Do Infants Have Religion?

The Spiritual Lives of Beng Babies

Author(s): Alma Gottlieb
Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 100, No. 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 122-135
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
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 ALMA GOTTLIEB / UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN

Do Infants Hawe Religion?

The Spiritual Lives of Beng Babies

ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS of religion have gaging more in bodily than verbal communication, in
tended to focus on the lives, experiences, and view- keeping with recent works suggesting that much can be
points of adults. The great canonical works have learned from the nonverbal ''langllages." 3 I found this
scarcely a word to say about how religion might affect dual strategy an acceptable compromise to a methodo-
children's lives. Robertson Smith wrote nothing about logical challenge. With such a combination of ap-
the religion of young Semites. Frazer never considered proaches, the experiences of infants themselves should
how divine kingship might influence children's play become at least partly accessible to the gaze of an out-
styles. Durkheim did not investigate the way that organ- side observer. Indeed, the very definition of experience
ized groups of boys and girls might intersect with organ- may be redefined if we agree to expand the corpus of
ized groups of adults in creating an effervescence of communication channels to include both the spiritual
spirit. Weber neglected to speculate on the effect that and the bodily, in this case, uto identify the existential
Protestant faith might have on child-rearing practices. conditions that constitute the experiential world of
With only a few exceptions, social scientists today Beng babies" (John McCall, personal communication,
continue to assume the irrelevance of early childhood November 1996; see Bruner and Turner 1986).
to spirituality, and silence still reigns concerning the
religious and ritual experiences of minors.1 If this is true
of young children, it is even more so of infants, who are The Spiritual Lives of Beng Infants
perhaps the most systematically ignored of all human Most Western folk models of child development im-
groups by anthropologists.2 ply a mute and uncomprehending newborn arriving for
In my own fieldwork, I relied in part on methods the first time in the world of humans from a restricted
that Victor Turner enunciated long ago (1973) for the uterine life of minimal stimulation and no social interac-
decoding of symbolic phenomena: exploration of in- tion as such. Before that, the biological model underly-
formants' own exigeses, identiElcation of the opera- ing all this further implies, the fetus was a mere zygote
tional meanings of symbols in particular ritual and so- of a few cells, and before those cells were joined, it had
cial contexts, and provisional establishing of a model or no existence whatsoever. Hence the Western caretaker
grammar of positional meanings of such symbols in a of an infant, whether the mother or anyone else, usually
wide variety of social contexts. Of course with infants attends to the bodily needs of the young tot with great
the great frustration relates to the first level of this care but may pay less attention to social relational con-
methodology: very young children do not make reliable cerns and virtually none to spiritual ones.4
informants, at least not when anthropologists define The Beng view of fetal development is quite differ-
conversation in the usual way. To counteract this limita- ent. Beng adults maintain that infants lead profoundly
tion, I relied on diviners, those Beng adults who them- spiritual lives. In fact, the younger they are, the more
selves purport to speak for infants after speaking with thoroughly spiritual their existence is said to be. Affili-
the spirits who themselves speak for crying babies. To ated with this spirituality is a set of infant care practices
complement this "adultocentric" perspective, I spent demanded of a caretaker. To understand this indige-
approximately 700 hours with infants themselves, en- nous conception of infants' spirituality, we must investi-
gate life before the womb.
ALMA GOTTLIEB is an associate professor in the Department of In Beng villages, each baby is said to be a reincarna-
Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL tion of someone who died. By itself this ideology is by
61801 . no means rare in Africa.5 It is also well known for South

AmericanAnthropo/ogist 100(1):122-135. Copyright t3 1998, American Anthropological Association.

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 THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF BENG BABIES / ALMA GOTTLIEB 123

Asia and Native North America (Mills and Slobodin EveIy day there are deaths and births. The number of

1994). But we anthropologists have rarely asked what people living here and in wrugbe keeps going up and down.

the implications of this common ideology may be for the You know who youre replacing from wrugbe if someone
dies on the same day that you're born. Otherwise, if no one
treatment of infants and their experiences. In the Beng
dies on the day you're born, you don't know who you're
context, let us trace their life course.6
replacing.

Two issues that emerge from this statement war-

The AHerlife Is Where We Come From
rant discussion. First is that of personal identity. In the
In the Beng world, infants emerge not from a land Beng model, evetyone is considered to be a reincarna-
of regressively diminishing life but from a rich exis- tion of an ancestor. Some people know whose prior
tence in a place that adults call wmgbe.7 Several Beng identity has returned in them; others do not, although
adults agreed that wrugbe is dispersed among invisible there is no general set of terms to distinguish the two
neighborhoods in major cities in Africa and Europe, types of people. But if an individual knows his or her
though different people named different cities.8 prior identity, then, as we shall see, others may treat this
The literal meaning of wrugbe is aspirit village (or person in particular ways, according to the ancestor's
town)." In Western languages, with their roots in the personality and life circumstances.
Judeo-Christian tradition, a likely translation of wrugbe We also need to investigate the demographic impli-
would be "afterlife," the place to which the wru (spirit) cations of Kouakou Ba's statement. As a Elrst pass, we
of a person travels once that person's body dies and the might be tempted to put them in economic terms. The
nenew (soul) transforms to a wru. But the term afterlife, indigenous conception of demography that each human
while evocative, is not entirely accurate for two rea- life given (from wrugbe) must be counterbalanced by
sons. First, it implies that the ordinary or unmarked one taken (back to wrugbe) might be recast as a zero-
place and time of orientation are this human existence sum conception of human life. But does this necessarily
and that once one dies, one goes zafterwards" to a space imply an empirically stable population, with births and
where one stays, presumably for eternity. In contrast, deaths delicately balanced? This would hardly be possi-
Beng souls go to wrugbe as a waystation; after some ble at any given moment, as the number of births and
time (whose duration is variable), they are rebotn as deaths may vary according to a complex array of factors
newborn humans. Yet even waystation is not ethno- that are surely impossible to balance. For our purposes,
graphically apt, as this suggests a liminal time and place what is significant is that this ideology of reincarnation-
of transit. In contrast, it is this lifeX that is seen by at as-demographic-balance operates at the ideological
least some Beng, certainly by religious specialists and level regardless of actual demographic fluctuations.9
others who think deeply about such eschatological mat- This potential lack of "fit" between ideology and
ters, as the ephemeral site of transit whose ultimate praxis, as we might put it, is mirrored at another level.
goal is to reach the land of the ancestors (cf. MacGaffey Once someone dies, the neneIl or soul is transformed
1986). Second, from the perspective of infancy, what is into a wru or spirit. Yet when that person is reincar-
significant is that, in the Beng view, infants have just re- nated into someone else, the wru nevertheless contin-
cently been living their lives in a previous and invisible ues to exist as an ancestor. There is, we might say, a
existence. Thus for the Beng, what English speakers double existence rather than an either-or conception.
would term the afterlife might alternatively be termed a Unlike the classical Aristotelian framework, which de-
beforelife. Yet this term implies a Elnite end to one's life, mands that an identity be either one thing or another but
whereas the doctrine of reincarnation is based on a cy- not both simultaneously, in the Beng view one may si-
clical trajectory, with no beginning and no end and multaneously exist at two very different levels of real-
death itself as a kind of life. ity: one visible and earthly, the other invisible and
My understanding of the contours of wrugbe has ghostly.l?

