Ley de Fomento, apoyo y protección a la Lactancia Materna (1995)

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pre-dates the Ur-Namu Law code, dating about 2100-2050 BC¹⁸⁴ and the Law code of Hammurabi, dating about 1795-1750 BC.

However, the scholars reviewed so far, approached the

tyrIb.

^concept

from a European understanding, which treated

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as equivalent to the English ‗covenant,‘ and perhaps, is not fully concomitant with the Semitic outlook on the meaning and significance of

tyrIb.

. Though the structural affinities between the treaty forms and the

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concept is given a prominent place, the distinctive phenomenological aspect in

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is often neglected. This aspect is the employment of the fear appeal, in which the structural form, similar to that of the treaty documents of the Ancient Near East is employed in

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as a sort of cognitive mediating process to create a vivid awareness of the threatened dangers and the promised benefits of keeping the terms of the

tyrIb.

. It is really important to explore the implications of the structural forms common to Ancient Near Eastern treaty documents as a vehicle of cognitive mediating process which is employed in the

tyrIb.

concept to ensure its efficacy in regulating human behaviour in the Ancient Israelite context and investigate this phenomenon in such a way that it could be easily decipherable to an African mind. This thesis would fill in this gap.

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made a remarkable contribution on the role of oath-making in Yorùbá and Igbo Jurisprudence. He devoted a chapter to covenant in Yorùbá and Igbo indigenous cultures. It is a work that made very good advance on the previous scholarly works in that it brings out vividly the practical aspect of the covenant concept in African indigenous culture. These works give us insight into the processes of covenant-making in African indigenous culture, but these contributions need to be compiled, harmonised, articulated and applied to the

tyrIb.

concept for a good understanding of the scripture in indigenous Yorùbá categories.

Arulefela treated covenant-making in Yorùbá Land. He identified processes of indigenous Yorùbá covenant-making signified by terminologies such as ìbúra, ìmùlẹ̀ and májѐ̣mú. He also treated some instances or situations of covenant-making in indigenous Yorùbá culture such as friendship, marriage, sale of land, communal meals, the aristocracy, citizenship initiation, secret societies, religious cults, and professional groups. These contributions are valuable to us in this research because they articulate certain aspects of the covenant concept in indigenous Yorùbá terms. However, Arulefela's work is basically descriptive of the covenant concept. This research work would progress on Arulefela's work by exploring the cultural and socio-religious correlations between Ancient Israelite

tyrIb.

and indigenous Yorùbá Ìmùlè ̣ and why the

tyrIb.

concept failed to effectively regulate the social moral behaviour in early Israel. This is also done with the aim of revealing the universal paradigms in

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vis a vis ìmùlè ̣ , which may be employed to regulate human behaviour in diverse socio-cultural contexts.

T. F. Jemiriye, of the Department of Religious Studies in the University of Ado-Ekiti, explicates the phenomenon of ìbúra ojú-ìbọ (Oath taking at the shrine), which explains an aspect of covenant-making that gives us an understanding of the concept and nature of covenant-making in indigenous Yorùbá perspective. He defined ìbúra' (Oath taking) as

…a voluntary, conscious choice of putting a curse on oneself for a known or desired purpose. It is a pledge, a mandate of commitment and strict compliance with a position at which a deviation from the agreed initial position will trigger the attached curse without any other negotiation it is …an act of self-bounding to guarantee total compliance and fulfilment of agreement... ¹⁸⁵

185 T. F. Jemiriye. Ìbúra ojú-ìbọ: A contextual Phenomenon

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He explained that the parties to an oath believe that when an oath is sworn at a shrine, the supernatural powers, residing at the shrine, have a universal potency that it can inflict on any defaulter, hence this confirms the use of fear appeal as a concept in oath-making. However, oath-taking is not equivalent to covenant-making, though it is an indispensable aspect of covenant-making. Jemiriye did not clearly articulate this aspect.

The work of Charles Jegede is focused on Shrines, Oath-taking and Jurisprudence in Yorùbá and Igbo Religions. However, his work gave a valuable insight into the

tyrIb.

concept because oath-taking is an integral part of

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^making.

He described a covenant as a relationship that is deliberately entered into.¹⁸⁶ The work illuminates the nature of Ìmùlè ̣ in Yorùbá indigenous culture. He clearly demonstrated that law and morality cannot be separated form religion in the African mind-set as well as in the Bible and Quran.¹⁸⁷ He shows that ―…like most other words in English, the word ‗covenant‘ is not able to convey the meaning and essence of

tyrIb.

in the African indigenous religion‖¹⁸⁸. He outlined the procedure of using oaths in jurisprudence in indigenous Yorùbá and Igbo cultures of Nigeria, and his presentation shows clearly that fear appeal is a significant phenomenon in oath-making. This position is clearly seen in the following statement:

The use of the Bible or Koran to take oaths is very potent because they are sacred books. It can be suggested that what make them seemingly impotent is because in the oath proper, adequate maledictions are not used when oaths are taken with these instruments…. to make vain oath in the name of any sacred object is to challenge the god that the object symbolises; it is to query its beingness, and it is the height of sacrilege and desecration. There is no god who will forgive anyone who takes vain oaths in his name this is the core of their being and this is the spot where their potency is even more virulent…¹⁸⁹

He affirmed further that ―To every oath, there is joined either an expressed or an implied threats or malediction…‖¹⁹⁰ and that ―it can be argued that oath that is devoid of malediction is alien to African religion and jurisprudence…¹⁹¹ these statements confirm the proposition of this thesis, that

tyrIb.

regulates human behavioural

186 C. O. Jẹgẹdẹ. 2011, Shrines, Oath-taking and Jurisprudence in Yorùbá and Igbo Religions, 128.

187 C. O. Jẹgẹdẹ. 2011,49.

188 C. O. Jẹgẹdẹ. 2011, 124.

189 C. O. Jẹgẹdẹ.2011, 159.

190 C. O. Jẹgẹdẹ. 2011,164.

191 C. O. Jẹgẹdẹ. 2011,165.

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pattern through the use of fear appeal. The work of this scholar is very significant to the present study because oath-taking is an indispensable aspect of the form of covenant as conveyed by the

tyrIb.

^and ìmùlè ̣ concepts. Jegede‘s work is carried out from the perspective of African indigenous religion; hence the author did not expand its scope and application into the realm of biblical interpretation. It is very descriptive and analytic and gives insight into oath-taking process as a crucial aspect of covenant-making in Yorùbá and Igbo cultures of Nigeria. But the work did not treat other cognate terms related to covenant-making such as Ìmùlè ̣ and Májѐ̣mú. The present work seeks to apply some of the findings articulated in these past works to the realm of Biblical interpretation, and attempt to bridge the contextual gap between the Biblical text and indigenous African culture with particular focus on Ẹ̀gbá-Yorùbá indigenous culture.

In document Implementación de estándares en los procedimientos de atención a la lactancia materna en el Centro de Salud 24 Horas Pichincha. Pichincha. 2012 (página 32-35)