Exploring the Origins and Expansion of the Nyaminyami (Water Spirit) Belief Systems among the BaTonga People of Northwestern Zimbabwe
Datos Bibliográficos
| ID | 3932087 |
|---|---|
| Autores | Joshua Matanzima (0000-0002-9709-9005, Department of Anthropology, Rhodes University Makhanda (Grahamstown) South Africa, autor de correspondencia) |
| Año | 2022 |
| Volumen | 51 |
| Número | 3-4 |
| Páginas | 364-396 |
| Fecha de publicación | 2022-03-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Sí |
| Open Access | No |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Revista | Journal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores de la revista | ISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666 |
| Editorial | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15700666-12340215 |
| OpenAlex | W4214831037 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Referencias citadas | 41 |
Water spirits are an integral part of African traditional religious beliefs and ritual practices. Like many other African traditional religious practices and beliefs, water spirit beliefs are characterized by complex 'myths' surrounding their origins. In that regard, this paper explores the origins and expansion of the Nyaminyami (water spirit,) beliefs prevalent among some BaTonga people of northwestern Zimbabwe. It argues that these beliefs were exotic to the BaTonga people. In so doing, it substantiates the assumption by Elizabeth Colson and Thayer Scudder that Nyaminyami was a foreign idea to the BaTonga people. This study brings in new contemporary evidence to substantiate and extend this diffusionist perspective. It provides evidence from ethnographic research conducted among the BaTonga and Shangwe-speaking peoples living in the immediate vicinity of the Kariba Gorge area from April to November 2017. This study also rests on the wider scholarship on water divinities in Africa that explains the emergence of water divinities in different societies through diffusion of ideas. The study further examines the ways by which the cultural borrowing may have occurred, as well as the period and the extent to which the diffusion of ideas occurred, based on the ethnographic evidence
Belief system · Environmental ethics · Ethnography · Ethnology · History of religions · Mythology · Perspective (graphical) · Political science · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Theology · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
Water spirits and the conservation of the natural environment
Whiteness in Zimbabwe
“Our Spirit Has No Boundary”
The Experience of Alinesitoué and African Women's Prophetism
Stereotyping, Exploitation, and Appropriation of African Traditional Religious Beliefs
Living Water” in Nguni Healing Traditions, South Africa
Social History and African Environments
The Social Consequences of Resettlement
Africa from South to North through Marotseland
How Environmental is African Traditional Religion
Crossing the Zambezi
Anjenu
Whites and Water
Names and naming
Landscape, belonging & identity in North-west Zimbabwe
Remaking Mutirikwi
The Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia
Kariba
The Cambridge Expedition to the Zambezi Valley, Southern Rhodesia, in 1934
Histories of Religion in Africa
Some Aspects of Diffusion
Competition and Integration in the Religious History of North-Western Zimbabwe
The Spirit's Wish
Siaya
For Prayer and Profit
Popular Culture in Africa
Ethnic identity, history, and "tribe" in the Middle Zambezi Valley1
Chronicling Cultures
Stimulus Diffusion
Probability and the Diffusion of Culture Traits
Pseudo-Culture Diffusion on the Northwest Coast
Remembering the Present
Graves, ruins, and belonging
Missions and Cultural Diffusion
Culture-Diffusion Gradients
| Velocidad de citación | historical |
|---|---|
| Altamente citado | No |