been gained through a series of conversations over the The boundary between wrugbe and this life is per-
years with many Beng people, especially religious spe- meable in another way. While wrugbe is said to be lo-
cialists, both Masters of the Earth (ba gbali) and divin- cated in distant countries or metropolises where the
ers (srandi7y). During my last visit, one diviner named lifestyle of the living residents is quite different from
Kouakou Ba regularly shared with me his exceptional that of rural Beng villagers, Beng adults do not perceive
knowledge of wrugbe. Still in his late twenties, Kouakou wrugbe as unreachable. Indeed, I was told of several liv-
Ba had already built up a large following because of his ing adults who had managed to travel invisibly to
reputation for speaking the truth based on early training wrugbe (in their dreams) in order to converse with an-
as a diviner. Here is how he explained his understanding cestors, then returned easily to tell the tale. When I ex-
of the temporal as well as, we might say, the demo- pressed amazement (no doubt influenced uncon-
graphic dimensions of wrugbe: sciously by the classical Greek conception of the

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124 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST * VOL. 100, NO. 1 * MARCH 1998

afterlife imbued in me in high school, with its formida- responsibility seriously. When I asked how many times
ble Cerberus guarding the entrance to Hades), my inter- the mixture is applied to a newborn, I was skeptical
locutor assured me that anyone could converse with an when I heard from several women that it is applied "con-
ancestor and that the (dreamtime) journey to wrugbe it- stantly," but my own subsequent observations con-
self is not dangerous. firmed their claim. Next to every newborn sits an older
Reciprocally, until recently the wrus of Beng ances- woman, usually the baby's maternal grandmother, who
tors themselves were said to traverse back and forth be- dabs a tiny bit of an herbal mixture on the dangling cord
tween wrugbe and this life on a daily basis. Before local every few minutes.
ofElcials of the Ivoirian government ordered all thatch- The day that a baby's umbilical cord stump falls off
roofed houses to be destroyed in the late 1960s, the is momentous, for the newborn has just begun to
Beng lived in large, round dwellings that accommo- emerge from wrugbe. This is a gradual process that will
dated an extended family (Gottlieb 1992:135-136). This take several years to complete. Both to mark the begin-
was meant to include not only the living but also the ning of this slow passage and to inaugurate it more ac-
dead. Every night, someone in the household put out a tively, the infant's mother, along with some of her fe-
small bowl of food for the ancestors of the family. At male relatives, conduct two or three bodily rituals of
night, the last person to retire closed the door, locking transformation on the tiny new person.l2 First, they ad-
in the living and the dead to sleep together. In the morn-
minister an enema to the baby (called gbel?fAl?, split-
ing, the first person to open the door released the wrus,
ting the anus"), clearly causing distress to the crying
who traveled back to wrugbe for the day, to return at
child. A mother knows that she will hurt her infant; still,
night for their dinner and sleeping spot once again.
women looked at me with incredulity when I inquired
Considering this regular traffic between wrugbe
whether or not they might have pity on their newborns
and this life and considering that infants have just
and delay the ritual for some time. This is clearly not an
emerged from wrugbe, what are the implications for the
option.
day-to-day experiences of babies?
For her first child, a mother is taught how to adminis-
ter such an enema by the female elder who has been bath-
The Umbilical Cord: Lifeline to Wrugbe ing her baby four times a day since the birth (Gottlieb
n.d.). She uses the leaves of a particular plant (kprokpro
Until the umbilical cord stump falls off, the new-
lana, unidentified) crushed together with one chili pep-
born is not considered to have emerged from wrugbe at
per and some warm water. From the next day forward,
all, and the tiny creature is not seen as a person (s07y).
the mother will administer such an enema twice a day to
Hence if the newborn should die during those first few
her baby (in the morning and at night). An older child
days, there is no funeral, and the fact is not announced
often receives regular enemas as well, and many adults
publicly. In this case the infant's passing is not con-
also give themselves enemas on a regular basis. Thus
ceived as a death, just a return in bodily form to the
the baby is starting to be "toilet trainedn from the Elrst
space that the infant was still psychically inhabiting.
week of life, beginning a series of civilizing" processes
Beng women told me that the umbilical stump usu-
inaugurating the baby's entry into this life." 13
ally drops off on the third or fourth day, and this was in-
Typically a few hours after the first enema, the new-
deed the case for all of the many Beng newborns I have
born is the subject of a second maJor ritual. The mater-
observed during my fieldwork. This schedule is rather
on the fast end of the scale when viewed cross-cultur- nal grandmother (or another older woman) makes a

ally.ll If my Beng informants comments are accurate necklace (dS) from a savanna grass of the same name

and my own observations representative, the Beng pat- (Figure 1). This necklace will be worn night and day by

