The Socio-Cultural Relevance of the Hunters’ Performance in Yorùbá Land

Abstract

Art is considered a functional phenomenon which does not exist for mere pleasure or for its own sake in the Yorùbá land. Every performance in the Yorùbá society either for ritual or entertainment purposes usually has cogent reasons attached to them. This is perhaps one of the reasons why it has been difficult and impossible for the influence of the Western religion/cultures to eradicate the traditional performances. The roles they play in the peoples’ life remain germane that they cannot afford to neglect them. Our main objective thus is to examine the significance of the hunters’ performance as a functional art in order to evaluate its socio-cultural values to the Yorùbá people. This paper employed the analytical method where the researcher depended on written and printed sources from relevant journal articles, books and internet sources as our primary source of data collection. The unstructured interview instrument was also adopted in order to complement the information obtained from the books and library. Our findings revealed the fact that the hunters’ performance remains highly functional across Yorùbá land. Largely for its dual roles and multi-facet approaches the hunters’ performance is used for social (naming, wedding, coronation, birthdays…) and sacred ceremonies like burials, sacrifices and ancestral worships. The performance divulges the art, aesthetics, beliefs, taboos, ideals, communality and culture of the Yorùbá people. The belief of the people in what may be the consequence of not carrying out the performance is still very strong and they cannot neglect it. The paper concludes that the hunters’ performance remains purposeful in the Yorùbá society till date.