Experiencing Ritual: A New Interpretation of African HealingExperiencing Ritual is Edith Turner's account of how she sighted a spirit form while participating in the Ihamba ritual of the Ndembu. Through her analysis, she presents a view not common in anthropological writings—the view of millions of Africans—that ritual is the harnessing of spiritual power. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Effect of Victor Turners Study | 5 |
Theorists of Ritual | 10 |
The Groundings of the Present Ethnographic Method | 15 |
1 The Field Context of the Ihamba Rituals in 1985 | 18 |
Returning to Mukanza Village | 23 |
The Ihamba Tooth | 29 |
2 The Medicine Quest for the First Ihamba1 | 31 |
The Performance for Meru | 128 |
7 Ritual and the Anthropology of Experience | 159 |
Subjectivity and Objectivity | 160 |
The Human Tooth | 165 |
8 Seeing Spirits | 170 |
The Difficulties of the Healer Mode | 174 |
Coda | 178 |
Appendix 1 African Spirit Healing and Ihamha | 181 |
Medicine Preparation | 43 |
The Performance for Nyakanjata | 54 |
Commentary | 71 |
The Second Tooth | 74 |
4 Discussion of the First Ihamba | 83 |
Nyakanjata | 85 |
Healing and Hunters | 87 |
Mazu Words | 89 |
Childbirth Medicines in Ihamba | 90 |
The Ambiguities in Ihamba | 92 |
The Sequences and Processes Involved in Extraction | 99 |
5 Background to the Second Ihamba | 103 |
Quarrels in the Past | 106 |
The Significance of the Hunter | 108 |
Trouble with Morie | 124 |
Appendix 2 Types of Spirit Healers | 185 |
Appendix 3 Medicines and Hallucinogens | 188 |
Appendix 4 Cupping with Horns | 191 |
Appendix 5 Music and Drumming | 193 |
Songs | 198 |
Appendix 6 The Extraction of Harmful Intrusions | 200 |
Appendix 7 A Composite Ihamha Scenario | 204 |
Appendix 8 Old and New Ihamha Compared | 206 |
The 1985 Ndemhu | 209 |
Appendix 10 Maps | 211 |
Appendix 11 Abridged Genealogy of the Kahona Family | 213 |
Notes | 215 |
| 221 | |
| 229 | |
Other editions - View all
Experiencing Ritual: A New Interpretation of African Healing Edith L. B. Turner No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
African anthropologists Appendix bark basket beer Benwa Bill blood blue duiker body calabash called cassava castor oil Chihamba chishinga chiyanga Christian consciousness Copperbelt culture cupping horn cure dance dead divination divinatory divinatory proposition drum Drums of Affliction Etina experience father Fideli Figure going greeting tree hand headman healers healing hunter hunting huntsmanship Ihamba ritual ihamba tooth inside Kahona Kamawu Kasayi Kasonda leaf medicine Lévi-Strauss looked Luka Maheza matrilineage matrilineal Matunka Meru Meru's Ihamba mongoose mongoose skin Morie mortar mother Mufungu Mukanza Village mukosu Mulandu musoli mutuhu mutungulu mututambulolu Mwinilunga Ndembu Ngambu nsomu Nyakanjata object patient Paulos person rasp red clay rhythm roots Sakutoha sang sense Seti shake shaman Shika shrine pole sick side singing Singleton sister Snodia social song suck symbols thing tion told took trance Vesa Vic Turner Victor Turner Windson woman words Wuyanga Yafwa Zakariya Zambia Zinia