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African Divination Systems:
Non-Normal Modes of Cognition |
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The art of divination presents us with puzzling problems which I make no pretence to solve. A certain amount of communication goes on between diviners and non-human powers (whether living or otherwise or both). It is difficult to know exactly what this is: it might involve the diviner's extra-sensory ability, it may involve spiritual agents, it might be telepathy, it might be sharpened human perception, or a combination of these possibilities.
John Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy |
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The myriad techniques, mechanisms, and uses of divination in African cultures defy any easy categorizations. Certainly all aspects of divination must be understood in their cultural and performance contexts, but there is a striking commonality in most systems which might provide an answer for Mbiti's questions. Divination systems temporarily shift decision making into a liminal realm by emphatically participating in opposing cognitive modes; in fact, this may be the defining feature of divination. For example, no one could deny that the Ifa divination system of the Yoruba is based on an ancient epistemology or that the Odu verses it generates form literally a book of knowledge; yet the actual process of divination clearly operates in a contrary ("nonrational") mode. Why cast palm nuts to determine which verses to cite? Why not go directly to the verses themselves? And why with divination systems such as basket shaking and bone throwing, which appear so haphazard, do we find such careful "ratiocinating" and exacting analysis of the cast configurations by the diviners? |
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This essay will argue that it is just this opposition of modes that makes the divinatory enterprise unique and, ultimately, so effective. Drawing from different |
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