Mambila Divination: Framing Questions, Constructing Answers

ISBN-13: 9780367199500 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020 / 224 str.

David Zeitlyn

Opis

This book offers a major contribution to the study and analysis of divination, based on continuing fieldwork with the Mambila in Cameroon. It seeks to return attention to the details of divinatory practice, using the questions asked, and life histories to help understand the perspective of the clients rather than that of the diviners.

Recenzje

“The book, with its exceptional ambition and thorough ethnography, is essential for all social scientists studying divination.” - Erwan Dianteill in International Journal of Divination and Prognostication

Spis treści

1. Introduction. Divination studies in the twenty-first century: setting the research agenda;  Part I: Studying;  2. Techniques of divination: studies in interpretation;  3. Finding meaning in the text: the process of interpretation in text-based divination. Leavis in the bush;  4. Spiders in and out of court: styles of spider divination in their sociological contexts;  5: Divinatory logics: how diagnoses and predictions mediate outcomes;  Part II: Doing;  6. Mambila Divination;  7. Case studies: logic in action;  Part III: Using;  8. Framing questions: does divination pay attention to pragmatics?;  9. A sociology of problems;  10. Divination in life histories

O autorze

David Zeitlyn is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford, UK.