Download or read book Healing and Religion in Africa Therapy Management Group and Cosmology Among the BaKongo written by Regina Reinart and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bachelor Thesis from the year 2000 in the subject Theology - Practical Theology, grade: 1,0, , language: English, abstract: In this essay I will look at the medical system of the people of Kongo in Lower Zaire. My account is based on the fieldwork done by John M. Janzen among the BaKongo in the late 60s, early 70s. He offers a concrete description of six cases and examines them. I chose a typical case of these, namely patient Lwezi. Diagnosis and treatment of a BaKongo patient are skillfully directed by the institution of therapy management group, a group made up of the kin of the patient, which takes care of the well-being of the ill. This institution is strongly influenced by the cosmology of the BaKongo and is vital for the therapy. The major features in Lwezi's healing-process were the therapy management group, the paternal blessing and the payment of the bride price, each of which I will refer to in the following sections. Many people think that the healing practices of traditional societies are irrational, but I will show that for the BaKongo medical practices must engage with the supernatural in order to guarantee healing. To anthropologists and many non-BaKongo, the medical system in Lower Zaire appears to consist of various medical traditions, be it the traditional BaKongo therapies or the Western conventional medicine. The general perception is that the latter is not only universally applicable but might eventually replace traditional medical practices. I will show that only by taking into account the BaKongo way of healing, especially the therapy management group with its unique perception of illness and healing, is successful cure of these people possible.
Download or read book Faith in African Lived Christianity written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-09-16 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith in African Lived Christianity – Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives offers a comprehensive, empirically rich and interdisciplinary approach to the study of faith in African Christianity. The book brings together anthropology and theology in the study of how faith and religious experiences shape the understanding of social life in Africa. The volume is a collection of chapters by prominent Africanist theologians, anthropologists and social scientists, who take people’s faith as their starting point and analyze it in a contextually sensitive way. It covers discussions of positionality in the study of African Christianity, interdisciplinary methods and approaches and a number of case studies on political, social and ecological aspects of African Christian spirituality.
Download or read book African American Mental Health written by Reginald Lanier Jones and published by Cobb & Henry. This book was released on 1998 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book African Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry written by Ras Michael Brown and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-27 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry examines perceptions of the natural world revealed by the religious ideas and practices of African-descended communities in South Carolina from the colonial period into the twentieth century. Focusing on Kongo nature spirits known as the simbi, Ras Michael Brown describes the essential role religion played in key historical processes, such as establishing new communities and incorporating American forms of Christianity into an African-based spirituality. This book illuminates how people of African descent engaged the spiritual landscape of the Lowcountry through their subsistence practices, religious experiences and political discourse.
Download or read book The flat earth theory A tale as old as time written by and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2021 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,5, University of Leipzig (Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Conspiracy Theories, language: English, abstract: This essay tries to shed some light on the origins and the appeal of the flat earth theory It shows, that the origins can be traced back at least until Ancient Greece. While a spherical model of the earth might seem like an axiom to many, there is a growing community of people who refuse to believe this seemingly basic fact of human life. Those, who do not consider the evidence of a spherical earth to be credible, believe in the so-called flat earth theory. The assumed shapes of the earth circulating within the community are as manifold as the believers themselves. Some assume the earth to be a square, a triangle or even just an infinite plane in all directions. While there is no clear consensus about the earths “true shape” among the members of this community, the most popular assumed shape of the earth would be a disc shaped one. The edges of the disc are often envisioned to be surrounded by a wall of ice or by a shape similar to a snow globe, which to them explains why nothing and no one has ever fallen from the edge of the earth. In addition to the basic flat shape of the earth, some followers of this theory also believe in a plethora of other conspiracy myths. According to one of said narratives, the Nazis were assisted by aliens when fleeing to Antarctica after the Second World War in order to avoid trial. At a first glance there is no logical relation between a non-spherical earth and a geocentric model of the universe However, to rationalize the existence of night and day most believers of the flat earth theory also assume the sun moving around the earths North Pole, creating a spotlight that illuminates different regions of the earth at different times . In addition to the sun's altered course around the earth, the US model of a flat earth also suggests that the stars are located in a dome above the sun and moon, which they believe are at a distance of 5500 km from the earth. The general description modern believers of the flat earth theory use is very similar to the many theories present throughout history, which makes investigating the historical roots of the modern day conspiracy even more important.
