A Paremiological Worldview of the Muthambi People of Kenya

Abstract

This paper attempts to map out a socio–economic worldview of the Muthambi people of Kenya as portrayed in their proverbs using the lenses of Ethnomethodology Theory. The Muthambi people, live in Muthambi and Mitheru Wards of Tharaka Nithi County in Kenya. Although the orature genre has engaged many scholars over a long period of time, the branch of paremiology; which refers to the study of proverbs that is associated with Archer Taylor (1890-1973), one of America's foremost specialist in America and European folklorehas not been exhaustively studied. This emanates from the fact that proverbs belong to the realm of language which is a vehicle of a people's culture. The Muthambi people's proverbs have been given little or no attention by earlier scholars. This paper is anchored on ethnomethodology theory as propounded by Garfinkel (1967). Ethnomethodology theory postulates that members of a society create knowledge due to interaction with their environment to give meaning to life. In this paper, a total of 90 proverbs that were collected from the field as used in various contexts have been classified thematically according to 9 selected socio-economic areas, on the worldview of the Muthambi people. A descriptive analysis of the proverbs has been done in prose form. The findings of this study indicate that proverbs of the Muthambi people embody their socio-economic worldview.  This validates the ethnomethodology approach that societies in general and the Muthambione in particular, encapsulate their intangible cultural heritage and their socio-economic worldview in their proverbs.