African Divination Systems: Ways of Knowing (African Systems of Thought) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253206537 ISBN 13: 9780253206534

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1991

Synopsis

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 1991

About this title

Review

The essays in this collection provide a very useful overview of both the diversity of African divination systems and of recent approaches to their study. The introduction critically reviews the preoccupations of earlier students of African divination. The essays that follow are divided into five sections that explore, in turn, the identity of the diviner; comparative and historical issues; the central role of divination in the articulation of cultural ideas, norms, and values within society; the making of knowledge through the divinatory process; and the integration of normal and nonnormal ways of knowing within the divination process. Although all of the essays provide rich ethnographic data, the essays in the fourth and fifth section are the most interesting from a theoretical perspective. They provide the clearest critique of previous positivist approaches to divination, which focus on the outcomes of the divinatory process while failing to appreciate the meanings and truths that inhere to, and are articulated by, the process itself. Of particular interest are the facinating articles by Rosalind Shaw and Philip Peek. Highly recommended for advanced undergraduates.December 1991--R. M. Packard "Tufts University "

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253206537
• ISBN 13: 9780253206534
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Peek Philip M.