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Experiencing Ritual: A New Interpretation of African Healing » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of Experiencing Ritual: A New Interpretation of African Healing by Edith Turner

Authors: Edith Turner, William Blodgett, Singleton Kahona
ISBN-13: 9780812213669, ISBN-10: 0812213661
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Date Published: March 1992
Edition: 1st Edition

Author Biography: Edith Turner

Book Synopsis

Experiencing 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.

	Preface
	Introduction	1
	Two Books on Ihamba: The Effect of Victor Turner's 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
	Time Factor: History Continues Separately for Ndembu and Turners	18
	Returning to Mukanza Village	23
	The Ihamba Tooth	29
2	The Medicine Quest for the First Ihamba	31
	Medicine Collection	31
	Medicine Preparation	43
3	The First Ihamba: The Performance for Nyakanjata	54
	The First Tooth	54
	Commentary	71
	The Second Tooth	74
4	Discussion of the First Ihamba	83
	Sakutoha	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
	The Kawiko Vicinage	103
	Quarrels in the Past	106
	The Hunters' Conference: The Significance of the Hunter	108
	Trouble with Morie	124
6	The Second Ihamba: The Performance for Meru	128
7	Ritual and the Anthropology of Experience	159
	The Event as Fact: Subjectivity and Objectivity	160
	The Human Tooth	165
8	Seeing Spirits	170
	The Difficulties of the Healer Mode	174
	Coda	178
	1. African Spirit Healing and Ihamba	181
	2. Types of Spirit Healers	185
	3. Medicines and Hallucinogens	188
	4. Cupping with Horns	191
	5. Music and Drumming	193
	Drums, Ngoma	193
	Drumming in Ihamba	193
	Songs	198
	6. The Extraction of Harmful Intrusions	200
	7. A Composite Ihamba Scenario	204
	8. Old and New Ihamba Compared	206
	9. Matriliny, Rituals, and Religions: The 1985 Ndembu	209
	10. Maps	211
	11. Abridged Genealogy of the Kahona Family	213
	Notes	215
	References	221
	Index	229

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Category Books

Experiencing Ritual: A New Interpretation of African Healing » (1st Edition)

Author Biography: Edith Turner

Book Synopsis

Table of Contents

Subjects