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In 2016, with the support of a three-year National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Collaborative Research Grant to research and write a precolonial African history of family, generations, and gender, we began building the Bantu Ancestral Roots Database (BARD). BARD is a digital repository of word-roots related to gender and life stage practices from over sixty Bantu languages. We developed it to assist us in our analysis of this large corpus of data that we used to write histories of people's material and ideological inventions that cover the longue durée across multiple regions. BARD allows researchers with internet access to search for terms by entering at least three consecutive phonemes. If phonemes exist in that sequence in any of the 64 Bantu languages that BARD holds, those words and their meanings appear as results. In this article, we discuss the usefulness and complexities of Digital Humanities (DH) as research tools. We explain our methodology and research process using three reconstructed word-roots pertinent to our research on family and generations. The three word-roots we examine invite scholars to probe how to recover deep connections and linkages between people's pasts in Africa and its Diasporas, particularly in ways that move beyond histories of the slave trade and enslavement. As we developed our open-access website African Social History and Data Across Bantu Matrilineal Communities (ASH-DABMC) and our database, BARD, we gained greater insight into the meanings encoded in our data even as we faced challenges. We hope the discussion of our experiences will provide an intellectual framework and inspire others considering digital projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the study of the structural distinctiveness of the category of ideophony. The author analyzes the extent to which Xhosa ideophones exhibit the so-called extra-systematic properties, which cross-linguistically tend to distinguish ideophones from other lexical classes. The analysis demonstrates that ideophones are relatively extra-systematic in Xhosa, although their extra-systematicity is not unitary. It is the largest in morphology, slightly less visible in phonology, and only residual in syntax. It is proposed that the distinct degrees of extrasystematicity are related to differences in grammaticalization and a gradual integration of ideophones into the Xhosa grammar - with the adjustment in syntax occurring faster than the morphological adaptation. In this paper - the second in a series of two articles - the author introduces evidence related to syntax, answers the research question, and explains the contributions of this research to the general theory of ideophony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the study of structural distinctiveness of the category of ideophony. The author analyzes the extent to which Xhosa ideophones exhibit the so-called extra-systematic properties, which cross-linguistically tend to distinguish ideophones from other lexical classes. The analysis demonstrates that ideophones are relatively extra-systematic in Xhosa, although their extra-systematicity is not unitary. It is the largest in morphology, slightly less visible in phonology, and only residual in syntax. It is proposed that the distinct degrees of extrasystematicity are related to differences in grammaticalization and a gradual integration of ideophones into the Xhosa grammar - with the adjustment in syntax occurring faster than the morphological adaptation. In this paper - the first in a series of two articles - the author deals with methodological issues and introduces evidence related to the phonology and morphology of ideophones in Xhosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the findings of the evaluation of the InnoTyper ® 21 genotyping kit for the use of human identification (HID) and paternity testing in South Africa. This novel forensic kit evaluates 20 retrotransposable elements (AC4027, MLS26, ALU79712, NBC216, NBC106, RG148, NBC13, AC2265, MLS09, AC1141, TARBP, AC2305, HS4.69, NBC51, ACA1766, NBC120, NBC10, NBC102, SB19.12 and NBC148) and the Amelogenin locus for sex determination. The evaluation of the genotyping performance showed no significant spectral pull-up for peak heights between 100 and 30,000 RFUs. All loci presented biallelic patterns except the triallelic RG148 locus resulting from a variant insertion allele, named RG148I-1, observed exclusively in the Bantu. The InnoTyper ® 21 kit was found to be highly discriminatory between the 507 unrelated individuals of the Afrikaaner, Asian Indian, Coloured, amaXhosa and amaZulu groups. The HID parameters: the CPD ranged between 0.99999987 and 0.9999999845, and the CMP between 1.0335 × 10 −7 and 1.5506 × 10 −8 . The paternity parameters: the CPI ranged between 0.0202 and 0.3177, and the CPE between 0.9161 and 0.9749. There were no significant signs of deviations from HWE or linkage disequilibrium (LD) after applying a Bonferroni correction. This kit also showed minor levels of population structure which could differentiate between the African and non-African population groups. Finally, in challenging casework with severely degraded biological material, the InnoTyper ® 21 genotyping kit was compatible with GlobalFiler ® and Investigator DIPplex ® to increase the HID parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jezikoslovlje is the property of University of Osijek, Faculty of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ilu: Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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The supreme being of the ethnic groups which have settled on the Congo estuary, especially the Kongo, Yombe, Kuta, Yansi, Yaka, has characteristics both of celestial and of lower, more local chthonic beings. These characteristics are sometimes understood to he feminine. Among some of these ethnic groups, especially the Yaka, Ndzaambi/Nzambi, the name of the supreme being can also be used for ancestors, Nkisi, chiefs, and the deceased. This leads to the question whether in pre-Christian times one might have thought of the supreme being not in terms of a personal being, but rather in terms of a diffuse sort of power, which was felt operative in all the great and mighty. In this case, the influence of Christianity with its biblical notions of God might have been superimposed on the traditional supreme being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Biallelic markers on NRY (nonrecombining region of the Y chromosome) have been analysed in seven sub-Saharan populations. The data obtained reinforces the role of Central West Africa as the core of the Bantu expansion and supports a mass dispersal of Bantu people towards the East. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]