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tinct language accompanied the divining chain system as it was adopted by diverse peoples (Peek 1982). |
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Whatever the literal nature of the words heard or used in divination, this communication is considered very special and caution is always exercised in seeking and expressing it. As Kirwen (1987:87) was told by a diviner who refused to divine for him, "one does not demonstrate or play at divination. It would offend the ancestral spirits to do so." Bascom notes that Yoruba diviners are not allowed to tell folktales, although some Ifa verses contain folktales (1969:131). Thus it appears that, owing to the "power of words" (Peek 1981), the babalawo ("father has secrets" [Bascom 1969:81]), cannot confuse the revealed truth of Ifa with the created truth of folktales. |
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Just as divination can be said to give sight to the blind, so it gives speech to the dumb. The Lobi (and some Senufo groups) say that the spirits which govern all aspects of life have no tongues and can only communicate through divination (Meyer, above; see also Suthers 1987). In addition to communication, the speech of divination may also function as a dissociative technique, as Lienhardt (1970:234) and Jackson (1978) suggest. |
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The ritualization of divination separates it from normal discourse and dispute settlement in order to ensure the necessary shift in cognitive processes. We must now attempt to understand how these alternate ways of knowing and thinking, generated by all this difference makingthe symbolism, complex communication, and elaborate ritualis finally brought together to help the client formulate a specific plan of action. As the manager of this process, the diviner is a translator between worlds as much as between modes of thought. And these communications must be organized as well as translated. |
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Divination systems create configurations of symbols (verbal or material) whose correct order or pattern must be revealed. As Jules-Rosette describes the process, "The pattern is the diviner's finding, and it is precisely this discovery that characterizes his expertise. He strengthens the discovery by showing the correspondence between an apparently random system and the train of misfortunes that the client reveals" (1978:557). This discovery process is similar to Lévi-Strauss's description of shamanistic curing, with its structuring of a broad range of elements relevant to the afflicted's case: |
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First, a structure must be elaborated and continually modified through the interaction of group tradition and individual invention. This structure is a system of oppositions and correlations integrating all the elements of a total situation, in which sorcerer, patient, and audience as well as representations and procedures, a all play their parts. (1967:176) |
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Zuesse (1979:215) discusses the diviner's "profound quest" to discover and articulate these deeper levels of existence. Among the Dogon, the fox "is endlessly going and coming to sketch the living pattern of the world to disclose how men must move to bring that pattern forth" (Pelton 1980:218).
16 Young describes how Amaharic divination reveals "an order imminent in the otherwise random course |
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