The Socio-Cultural Relevance of the Hunters’ Performance in Yorùbá Land

Abstract

Art is considered o functional phenomenon which does not exist for mere pleasure or for its own sake in the Yoruba land. Every performance in the Yoruba society either for ritual or entertainment purposes usually hos cogent reasons attached to them. This is perhaps one of the reasons why it hos been difficult and impossible for the influence of the Western religion/cultures to eradicate the tradi tional performances . The roles they ploy in the peop les' life remain germane that they cannot afford to neglect them . Our main objective thus is to examine the significance of the hunters ' performance as o functional art in order to evaluate its socio-cultural values to the Yoruba people. This paper employed the analytical method where the researcher depended on written and printed sources from relevant journal articles, books and internet sources as our primary source of data collection. The unstructured interview instrument was also adopted in order to complement the information obtained from the books and library. Our findings revealed the fact that the hunters ' performance remains highly functional across Yoruba land. Largely for its duo/ roles and multi- facet approaches the hunters ' performance is used for social (naming , wedding, coronation , birthdays .. .) and sacred ceremonies like burials, sacrifices and ancestral worships. The performance divulges the art, aesthetics, beliefs, taboos, ideals , communality and culture of the Yoruba people. The belief of the people in what may be the consequence of not carrying out the performance is still very strong and they cannot neglect it. The paper concludes that the hunters ' performance remain s purposeful in the Yoruba society till dote .