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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Where is the Real Thing? Psychoanalysis and African Mythical Narratives
Author:Mudimbe, V.Y.ISNI
Year:1987
Periodical:Cahiers d'études africaines
Volume:27
Issue:107-108
Pages:311-327
Language:English
Geographic terms:Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Zambia
Subjects:psychoanalysis
ethnogenesis
myths (form)
Health and Nutrition
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1987.3408
Abstract:This paper examines the question of whether cultural grammars of social formations constituted by different modes of production invent Oedipus and Electra figures in some cases, but not in others. The presence of the incest theme in African mythical narratives is shown on the basis of an analysis of the sources used by L. De Heusch in his 'The drunken king, or, the origin of the State' (1982). From Luba to Lunda and Bemba founding myths, a regular pattern is found which, on the one hand, unfolds linkages between incest and regicide, and, on the other, marks or suggests a transition from strict patrilineality to strict matrilineality. These examples show the presence of Oedipus and/or Electra figures in African narratives long before the introduction of capitalism. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in French (p. 462).
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