Tana vrishin ta wa
How+many children your(s) qm
How many children have you?
|
|
|
|
| | Home | Intro | Tour | Montagnards | Society | Culture | Language | Images | Music | Library | Links | |
|
How to begin? How to begin to describe Sukur culture, and how to differentiate it from Sukur society, language, and other of our heading categories? Our headings are for convenience, but it would seem that we might well start by discussing the Sukur calendar, the temporal framework within which they live their lives. The Sukur calendar
The Sukur calendar runs by the moon and has 13 months. This might seem to pose problems as a mean lunar month is 29.53059 days and thirteen months total 383.8977 days as against the 365.25 day solar year. However, the changing seasons are more important to the Sukur and most other African peoples than astronomical calculations. So they adjust the calendar according to the seasons, and particularly according to the coming of the rains. Thus, if the rains are early, the 13th month may be cancelled, or if late, the first month can be repeated. Ceremonies are tied to the months and to the phases of the moon. For example, however many days are set aside for the final, celebratory, phase of 'Ber the male youths' initiation, the dances end on the first day of the 6th month (days being calculated from dusk to dusk) when the new moon becomes visible. We don't know what happens to Zava da Fa if the 13th month is omitted, but are sure this poses no problem to the Sukur! Similarly, our indications of the agricultural and (formerly) iron-making taking place each month is impressionistic, depending not only on climatic conditions but upon a variety of other factors: health, size of family and the need to schedule other activities, among others.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