tern appears to be somewhat accelerated compared to the infant to encourage general health and growth, until
other regions of the world. How can we account for this it eventually tears and falls off. At that point, depending

relatively rapid development on the part of Beng infants? on the baby's age and the mother's industry, it may or
Medical researchers have observed that aage at may not be replaced. Only after this first necklace is ap-
cord separation has been shown to be associated with plied can the mother or grandmother begin to add other
the agent used for umbilical cord care" (Novack et al. items of jewelry. The actual ritual is held in a rather se-
1988:220; see also Arad et al. 1981). Beng women apply cluded and dimly lit space (inside the bedroom of the in-
an herbal mixture to a newborn's umbilical stump that fant's mother) with a somewhat solemn tone. Finally,
may indeed shorten the number of days that the cord re- once the umbilical cord falls off the newborn, in the
mains attached to the navel. The intention is to dry out case of a girl, a third ritual manipulation of the body oc-
the moist cord fragment quickly, enabling it to wither curs on the same day as well: the newborn's ears are
and drop off, allowing the infant to begin its spiritual pierced. Now she is authorized to enter into the world of
journey from wrugbe to this life. Beng women take this feminine beautification. Having seen the newborn

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 THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF BENG BABIES / ALMA GOTTLIEB 125

wrugbe and sometimes in this life. Parents ought to do

all they can to make this life comfortable and attractive
for their infant, to ensure that their child is not tempted
to return to wrugbe. For help with the bodily needs, a
mother regularly consults her mother, her grand-
mother, or any other experienced mother around her
(Gottlieb 1995b). But sometimes an infant appears mis-
erable for no obvious reason. In this case, the Beng say
the baby is endeavoring to communicate a spiritual
need that the parents are unable to understand. Such an
infant is probably homesick for wrugbe. This is where
diviners enter the picture, for these specialists are seen
as intermediaries between the living and the ancestors,
as well as between the living and bush spirits (Gottlieb
1992: ch. 2; Gottlieb and Graham 1993). Indeed, given
the special space occupied by diviners, mothers ought
to consult them regularly during the early years of their
children's existence, even if their children are not sick.
Along these lines, one knowledgeable young man
named Bertin told me that in the old days" mothers
automatically consulted a diviner almost immediately
after the birth of each of their babies. This statement
may well index a goal that was not always realized. For
one thing, diviners cost money, even if it is a modest
sum by local standards (typically 50 CFA; currently
U.S.$1 = ca. 500 CFA). As elsewhere, some mothers are
more devoted to their children than others, some are
more concerned about avoiding future complications,
Figure 1
some are more willing to spend scarce resources to
Newborn with newly prepared necklace(dr), bracelets, and knee-
band. Photo by Alma Gottlieb. gather items judged culturally necessary for their chil-
dren's well-being, and some simply have more money.
Still, the practice outlined by Bertin represents an op-
undergo a set of two to three required rituals, let us ex-
erative ideal that is clearly consistent with the Beng ide-
plore the aftereffects of these processes.
ology of the life course.
Almost invariably, when diviners are consulted by
The Call of Wrugbe
parents, usually mothers, they recommend that the new
Once the umbilical stump drops off, the baby is said mother give a cowrie shell to their baby. Bertin put it
to start a long and difficult spiritual journey emerging this way:
from wrugbe, but the process takes several years to All babies must be given a cowrie shell as a first gift, when
complete.l4 Here is an excerpt from a conversation that the baby is born, because the cowrie was important as
I had with Kouakou Ba on the subject: currency for the ancestors; it was the second most impor-
tant thing, after gold. The newborn had contact with the
KB: At some point, children leave wrugbe for good and
ancestors before birth, and the cowrie shell reminds the
decide to stay in this life.
baby of the previous life in wrugbe.
AG: How do you know when this has happened?
Nowadays not all women contact a diviner immediately
KB: When children can speak their dreams, or understand
after the birth; they may wait for a day when the baby is in
[a drastic situation, such as] that their mother or father has
distress. Other mothers may give a cowrie shell to the baby
died, then you know that they've totally come out of
as a personal gift, though they weren't told to do so by a
wrugbe. _1

alvmer.
AG: When does that happen?
KB: By seven years old, for sure! At three years old, they're Another Beng friend added this commentary:
still in-between: partly in wrugbe and partly in this life.
Infants like money because they had money when they
They see what happens in this life, but they don't under-
were living in wrugbe. In coming to this world, they all
stand it.
choose what they want. This could be wali pu [French
During the liminal time of early childhood, the con- coins from the colonial era] or jewelly [usually cowrie
sciousness of the baby or toddler is sometimes in shells]: whatever is like what they had in wrugbe.

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126 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST * VOL. 1 00, Nou 1 * MARCH 1998

