A Semiotic Investigation of the Relations between Ifá and Yorùbá Indigenous Markets, Markets Location and Marketing Theories

Abstract

Relationships in a cultural domain like religion account for wider patterns of relationships among human societies. In a predominantly Yorùbá society, Ifá is believed to be the springboard of Yorùbá culture. Virtually every aspect of Yorùbá life - religion, local culture and the market - links back to Ifá in one way or another. Previous studies have not related Ifá with the Yorùbá markets, location of markets and marketing theories, nor have they established Ifá’s influence on the market institution as an aspect of economy among the Yorùbá communities. This study seeks to fill this gap using work that relies substantially on oral data collected from Ifá practitioners’, field observations, literary texts, and Ifá literary corpus. A semiotics approach was utilized for data analyses with relevant data samples carefully selected. By comparing Ifá symbols with the Yorùbá indigenous markets the study found that: Ifá influences the Yorùbá markets, marketing and the establishment and/or location of the Yorùbá indigenous markets on a daily basis. As a result, the Yorùbá market symbols serve as paradigm with which the Yorùbá market system can be described and differentiated from other African markets.