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the city or in the country, no matter the religion, sex, or status of the individualquestions, problems, and choices arise for which everyday knowledge is insufficient and yet action must be taken. The information necessary to respond effectively is available, but often only through a diviner. That is why divination continues to provide a trusted means of decision making, a basic source of vital knowledge. |
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A divination system is a standardized process deriving from a learned discipline based on an extensive body of knowledge. This knowledge may or may not be literally expressed during the interpretation of the oracular message. The diviner may utilize a fixed corpus, such as the Yoruba Ifa Odu verses, or a more diffuse body of esoteric knowledge. Divining processes are diverse, but all follow set routines by which otherwise inaccessible information is obtained. Some type of device usually is employed, from a simple sliding object to the myriad symbolic items shaken in diviners' baskets. Sometimes the diviner's body becomes the vehicle of communication through spirit possession. Some diviners operate self-explanatory mechanisms that reveal answers; other systems require the diviner to interpret cryptic metaphoric messages. The final diagnosis and plan for action are rendered collectively by the diviner and the clients(s). |
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Divination sessions are not instances of arbitrary, idiosyncratic behavior by diviners. A divination system is often the primary institutional means of articulating the epistemology of a people. Much as the classroom and the courtroom are primary sites for the presentation of cultural truths in the United States, so the diviner in other cultures is central to the expression and enactment of his or her cultural truths as they are reviewed in the context of contemporary realities. The situating of a divination session in time and space, the cultural artifacts utilized (objects, words, behaviors), the process of social interaction, and the uses made of oracular knowledge all demonstrate the foundations of a people's world view and social harmony. Divination systems do not simply reflect other aspects of a culture; they are the means (as well as the premise) of knowing which underpin and validate all else. Contemporary Africans in both urban and rural environments continue to rely on divination, and diviners play a crucial role as mediators, especially for cultures in rapid transistion. |
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A second concern of the shapers of this volume was that African divination research had become lost in an almost exclusively functionalist mode, which assumed the practice to be at best simply supportive of other social systems and at worst irrational and detrimental to its adherents. Every study presented here emphatically demonstrates the centrality of divination. Divination systems are not simply closed ideologies founded on religious beliefs but are dynamic systems of knowledge upon which the proper ordering of social action is based. Looking at these systems from this standpoint, we begin to understand why divination is so often chosen over other means of decision making. |
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We intend this volume to contribute to current discussions in comparative epistemology and the anthropology of knowledge, cross-cultural psychology and cognition studies, and semiotics and ethnoscience as well as to religious studies and more traditional anthropological topics. Although divination systems are not solely manifestations of religious beliefs, a sacred world view is nonetheless a key ele- |
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