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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Symbol and Authority in Mpondo Ancestor Religion. Part One |
Author: | Kuckertz, H. |
Year: | 1983 |
Periodical: | African Studies |
Volume: | 42 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 113-133 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | ancestor worship Pondo Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/00020188308707599 |
Abstract: | Fieldwork on which this paper is based was conducted in Caguba, a constituent ward of the small Mthwa chieftainship, Port St John's, Western Pondoland during the period 1978-1979. For Mthwa society, as for other Nguni-speaking and Sotho-speaking, ancestor religion is one of several correlated strands of thought. Its complexity can best be described within a cosmological framework. Part 1: Mthwa cosmology, an outline. Part 2: The structure of the ancestral feast. The author describes in detail the central issue of Mthwa cosmology, namely life, rather that any personal or impersonal cosmic manifestation, but life as it is lived by man and animal, as it can be passed on, manipulated, and destroyed by evilminded persons, and as it depends on the cooperation between man and man. Ancestor religion and ancestor ritual demonstrate this clearly. - Fig., notes, ref. |