Author | : John Mason |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 124 |
Release | : 1985 |
Genre | : Rites and ceremonies |
ISBN | : |
Author | : John Mason |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 124 |
Release | : 1985 |
Genre | : Rites and ceremonies |
ISBN | : |
Author | : Margaret Thompson Drewal |
Publisher | : Indiana University Press |
Total Pages | : 536 |
Release | : 1992-03-22 |
Genre | : History |
ISBN | : 0253112737 |
Yoruba peoples of southwestern Nigeria conceive of rituals as journeys -- sometimes actual, sometimes virtual. Performed as a parade or a procession, a pilgrimage, a masking display, or possession trance, the journey evokes the reflexive, progressive, transformative experience of ritual participation. Yoruba Ritual is an original and provocative study of these practices. Using a performance paradigm, Margaret Thompson Drewal forges a new theoretical and methodological approach to the study of ritual that is thoroughly grounded in close analysis of the thoughts and actions of the participants. Challenging traditional notions of ritual as rigid, stereotypic, and invariant, Drewal reveals ritual to be progressive, transformative, generative, and reflexive and replete with simultaneity, multifocality, contingency, indeterminacy, and intertextuality. Throughout the book prominence is given to the intentionality of actors as knowledgeable agents who transform ritual itself through play and improvisation. Integral to the narrative are interpolations about performances and their meanings by Kolawole Ositola, a scholar of Yoruba oral tradition, ritual practitioner, diviner, and master performer. Rich descriptions of rituals relating to birth, death, reincarnation, divination, and constructions of gender are rendered all the more vivid by a generous selection of field photos of actual performances.
Author | : Velma E. Love |
Publisher | : Penn State Press |
Total Pages | : 159 |
Release | : 2015-06-29 |
Genre | : Religion |
ISBN | : 0271061456 |
Divining the Self weaves elements of personal narrative, myth, history, and interpretive analysis into a vibrant tapestry that reflects the textured, embodied, and performative nature of scripture and scripturalizing practices. Velma Love examines the Odu—the Yoruba sacred scriptures—along with the accompanying mythology, philosophy, and ritual technologies engaged by African Americans. Drawing from the personal narratives of African American Ifa practitioners along with additional ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Oyotunji African Village, South Carolina, and New York City, Love’s work explores the ways in which an ancient worldview survives in modern times. Divining the Self also takes up the challenge of determining what it means for the scholar of religion to study scripture as both text and performance. This work provides an excellent case study of the sociocultural phenomenon of scripturalizing practices.
Author | : John Mason |
Publisher | : Yoruba Theological Archminstry |
Total Pages | : 141 |
Release | : 1993-01-01 |
Genre | : Religion |
ISBN | : 9781881244035 |
Author | : John Mason |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 498 |
Release | : 2013 |
Genre | : Folk songs, Yoruba |
ISBN | : 9781881244141 |
The first comprehensive translation and review of close to 600 Yorùbá songs that have been used in Cuba by Africans and their descendents, for over two hundred years, and in the U.S., since 1960, to praise and envoke some 25 òrìṣà/deities. The classical character of the music, songs, and historic/elemental archetypes is discussed fully.
Author | : Sandra T. Barnes |
Publisher | : Indiana University Press |
Total Pages | : 418 |
Release | : 1997-06-22 |
Genre | : Social Science |
ISBN | : 0253113814 |
This landmark work of ethnography explores the enduring, global worship of the African god of war—with five new essays in this new, expanded edition. Ogun—the ancient African god of iron, war, and hunting—is worshiped by more than forty million adherents in Western Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. This rich, interdisciplinary collection draws on field research from several continents to reveal Ogun’s dramatic power and enduring appeal. Contributors examine the history and spread of Ogun throughout old and new worlds; the meaning of Ogun ritual, myth, and art; and the transformations of Ogun through the deity’s various manifestations. This edition includes five new essays focusing mainly on Ogun worship in the new world. “[A]n ethnographically rich contribution to the historical understanding of West African culture, as well as an exploration of the continued vitality of that culture in the changing environments of the Americas.” —African Studies Review
Author | : Aribidesi Usman |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 519 |
Release | : 2019-07-04 |
Genre | : History |
ISBN | : 1107064600 |
A rich and accessible account of Yoruba history, society and culture from the pre-colonial period to the present.
Author | : Ócha'ni Lele |
Publisher | : Simon and Schuster |
Total Pages | : 234 |
Release | : 2012-08-22 |
Genre | : Body, Mind & Spirit |
ISBN | : 1594775001 |
The first book to explore the history, methods, and thinking behind sacrifice in the growing Santería faith • Explains the animal sacrifice ceremony in step-by-step detail • Shares the ancient African sacred stories that reveal the well-thought-out metaphysics and spirituality behind the practice of animal sacrifice • Chronicles the legal fight all the way to its 1993 U.S. Supreme Court victory to establish legal protection for the Santería faith and its practitioners Tackling the biggest controversy surrounding his faith, Santería priest Ócha’ni Lele explains for the first time in print the practice and importance of animal sacrifice as a religious sacrament. Describing the animal sacrifice ceremony in step-by-step detail, including the songs and chants used, he examines the thinking and metaphysics behind the ritual and reveals the deep connections to the odu of the diloggún--the source of all practices in this Afro-Cuban faith. Tracing the legal battle spearheaded by Oba Ernesto Pichardo, head of the Church of the Lukumi of Babaluaiye, over the right to practice animal sacrifice as a religious sacrament, Lele chronicles the fight all the way to its 1993 U.S. Supreme Court victory, which established legal protection for the Santería faith and its practitioners. Weaving together oral fragments stemming from the ancient Yoruba of West Africa, the author reconstructs their sacred stories, or patakís, that demonstrate the well-thought-out metaphysics and spirituality behind the practice of animal sacrifice in the Yoruba and Santería religion, including explanations about why each animal can be regarded as food for both humans and the orisha as well as how sacrifice is not limited to animals. Shedding light on the extraordinary global growth of this religion over the past 50 years, Lele’s guide to the sacrificial ceremonies of Santería enables initiates to learn proper ceremony protocol as well as gives outsiders a glimpse into this most secretive world of the santeros.