Professional Documents
Culture Documents
List of Tables
Chapter Four: Constructive Controversy
Table 4.1 Process of Controversy and Concurrence
Seeking
Table 4.2 Meta-Analysis of Academic Controversy
Studies: Weighted Effect Sizes
Chapter Five: Trust, Trust Development, and Trust
Repair
Table 5.1 Sixteen Relationship Types Based on
Dominant Trust and Distrust Elements
Chapter Seventeen: Personality and Conflict
Table 17.1 Normal Frustrations, Typical Defense
Mechanisms, Developmental Crises, Psychopathology,
and Adult Character Traits with Several Early Stages
of Psychosexual Development
Chapter Eighteen: The Development of Conflict
Resolution Skills
Table 18.1 Piaget’s Social Cognitive Approach to
Children’s Development
Table 18.2 Comparison of Social Cognitive
Approaches to Development
Table 18.3 Kegan’s Cognitive Orders of
Consciousness
Table 18.4 Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages in
Development
Chapter Twenty-Four: Learning through Reflection on
Experience
Table 24.1 Action Science Map around Sexual
Harassment in the Workplace
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Multiculturalism and Conflict
Table 27.1 I-AM-Inducing Strategies and
Interventions at the Individual and Organizational
Levels
Chapter Thirty-One: The Pragmatics of Peace with
Justice
Table 31.1 Key Differences between Human Rights
and Mediation
Chapter Thirty-Five: Teaching Conflict Resolution Skills
in a Workshop
Table 35.1 Coleman Raider AEIOU Coding Sheet
(Abridged)
Chapter Forty: Reconciliation between Groups
Table 40.1 Reconciliation and the Prevention of New
Violence
Chapter Forty-Two: Using Research Findings in Practice
Table 42.1 xamples of Methodologies in Four
Research Traditions
List of Illustrations
Chapter Four: Constructive Controversy
Figure 4.1 Theory of Controversy
Chapter Six: Power and Conflict
Figure 6.1 The Situated Model of Power and Conflict
Figure 6.2 Psychological Orientations in the Basic
Conflict Stimulus Field
Chapter Nine: The PSDM Model
Figure 9.1 An Integrated Model of Problem Solving
and Decision Making in Conflict Resolution
Figure 9.1 An Integrated Model of Problem Solving
and Decision Making in Conflict Resolution
Chapter Fourteen: Group Decision Making in Conflict
Figure 14.1 The Groupthink-Polythink Continuum
Chapter Fifteen: Natural-Born Peacemakers?
Figure 15.1 Gender-Based Differences in Self-
Construal and Social Role Expectations
Chapter Sixteen: Resolving Intractable Intergroup
Conflicts
Figure 16.1 The Influence of Implicit Theories about
Groups on Support for Conciliatory Political Actions
Tendencies
Chapter Eighteen: The Development of Conflict
Resolution Skills
Figure 19.1 The Shadow Box
Figure 19.2 Objects and Shadows in Experiment One:
Geometrical Objects and Lego Objects
Chapter Twenty-One: Creativity in the Outcomes of
Conflict
Figure 21.1 The Agreement Circumplex
Chapter Twenty-Four: Learning through Reflection on
Experience
Figure 24.1 Marsick and Watkins’ Informal and
Incidental Learning Model
Chapter Thirty: Intractable Conflict
Figure 30.1 Feedback Loop Analysis of Mozambique
Conflict and Peace
Chapter Thirty-Four: The Mediation of Conflict
Figure 34.1 Twelve Stages of Mediator Moves
Chapter Thirty-Five: Teaching Conflict Resolution Skills
in a Workshop
Figure 35.1 Coleman Raider Resolution Continuum
Figure 35.2 Coleman Raider Reframing Formula
Figure 35.3 Coleman Raider Negotiation Planning
Form: A Community Dialogue
Figure 35.4 Colman Raider “Bare-Bones” Model
Figure 35.5 Coleman Raider Filter Check Model
Figure 35.6 Coleman Raider Meditation Model
Chapter Thirty-Six: Creating Constructive
Communication through Dialogue
Figure 36.1 Elements of Communication Process
Chapter Thirty-Seven: An Empirically Based Approach to
Couples’ Conflic
Figure 37.1 The Sound Relationship House Theory
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Managing Conflict through Large
Group Methods
Figure 38.1 Large-Group Methods for Creating the
Future
Figure 38.2 Large-Group Methods for Work Design
Figure 38.3 Large-Group Methods for Discussion and
Decision Making
Chapter Forty-One: Social Networks, Social Media, and
Conflict Resolution
Figure 41.1 Network Chart Comparisons
Figure 41.2 Network Conflict Worksheet
More Praise for The Handbook of
Conflict Resolution
“Professor Morton Deutsch is one of the greatest
contributors of the twenty-first century to the
important and crucial field of conflict resolution. His
contributions have been in theory and practice, in
attracting outstanding people to work with him, in
stimulating superb people to carry on in their own
paths. The net effect is a truly major contribution to
this field, and it is summed up beautifully in this
revised and enlarged edition. Highly informative,
profoundly insightful, and, indeed, a definitive account
of conflict resolution.”
