alm". Nadel (1952) notes that if there is a case of witchcraft where there is a death or something unimaginable, it is said, "a few evil individuals among the men (whom no one can name) have betrayed their own sex and become the helpers of a woman witch [and] men are never blamed or accused of witchcraft" (p.19).
The reason for this bias against women can be explained by the Nupe's lifestyle and their backward sense of normality of social roles. Nadel (1952) states:
The economic position of the Nupe wives, many of whom are successful itinerant traders, is generally much better then that of their peasant husbands. Thus husbands are often heavily in debt to their wives, and the latter assume many of the financial responsibilities which should rightly belong to the men as fathers and family heads, such as finding bride-price for sons, paying for the children's educations, bearing the expenses of family fests, and the like. This reversal of the institutionalized roles is openly resented by the men, who are, however, he
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