Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 589 g
Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 589 g
ISBN: 978-0-415-31724-5
Verlag: Routledge
First Published in 2004. Uncertainty is an aspect of existence among the Maasai in East Africa. They take ritual precautions against mystical misfortune, especially at their ceremonial gatherings, which exude displays of confidence, and generate a sense of time, space, community, and being. Yet their performances are undermined by a concern for clandestine psychopaths who are thought to create havoc through sorcery. Normally elders seek moral explanations for erratic encounters with misfortune, viewing God as the Supreme and unknowable figure of Providence. However, sorcery lies beyond their collective wisdom, and they look for guidance from their Prophet, as a more powerful sorcerer to whom they are bound for protection. This work examines the variation of this pattern, associated with different profiles of social life and tension across the Maasai federation.
Zielgruppe
Postgraduate
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
- Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Okkultismus und andere religiöse Praktiken
- Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
- Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Ethnographie
- Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Physische Anthropologie
Weitere Infos & Material
Paul Spencer is Emeritus Professor of African Anthropology at SOAS and Honorary Director of the International African Institute. He has published extensively on age systems and pastoralism in East Africa; and the present work follows from his earlier books on The Samburu (1965) and The Maasai of Matapato (1988) both now reissued by Routledge.