African Divination Systems

"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

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionThe Study of Divination, Present and PastPhilip M. PeekPart One. Becoming a DivinerThe Initiation of a Zulu DivinerHenry CallawayPart Two. The Search for KnowledgeNilotic Cosmology and the Divination of Atuot PhilosophyJohn W. BurtonDivination in Madagascar: The Antemoro Case and theDiffusion of DivinationPierre Verin and Narivelo RajaonarimananaPart Three. Cultural Systems within Divination SystemsDiviners as Alienists and Annunciators among the Batammalibaof TogoRudolph BlierDivination Among the Lobi of Burkina FasoPiet MeyerDivination and the Hunt in Pagibeti IdeologyAlden AlmquistMediumistic Divination among the Northern Yaka of Zaire:Etiology and Ways of KnowingRene DevischPart Four. Divination, Epistemology, and TruthSplitting Truths from Darkness: Epistemological Aspects ofTemne DivinationRosalind ShawKnowledge and Power in Nyole DivinationSusan Reynolds WhyteSimultaneity and Sequencing in the Oracular Speech ofKenyan DivinersDavid ParkinPart Five. Toward a New Approach to DivinationAfrican Divination Systems: Non-Normal Modes of CognitionPhilip M. PeekAfterwordJames W. FernandezContributorsIndex