The Cracked Pot and the Missing Sheep
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2466208 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michelle Gilbert (Metropolitan Museum of Art, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1989 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 213-229 |
| Publication date | 1989-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Ethnologist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1525/ae.1989.16.2.02a00020 |
| OpenAlex | W2131069409 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 17 |
This essay concerns the difficulties of separating "religion" from "political" strategy and tactics, by demonstrating the place of contingencies in ritual performances and the ways they are resolved in a small Ghanaian kingdom. Two rituals are described, both of which in differing ways failed to conform to the actors' precisely and traditionally defined expectations. The rituals themselves became opportunities to realign patterns of political relations and to reinterpret and reconstruct history, and illustrate how conflict may be resolved by appeal for mediation to different levels and hierarchies of authority.[contingency in ritual, micro-politics, symbolism, conflict resolution, spirit possession, Ghana
Aesthetics · Appeal · Conflict resolution · Contingency · Epistemology · Linguistics · Mediation · Political science · Politics · Possession (linguistics · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Philosophy
Essays on the ritual of social relations
Religion and society in central Africa
The migrant cocoa-farmers of southern Ghana
Rituals of royalty
Rites of Power
Time and the Calendar in Nineteenth - Century Asante
Government and Politics in the Akuapem State, 1730-1850
The Environment as Hazard
Symbols, Song, Dance and Features of Articulation Is religion an extreme form of traditional authority
The Drums of Affliction
Schism and Continuity in an African Society
Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors
One hundred and fifty years of Christianity in a Ghanaian town
The sudden death of a millionaire
Home-Town
Forty Days
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1997 - 2025 (29) |
| Highly cited | No |