Bemba Myth and Ritual

Bemba Myth and Ritual PDF Author: Kevin Burns Maxwell
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
By focusing on the differences between an oral society and a literate one, this study exemplifies the usefulness of contemporary media studies in analyzing cultural change in Africa. It also adds a distinctive chapter to the cultural history of the Bemba as a formally oral-aural people. Hearing is their primary cognitive sense and the physical properties of sound significantly affect the Bemba worldview. Their charter myth, initiation rites, traditional authorities and tales of spirits embody a network of central religious metaphors and limit-symbols, each of which is signalized by its acoustic characteristics. Literacy is restructuring Bemba consciousness and society, making vision the primary sense and written codes, not tribal personalities, the basis of government. Literacy de-animates cognitional objects, develops language for hermeneutical precision and frees individuals from the tribal needs to remember and conform. As more Bemba convert to Christianity and interiorize writing technology, elements of their oral religion ironically become more dependent for survival on acculturation with these literate forces.

Bemba Myth and Ritual

Bemba Myth and Ritual PDF Author: Kevin Burns Maxwell
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
By focusing on the differences between an oral society and a literate one, this study exemplifies the usefulness of contemporary media studies in analyzing cultural change in Africa. It also adds a distinctive chapter to the cultural history of the Bemba as a formally oral-aural people. Hearing is their primary cognitive sense and the physical properties of sound significantly affect the Bemba worldview. Their charter myth, initiation rites, traditional authorities and tales of spirits embody a network of central religious metaphors and limit-symbols, each of which is signalized by its acoustic characteristics. Literacy is restructuring Bemba consciousness and society, making vision the primary sense and written codes, not tribal personalities, the basis of government. Literacy de-animates cognitional objects, develops language for hermeneutical precision and frees individuals from the tribal needs to remember and conform. As more Bemba convert to Christianity and interiorize writing technology, elements of their oral religion ironically become more dependent for survival on acculturation with these literate forces.

Race and the Unconscious

Race and the Unconscious PDF Author: Fanny Brewster
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000899519
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Race and the Unconscious engages the archetypal African consciousness that enriches our knowledge regarding the foundational mythopoetic of Africanist dreaming. Featuring crucial historical context, Jungian and post-Jungian theory, clinical case studies, and dream series interpretations, the book offers readers a rich framework for exploring and understanding the language, images, and symbols of African and African American dreamlife. It expands the modern understanding of dreaming with the inclusion of Africanist perspectives, philosophy, and mythology while emphasizing the potential for and process of psychological healing through dreamwork. Race and the Unconscious is a must-read for Jungian analysts and analytical psychologists in practice and in training, as well as anyone interested in understanding psychological processes inclusive of those of African descent and their culture, including academics and students of sociology, anthropology, African American studies, and African diaspora studies.

Bemba Speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change

Bemba Speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change PDF Author: Hugo F. Hinfelaar
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004101494
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This book constitutes an important contribution to the study of religion in Africa as it traces the often painful changes that occurred among the Bemba-speaking women of Zambia since the arrival of the Western Missionaries. The author offers us his life-long search for the bed-rock of traditional religion as a basis for genuine cultural/religious development.

Myth, Ritual and the Oral

Myth, Ritual and the Oral PDF Author: Jack Goody
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139493035
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In Myth, Ritual and the Oral Jack Goody, one of the world's most distinguished anthropologists, returns to the related themes of myth, orality and literacy, subjects that have long been a touchstone in anthropological thinking. Combining classic papers with recent unpublished work, this volume brings together some of the most important essays written on these themes in the past half century, representative of a lifetime of critical engagement and research. In characteristically clear and accessible style, Jack Goody addresses fundamental conceptual schemes underpinning modern anthropology, providing potent critiques of current theoretical trends. Drawing upon his highly influential work on the LoDagaa myth of the Bagre, Goody challenges structuralist and functionalist interpretations of oral 'literature', stressing the issues of variation, imagination and creativity, and the problems of methodology and analysis. These insightful, and at times provocative, essays will stimulate fresh debate and prove invaluable to students and teachers of social anthropology.

Conversion to Christianity

Conversion to Christianity PDF Author: Robert W. Hefner
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 052091256X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
One of the most striking developments in the history of modern civilizations has been the conversion of tribal peoples to more expansively organized "world" religions. There is little scholarly consensus as to why these religions have endured and why conversion to them has been so widespread. These essays explore the phenomenon of Christian conversion from this world-building perspective. Combining rich case studies with original theoretical insights, this work challenges sociologists, anthropologists and historians of religion to reassess the varieties of religious experience and the convergent processes involved in religious change. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1994. One of the most striking developments in the history of modern civilizations has been the conversion of tribal peoples to more expansively organized "world" religions. There is little scholarly consensus as to why these religions have endured and why conv

Bembaland Church

Bembaland Church PDF Author: Brian Garvey
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004099579
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
A history of the development of the Roman Catholic Church in Bembaland (North Eastern Zambia) from its missionary foundations in 1891 to the eve of national independence.

African Folklore

African Folklore PDF Author: Philip M. Peek
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135948720
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 1509

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Book Description
Written by an international team of experts, this is the first work of its kind to offer comprehensive coverage of folklore throughout the African continent. Over 300 entries provide in-depth examinations of individual African countries, ethnic groups, religious practices, artistic genres, and numerous other concepts related to folklore. Featuring original field photographs, a comprehensive index, and thorough cross-references, African Folklore: An Encyclopedia is an indispensable resource for any library's folklore or African studies collection. Also includes seven maps.

The Interface Between the Written and the Oral

The Interface Between the Written and the Oral PDF Author: Jack Goody
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521337946
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Essays on the complex relationship between oral and literate modes of communication.

Spirits and Letters

Spirits and Letters PDF Author: Thomas G. Kirsch
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857451421
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Studies of religion have a tendency to conceptualise 'the Spirit' and 'the Letter' as mutually exclusive and intrinsically antagonistic. However, the history of religions abounds in cases where charismatic leaders deliberately refer to and make use of writings. This book challenges prevailing scholarly notions of the relationship between 'charisma' and 'institution' by analysing reading and writing practices in contemporary Christianity. Taking up the continuing anthropological interest in Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity, and representing the first book-length treatment of literacy practices among African Christians, this volume explores how church leaders in Zambia refer to the Bible and other religious literature, and how they organise a church bureaucracy in the Pentecostal-charismatic mode. Thus, by examining social processes and conflicts that revolve around the conjunction of Pentecostal-charismatic and literacy practices in Africa, Spirits and Letters reconsiders influential conceptual dichotomies in the social sciences and the humanities and is therefore of interest not only to anthropologists but also to scholars working in the fields of African studies, religious studies, and the sociology of religion.

Allegorical Speculation in an Oral Society

Allegorical Speculation in an Oral Society PDF Author: Robert Cancel
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520097391
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description