Relationships in motion
Oracular recruitment and ontological definition in Cuban Ifá cults
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3944870 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin Holbraad (École Pratique des Hautes Études, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 18 |
| Pages | 219-264 |
| Publication date | 2008-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0294-7080 • E-ISSN: 2268-1558 |
| Publisher | OpenEdition (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.4000/span.817 |
| OpenAlex | W1564725912 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 16 |
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Havana among initiates of the male diviner-cult of Ifá, this paper addresses the classical anthropological conundrum of how to make sense of practitioners’ contention that initiation transforms them into «new people». Taking into account the role of divination in «calling» neophytes, it is shown that Ifá initiation involves an accumulation of relationships with deities and fellow initiates that are «internal» in the sense that they pertain to the very definition of the neophyte as a person. It is argued that for such a notion not to appear logically absurd («apparently irrational») it is necessary to revise radically a series of analytical assumptions regarding the nature of change, obligation and personhood
Aesthetics · Cult · Divination · Epistemology · Ethnography · Intentionality · Irrational number · Obligation · Personhood · Political science · Sociology · Theology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Cuban History and Society · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy
Symbols, song, dance and features of articulation
The Interpretation of Cultures
Alienation
The Red and the Black
Thinking Through Things
The voice of prophecy and other essays
Mind and nature
El legado africano en Cuba
Divination and its Social Contexts
The Sanctions of Ifa Divination
Aristotle's Physics Books I and II
Tradition as Truth and Communication
Rites of Terror
Deterritorialization and Reterritorialization of the Orisha Religion in Africa and the New World (Nigeria, Cuba and the United States)
Schooling, Language, and Knowledge in Literate and Nonliterate Societies
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,29 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2025 (14) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |