Twins and Unilateral Figures in Central and Southern Africa
Symmetry and Asymmetry in the Symbolization of the Sacred
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3933148 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew Schoffeleers (1(University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1991 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 345 |
| Publication date | 1991-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1581195 |
| OpenAlex | W4243774535 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 4 |
Unilateral figures may be said to constitute a quasi-universal mythological theme in view of the fact that in numerous cultures gods and spirits are being portrayed as anthropomorphic beings consisting of one side only. Less drastically, such beings may be depicted also as in possession of two sides, a human one and one modelled of beeswax, vegetal material, earth, stone, iron or suchlike. In creation stories we are sometimes told that the gods at first want to fashion humans in their own likeness as half-beings, immortal but incapable of procreation. In the end, however, they invariably decide to make them two-sided and capable of reproducing themselves, but there is a price to be paid, which is that henceforth man must die. Apart from such radical forms of onesidedness, we come across a great many instances of figurative onesidedness in the form of otherwise normal personages, one of whose sides becomes mutilated or incapacitated in consequence of some heroic deed. In mythical discourse even single humans may be viewed as representations of one-sidedness, since from the viewpoint of biological procreation there must be two. An important conclusion to be drawn in the course of this paper is that these figurative cases belong to the same symbolic discourse as the 'strict'
Aesthetics · Anthropocentrism · Anthropology of religion · Arbitrariness · Art · Asymmetry · Buddhism · Deed · Epistemology · Geometry · History of religions · Linguistics · Literal and figurative language · Literature · Metaphor · Mythology · Physics · Possession (linguistics) · Sociology · Symbol (formal) · Symmetry (geometry) · Theme (computing) · African cultural and philosophical studies · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · History · Law · Mathematics · Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2021 (29) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |