The Misinterpretations of Brer Anancy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8933662 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Roberts (0000-0001-5551-308X, corresponding author), Peter A Roberts |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 98-101 |
| Publication date | 1988-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Folklore (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0015587x.1988.9716428 |
| OpenAlex | W2002296878 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 4 |
IT is quite remarkable that the etymology of Brer Anancy has remained uncontested up to today, in spite of clear evidence which clarifies in one case and contradicts in the other the very early etymologies given. Wake (1883) commenting on Andrews' 'Ananci Stories' says the following: 'Probably many negro stories of a similar character are to be met with in the works of travellers and others. I have heard them spoken of by a lady who was born in Jamaica as *Nancy and such would seem to have been the name generally given to them by Europeans.' The asterisk is explained in the following footnote '*This is really 'Ananci' with the initial vowel dropped. He goes on to say 'The term 'Ananci' is, however, the proper one.'2 Trowbridge, however, says the following: 'Of all the folk-stories to be met with on the island (Jamaica), those most characteristic and most easily collected and understood are the Stories, or Stories, as they are usually called by the natives,' which contradicts Wake's idea that Nancy is a European misinterpretation. Trowbridge is supported by Lewis, a proprietor who lived in Jamaica, who writing in 1816 says: 'The negroes are also very fond of what they call Nancy Stories...'` Current usage in Jamaica and throughout the West Indies today has both terms Nancy and Anancy, but this in itself is not significant, as I will explain later. Ananse is a West African word for 'spider,' and this is recognized by commentators from the earliest years, but what is also recognized is that not all the stories have Anansi as a character. Wake, realizing the dilemma and in order to 'understand why the spider should be credited with the stories in question,' claims that the negroes on the Gold Coast believed that Anansi created man. He thus implies that Ananse has total influence in the minds of these Gold Coast negroes. It is important to note that in the earliest text of full Lewis calls them 'Nancy gives Jamaican Nancy stories and an African Nancy story, neither of which contain the animal or character Ananse, and in his comments about the stories says nothing about a spider, as a characteristic of these stories. The two Anancy stories presented by Andrews in 1880 have the familiar Anancy as the main character, and Trowbridge in 1896 says 'In some of the so-called stories, Anansi does not figure.' Such contrasts indicate quite clearly that variation in name and substance existed right from the beginning. In other words, the idea that 'the term Ananci is the proper one' and that the stories started as spider stories and were subsequently generalized is quite misleading. Turner5 gives as an example of an African survival in Gullah (South Carolina) nanse (ananse) with the explanation 'spider;' 'a red and black insect, resembling the hornet but not having wings, that lives in the ground. He also gives the following West African equivalents-Twi (Gold Coast) ananse 'spider;' Ewe (Togo and Dahomey) ananse 'spider;' Bambara (French West Africa) nansi 'chameleon
Art · Character (mathematics · Etymology · Genealogy · Literature · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · History
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2018 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |