Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual

Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual PDF Author: Victor Turner
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501717197
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Drawing on two and a half years of field work, Victor Turner offers two thorough ethnographic studies of Ndembu revelatory ritual and divinatory techniques, with running commentaries on symbolism by a variety of Ndembu informants. Although previously published, these essays have not been readily available since their appearance more than a dozen years ago. Striking a personal note in a new introductory chapter, Professor Turner acknowledges his indebtedness to Ndembu ritualists for alerting him to the theoretical relevance of symbolic action in understanding human societies. He believes that ritual symbols, like botanists' stains, enable us to detect and trace the movement of social processes and relationships that often lie below the level of direct observation.

Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual

Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual PDF Author: Victor Turner
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501717197
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Drawing on two and a half years of field work, Victor Turner offers two thorough ethnographic studies of Ndembu revelatory ritual and divinatory techniques, with running commentaries on symbolism by a variety of Ndembu informants. Although previously published, these essays have not been readily available since their appearance more than a dozen years ago. Striking a personal note in a new introductory chapter, Professor Turner acknowledges his indebtedness to Ndembu ritualists for alerting him to the theoretical relevance of symbolic action in understanding human societies. He believes that ritual symbols, like botanists' stains, enable us to detect and trace the movement of social processes and relationships that often lie below the level of direct observation.

Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual

Revelation and Divination in Ndembu Ritual PDF Author: Victor Witter Turner
Publisher: Symbol, Myth and Ritual
ISBN: 9780801491580
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Drawing on two and a half years of field work, Victor Turner offers two thorough ethnographic studies of Ndembu revelatory ritual and divinatory techniques, with running commentaries on symbolism by a variety of Ndembu informants. Although previously published, these essays have not been readily available since their appearance more than a dozen years ago. Striking a personal note in a new introductory chapter, Professor Turner acknowledges his indebtedness to Ndembu ritualists for alerting him to the theoretical relevance of symbolic action in understanding human societies. He believes that ritual symbols, like botanists' stains, enable us to detect and trace the movement of social processes and relationships that often lie below the level of direct observation.

Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors

Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors PDF Author: Victor Turner
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501732846
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
In this book, Victor Turner is concerned with various kinds of social actions and how they relate to, and come to acquire meaning through, metaphors and paradigms in their actors' minds; how in certain circumstances new forms, new metaphors, new paradigms are generated. To describe and clarify these processes, he ranges widely in history and geography: from ancient society through the medieval period to modern revolutions, and over India, Africa, Europe, China, and Meso-America. Two chapters, which illustrate religious paradigms and political action, explore in detail the confrontation between Henry II and Thomas Becket and between Hidalgo, the Mexican liberator, and his former friends. Other essays deal with long-term religious processes, such as the Christian pilgrimage in Europe and the emergence of anti-caste movements in India. Finally, he directs his attention to other social phenomena such as transitional and marginal groups, hippies, and dissident religious sects, showing that in the very process of dying they give rise to new forms of social structure or revitalized versions of the old order.

The Forest of Symbols

The Forest of Symbols PDF Author: Victor Witter Turner
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801491016
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Collection of 10 articles previously published on various aspects of ritual symbolism among the Ndembu of Zambia; p.83-4; brief mention of C.P. Mountford on Aboriginal colour symbolism; Primarly for use in cultural comparison.

Magic and Divination in the Ancient World

Magic and Divination in the Ancient World PDF Author: Leda Jean Ciraolo
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004124066
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
This collection of essays focuses on divination across the Ancient World from early Mesopotamia to late antiquity. The authors deal with the forms, theory and poetics of this important and still poorly understood ancient phenomenon.