Download or read book The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa written by Steven Feierman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1992-09-22 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These essays are an account of disease, health and healing practices on the African continent. The contributors all emphasize the social conditions linked to ill health and the development of local healing traditions, from Morocco to South Africa and from the precolonial era to the present.
Download or read book Black Magic written by Yvonne P. Chireau and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2006-11-20 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black Magic looks at the origins, meaning, and uses of Conjure—the African American tradition of healing and harming that evolved from African, European, and American elements—from the slavery period to well into the twentieth century. Illuminating a world that is dimly understood by both scholars and the general public, Yvonne P. Chireau describes Conjure and other related traditions, such as Hoodoo and Rootworking, in a beautifully written, richly detailed history that presents the voices and experiences of African Americans and shows how magic has informed their culture. Focusing on the relationship between Conjure and Christianity, Chireau shows how these seemingly contradictory traditions have worked together in a complex and complementary fashion to provide spiritual empowerment for African Americans, both slave and free, living in white America. As she explores the role of Conjure for African Americans and looks at the transformations of Conjure over time, Chireau also rewrites the dichotomy between magic and religion. With its groundbreaking analysis of an often misunderstood tradition, this book adds an important perspective to our understanding of the myriad dimensions of human spirituality.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of African Religion written by Molefi Kete Asante and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2009 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects almost five hundred entries that cover the African response to spirituality, taboos, ethics, sacred space, and objects.
Download or read book Body and Affect in the Intercultural Encounter written by Devisch, Rene and published by Langaa RPCIG. This book was released on 2017-01-17 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume draws from René Devisch’s encounters with groups in southsaharan Africa, primarily. The author had the privilege to immerse himself, around the clock, in the Yakaphones’ activities and thoughts in southwest DR Congo from 1972 to 1974, and intermittently in Kinshasa’s shanty towns, from 1986 to 2003. The author first examines what sparked his choice to come to Congo, and then to pursue research among the Yakaphones in the borderland with Angola. He then invites us to follow the trajectory of his plural anthropological view on today’s multicentric world. It leads us to his praise for honorary doctor Jean-Marc Ela’s work. He then examines the proletarian outbursts of violence that rocked Congo’s major cities in 1991 and 1993. These can be read as a settling of scores with the disillusioning colonial and missionary modernisation, along with president Mobutu’s millenarian Popular Movement of the Revolution. Furthermore, after considering the morose reduction of a major Yaka dancing mask into a mere museum-bound curio in Antwerp, the book unravels the Yakaphones’ perspectives on spirits and sorcery’s threat. It also analyses their commitment to classical Bantu-African healing cults, along with their parallel consulting physicians and healers. By sharing the Yakaphones’ life-world, the analysis highlights their body-group-world weave, interlaced by the principle of co-resonance. A phenomenological and perspectivist look unfolds the local actors’ views, thereby disclosing the Bantu-African genius and setting for a major reversal of perspectives. Indeed, seeing 'here' from 'there' allows the author to uncover some alienating dynamics at work in his native Belgian Flemish-speaking culture. To better grasp the realm of life beyond the speakable and factual reasoning, the approach occasionally turns to the later Lacan’s focus on the unconscious desire, the body and its affects. The book addresses students and researchers in the humanities and, more broadly, all those immersed in the heat of the encounter with the culturally different.
Download or read book The Four Moments of the Sun written by Robert Farris Thompson and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Purity and Danger written by Professor Mary Douglas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Purity and Danger is acknowledged as a modern masterpiece of anthropology. It is widely cited in non-anthropological works and gave rise to a body of application, rebuttal and development within anthropology. In 1995 the book was included among the Times Literary Supplement's hundred most influential non-fiction works since WWII. Incorporating the philosophy of religion and science and a generally holistic approach to classification, Douglas demonstrates the relevance of anthropological enquiries to an audience outside her immediate academic circle. She offers an approach to understanding rules of purity by examining what is considered unclean in various cultures. She sheds light on the symbolism of what is considered clean and dirty in relation to order in secular and religious, modern and primitive life.
Download or read book Healing Logics written by Erika Brady and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2001-04-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars in folklore and anthropology are more directly involved in various aspects of medicine—such as medical education, clinical pastoral care, and negotiation of transcultural issues—than ever before. Old models of investigation that artificially isolated "folk medicine," "complementary and alternative medicine," and "biomedicine" as mutually exclusive have proven too limited in exploring the real-life complexities of health belief systems as they observably exist and are applied by contemporary Americans. Recent research strongly suggests that individuals construct their health belief systmes from diverse sources of authority, including community and ethnic tradition, education, spiritual beliefs, personal experience, the influence of popular media, and perception of the goals and means of formal medicine. Healing Logics explores the diversity of these belief systems and how they interact—in competing, conflicting, and sometimes remarkably congruent ways. This book contains essays by leading scholars in the field and a comprehensive bibliography of folklore and medicine.
Download or read book Choice written by and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book State of the World s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2016 written by Peter Grant and published by Minority Rights Group. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unique cultures of minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide – spanning a wide variety of customs and practices – are under threat. This year’s edition of State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples highlights the impact of land dispossession, forced assimilation and other forms of discrimination on the most fundamental aspects of their identity, including language, art, traditional knowledge and spirituality. But while the effects of this attrition can be devastating, minority and indigenous cultures have also been critical in strengthening communities and providing activists with a platform to fight for their rights. As this volume illustrates, ensuring that the cultural freedoms of minorities and indigenous peoples are protected is essential if their other rights are also to be respected.
Download or read book State of the World s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2013 written by Beth Walker and published by Minority Rights Group. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In almost every country in the world, minorities and indigenous peoples suffer greater ill-health and receive poorer quality of care than other segments of the population. They die younger, face higher rates of disease and struggle more to access health services compared to the rest of the population. This year's edition of State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples presents a global picture of the health issues experienced by minorities and indegenous communities, features country profiles and case studies, and makes recommendations for addressing these key issues.
Download or read book Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas written by Yolanda Covington-Ward and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-09 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors to Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas investigate the complex intersections between the body, religious expression, and the construction and transformation of social relationships and political and economic power. Among other topics, the essays examine the dynamics of religious and racial identity among Brazilian Neo-Pentecostals; the significance of cloth coverings in Islamic practice in northern Nigeria; the ethics of socially engaged hip-hop lyrics by Black Muslim artists in Britain; ritual dance performances among Mama Tchamba devotees in Togo; and how Ifá practitioners from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, and the United States join together in a shared spiritual ethnicity. From possession and spirit-induced trembling to dance, the contributors outline how embodied religious practices are central to expressing and shaping interiority and spiritual lives, national and ethnic belonging, ways of knowing and techniques of healing, and sexual and gender politics. In this way, the body is a crucial site of religiously motivated social action for people of African descent. Contributors. Rachel Cantave, Youssef Carter, N. Fadeke Castor, Yolanda Covington-Ward, Casey Golomski, Elyan Jeanine Hill, Nathanael J. Homewood, Jeanette S. Jouili, Bertin M. Louis Jr., Camee Maddox-Wingfield, Aaron Montoya, Jacob K. Olupona, Elisha P. Renne
Download or read book Subfloor Pits and the Archaeology of Slavery in Colonial Virginia written by Patricia Samford and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2007-12-16 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the daily life and culture of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Enslaved Africans and their descendants comprised a significant portion of colonial Virginia populations, with most living on rural slave quarters adjacent to the agricultural fields in which they labored. Archaeological excavations into these home sites have provided unique windows into the daily lifeways and culture of these early inhabitants. subfloor pits be-neath the houses. The most common explanations of the functions of these pits are as storage places for personal belongings or root vegetables, and some contextual and ethnohistoric data suggest they may have served as West African-style shrines. Through analysis of 103 subfloor pits dating from the 17th through mid-19th centuries, Samford reveals how data on shape, location, surface area, and depth, as well as contextual analysis of artifact assemblages, can show how subfloor pits functioned for the enslaved. Archaeology reveals the material circumstances of slaves' lives, which in turn opens the door to illuminating other aspects of life: spirituality, symbolic meanings assigned to material goods, social life, individual and group agency, and acts of resistance and accommodation. about how West African, possibly Igbo, cultural traditions were maintained and transformed in the Virginia Chesapeake.
