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Yoruba

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Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology

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Alternative Names

In the past the Yoruba have been identified by outsiders as the Anago, Olukumi, and Aku (Adediran, 1998) Major subgroups include the Egba, Egbado, Ekiti, Igbomina, Ijebu, Ijesa, Ife, Kabba, Ondo, Owo, and Oyo.

Location and Linguistic Affiliation

The Yoruba are located in the tropical rain forest and guinea savanna zones of coastal West Africa, concentrated in southwestern Nigeria (Yorubaland) with smaller groupings in southeastern Benin, Togo, and Ghana. As a result of the diaspora, enclaves of Yoruba culture are evident in Cuba and Brazil. The Yoruba language, marked by dialect diversity, and in some cases unintelligibility between subgroups, is a tone language that is a member of the Kwa group of Niger—Congo languages.

Overview of the Culture

Twenty to twenty-five million people speaking dialects of the Yoruba language form one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, making up about 20% of the population (Zeitlin & Babatunde, 1995). Yoruba culture emerged in a...

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Authors
  1. Norma H. Wolff
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Human Relations Area Files, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Carol R. Ember  & Melvin Ember  & 

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© 2004 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers

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Wolff, N.H. (2004). Yoruba. In: Ember, C.R., Ember, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-29905-X_105

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-29905-X_105

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-47754-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-29905-1

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