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War is a central question in Ikpeng culture,
present in the myths and the worldview of these people.
The acquisition of goods has only secondary importance
for warfare. Its main purpose is to avenge the dead,
or even avenge death. For the Ikpeng, it is the witchcraft
of the enemies that causes death, and prisoners of war
are substitutes for the deceased.
Any death in principle could serve as pretext
for a vengeance expedition, because death, for the Ikpeng,
is never a natural phenomenon, which happens by accident
or by chance. It always results form the direct or indirect
action of the enemy-foreigner (uros). In war, the enemy's
desire to kill manifests itself as a visible murderous
violence; on other occasions, witchcraft is the means
which the enemy uses to get the same results, principally
by sending sicknesses. This enemy is not an abstract
entity, but refers to people close to the village, generally
neighboring groups. As the cases of homicide are very
rare among the Ikpeng - and, when they occur, it is
believed that the killer has been possessed by the spirits
and did not know what he was doing -, voluntary evil
only exists, and always exists, between enemies.
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But the enemy, once captured, is incorporated
into Ikpeng society, is treated well and is a source
of prestige for the family who has adopted him. This
family seeks to systematically ridicule his culture
of origin and praise that of the Ikpeng, and, as a result,
many captives have refused to go back to their group
of origin, even when the circumstances permitted.
In this sense, social reproduction goes through
two distinct and to a large degree opposed modalities:
biological birth and sociological incorporation. Thus,
one can be born Ikpeng (when the parents are), but one
also can become Ikpeng by virtue of being captured or
incorporated, for in that case, the person substitutes
an Ikpeng who died. Despite the number of captives incorporated
into Ikpeng society being very small, there is an intellectual
and moral need for substituting the dead through prisoners.
Another element related to the status of the
captive - who can receive an Ikpeng name or keep the
name from his language, but who frequently assumes an
ethnic nickname that recalls his origin- is that his
worth is in part measured by his "naming" capacity.
The captive, in effect, is a privileged namer given
that he is able to recall foreign names, which is why
part of the present-day Ikpeng population has Xinguan
names.
Thus, the substitution of the dead takes place
through births as much or more so than through captives,
and both are incorporated into the totality through
the system of names.
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