Eco-cultural identity construction through personal naming practices: a socio-onomastic appraisal

Abstract

This article explores how a small-scale society in Nigeria mobilises cultural resources of personal naming practices to create awareness, promote environmental resilience and minimise the depletion of natural resources such as forests, farmlands, hunting grounds and fishing waters. Certain names are bestowed on children as intervention measures to ensure that human society operates within fringes of ecological borders in protecting and preserving nature. Drawing of the socio-onomastic theory that takes into account the social, cultural and situational domains in which names are given and used, this study aims to investigate how personal naming practices are used to expand environmental sustainability knowledge and increase understanding of historical processes of conserving nature and culture in a local community in Nigeria. Data for the study were collected through semi-structured interviews with 30 participants (N = 30) who were purposively sampled in Tivland, north-central Nigeria. The study concludes that naming practices form important fulcrum of traditional epistemology that foster a culture of sustainability that aims to improve the quality of all life forms as well as reveal varied concepts of identity, which are important to environmental concerns.

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