On Rocks, Walks, and Talks In West Africa: Cultural Categories and an Anthropology of the Senses

Abstract

In southeastern Ghana, among Anlo‐Ewe‐speaking people, a five‐senses model (of sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell) has little relevance for theorizing about how we know what we know. Instead, Anlo people invoke a domain of experience called seselelame (literally "feel‐feel‐at‐flesh‐inside") that links sensation to emotion, disposition, and vocation. This article explores cultural models that govern sensory and other immediate bodily experiences in Anlo‐Ewe worlds. Language analysis is interwoven with cultural interpretations of walking and talking, and attention is given to child socialization strategies that kinesthetically instantiate Anlo‐Ewe moral codes.