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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The illusion of a future? Medicine dance rituals for the civil society of tomorrow
Author:Widlok, ThomasISNI
Year:2001
Periodical:African Study Monographs: Supplementary Issue
Issue:27
Pages:165-183
Language:English
Geographic term:Southern Africa
Subjects:San
rituals
External link:http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/68413/1/ASM_S_27_165.pdf
Abstract:M. Bloch's (1992) model of ritual practice is used to elucidate the dynamics of the medicine dance in the present-day environment of the Hai//om Bushmen or San of southern Africa. Data were collected during field research from 1990 until 1994. A reformulation of Bloch's model of rebounding violence exhibits three aspects of the medicine dance, namely voluntary participation, forceful engagement, and relevance to everyday life. This characterization may hold not only for the Hai//om, but also for other hunter-gatherers elsewhere who increasingly live in settings with a plurality of religious activities. Hunter-gatherer religious forms need not be considered to be close to the beginnings of human religious activity, but with an emphasis on personal autonomy, rituals like the medicine dance may give an insight into the religious practices of the future. Bibliogr., sum.
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