The drums of affliction: A study of religious processes among the Ndembu of Zambia,

Turner, Victor Witter

International African Institute

Beautiful brown boards with gold gilt text on cover and spine. Just a hint of wear at edges. Clean pages.LISTEDBY(KAD)

The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

de Gruyter

Book emphasizes cultural aspects of pilgrimage and focuses on the theological doctrines and popular notions which promote Christian pilgrimage, and the symbols and images which embody them. (from DJ blurb)

Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives (Lectures on the History of Religions, New Ser., No. 11)

Turner, Edith L.B.

Religion & Spirituality

Columbia Univ. Pr.

The core of this book is a complete description of two important Ndembu rituals of affliction (Chihamba and Kayong'u), and an analysis of the system of ideas underlying more than a dozen modes of divination. Written by an internationally-known social scientist, the book demonstrates how the study of small-scale events may reveal as much about what it means to be a human being in society as do grand macrosocial and macrocultural surveys.Drawing on two and a half years of fieldwork, 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. Striking a personal note in the introductory chapter, 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 (Symbol, Myth, and Ritual)

History

Africa

Cornell University Press

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 American Anthropologist called Turner's book "ingenious and erudite, rich in highly stimulating ideas."

The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (SYMBOL, MYTH, AND RITUAL SERIES)

Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes Among the Ndembu of Zambia

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