—David A. Hamburg, president emeritus, Carnegie Corporation of New
York; DeWitt Wallace Distinguished Scholar; and cochair, Social
Medicine and Public Policy Programs, Department of Psychiatry, New
York Presbyterian Hospital and Cornell University Medical College
Peter T. Coleman
Morton Deutsch
Eric C. Marcus
Cover design by Adrian Morgan Cover art by Thinkstock Copyright © 2014 by
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The handbook of conflict resolution : theory and practice / Peter T. Coleman,
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HM1126
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2013050606
PREFACE
The field of conflict resolution continues to develop rapidly.
As a consequence, we have updated and revised the second
edition of this Handbook. Almost all of the chapters in the
second edition have been updated; in some, the revisions
have been extensive, and in others, only minor changes
seemed necessary. Also, we have added new chapters on
topics that were not covered or needed more coverage than
they received in the first two editions. Given the scope of
growth in the field, we have expanded the book
considerably. And in order to make this expansion more
cost effective for the readership, we have developed a new
online section of the book.
The new chapters for this edition have an asterisk next to
them in the Contents. They are important, original
contributions to the field of conflict resolution by
outstanding scholars and practitioners, as are the updated
chapters from the first two editions.
In the Preface to the first edition, we characterized the
purpose of the Handbook, its organization, professional
value, and orientation. This book is meant for those who
wish to deepen their understanding of the processes
involved in conflicts and their knowledge of how to manage
them constructively. It provides the theoretical
underpinnings that shed light on the fundamental social
psychological processes involved in understanding and
managing conflicts at all levels: interpersonal, intergroup,
organizational, and international.
As an area of scholarship and professional practice, conflict
resolution is relatively young, having emerged as a
discipline after World War II. Practice and theory have been
only loosely linked. This book aims to foster closer
connection between the two by demonstrating the
relevance of theoretical ideas and empirical research to
practice. Although the link between theory and practice is
inherently bidirectional, this book primarily emphasizes the
path from theory to practice.
The theoretical ideas presented in this book were for the
most part not developed specifically in relation to
understanding conflict or to facilitate professional practice
in this area. They have relevance to any area in which it is
important to understand the basic processes in social
interactions of all sorts and in various contexts—at work; in
politics, schools, families, clinics, courts, and bedrooms; on
highways; and elsewhere. For the purposes of this book,
the authors have developed their chapters to bring out the
relevance of the theories and research being discussed to
understanding conflict specifically.
When appropriate, chapters are organized to address three
general topics. The first deals with the theoretical ideas in
the substantive area being discussed. The second draws
out the implications of these ideas for understanding
conflict, and the third is concerned with the implications of
these ideas for educating or training people to manage
their conflicts more constructively.
The Handbook of Conflict Resolution is divided into parts
somewhat arbitrarily, and inevitably there is overlap among
them. The introductory chapter gives examples of real
conflicts and indicates the kinds of questions one might
pose to understand what is going on in the conflicts—
questions that are addressed in many of the chapters. The
Introduction also has a brief discussion of the orientations
of practitioners on the one hand and researcher-theorists
on the other, to offer some insight into the
misunderstandings that often occur between these two
groups. It also contains an abbreviated history of the study
of conflict from a social psychological perspective and
indicates the sorts of questions that have been and are
being addressed.
Parts 1 through 4 comprise the major portion of the book
and present the theoretical ideas that have been developed
(mainly in areas of social psychology) that are useful in
understanding conflict processes as well as in helping
people learn to manage their conflicts constructively. The
authors of the chapters in these parts discuss the practical
implications of their ideas for conflict, as well as the
theoretical foundations underlying the implications they
draw.
Even apart from their usefulness for conflict, the
theoretical ideas should be of value to anyone interested in
understanding the nature of basic social psychological
processes and involved in social interactions of any kind.
The Contents pages for parts 1 through 4 indicate the
broad range of theoretical ideas and their implications for
conflict. They are grouped, arbitrarily, into interpersonal
and intergroup processes, intrapsychic and intragroup
processes, personal differences, and creativity and change.
Almost all of the chapters discuss matters that cross such
arbitrary boundaries. New chapters (chapters 3, 14, and
15) respectively deal with privilege and justice, group
decision making, and gender, as they relate to conflict.
Part 5 contains four chapters that consider the relation
between culture and conflict, each from a somewhat
different perspective. Chapters 25 through 27 (all new
chapters) examine some of the common sorts of
misunderstanding that can arise when people from varying
cultural backgrounds interact and what can be done to help
them learn to understand one another’s cultural
background. Then chapter 28 examines an influential
theoretical approach to conflict resolution developed in the
United States to see how it is (or is not) applicable to
conflict in the entirely different context of China.
Part 6 is concerned with difficult conflicts. Two revised
chapters (29 and 30) examine aggression and violence and
intractable conflict, respectively. Two new chapters have
been added: chapter 31 is focused on the connections
between human rights and conflicts and chapter 32 on
terrorism.
