Essay on Cultural Formations
Introduction: In an essay on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Chinua Achebe writes about a
student who read Things Fall Apart and responded by writing to say that he enjoyed learning
about such an exotic culture. Achebe’s reaction was that Americans don’t need to go to Nigeria
to find the exotic. As you think back on the cultural traditions or beliefs of the Ibo as depicted in
Things Fall Apart, think about our own culture and the things that might seem exotic or strange
to an outsider. We, for example, also have many customs and proverbs, we have our fetishes, and
we have our miraculations, too. For more on these "cultural formations," see below.
Purpose: Write an essay in which you assume the persona of an Ibo anthropologist and explain a
custom, proverb, a fetish, or a miraculation of American culture to your community. Begin by
describing the American cultural formation in detail—what it is, who participates in it, when,
how, and where—and then explain its significance. Clarify the exotic American belief or
practice you examine by drawing a parallel to something in your own Ibo culture. Assume that
your community uses English and follows the same conventions of explanation and writing that
we do.
Audience: Your Ibo clansmen (as the Ibo are depicted in Things Fall Apart).
Length: Two to three pages.
Conventions: Double-spaced, one-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, no skipped
lines. Include a list of Works Cited (even if it only has one item in it).
Due Dates:
 Friday, Oct. 17: Proposal.
o The American custom, proverb, fetish or miraculation you intend to explain
o A cultural formation of the Ibo culture that can be compared to the American
formation you examine
o A list of differences between the American and Ibo formations
o A list of similarities between the American and Ibo formations
 Monday, Oct. 27: Final Draft.
Cultural Formations
 Customs or traditional behaviors.
 Proverbs.
 Fetishes. A fetish is “an object of unreasonably excessive attention or reverence.” Here,
“unreasonable” does not mean a fetish is a bad thing so much as an object whose
symbolic importance goes far beyond its use value. In Things Fall Apart, the yam
qualifies as a fetish of sorts: it is a crop, a form of money, and an object that is celebrated
in annual festivals.
 “Miraculation.”1 The appearance of the egwugwu in Things Fall Apart appears at first
very strange: the people simultaneously believe that the egwugwu are spirits and living
men. We might call this a “willing suspension of disbelief,” but the psychological
investment that the Ibo make is more earnest than the kind we make when we merely go
to a movie and temporarily pretend that the characters are real. In some sense, the
egwugwu really are spirits.
“Miraculation” is a neologism, a word Dr,. Busonik made up to describe a very special kind of psychological
investment in an idea or phenomenon. Do not expect people outside of RCHS to recognize it.
1