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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | A Tentative Philological Typology of Some African High Deities |
Author: | Dammann, E. |
Year: | 1969 |
Periodical: | Journal of Religion in Africa |
Volume: | 2 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 81-95 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Subsaharan Africa Africa |
Subjects: | African religions deities Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1594904 |
Abstract: | After defining the terms High Deity and High God and observing six distinctions concerning the names of the High God, some of these names are examined in order to demonstrate their meaning. The examples mentioned illustrate the importance of the sky and its functions, such as sun or rain, for the naming of the High God. Another complex is in this regard one containing everything that is related to the ancestors or to the place where they are. With some peoples in Africa the High God has taken his name from the eternal element in man which continues to exist after his death, or from the habitations of these so-called spirits of the dead. Attention is drawn to the great number of foreign names. It is impossible to describe the nature of the High God by means of etymology. There is a tendency to move the High God into the sky, even if this original place was the underworld. Notes. |