As with the dC, an infant may wear the cowiie shell or hearing Kouakou Ba's pronouncement, the baby's
coin as an item of jewelry, usually a bracelet. Diviners mother found the required bracelets, and she and the
may recommend a single shell or coin, or they might baby's relatives began calling him uAnie." According to
suggest a number of cowries strung close together on a reports, after these two changes Anie stopped crying.
bracelet, or two or three coins strung on a cotton Bearing an ancestral identity can have ramifica-
thread.l5 The mother may leave the jewelry on the baby tions for the baby's life far beyond naming. Such a fact
continually, washing it carefully during the baths she can serve to organize the manner in which infants are
gives her child. Alternatively, she may put the bracelet treated. For example, girls and boys who were born fol-
or necklace on the infant on particular days relative to lowing the deaths of two siblings in the family are inevi-
the spiritual calendar. tably called uSunu" and Wamya' respectively (names
At the psychological level, the message being com- with no other meanings as such). Such infants are seen
municated to the parents by the diviner is that the infant as the reincarnation of one of those two now-deceased
needs to be valued more and needs to wear a visible sign siblings. Like all Beng children who die, the dead sib-
of this value. Western-trained child psychologists lings had been buried in a muddy patch behind the
would probably applaud this practice, as it encourages home. Being a reincarnation of one of those, Sunus and
parents of a small creature who cries regularly to devote Wamyas remember their recent resting place; thus they
themselves to the needs of the often stressed, and are said to like mud. As a result, their mothers may pat
stress-inducing, newborn (see Lewis and Rosenblum mud over their small bodies as infants or even older
1974). A diviner's instructions to parents to buy jewelry children.
for their crying child may serve to remind parents that The reincarnated identities of Wamyas and Sunus
the infant, while seemingly helpless and unable to com- may have consequences for the development of their
municate, was recently living a full life elsewhere and personality well beyond infancy. For example, as older
thus needs to be respected as a fellow person rather children and adults, they are said to be prone to depres-
than being viewed as a suffering, wordless creature. sion and can predict someone else's demise. If a Wamya
The fact of reincarnation may prove critical in the or Sunu appears depressed or acts aggressively without
life of a given newborn in another way. It may be appar- cause, people worry that someone is about to die. For
ent from the birth whose wrugbe ancestor the newborn instance, one day a nine-year-old Sunu spent the entire
embodies. As I quoted from Kouakou Ba earlier, if some- afternoon hitting her older sister for no apparent rea-
one in the family dies on the day that a baby is born, this son. Family members and neighbors worried aloud that
is taken as a sign of instant reincarnation (e ta, e nu, it was a bad omen. The next morning, two deaths were
Uhe/she came, returned"). Alternatively, a name that is announced in the village. On hearing the news, the girl's
shared, seemingly by coincidence, between infant and mother and aunts said, USo that's why she was hitting
ancestor may indicate a reincarnation. For example, a her older sister yesterday!" The deaths confirmed for
nine-month-old girl I knew had a series of names: Kla them the ability of Sunus to foretell death.
Aujua Ndri Amelie. Most villagers addressed her directly A funeral reminds everyone named Sunu or Wamya
(and referred to her) as mama (grandma). This is be- of the death of their own previous incarnation as well as
cause the baby was said to be the reincarnation of her that of their sibling; hence they are always among the
father's mother, Bande Kla Ajua, with whom she had saddest mourners. To commemorate this, all Sunus and
two names in common ("Kla," an ancient family name, Wamyas, from infants to very old people, wear a special
and uAjua" a day name for girls born on a Tuesday); necklace and/or bracelet during any funeral they attend
hence she was spoken to (and about) as if she were that (Figure 2). Considering their propensity for depression,
ancestor. one Beng friend told me, it would be a terrible mistake
A baby's identity may make itself known through for a Sunu and a Wamya to marry one another. On days
misery. In some cases the diviner may pronounce that they are both sad, they would be unable to take care of
the infant is unhappy with the name that has been be- their children: a mourning or depressed Sunu may fail to
stowed upon it and prefers another one, usually to com- nurse her infant, and both she and her husband might re-
memorate her or his wrugbe identity. Such renaming fuse to work in the Elelds.
can also take place for a spirit rather than an ancestor. People named Sunu or Wamya are said to have dif-
For example, a baby named Kouassi cried day and night ficult personalities (ste gregre), and their parents may
when he was a month old. In despair, his mother con- seek validation of this psychological diagnosis through
sulted Kouakou Ba, who said that the baby was crying divination. For instance, my friend Au told me that,
for two reasons. First, Kouassi Uwanted" two bracelets when she was pregnant with her son, her uncle con-
on his left hand: one with cowrie shells, the other of wa sulted a diviner, who predicted that his niece would
ti (silver). Second, he had been misnamed; his real have a child who would be very difElcult, crying a lot.
name was Anie, after a local sacred pool of water. After But Au shouldn't become too upset or angry about this

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 THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF BENG BABIES / ALMA GOTTLIEB 1 27

Jeanne's babysitter 61? kfilz), whose primary job was to

carnr her younger sister. But Jeanne frequently hit Afwe
while being carried on her back, and Afwe wasn't al-
ways able, or willing, to carry Jeanne.
As she has grown older? Jeanne's difficult personal-
ity has remained, frightening other children in the quar-
tzer; she even provokes disputes and physical fights.
One day I videotaped about a half an hour of a temper
tantrum that Jeanne threw in two adjoining courtyards.
Enraged at a perceived slight, she toppled furniture and
hurled pails around her, behavior that would be quite
unheard of for someone without the spiritual proElle
that Jeanne possesses.
In short, it is clear that Jeanne has internalized her
identity as a wrugbe Sunu. This should not be surpris-
ing. Because she often hears others discuss the difficult
personality that is assumed to accompany a wrugbe
identity, Jeanne is aware of the expectation that she act
difficult. As psychologists might sayX the alabeling" has
been successful (Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968).
Not only does a child continue after birth to lead a
parallel life in wrugbe? but a child is said to retain the
wrugbe parentsN who continue to look out for their baby
even after the infant has begun to leave the afterlife. In
some instances, this can cause conflict with the parents
of this life. The child's wrugbe parents will be dis-
pleased if they judge that the child's parents of this life
are mistreating the baby, either through abuse or ne-
glect. For instance, the mother may not be breastfeed-
Figure 2
ing her infant often enough or offering enough solid
Infant wearing Sunu bracelet. Photo by Alma Gottlieb.
foods to an older infant. She may let her baby cryt may
wait before taking her sick baby to a diviner or a healer,
child's behavior; otherwise the baby would leave the
or may use poverty as an excuse to avoid buying the
family and return to wrugbe (i.e., die).
items (such as jewelry or coins) or conducting the sacri-
Au assumed that this prediction applied to the baby
fices that a diviner declares necessary to the baby's
she was carrying, but in fact he turned out to be easygo-
spiritual well-being. Any of these may have dire conse-
ing. During her next pregnancy, she thought back to the
quences: the wrugbe parents may decide to snatch the
diviner's prediction, but this child too turned out to be
infant away back to wrugbe, where they will raise the
relatively unflappable, as was her next. It was only with
child temporarily, waiting for a more suitable couple to
her last one that the prediction was finally validated, as
emerge as future parents of their baby. This, then, is one
her daughter Jeanne turned out to be a "wrugbe SunuX
explanation (though not the only one) that is offered by
who indeed exhibited a difficult personality. The diag- Beng adults to account for the horrendously high infant
nosis was made by an old woman related patrilaterally and young child mortality rate in the region (Gottlieb
to Au. During a village funeral, she dreamt that Jeanne n.d.).
had been a USunu" while living in wrugbe. As a wrugbe On hearing this, I asked Kouakou Ba to describe a
Sunu, people thought, Jeanne would have an even more good parent. He answered without hesitation:
difficult personality than an ordinary Sunu would.
You should go to a diviner to find out what the baby wants,
Not sutprisingly, this foretelling has proved accu-
then go and buy that thing for the child. It's the child's
rate. When she was starting to walk, Jeanne wanted to
wrugbe relatives (usually one of the baby's wrugbe par-
stay on her mother's back all day while Au worked in the
ents) who have told the baby to cry, to say what the baby
fields. If Au put her down, Jeanne stamped right in front
wants. Or sometimes it may be a spirit who's told this to
of her mother wherever she was walking, or she dared the baby. Infants choose these desires to copy the objects
Au to cut her with a machete and then had a temper tan- they liked back in wrugbe: usually jewelty, money, or cow-
trum. Her older sister Afwe had been designated as ries. In any case, once the parents of this life discover the

