Sources

Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/dahomey-an-ancient-west-african-kingdom.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/dahomey-an-ancient-west-african-kingdom

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-dahomey-an-ancient-west-african-kingdom,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/dahomey-an-ancient-west-african-kingdom},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Melville Herskovits's two-volume monograph is built from his own mid-1930s direct field study of Dahomey, documenting Fon religion and society from firsthand ethnographic observation rather than from colonial administrative report or secondhand travelers' accounts. That direct fieldwork basis, checkable against the specific practices and structures the study documents, is why it remains a classic and still-standard ethnography of Fon religion despite its age. This record has not independently traced later scholarly revision of Herskovits's specific claims since 1938. Use it for established ethnographic facts about Fon religion and society as documented in the 1930s; a claim about how Fon or related Vodun practice has since changed needs a more recent source alongside it.

Facts

Assessment

Reliability Tier

Melville Herskovits's two-volume monograph, built from his own mid-1930s direct field study of Dahomey, documenting Fon religion and society from firsthand ethnographic observation rather than colonial administrative report or secondhand travelers' accounts.

Notes

Two-volume monograph from Herskovits' mid-1930s field study of Dahomey, a classic and still-standard ethnography of Fon religion and society.

Citation

Author

Melville J. Herskovits

Publisher

J. J. Augustin (New York)

Publication Year

1938

URL

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.36395

Source Type

Ethnography

Claims Backed By This Source (262 claims)

This source backs 262 claims across the atlas. As facts: 167 well-attested. As cited relationships: 54 holds, 4 connected. Plus 37 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Deities, 99 claims: 63 well-attested, 27 holds, 9 general references.
Figures, 59 claims: 45 well-attested, 8 holds, 6 general references.
Articles, 50 claims: 36 well-attested, 1 holds, 4 connected, 9 general references.
Myths & Sacred Narratives, 9 claims: 4 well-attested, 4 holds, 1 general references.
Religions, 9 claims: 3 well-attested, 4 holds, 2 general references.
Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
Empires & Polities, 7 claims: 2 well-attested, 4 holds, 1 general references.
Cultures, 6 claims: 2 well-attested, 3 holds, 1 general references.
Subcategories, 6 claims: 2 holds, 4 general references.
Sacred Sites, 3 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
Cities, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
Culture Groups, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
Languages, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.