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of oracular revelations is in a superior position to the afflicted individual being represented, but we need to go beyond previous analyses of the uses of divinatory revelations (see Mendonsa 1982) to the actual acquisition of that knowledge. Here the representative of the afflicted individual is the key figure, which recalls the Batammaliba "adviser" and the Yaka divinatory contingent. |
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These chapters also address culture change, in terms both of new or altered systems of divination and of the diviner's role as cultural innovator. Whyte suggests that Nyole women may be turning to Muslim diviners as a reflection of their growing independence or because these diviners appear more "scientific." The importance of divination as a context for culture change and the diviner as the innovating bricoleur are central points in Parkin's contribution. Whether change comes from internal or external agents, the basic epistemological paradigm will remain the same. This holds true where there are different types of divination within one culture, a frequent occurrence further illustrated here by the Temne, Nyole, Giriama, and Swahili. While one or two forms may dominate, there are nevertheless alternatives, and within each culture a "common logic," as Parkin terms it, continues to underpin each form. |
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To understand these shared premises we especially need to understand the speech of divination. Shaw's description of oracular messages' "cryptic potency" and Parkin's analysis of divination's "polysemic vocabulary" are helpful extensions of Werbner's discussion (1973) of the "super-abundance of understanding" revealed in divinatory rhetoric. Deliberating a theme common to all three essays of the movement from ambiguous to explicit knowledge, from chaotic simultaneity to sequential clarity, Parkin demonstrates that in both structure and content divination "straightens the paths from wilderness." The initial flood of verbal images is analogous to the chaos of visual symbols in a diviner's basket, both demanding the diviner's translations. Further, Shaw observes that Temne public divination is characterized by articulate speech while private divination utilizes enigmatic speecha contrast similar to the Dogon distinction between legal and divinatory pronouncements (see Calame-Griaule 1965 and Douglas 1979). |
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References to psychology and psychiatry are found in this section as well as elsewhere in this volume. Seeking to clarify aspects of oracular speech and diagnoses, Parkin cites research on schizophrenia as well as Jung's concept of synchronicity. Although Jung himself encountered problems in linking divination with his theory of the acausal connecting principle of synchronicity (1973, 1974), it is an intriguing proposition which has received too little attention. In the final section of this volume, Peek considers work in the psychology of superstition and cognition as well as split-brain research and the issue of hemispherical lateralization and specialization. In his afterword, Fernandez notes that divination initially expresses primary processes of intuitive and condensed thought which is then synthesized with secondary processes of thinking based on common cultural knowledge. Collectively these observations strongly recommend further cross-disciplinary use of psychology, especially given the crucial role of perception and cognition, in divination systems. |
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A last point of comparison among this section's articles, which we might intro- |
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