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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Patriarchies, Prophets, and Procreation: Sources of Gender Practices in Three African Churches
Author:Crumbley, Deidre HelenISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:73
Issue:4
Pages:584-605
Language:English
Geographic terms:Nigeria
Africa
Subjects:African Independent Churches
gender relations
Yoruba
Women's Issues
Religion and Witchcraft
Sex Roles
Cultural Roles
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3556780
Abstract:The Celestial Church of Christ, the Christ Apostolic Church, and the Church of the Lord (Aladura) are indigenous churches in Nigeria, which share the selective blending of Christian and Yoruba religious traditions; however, their gender practices, specifically female access to decisionmaking roles, vary dramatically. The Celestial Church's prohibition against the ordination of women is associated with ritual impurity. Christ Apostolic excludes women from ordination, but without an explicit ideology of impurity. The Church of the Lord (Aladura) ordains women but prohibits them from the sanctuary when they are menstruating. Do these institutionalized constraints derive from colonial or precolonial gender practices? What other factors might contribute to these gender patterns? This paper argues that these gender practices derive from intersecting ambiguities in Western and African gender practices, which both empower and disempower women. The paper also assesses the interplay of doctrine and institutional history in gender dynamics. Finally, it explores the interaction of cultural legacy and socioenvironmental pressures in the ritualization of the female body in this African setting. App., bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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