Everywhere in Africa contact with the European is causing change and disturbance, institutional dislocation and disintegration. If Bantu society is to survive the shock, its disintegrating institutions must eventually resolve themselves into new or modified forms better suited to the changed conditions. This transition can be accomplished only by gradual, often painful adjustments, in which the responses and reactions to the challenge of the more advanced culture might be investigated and the nature of culture growth analysed. One of the most fruitful approaches to the sociological processes involved in culture growth and the implication of the changes that occur is the study of the impact of a foreign culture upon the family and its associated institutions. Disturbances in these are often the reflection of widespread social and economic disintegration, and the extent of the disturbance may be regarded as a measure of the shock that has been sustained by the society. The purpose of this attempt at describing and analysing changing conditions in marital and parental relations is to show the extent of disintegration, the weaknesses and disadvantages of some of the institutions that are proving inadequate to meet the new demands, and the nature of the adjustments that are being made to regain equilibrium.

In considering the effects of the contact between African societies and European civilization, one is apt to forget that the exploitation of Africa by Europeans began more than five centuries ago. To trace the consequences of this long intercourse between Africa and Europe is a legitimate and worthwhile task. But is it a task for the social anthropologist? Previous contributors to the present symposium have emphasized the necessity of historical reconstruction in order to understand the effects of contact with European civilization upon a particular culture. They have been fortunate in dealing with cultures where the initial impact of the white man is recent enough to be within living memory. On the West Coast of Africa no feat of skill or imagination would suffice to establish a reliable zero point of culture contact. One would presumably have to be content with the construction of an ‘ideal type’ based on the scanty literature and on descriptions of cognate cultures. But must we therefore abandon every hope of investigating the influence of European civilization in these areas, and confine ourselves to the regions of recent contact where the procedure sponsored by Dr. Hunter and Dr. Mair can be successfully employed? I do not think so; and I shall endeavour to describe an approach which is, I believe, equally applicable both in societies which have recently come under the influence of culture contact, and those which have reached an advanced stage of Europeanization.

Les malentendus que provoque fatalement dans les colonies la rencontre d'une civilisation supérieure avec des civilisations inférieures, dégénèrent de temps en temps en troubles violents. Ces mouvements de révolte se produisent plus fréquemment aux époques de crise économique. Si nous recherchons les causes profondes de ces mouvements, et de ces troubles, nous finissons presque toujours par y découvrir l'action de quelque panacée mystérieuse, détenue par une société secrète, ou mise à la disposition de la collectivité tout entière.

In Nigeria there are two principal methods of contracting marriages (a) by the payment of a bride-price, and (b) by exchange.

I use the well-established term ‘bride-price’ in preference to the newfangled term ‘bride-wealth’ because the exact equivalent of the term ‘bride-price’ is used in many native Nigerian languages, and also because the term connotes a standard rate payable for a bride, whereas ‘bride-wealth’ is a vague term which seems to suggest the goods and chattels or wedding-presents of a bride.

This paper is an attempt to introduce the subject of morality for scientific discussion after a new manner. It is inspired throughout by that part of Professor Malinowski's work which relates to Primitive Law, and which he has developed in Crime and Custom in Savage Society, in his introduction to Dr. Ian Hogbin's Law and Order in Polynesia, and in his oral teaching at the London School of Economics in recent years. In his analysis of law Professor Malinowski finds himself driven to the study of the whole body of sanctioned custom, and of all the various attractions and compulsions that lead men to conform to a social tradition of right behaviour. A certain portion of that field is here delimited for separate description, namely morality, which is that part of right custom that is sanctioned by religion.