The Ritual Process

The Ritual Process PDF Author: Victor Turner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351474901
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Victor Turner examines rituals of the Ndembu in Zambia and develops his now-famous concept of "Communitas." He characterizes it as an absolute inter-human relation beyond any form of structure.The Ritual Process has acquired the status of a small classic since these lectures were first published in 1969. Turner demonstrates how the analysis of ritual behavior and symbolism may be used as a key to understanding social structure and processes. He extends Van Gennep's notion of the "liminal phase" of rites of passage to a more general level, and applies it to gain understanding of a wide range of social phenomena. Once thought to be the "vestigial" organs of social conservatism, rituals are now seen as arenas in which social change may emerge and be absorbed into social practice.As Roger Abrahams writes in his foreword to the revised edition: "Turner argued from specific field data. His special eloquence resided in his ability to lay open a sub-Saharan African system of belief and practice in terms that took the reader beyond the exotic features of the group among whom he carried out his fieldwork, translating his experience into the terms of contemporary Western perceptions. Reflecting Turner's range of intellectual interests, the book emerged as exceptional and eccentric in many ways: yet it achieved its place within the intellectual world because it so successfully synthesized continental theory with the practices of ethnographic reports."

The Lunda-Ndembu

The Lunda-Ndembu PDF Author: James Anthony Pritchett
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299171544
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Pritchett (anthropology, African studies, Boston U.) presents an account of the Lunda- Ndembu people of northwestern Zambia. The text is based upon archaeological data, travel accounts, colonial field reports, and the scholarly studies of others, as well as his own field research conducted intermittently over the course of 14 years. He contends that despite much cultural borrowing in recent decades, the Lunda people have an image of themselves that is essentially unchanged. He also reflects on continuity and change in Africa. c. Book News Inc.

Divination and Healing

Divination and Healing PDF Author: Michael Winkelman
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816523771
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Divination is an important feature of cultures all over the world. While some may still question the efficacy of divination systems, they continue to serve their communities by diagnosing ailments, prescribing healing treatments, and solving problems. Yet despite their universality, there are relatively few comprehensive studies of divination systems. This volume seeks to fill this gap regarding the use of divination in healing. Here some of the worldÕs leading authorities draw on their own fieldwork and participation in ritual to present detailed case studies, demonstrating that divination rituals can have therapeutic effects. As the contributors examine the systems of knowledge that divination articulates and survey the varieties of divinatory experience, they seek to analyze divination as an epistemological system, as a social process, and as a therapeutic endeavor. While some of their findings reinforce traditional assumptions about the importance of social control, spirit relations, and community support in the divination process, the authors place these considerations within new epistemological frameworks that emphasize the use of alternative modes of knowing. In this wide-ranging volume, readers will find coverage of classic Ifa systems; Buddhist-influenced shamanic practices in the former Soviet Union; the reconciliation of Muslim beliefs and divinatory practices in Thailand; Native American divination used in diagnosis; Maya calendrical divination in Guatemala; mediumistic and chicken oracle divination among the Sukuma of Tanzania; Ndembu divination, focusing on the process of collective healing; and divination among the Samburu (Maasai) of Kenya, featuring dialogues from actual healing sessions. Together, these contributions argue for new perspectives on the study of divination that emphasize not only the epistemological roots of these systems but also their multifaceted therapeutic functions. Divination and Healing is a rich source of both data and insight for scholars of ritual, religion, medical anthropology, and the psychology of altered states of consciousness.

Theoretical Exploratns In Africa

Theoretical Exploratns In Africa PDF Author: Van
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136137866
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
First published in 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Mambila Divination

Mambila Divination PDF Author: David Zeitlyn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100004078X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
This book offers a major contribution to the study and analysis of divination, based on continuing fieldwork with the Mambila in Cameroon. It seeks to return attention to the details of divinatory practice, using the questions asked and life histories to help understand the perspective of the clients rather than that of the diviners. Drawing on a corpus of more than 600 cases, David Zeitlyn reconsiders theories of divination and compares Mambila spider divination with similar systems in the area. A detailed case study is examined and analysed using conversational analytic principles. The regional comparison considers different kinds of explanation for different features of social organization, leading to a discussion of the continuing utility of moderated functionalism. The book will be of interest to area specialists and scholars concerned with religion, rationality, and decision-making from disciplines including anthropology, African studies, and philosophy.