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128 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST * VOL. 100, NO. 1 * MARCH 1998

infant clients? For their part, are babies as inarticulate

as this account suggests?

The Language of Wrugbe

One day I was playing This Little Piggy with the toes
of my six-month-old Beng daughter Amwe. As the last
little piggy went home, I laughed aloud at myself, ac-
knowledging that the baby couldn't possibly under-
stand the words of the ditty, all the more because they
were in English. The baby's Beng mother Amenan ob-
jected strongly to my remark, which she took as an in-
sult. Amenan insisted that our daughter understood per-
fectly well all that her American mother was saying.
When I asked somewhat skepticallyJ "You think so?",
Amenan explained the linguistic situation of wrugbe.
Unlike life in this world, she pointed out, different eth-
nic groups do not live apart from one another in the af-
terlife. Rather, members of all the world's ethnic groups
live there together harmoniously. Associated with this
ethnic mixture is a striking degree of linguistic ecu-
menicism. When the residents of wrugbe speak to each
other in their own languages, everyone understands,
with full mutual comprehension.l6
In the minds of many middle-class Western parents,
young infants are seen as lacking linguistic abilities. As
popular British author Penelope Leach writes unequivo-
cally, "At the beginning a new infant has no language
other than crying" (1983:62). The Beng model could not
pose a starker contrast, for it posits a baby who is anything
but "prelinguistic." In fact, among the Beng, infants are
Figure 3 said to be as multilingual as imaginable. Having only re-
Sunu infant girl with numerous protective necklaces, waist bands, cently emerged from wrugbe, where everyone under-
and bracelets (including cowrie shells and ancient French coins), stands every language, Beng newborns have full com-
many prescribed by a diviner. Photo by Alma Gottlieb.
prehension not only of Beng but of every language
spoken on this earth.
Furthermore, Beng infants are said to begin gradu-
baby's desires, they should do all they can to indulge them.
ally to leave their previous existence behind. This in-
[See Figure 3.]
cludes gradually giving up their knowledge of languages
From Kouakou Ba's statement we learn that the baby other than the one spoken around and to them daily. But
has desires but is unsure how to communicate them di- as we have also seen, this emergence from wrugbe is a
rectly. Accordingly, we learn of the active role that very slow process that takes several years. Until it is
wrugbe parents continue to take in their infant's life complete, the child continues to understand the many
even after the child has begun to enter this life, to the languages spoken in wrugbe, though with only sporadic
point of instructing the baby to cry to make a particular and diminishing comprehension. In sum, Beng infants
desire known. Through the infant, the wrugbe parents are doing the opposite of learning new languages sub-
are indirectly communicating to and instructing their sequent to a prelinguistic phase, as a popular Western
counterparts in this life. folk model posits. Instead, they are losing old languages
Of course there is something a bit self-serving in order to strip away excess linguistic baggage, as we
about Kouakou Ba's answer. In his view, a good enough might put it, and leave room for the languages that are
parent," as D. W. Winnicott would call her (see, for ex- most appropriate for this life.l7
ample, Winnicott 1987), is one who gives him regular Some scholars have claimed that the language used
business. His economic motives for encouraging clients to address infants and teach them language (sometimes
to consult him notwithstanding, how does a diviner called "baby talk" or, more Eurocentrically? "motherese")
such as Kouakou Ba manage to communicate with his has identifiable featuresthat are universal (e.g.^ Ferguson

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 THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF BENG BABIES / ALMA GOTTLIEB 129

