Coitus, gender construction, and space allocation among a traditional Igbo group: some linguistic leads (WITHDRAWN)

Peter-Jazzy Ezeh, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

The study is an attempt to use linguistic evidence to access the traditional worldview of the Okposi,an Igbo of Nigeria's glottocultural group, on sex and reproductive matters. Understanding autochthonous sexual ideology of this group has important implications to reproductive health because studies by other researchers have implicated such views in the current sexual behaviour of other groups in Nigeria. In an unhurried participant observation spanning five years (2005 - 2010) I collected 50 naturally situated utterances connected with sex and human reproduction. While the Okposi may be described as practical in matters of sex,their dialect betrays a tendency to blame the female partner in matters concerning reproductive health problems. This may be explained in terms of a patrilocal-patrilineal social structure that favours polygyny.