De religie van de Dogon (Mali) kenmerkt zich door een ingewikkelde serie riten op alle niveaus van het sociale leven. Dit artikel beschrijft het jaarfeest ('buro'), dat zich vlak voor de regentijd... Show moreDe religie van de Dogon (Mali) kenmerkt zich door een ingewikkelde serie riten op alle niveaus van het sociale leven. Dit artikel beschrijft het jaarfeest ('buro'), dat zich vlak voor de regentijd afspeelt, het offercomplex en de rol van het huisaltaar, rituelen rond de dood en het maskercomplex. Vervolgens wordt aandacht besteed aan het Dogon pantheon, de vele kleinere geesten en de godendriehoek, bestaande uit de hemelgod Ama, de aarde-god Lèwè, en de watergod Nomo. Noten. [Samenvatting ASC Leiden] Show less
Ngoma, a southern African ritual of healing, dance, rhythm and rhyme, is at the heart of social effort to change the fortunes of individuals and communities so that well-being is restored. This... Show moreNgoma, a southern African ritual of healing, dance, rhythm and rhyme, is at the heart of social effort to change the fortunes of individuals and communities so that well-being is restored. This collective volume investigates ngoma in its many and culturally diverse manifestations. Contributions: Rijk van Dijk, Ria Reis and Marja Spierenburg (introduction); Henny Blokland (the use of drums in weddings in Unyamwezi, Tanzania, as the key to their use in healing cults and politics); Annette Drews (gender and ngoma among the Kunda of eastern Zambia); Ria Reis (therapeutic ngoma in Swaziland); Marja Spierenburg (the influence of healers' clientele in the Mhondoro territorial cult in Dande, Zimbabwe); Matthew Schoffeleers (rain cults as therapeutic ngoma in the Mbona cult of rural Malawi); Cor Jonker (the politics of therapeutic ngoma as exemplified in the Zionist churches in urban Zambia); Rijk van Dijk (ngoma and born-again fundamentalism in urban Malawi). In the afterword, John M. Janzen takes up critically the challenges to his own work (1992) presented by the contributions in this volume. Show less
By bringing the active challenge to ethnographic authority by people written about to the fore, the authors of this chapter hope to raise some doubts about the matter-of-factness with which... Show moreBy bringing the active challenge to ethnographic authority by people written about to the fore, the authors of this chapter hope to raise some doubts about the matter-of-factness with which ethnographers maintain their identity as scholarly writers who do their research in some 'field' far away from 'home'. Focusing on the study of religion in Africa, they present two cases in which the tactical behaviour of both the anthropologists and their interlocutors challenges the hegemony of their attitudes towards each other's production of knowledge. The authors first discuss an element of anthropological fieldwork which, in practice, has been rare: the initiation of the researcher into secrets held by local religious leaders. Here, ethnographers (act as if they) accept the hegemony of the 'other' cultural practice while being initiated. Second, they describe a case from van Dijk's own fieldwork and show how the researcher was obliged to go through a penitential exercise after having produced a text in a popular magazine which insufficiently recognized the inspirational authority of religious leaders in the field (Born-Again preachers in Blantyre, Malawi). Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
This book stems from a conference entitled 'Religion in Africa: the variety of religious experience in sub-Saharan Africa', held in Provo, Utah, 22-25 October 1986. The first section of the book ... Show moreThis book stems from a conference entitled 'Religion in Africa: the variety of religious experience in sub-Saharan Africa', held in Provo, Utah, 22-25 October 1986. The first section of the book (Religion and its translatability) focuses on the effects of translation and translatability on religion and politics (L. Sanneh, A. Nanji), efforts to translate Christian concepts into African cultures and back (J.P. Kirby, M. Schoffeleers, D.L. Thomson) and Yoruba cosmology (Wándé Abímb'.olá). The second section (Comparisons over time and space) contains papers on the Edo spirit possession cult (P.G. Ben-Amos), African religion and art in Brazil (M. Smith Omari), the Bantu ritual of affliction (J.M. Janzen), prehistoric evidence of traditional African religion (P. de Maret), sorcery (W.E.A. van Beek) and myth and epic in Central Africa (L. de Heusch). The third section (Instrumentality of religion) contains papers on syncretism in Kimbanguism in Zaïre (W. MacGaffey), the Jamaa movement in Zaïre (J. Fabian), the American Methodist Episcopal Church in Zimbabwe (T.O. Ranger), charismatic social change and the Rastafari movement of Jamaica (A. Legesse), a ritual embodying female power among the Gola of Liberia (W.L. d'Azevedo), secret societies among the Bafodea Limba of Sierra Leone (S. Ottenberg), music of the Kpelle of Liberia (R.M. Stone) and men's oratory and women's song-dance among the Hêmbá of Zaïre (P.A.R. Blakely and T.D. Blakely). Show less
Aim of this volume, which brings together seven studies of religious change in Zambia, is to describe the processes of religious change in this country during the last few centuries. These studies... Show moreAim of this volume, which brings together seven studies of religious change in Zambia, is to describe the processes of religious change in this country during the last few centuries. These studies are: 1) Towards a theory of religious change in Central Africa. 2) Possession and mediumship in Zambia: towards a comparative approach. 3) Explorations in the history and sociology of territorial cults in Zambia. 4) Religious change and the problem of evil in Western Zambia. 5) Regional and non-regional cults of affliction in Western Zambia. 6) Ritual, class and urban-rural relations. 7) Cults of affliction in town, and the articulation of modes of production. Show less
In order better to present these cults in their interrelation with other institutions, the author introduces an additional analytical concept: the shrine cult, calling a shrine "a spot which is... Show moreIn order better to present these cults in their interrelation with other institutions, the author introduces an additional analytical concept: the shrine cult, calling a shrine "a spot which is singled out and treated in a very special way because of its close association with events by which entities believed to exist somewhere outside this visible order can manifest themselves within this order - and where, therefore, humans can communicate with these entities". The concepts of territorial cult and shrine cult largely overlap, but neither is a subset of the other. The territorial cult in the Zambian context - Shrines, ecology and the community - Chiefs and shrines in Zambia's history - Conclusion Show less
A generic relation holds between two types of cult of affliction in formerly Barotseland. Cults of one type, the non-regional, form a substratum out of which cults of the other type, the regional,... Show moreA generic relation holds between two types of cult of affliction in formerly Barotseland. Cults of one type, the non-regional, form a substratum out of which cults of the other type, the regional, may spring forth under certain conditions, and into which they submerge again under different conditions. The author compares in some detail, to a large extent based on oral-historical data, the development of two regional cults in order to make clear the presumable importance of two series of variables: characteristics of idiom and internal organizational structure, of the cult, and the structural characteristics (the demographic pattern and the occurence of other formal interlocal organizations) of the geographical area which the cult transforms into a cultic region. Show less