1977; Snow 1977). Critics have pointed out that cross-

cultural data to support this assertion are quite scarce
and do not all support the theory (e.g., Crago 1992:31;
Ochs and Schieffelin 1984). This qualitative issue is re-
lated to a more quantitative one. Psycholinguists and
sociolinguists have shown that the amount of speech
that adults (and older children) address directly to in-
fants is quite variable even intraculturally, let alone
cross-culturally.l8 In the short run, infants and toddlers
who are addressed directly and regularly tend to begin
speaking somewhat earlier and to acquire larger and
more precise vocabularies than do their counterparts
who are not (Judy De Loache, personal communication,
September 1996; Smiley and Huttenlocher 1995). In the
long run, however, virtually all healthy humans learn to
speak their native language with a high degree of flu-
ency no matter how often adults or older children spoke
to them directly as infants (e.g., Snow et al. 1979:287).
And in any case, mothers and other caretakers have a
large range of ways to communicate with babies beyond
actual speech (e.g., Bullowa 1979).
How does the Beng situation illuminate these is-
sues? Among the Beng, the babbling of babies as well as
speech addressed directly to them is not only valued but
in fact encouraged. Because Beng babies are said to
have a passive understanding of all languages spoken to
them, adults consider it appropriate to make use of that
passive understanding. Thus older people address
speech directly to infants and even to newborns, often
continually (Figure 4). In my hundreds of hours of ob- Figure 4
serving babies with their mothers and other caretakers, Infant boy and his mother. Photo by Alma Gottlieb.
I rarely saw Elve minutes go by when someone was not
speaking directly to a given (awake) infant. For in- face-to-face on a regular basis allows us to reevaluate a
stance, a new mother I was visiting was holding her widely discussed hypothesis suggested by Robert
four-day-old daughter on her lap. The woman sat with LeVine (1984, 1987) that rural, unschooled women liv-
her legs outstretched, leaning over the baby a bit while ing in the technologically underdeveloped world are too
chatting with me and two other friends. In between talk- preoccupied with ensuring the mere physical survival of
ing to us, she spoke to her baby regularly. At one point, their infants to erUoy the luxury of speaking to them
her tiny daughter's eyes were open wide and she asked
face-to-face, and more generally to enJoy a high level of
her tenderly, aMye blicalo?" (Are you looking around?).
emotional involvement with them (LeVine 1973, 1977;
I saw linguistic encounters such as this replicated by
LeVine et al. 1994:19S223). LeVine's theory indeed ap-
virtually every mother or other infant caretaker whom I
pears applicable in some ethnographic settings in East
visited during my research on this topic. While I was not
Africa (e.g., Goldschmidt 1975), but it has also been
studying the actual speech registers used to address in-
shown to be less relevant in other East African con-
fants, in my observations people tended to simplify and
texts.l9 Beng practices of West Africa further suggest
slow their speeche as is common among middle-class,
that LeVine's hypothesis is not readily transferable to all
Euro-American caretakers speaking with infants, pre-
of sub-Saharan Africa but, rather, must be modiEled to
sumably making it more "user friendly" for the babies
accommodate local cultural variation. Moreover, LeVine's
themselves. I suggest that this very active level of verbal
interaction that Beng adults have with babies is consis- explanation, based as it is on economic and ecological

tent with the local ideology of the afterlife. Thus at a concerns, may elide variable cultural issues. Thus the

theoretical level, we might say that behavior replicates Beng are at least as impoverished as are the rural popu-
ideology in a directly observable way. lations with whom LeVine has worked in Kenya, yet cul-
On another note, I observe that the Beng pattern of tural factors (specifically, religious ideology) inspire
mothers addressing their newborns and older infants Beng mothers (and other caretakers) to speak d}rectly

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130 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST * VOL. 100, NO. 1 * MARCH 1998

to infants no matter what the economic constraints and may be common (though not universal), the local cul-
anxieties. tural systems that give it meaning are variable. The
If, due to their previous life in wrugbe, Beng infants same behavior may make sense in very different ways,
are seen by adults to be capable of understanding lan- and for very different reasons, in diverse contexts
guage, what of their own verbalizing abilities? In fact, (Geertz 1973b).
Beng infants' babble is routinely remarked upon, de- On the other hand the babble of Beng infants is not
lighted in, and encouraged as protolinguistic, not only always rewarded by Beng adults, who train even babies
by Beng mothers but by siblings, grandparents, other not to interrupt adults' speech, as part of a pattern of
relatives, neighbors, and indeed anyone who observes children showing deference to their elders. Where
it. For instance, a mother of a seven-month-old once ob- adults in other societies may assume that infants are not
served her son looking with interest at two nearby pigs worthy conversational partners, hence not worth train-
who were grunting. When the pigs quieted, her baby ing in this respect (Ochs and Schieffelin 1984), the Beng
made noises that she interpreted as imitating the ani- attitude is quite different. Being equipped to understand
mals. She clapped her hands with pleasure and ex- language from their prior life in wrugbe, even the young-
claimed, Ja, e za do!" Literally, this meant, "So, he un- est infants are seen as eminently trainable in adult
derstands things!" Figuratively, it meant, So, he's norms of politeness. Just to cite one example, my friend
smart!" attesting to a perceived connection between Amenan and I were once talking with some neighbors in
speech and intelligence even in young infants. her courtyard. Nearby, her six-month-old grandson Sas-
Adults also take an active role in teaching their in- sandra sat on a mat on the ground, making what I con-
fants to speak the Beng language by speaking forX their sidered adorable baby noises. But the noises were so
infants. In this routine, an adult asks a question directly cute, and loud, that they proved distracting, and we
of an infant and another adult (the mother or whoever is adults in the courtyard were unable to continue our con-
currently minding the baby) answers for the child in the versation. Amenan told her young grandson solemnly,
first person, as if she were the baby. She is, in effect, aMi jol? twaa!" (Stop your speaking!), as she might gen-
Uprompting" the baby with Ulines" presumably to repeat tly rebuke an older child. In other words, she was taking
months later when the infant will be capable of such infant babble seriously enough to treat it as she would
speech. In one case, an infant of about seven months the language of older children, subject to the same so-
was seated on a mat on the ground without anyone obvi- ciolinguistic norms of politeness. In ways such as this,
ously serving as a caretaker. My husband asked the Beng adults confirm the linguistic abilities of even the
baby how he was, and no one said anything for a mo- youngest of children. In turn this practice implicitly af-
ment. When an unrelated woman in the courtyard (the Elrms the continuing connection of infants to the lin-
only adult nearby) realized that no one had answered guistically complex world of wrugbe from which they
for the baby, she immediately provided the first-person have emerged only recently, and partially.
answer, a 'nn, n kene" (Yes, I'm fine), and apologized for We have seen that Beng adults usually encourage
not having answered sooner. As this stonr reveals, infant babble while insisting that it conform to adult
adults consider it critical to encourage (as psycholo- rules of politeness, based on adults' assumption that in-
gists would say) or to acknowledge (as Beng would say) fants are said to understand any language. Neverthe-
the active verbalizing abilities of infants. less, despite this relatively positive and encouraging at-
Neither the encouragement of babies' own bab- titude by Beng adults toward the speech of babies, the
blings nor a high level of speech addressed directly by verbalizing abilities of infants are said to be problem-
older people to infants is universal. As some scholars atic. Beng adults assert that, just as they understand the
have reported elsewhere, infants' babble may be ig- language of others, Beng infants are indeed able to com-
nored in some societies, and adults may address their municate their desires and thoughts. But most adults
speech only rarely to babies. Both these strategies of are incapable of understanding these efforts at commu-
downplaying babies' language are well documented for nication. The diviner Kouakou Ba explained to me that
infants in Samoa as well as among the Kaluli of New when a baby cries, she or he is speaking the language of
Guinea (though Samoan adults start speaking to older wrugbe. Apart from crying, babies may also communi-
infants when the latter begin to crawl) (Ochs and cate by failing to defecate or to nurse. But none of the
Schieffelin 1984). Still, we must acknowledge that the subtleties of these means of communication is readily
Beng are hardly unique in valuing the babble of infants understandable to the baby's parents, who emerged
or in addressing them directly and frequently. To cite from that other life too long ago to remember its lan-
just one example that will be familiar to most readers of guage. Thus to have their infant's cries or digestive ir-
this journal, both these patterns of encouraging infant regularities translated, a diviner's services are required.
speech are very well established among middle-class In Beng villages, diviners serve as intermediaries
Western families. My argument is that while the pattern between the land of the currently living and the land of

