Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Possession Cults on the Swahili Coast: A Re-Examination of Theories of Marginality |
Author: | Giles, Linda L. |
Year: | 1987 |
Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
Volume: | 57 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 234-258 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | East Africa Kenya Tanzania |
Subjects: | spirit possession Swahili Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1159823 |
Abstract: | This article examines the role of spirit possession cults in the Swahili coastal area of Kenya and Tanzania, based on three years (1982-1985) research in seven field sites, including the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. It provides a reassessment of the conventional theoretical viewpoint that such cults are peripheral to the wider society's value and socio-cultural structure, asserting that in this case they are, in fact, not only central to it but actually one of its most illuminating expressions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French. |