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sizes the carefully balanced role of the Batammaliba diviner as alienist and annunciator, one who must be simultaneously outside and inside the society in order to properly serve the community. But a diviner does not act alone during consultation. The divinatory contingent, especially the representative of the afflicted, has not been treated in previous studies, but chapters here and in the next section demonstrate the critical role played by these individuals. The rich texts of divination sessions reveal not only the density of oracular speech but also the significance of the negotiated meaning which emerges from divination sessions. |
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Other significant issues emerge from the divination systems presented below, which, despite their differences, are basically mediumistic (although those of the Batammaliba and Pagibeti are better termed "oracular-interpretive" types [Devisch 1985]). Meyer argues that the deceptively simple Lobi technique has an extremely efficient "transmission capacity," and he suggests that certain divination types are technically better suited for certain types of oracular communication. Many African cultures have more than one divination technique and, occasionally, hierarchies are noted, as for the Azande (Evans-Pritchard 1968) and the Yoruba (Bascom 1969), who consider the Ifa palm nut form superior to the divining chain form. But what analytic reasons are there for these distinctions? Almquist's essay is one of the first to analyze criteria for choices among available divinatory mechanisms. |
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According to Devisch, mediumistic divination among the Yaka provides another arena for problem solving as opposed to adjudication in councils and courts. Paralleling the complementary uterine (matrilineal) and agnatic (patrilineal) descent groups are the realms of divinatory authority and customary law, each distinct yet both necessary for the full functioning of Yaka society. The Lugbara distinguish between male oracle operators who only deal with patrilineage affairs and female spirit mediums who are the sole means of coping with witches (Middleton 1964, 1973). Similarly for the Kaguru, only diviners can determine whether problems are due to ghosts, God, or witches (Beidelman 1986:114). There may be other correlations between systems of divination and kinship, just as there are correspondences between social structure and forms of divination (Park 1967) and spirit possession (Bourguignon 1976; Greenbaum 1973). In this regard, the Lobi are noteworthy because they have no alternatives; the thila are their authority on all matters. |
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Devisch's "praxeological approach" (1985), as developed below, raises the critical matter of differing concepts of causality. Devisch argues that strict linear causality is not to be found in the revelations of Yaka mediumistic divination, which relies on atemporal "structural causality." This distinction is similar to Young's concerning awdungist divination among the Ethiopian Amahara (1977) and anticipates the discussions on epistemology in the last section of this volume. For the Yaka, this structural causality revealed by divination brings forth the collective history of the client's uterine ascent group as well as the relevant traditional norms and values as the specific etiology of the afflicted person is diagnosed. This process recalls Lévi-Strauss's analysis of the therapeutic, abreactive function of the Cuna |
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