Yoruba people - Yoruba (English spelling)

Japanese: ヨルバ族 - ヨルバぞく（英語表記）Yoruba

An ethnic group scattered across southwestern Nigeria, eastern Benin, and northern Togo. The population is estimated at over 24 million. They speak the Kwa language of the Niger-Congo family. In the past, the chiefdoms of Ife, Oyo, and Ibadan formed a federal political organization, but it was merely a loose religious alliance led by the king of Ife, the religious city where the cultural hero Oduduwa descended. Later, Oyo rose to military prominence, and authority was dualized. The power of the kings of each division was strictly controlled by parliament, and the influence of secret societies, which were important political institutions, was also great. Inheritance and succession are patrilineal. Several patrilineal lineages lived together to form townships, which became the local administrative units of this society, which had become significantly urbanized even before contact with Europe. Their livelihood is the cultivation of yams, corn, millet, finger millet, and cocoa. The Yoruba were known throughout West Africa for their religious beliefs, which included a supreme deity and hundreds of lesser deities, and were carried to South America by enslaved people.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

ナイジェリア南西部およびベナン東部，トーゴ北部に散在する民族。人口は 2400万人をこえると推定される。言語はニジェール＝コンゴ語派のクワ諸語に属する。かつては，イフェ，オヨ，イバダンなどの首長国が，連邦的な政治組織を形成していたが，文化英雄オドゥドゥワの降臨地である宗教都市イフェの王を盟主とするゆるやかな宗教的紐帯にすぎなかった。のちにオヨが軍事的に台頭し，権威が二元化した。各分国の王の権力は議会にきびしく抑制され，また重要な政治機構である秘密結社の影響力も大きかった。相続，継承は父系をたどる。いくつかの父系リニージが共住して郷をつくり，郷は，ヨーロッパとの接触以前から著しく都市化していたこの社会の，地方行政単位となった。生業は，ヤムいも，とうもろこし，きび，シコクビエ，カカオなどの栽培である。女性は地方交易に従事し，農業と広域交易は男性が行い，ヨルバ商人は西アフリカ全域で有名。至高神と数百の下位神格を信仰する宗教は，奴隷とされた人々によって南アメリカに伝えられた。

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