturel. Quelle forme cesidees prennent-elles dans les pratiques et le discours local dans la chefFeriemooga des Maane ? L'anicle s'interesse a la creation, au developpement et auxprincipales caracteristiques des territoires rituels des pretres de la terre dansle temps. Un discours pessimiste sur l'etat actuel de l'environnement relie ladegradation des terres a des processus d'erosion sociale : perte de savoir et demoralite. Cette degradation est-elle consideree comme un phenomene recentou est-elle inherente au passage du temps, quel que soit le moment consideredans I'histoire des Maane ?

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