|
|
|
|
|
|
|
gather nearby. The composition of this gathering depends on a number of factors. For example, in the case of Akoi, who had experienced spontaneous abortion a number of times, her affines as well as her natal kin were present. Her husband's kin presumed that her apparent inability to carry out a normal term of pregnancy was due to her mother's brother's dissatisfaction with the number and quality of cattle he had received as bridewealth at the time of her marriage. The identity of the power in question may also be a factor. If it is revealed to be a minor power, few may attend the divination. Conversely, possession by a "strong" or "hot" power entails the support of more kin. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Akoi's case reflects traditional ethics ("everyone has something in his heart"), but contemporary dimensions of experience also figure in Atuot divination. I was present at one seance (discussed below) that focused on a young boy who had become paralyzed from the waist down. The tiet indicated that the sick boy's elder brother, who had been a guerrilla soldier, had stolen and slaughtered an ox belonging to another man, a rather common practice during the civil war in southern Sudan. It was assumed that the owner of the ox had sent a jok to malign the young boy as vengeance. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From a functionalist viewpoint the custom of sending a power to harm another individual would appear to be decidedly antisocial, since an innocent person is made to suffer for another's misdeeds. Yet all those kin of the afflicted who can attend the ensuing divination ritual are expected to do so. Thus one can propose that what is publicly witnessed at a divination or exorcism is a positive assertion of shared moral sentiments. And the quest to ensure well-being takes place in the homestead, a setting that has strong symbolic associations with women and the genesis of life in Atuot cosmology. Significantly, it is commonly the case that women and young children are the victims of a jok (see Burton 1980a). In this light it is important to note that women who have some degree of relationship to the afflicted often become possessed during divination to aid the tiet in his work. Thus, whereas Atuot will casually inform the foreigner that it is the tiet who carries out the task of divination, it is in fact a public event frequently entailing the active participation of women. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One evening my wife and I sat with some Atuot friends outside their homestead while a tiet slowly walked around the perimeter of the hut, softly singing a number of songs intended to "wake up" the jok within him. It is from his own jok or a number of other powers that a tiet gains the strength to exorcise a malignant spirit. After a short while the tiet came to sit on the ground near a small boy who could no longer walk. As the tiet shook his rattle, onlookers began to clap in rhythm to the songs he sang. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After a few hours, the tiet called out "Arum!" The power in question, Abiel, had been encountered and had entered the diviner's body. He then called for a gam long, someone to catch his words (literally, "to hold the voice of the jok") and repeat them for the public gathering. The tiet now became the mouthpiece of the jok, a medium between the human and suprahuman realms. |
|
|
|
|
|