By Anigbo O.a.c
"Commensality and Human Relationship among the Igbo" is a
rebirth of "Commensality and Social Change in Ibagwa Aka". The
latter was presented for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Social
Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
University of London in 1980. From many points of view, it is a
project tainted by curiosity, for in 1971, Professor Abner Cohen
directed me to do an M.Phi1. Library dissertation on commensality
but with emphasis on its political implications.
At that time, I thought that commensality had to do with purity
and pollution only, and because of these features on Indian
ethnography were only relevant for the kind of society. I developed
my own basic principles on commensality which I use to interprete
existing literature that hate something to do with eating or occasion
for eating. The result was successful and the dissertation came out as
"Same Political Aspects of Commensality" (Anigbo, 1972)