Twins in African and Diaspora Cultures

Philip M. Peek is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Drew University. He is editor of African Divination Systems (IUP, 1991).

"Well-researched, well-presented, and theoretically informed. This volume displays a good range of themes as well as extensive geographical coverage."—Ferdinand de Jong, University of East Anglia"The book's sixteen excellent essays are not so much about the lives of actual human twins, a subject that is only briefly discussed in a few chapters, but rather about African ideas concerning twins as they relate to broader conceptions of the cosmos, the social order, and humans' place within it."—African Arts"Philip Peek is to be congratulated on marshalling such a diverse range of papers on the topic of twins in ritual practice, belief and the arts. . . . He succeeds entirely in including sufficiently diverse approaches to the topic to annoy and satisfy everyone in equal measure. The broad range of views and wide ethnographic coverage of twins in sub-Saharan and diaspora communities encompassed here makes this an indispensable work for researchers, lecturers and students alike."—Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford"[T]his book will prove useful to general readers and academics alike, especially those who are interested in religion, cosmology, cultural transfers, sociology, history, and anthropology."—African Studies Quarterly

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction: Beginning to Rethink Twins / Philip M. PeekPart 1. Roots2. Twins and Double Beings among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali / Pascal James Imperato and Gavin H. Imperato3. Twins and Intertwinement: Reflections on Ambiguity and Ambivalence in Northwestern Namibia / Steven Van WolputtePart 2. Doubles and Dualities4. Sustaining the Oneness in their Twoness: Poetics of Twin Figures (Ère Ìbejì) among the Yoruba / Babatunde Lawal5. "Son Dos los Jimagüas" ("The Twins Are Two"): Worship of the Sacred Twins in Lucumí Religious Culture / Ysamur Flores-Pena6. Twins, Couples, and Doubles and the Negotiation of Spirit-Human Identities among the Win / Susan Cooksey7. Double Portraits: Images of Twinness in West African Studio Photography / C. Angelo MicheliPart 3. The Centrality of Liminality8. Forever Liminal: Twins among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and Northeastern Nigeria / Walter E. A. Van Beek9. Snake, Bush, and Metaphor: Twinship among Ubangians / Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers10. Fiction and Forbidden Sexual Fantasy in the Culture of Temne Twins / Frederick John Lamp11. Embodied Dilemma: Tabwa Twinship in Thought and Performance / Allen F. Roberts12. Children of the Moon: Twins in Luba Art and Ontology / Mary Nooter RobertsPart 4. Transformations13. Two Equals Three: Twins and the Trickster in Haitian Vodou / Marilyn Houlberg14. Divine Children: The Ibejis and the Erês in Brazilian Candomblé / Stefania Capone15. The Ambiguous Ordinariness of Yoruba Twins / Elisha P. Renne16. Twins, Albinos, and Vanishing Prisoners: A Mozambican Theory of Political Power / Paulo GranjoList of ContributorsIndex