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 THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF BENG BABIES / ALMA GOTTLIEB 131

the previously living. They do this by using the services and other caretakers make concerning infants are any-
of intermediaries themselves, the spirits (bowza) who thing but "common" when viewed from an outsider's
speak both the language of the other world and that of perspective, while religion, that bastion of adult con-
this world. Thus it is a multitiered system of translation. templation worthy of the great philosophers and social
The spirits (or wrugbe parents) speak Elrst with the in- theorists, turns out to be critical to, and critically defin-
fant, who then announces, albeit ineffectively, his or her ing of, the lives of the tiniest humans.
desires to the parents of this life, via crying or digestive In other words, in this article I have tried to show
irregularities. In turn, the parents consult a diviner, who that at least in the Beng case, a nexus exists between
summons the spirits, who then speak for the baby. Fi- two domains of inquiiy that anthropologists have long
nally, the diviner conveys the baby's desires to the be- regarded as discrete: the seemingly commonsensical or
wildered parents of this life. In this way, the wrugbe natural domain of infant care and the seemingly more
identity of the infant is maintained in this world and the exalted domain of religion. Perhaps one reason that the
infant manages, through intermediaries, to communi- two domains of religion and infant care have typically
cate complex desires to the parents of this life. been assumed to inhabit different worlds of scholarly
The liminal status of infants produces a range of be- inquiry relates to prefeminist assumptions about the na-
haviors in mothers and other caretakers that goes a long ture of society and its assumed structure of gender
way toward accounting for how babies are handled. In roles. Briefly put, most social scientists writing before
this case, ideology provides a blueprint, a "model for," the current feminist era assumed the domestic world of
behavior (by adults) while praxis creates a amodel ofX the household to be the bastion of women's lives. In
ideology (Geertz 1973a). Moreover, infants themselves turn, the lives of women themselves (especially their
are accorded a high level of agency in this indigenous typically intense involvement with child rearing, most
model. Their agency is seen not only as biological but particularly care of infants) were long seen as more
also as intellectual, since they are attributed a high level natural than cultural and, hence, more private than pub-
of consciousness that must be decoded by an elite lic.20 Happily, feminism has challenged this easy set of
group of adults with special translation skills. In these associations, inspiring a generation of scholars to inves-
ways, Beng ideas about infant care challenge dominant tigate women's lives, including the world that is com-
Western models of child rearing at the same time that monly defined as domestic, as entirely cultural.2l In-
they challenge the anthropologist to take seriously both itially directing analysis to women's public lives,
the domain of religion in understanding infancy and the feminist anthropologists have more recently begun to
domain of infancy in understanding religion. see women's seemingly private involvements as never-
theless fully culturally shaped and, moreover, as having
a direct impact on public events. In other words, the

Conclusions conceptual boundary between public and private is now

being radically challenged, disturbing the definition of
Anthropologists have long promoted the notion our basic categories.22 In keeping with this develop-
that customs assumed by the members of one society to ment, some female anthropologists themselves have be-
be natural may be surprisingly absent elsewhere and gun to see their own lives as both illustrative of and illu-
that such customs, seemingly unnatural in the views of minating social processes.23 Now that women are at last
outsiders, make sense when viewed in the context of a accepted as properly anthropological subjects, it is
variety of cultural factors whose meanings can be dis- theoretically possible that women's inevitable involve-
cerned only after systematic analysis of the local sys- ments with children, including infants, those seemingly
tem. Some time ago, Clifford Geertz (1983) articulated humblest of all humans, may be the next source of eth-
this argument with relation to the notion of common nographic inspiration.
sense, arguing that what passes as common sense is
anything but common. Instead, it is a deeply culturally
constructed artifice that is so convincingly structured Notes
as to appear transparent, self-evident. At one level, this
Acknowledgments. I have presented versions of this arti-
essay has taken up this line of thinking, seeking to apply
cle at the 12th Annual Satterthwaite Colloquium on African
Geertzs insight to the seemingly commonsensical
Religion and Ritual (Satterthwaite, UK, April 13-16, 1996), the
realm of infant care. Indeed, I have interrogated a do-
Department of Anthropology at Washington University, the
main of human practice that, perhaps more than any
Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington,
other, is routinely taken for granted even by anthropolo- the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois at
gists as somehow having a natural foundation beyond Urbana-Champaign, and the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Afri-
the reaches of culture. Yet as we have seen in exploring can Studies Association (San Francisco). I am indebted to
the Beng world, the everyday decisions that mothers members of all these audiences for their provocative efforts

