Religion and custom in a Muslim society: the Berti of Sudan

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Title:	Religion and custom in a Muslim society: the Berti of Sudan
Author:	Holy, Ladislav
Year:	1991
Issue:	78
Pages:	243
Language:	English
Series:	Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology
City of publisher:	Cambridge
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISBN:	0521394856
Geographic term:	Sudan
Subjects:	Islam religious rituals African religions Berti women
Abstract:	Among the Berti of northern Darfur (Sudan), as among many Muslim societies, formal religious practices are predominantly the concern of men, while local, unorthodox customary rituals are performed mainly by women. It is usual to dismiss such local, popular practices as pre-Islamic survivals, but the author shows that the customary rituals constitute an integral part of the religious system of the Berti. An analysis of the symbolic statements made in Berti rituals demonstrates that the distinction between the two classes of rituals is an expression of the gender relationship characteristic of Berti society. The author also examines the social distribution of knowledge about Islam, and explains the role of the religious schools in sustaining religious ideas. The material for this book was collected between 1961 and 1986.