|
|
|
|
|
|
|
daughter. But even here the more general problem was bridewealth, and one could say that the divinatory conclusion affirmed a general view of women as persons for whom bridewealth must be paid by some men to other men, who then redistribute some of it to women. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In spite of the fact that the knowledge of misfortune which is negotiated in divination has an androcentric tendency, we cannot simply say that divination affirms patrilineal values and male control. Women's misfortune can be attributed to the mischievous intervention of foreign and little spirits, and to sorcery directed against them as persons by jealous co-wives and rejected suitors. Perhaps this ability of representations to sometimes speak directly to women as individual subjects facilitates women's acceptance of those representations which define them as daughters and wives. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In terms of power, the essential point remains that whoever consults for someone else makes an assertion about who the other person is. This is potentially a form of domination, although many Nyole would see it as an expression of concern and responsibility. Very commonly, men consult on behalf of women and children. But power relationships also exist between older and younger women, between well and sick women, between fruitful and barren women. The power possibility is there, so to speak, in the structure that allows a person to consult a diviner concerning someone else. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why is divination such a special tool for shaping the power component in social relations? The diviner and the divination, which is seen as his work (although in fact it is a joint enterprise), have an authority deriving from access to a world of abundant significancethrough books in which all possible meanings are written or through spirits which can represent all possible interpretations. Such authority can compel acceptance of the definition which is formulated in divination and brought home by the client. In a cultural system where people's views of their society and their place within it are so closely tied to the interpretation of misfortune, divination plays a key role in formulating and reformulating the understanding that is the basis for social action. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My purpose here has been to describe the creation of knowledge in Nyole divination and to draw attention to the structural relations of the parties involved. Between consulter and diviner, power is not at issue. They are jointly engaged in a process of discovery which moves from obscurity to certainty, with the diviner mediating between the overabundance of potential meaning in the divinatory world and the sure knowledge of the client that some interpretations are false. The authority of the diviner with his extraordinary access to ineffable reality, is balanced by the authority of the client, who knows the social and ritual details of the specific case under construction. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This distinction between consulter and diviner and all the wealth of communication between them is lost, as it were, when the client leaves the divining hut. Nyole ideology ignores the very considerable role played by the consulter in divination. What is significant is the result of their interaction, the divinatory |
|
|
|
|
|