Volume 9, Issue 2, 2012
Semiotics of World Cultures
Benson O. Igboin
Pages 123-142
The Semiotic of Greetings in Yoruba Culture
In most societies, greetings are the expression of emotions such as friendliness or rejection, and form the basis of social and moral order. The symbolic dimension of greetings is frequently entwined in the cultural and metaphysical reality of a community. In African societies this ethical and religious dimension carries its own peculiarities. It is interesting to see how much of the content-meaning of greetings depends on cultural traditions. This paper presents an analysis of greetings in the Yoruba culture in Nigeria.