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humans to the "real" reasons for events, simultaneously divination was made available so they might "see" and still find meaning and order in their lives. |
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Nadel offers an interesting comment on divination's primordial role in the scheme of things for the Nupe: |
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Although Nupe divination is marked off as being "of God," it is not numbered among the other, similar "things of the world," that is, of creation. Nor are there any legends explaining its origin or appearance on earth. This ambiguity seems in keeping with the peculiar role of divination in Nupe religious practice. Divination is clearly one of the tools bestowed by God upon man so that he may be better fitted to cope with the practical problems of life on earth; but these include also the problem of handling successfully all the other transcendental tools. And just because divination is such a twofold "prerequisite" and is basically indispensable, its presence is simply taken for granted. (1970:65) |
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Oral traditions and early European accounts confirm that many divination systems are centuries old, and while some have changed significantly, most demonstrate great stability and antiquity. Using Shona divining tablet markings, Huffman interprets similar markings on soapstone birds from the Great Zimbabwe ruins, thus suggesting a seven-hundred-year time depth for that divination system (1985). |
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The history of a people can be gained from divination texts and traditions, as Abimbola demonstrates with Ifa divination verses (1967). Vansina utilizes divination customs to illuminate Bushong and Kuba histories (1971, 1978). Drewal and Drewal reconstruct an Ifa diviner's family history from his shrine (1985). |
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Too seldom are distinctions drawn between indigenous and foreign forms, as noted by Horton (1964) for the Kalabari Ijo and by Mendonsa (1982) for the Sisala. The pioneering studies by Junod (1927) and Evans-Pritchard (1968) do, however, comment on origins of Thonga and Zande divination types among their neighbors. For southern Africa, Zuesse discusses the origins and distribution of hakata dice and basket divination forms (1979) and surveys were done by Reynolds (1963:10221), Roumeguère-Eberhardt (1968), and Greenbaum (1973). In reconstructing Dahomean history, Herskovits concludes that the Abomey kings introduced Fa (a cognate of the Yoruba Ifa system) to replace older divination forms and to validate their political control (1938). Comparative studies of African divination systems often offer only contextless enumerations, such as Lévy-Bruhl's cataloging of divination forms (1966) and Davis's study of divining bowls (1955). There are a few studies of specific divination types, such as Bourguignon's on mediumistic forms (1968) and Peek's on the divining chain complex in southern Nigeria (1982). Bascom (1969:112 and 1980) and Bastide (1968) provide comparative studies of African-American divination forms. |
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In the course of demonstrating divination's critical role in the search for knowledge, the two essays in this section prove the value of regional studies of divination systems. Burton analyzes the relationship of Atuot divination to practices among other Nilotic peoples of the Sudan (thus permitting comparison with Evans-Pritchard's work on the Nuer and Lienhardt's on the Dinka). For the Atuot, interethnic antagonisms are reflected in the origins and behaviors of the jao, the spiri- |
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