Part 7 is most directly concerned with practice. Its eleven
chapters are all authored by leaders in the field and focus
on theory and research behind common models of practice
such as negotiation (33), mediation (34), the Coleman
Raider model for training in constructive conflict resolution
(35), dialogue processes (36), and John Gottman’s model of
conflict management with couples (37). These chapters
then go on to strategies for working with larger groups
(38), employing group relations theory (39), reconciliation
between groups (40), and employing social network theory
to conflict analysis and resolution (41). Chapter 42 focuses
on using research findings in practice and chapter 43 on
nonviolence and conflict.
In part 8, we look to the future. Chapter 44 presents a
framework for thinking about research on conflict
resolution training. As of this writing, there has been little
good and systematic research in this area. If the field is to
develop and have a bright future, it needs more research.
Chapter 45 presents the authors’ views of the future
directions that basic research on conflict and its resolution
might well take.
The concluding chapter is an overview and commentary on
the current state of the field; it considers issues such as
what substantive questions need to be addressed that have
not received the attention they warrant—that is, the
practice as well as theoretical issues.
The final (online) section contains what we have labeled
our domain-specific chapters. The expert authors of these
chapters were asked to familiarize themselves with the
basic processes chapters of this Handbook and then to
speak to these models and practices in their chapters,
making links to existing chapters explicit. They include
chapters in the following domains: gender conflict in
marriage (chapter 46), conflict resolution in schools (47),
conflict in organizations (48), labor relations and conflict
(49), law and dispute resolution (50), police and conflict
resolution (51), participatory action research, conflict
resolution, and communities (52), religion as a third side
for peace (53), nongovernmental organizations as a vehicle
for collective action (54), managing environmental conflict
(55), and international conflict resolution (56).
The contributors to this edition of The Handbook of Conflict
Resolution are an illustrious group of experts in the areas
with which their chapters are concerned. We have asked
them to write chapters that can be easily understood by
readers who are not social scientists but are also credible
to other experts in their areas. Furthermore, we suggested
to them that they limit considerably the number of
technical references in their chapter. Given the opaqueness
of much writing in the social sciences, it is surprising how
well the contributors have succeeded in writing clear,
informative, interesting, useful, and authoritative chapters.
We believe The Handbook of Conflict Resolution is
accessible and valuable to a wide variety of groups with an
interest in constructive conflict management: to
undergraduate and graduate students, as well as their
professors, in a number of academic fields such as
psychology, education, sociology, political science, business,
international relations, law, social work, and health care. It
is also of value to practitioners such as conflict resolution
trainers and consultants, negotiators, mediators, and those
who manage or supervise others. In editing this Handbook,
we have learned a great deal, so we believe that even those
considered experts can find much of value in it.
One final word about the orientation of this Handbook: it is
concerned with finding cooperative, win-win solutions to
conflict, no matter how difficult. The “black arts” of conflict
(such as violence, coercion, intimidation, deceit, blackmail,
and seduction) are not discussed except, if at all, in the
context of how to respond to or prevent the use of such
tactics by oneself or others. In our view, such tactics are
used too often, are commonly destructive and self-
defeating, and are less productive in the long run than a
constructive approach.
We thank our faculty colleagues who participated in an
informal seminar on conflict resolution at Teachers College.
The inspiration for this book emerged from the lively
discussions in the seminar. We also thank Elizabeth
Hernandez, Joseph Dillard, Kyong Mazzaro, Nick Redding,
Christine Chung, and Regina Kim, who typed, e-mailed, did
editorial work, and provided other invaluable services
necessary to produce a completed manuscript.
January 2014
Peter T. Coleman, Morton Deutsch, and Eric C. Marcus
New York, New York
INTRODUCTION
Morton Deutsch
In this introduction, I give some examples of conflicts and
indicate the kinds of questions one might pose to
understand what is going on in the conflicts—questions
that are addressed in many of the following chapters. It
also includes a brief discussion of the orientations of both
practitioners and researcher-theorists to provide some
insight into the misunderstandings that often occur
between these two groups. It concludes with an
abbreviated history of the study of conflict from a social
psychological perspective.
AN INTERGROUP CONFLICT AT A
SCHOOL
A conflict has developed between two groups of teachers at
a high school in New York City: the Black Teachers Caucus
(BTC) and the newly formed Site-Based Management
(SBM) Committee. The SBM committee’s eighteen
members consist of the principal, the union chairperson, a
representative from the parents’ association, a student, and
an elected teacher representative from each academic
department. All of the SBM members are European
American, with the exception of an African American
teacher chosen from the math department.
At the last SBM meeting, the math teacher proposed that
an official voting seat be designated for an African
American teacher. After much heated discussion, the
proposal was voted down. But the problems raised by the
proposal did not go away. Much personal bitterness has
ensued.
The school has experienced a recent demographic shift
from a predominantly white student body to one that is now
mainly composed of students of color. This has occurred for
two reasons. First, there has been a large influx of students
of color from the city-owned housing projects constructed
in the district during the past two years. Second, as a
result, the number of science-oriented students coming
from other parts of the city has dropped.
The student population is now 40 percent African
American, 30 percent Latino American, 25 percent
European American, and 5 percent Asian American. The
faculty is 90 percent European American and 10 percent
African American. The parents’ association is 100 percent
European American.
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.