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132 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST * VOL. 100, NO. 1 * MARCH 1998

to nudge me along in certain directions. I have also been lucky 3. E.g., Farnell 1994; Howes 1991; Stoller 1989, 1997.
enough to receive exceptionally careful readings and pro- 4. Of course Westerners with active religious affiliations
vocative suggestions from Nancy Abelmann, Edward Bruner, may involve their infants (and older children) in religious
Judy DeLoache, and Philip Graham, and five superb review- activities geared to the life cycle, including baptisms or cir-
ers for this journal (Dell Hymes, Philip Kilbride, John McCall, cumcision rituals and adolescent initiations (e.g., Kirshen-
Simon Ottenberg, and Charles Piot), to all of whom I extend blatt-Gimblett 1982). Furthermore, members of contempo-
my deep thanks. Comments that I have been unable to ad- rary Western religious communities, including Amish,
dress here for lack of space will be taken up in the book I am Mennonite, and Chasidic Jewish communities, usually pro-
writing on this subject. mote systematic child-rearing agendas based explicity on
For support of my field research and writing, I am beholden religious doctrines.
to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Wenner- Between medical and religious orientations lies the psycho-
Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Social logical zone. Nancy Abelmann (personal communication, Au-
Science Research Council, the United States Information gust 1996) has commented that ^ 'our' conception of infancy
Agency, and several units at the University of Illinois: the also includes a needy baby who is (perhaps ineffectively)
Center for Advanced Study, the Research Board, and the trying to communicate her needs to a parent who doesn't
Center for African Studies. always quite get it.n In this senseX one common Western model
I thank Victoria Pifalo and Priscilla McIntosh, of the Medi- would lie somewhere between the two extreme models I have
cal Sciences Library, Raeann Dossett, of the Documents Li- sketched (Beng-spiritual versus biomedical).
brary, and Cynthia Fischer, of the Department of Psychology, 5. E.g., Creider 1986; MacGaffey 1986; Okri 1991; Oluwole
all at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for help
1992; Uchendu 1965. A comparative study across the conti-
with references.
nent might reveal significant convergences and systematic
For intellectual support during my research, I owe a con-
correlations.
tinuing debt, which I always strive in vain to repay, to my dear
6. I focus on life in rural Beng villages, with which I am
friends AKPOUEH Amenan Veronique and KOUADIO BAH
most familiar. Among the very small group of Beng mothers
Yacouba. Other Beng friends who shared with me their deep
now living in towns and cities, infant care practices seem to
insights into Beng infant culture during summer 1993 include
vary.
KOUAKOU BAH and the late KOKORA Kouassi, as well as
7. The title of this section (which is the working title of the
dozens of Beng women, young and old, whose struggles with
book I am writing on this subject) speaks both respectfully
motherhood in the face of grinding poverty I found humbling.
and critically to a posthumous volume of collected essays by
That summer, KOUADIO Bertin, KOUAKOU Augustin, and
the noted psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott, Home Is Where We
KOUASSI Kwame Dieudonne also served as wonderfully able
Start From (1986), whose title is itself inspired by a line from
assistants. Bertin has continued to serve as a research assis-
T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets.
tant as he has made the transition to American student and
8. The urban nature of wrugbe implies an Zother" world
adoptive son at my own University of Illinois, a dual role that
that is truly Other7 given the very rural nature of traditional
I hold dear. In this essay, some personal names used are
Beng society. Considering the relatively recent (and still par-
pseudonyms.
tial) engagement of the Beng with the globalized, urban world
Finally, members of my immediate family continue to in-
(Gottlieb 1992:1-8), this presumably recent innovation in the
spire me, each in their own ways. Our son Nathaniel's baby-
indigenous cosmology is signiElcant, revealing at once a crea-
hood originally motivated me to think anthropologically
tive effort to incorporate modernity into the framework of
about infancy, and our daughter Hannah's toddlerhood now
tradition and an effort to distance the "other world" as dra-
continues this tradition. Sharing fieldwork, our children, and
matically as possible from this one (see Comaroff and Coma-
conversations about these with my husband Philip Graham is
roff 1993; Gottlieb 1992:119-142).
a continual pleasure.
1. The one exception to this tendency is the study of teen- 9. See Ardener 1989: 117, 123, et passim on demographic

agers (or younger children) in the context of organized initia- false consciousness" andifolk-demography."

tion rituals. Africanist discussions along these lines are par- 10. John Peel (personal communication, April 14, 1996)

ticularly well known. Audrey Richards's (1956) and Victor has noted that a somewhat similar zeontradiction" (by West-

Turner's (1967) explorations of Chisungu girls' and Ndembu ern standards) exists in Yoruba thought: ancestors are said to

boys' initiations, respectively, set the tone for several genera- inhabit two levels simultaneously, both individual and collec-

tions of future scholars' writings. See, for example, LaFon- tive, with no problem perceived concerning what appears to
taine 1985, Ottenberg 1989, and Schloss 1988. Western logic as internal inconsistency.

2. A brief but provocative treatment of infants' experi- 11. In one study of infants born vaginally in Seattle, the
ences of religion in general and the afterlife in particular is mean number of days for umbilical cord separation was 12.9
found in Leis 1982. Far more works investigate the lives of (Novack et al. 1988:221), though the range was 3 to 45 days.
children without concentrating on religious experiences. The mean appears to be shorter in developing countries (for
Other anthropologists mention infancy in passing as part of an explanatory hypothesis, see Novack et al. 1988:222); for
longer discussions of life-cycle issues, but few have taken example, in a study of infants born vaginally in India, the
infants themselves seriously as a proper subject of extended mean number of days was 5.2 (Bhalla et al. 1975). At the time
inquiry, and fewer still have investigated their religious lives of my own fieldwork, there weren't enough newborns for me
(see Gottlieb 1997). to observe this phenomenon at a statistically significant level.

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 THE SPIRITUAL LIVES OF BENG BABIES / ALMA GOTTLIEB 133

12. If the stump falls off early enough in the morning, the
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the morning of the next day. Extended symbolic elaboration Abu-Lughod, Lila
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