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Temne Divination TEMNE DIVINATION: THE MANAGEMENT OF SECRECY AND REVELATION ROSALIND H. SHAW Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, ProQuest Number: 10673240 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10673240 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 - 2 - ABSTRACT Divination is approached as a means of defining and redefining people, events and cosmological beliefs through the management of agreement. Historically, the introduction of Islam and the assimilation of Manding and Fula ’strangers' into influential positions among the Temne was facilitated by Muslim diviners and charm-makers. In Temne thought, power and truth come primarily from outside the social realm and are channelled and controlled through the selective use of secrecy. Distinctions between the principal social cate-; gories, especially those of men and women, are also main­ tained through areas of secrecy. However, since secrecy can also conceal dangerous forces, particularly those of witchcraft and adultery, it is regarded as a potential threat as well as a necessity. Divination brings the hidden into the open, but the amount that it reveals is determined by two factors. Firstly, the numerous methods of divination used by the Temne are divided into those which are private, semi-private and public, the majority being private. Secondly, divinatory speech varies in its degree of specificity; in private divination diviners use restricted codes, while in public divination they use elaborated codes. Being mainly private, divination is regarded with consi­ derable suspicion as well as respect. Diviners are very ambivalent figures, admired for their vision, power and access to 'truth', but suspected of using this power for destructive purposes through witchcraft and the use of bad medicine. Women form the majority of diviners’ clients and are themselves regarded with ambivalence by men, who see them as necessary and valuable, particularly as childbearers, but also as potentially destructive through their possible adultery. Men say that women are excessively secretive, but women regard their secrecy positively and see it as essential for their protection. Diviners diagnose problems . in terms of breaches in relations between people and between people and spirits or ancestors. By controlling what is revealed and what remains concealed, divination is able to either maintain or threaten the secrecy marking the division between men and women and between other social and cosmolo­ gical categories, thus managing the definition of 'reality' in particular situations. - 3 - TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements 5 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 6 Part One: Anthropological Approaches to Divination 6 1. Cathartic 6 2. Cognitive 7 3. Dramatic 9 4. Functionalist 10 5. Ethno-analytical 11 Reality as Agreement 14 Randomness in Methods of Divination 19 Community Consensus - 22 Part Two: The Temne People 29 Ecology, Economy and Social Organization 29 History 31 CHAPTER TWO: SECRECY, VISION AND POWER 36 Spirits and Ancestors 36 The Chief 44 The Witch 49 Secret Societies 62 Conclusions 70 CHAPTER THREE: TEMNE DIVINERS 76 1. Pa Alfa Koroma, Petbana Masimbo Village 78 2. Pa Biyare Seri, Makeni Town 80 3. Pa Ydrnba Nhoni Kamara, Freetown 82 4. Ya Mabinti Kamara, Koidu 84 Initiatory Encounters with Spirits and Ancestors 85 The Ambivalence of' Diviners 90 Specialist Person-Categories 99 Hunters * 105 Twins- 105 Blacksmiths 106 CHAPTER FOUR: TECHNIQUES OF DIVINATION 111 Mechanical Techniques 112 Oracular and Mediumship Methods 114 Ordeals 115 'Moving Vehicles' 116 Witch-finding and Prophesy by Masked Spirits 117 ftn-bars: Powers, Technique and Interpretation 118 An-yinh Uusd3 'The Spirit of Moses’ 132 Dreams and Omens 141 Evaluations of Methods 145 Signs and Symbols in Divination 150 Divination and Vision 156 Open and Closed Space 159 Divination and Truth 164 - 4 - Page CHAPTER FIVE:. DIVINATORY SPEECH 173 The Use and Significance of Temne Ritual Speech 173 Speech in Temne Divination 179 Case One 179 Case Two 181 Case Three 184 Case Four 188 Towards a Semiology of Divination 193 CHAPTER SIX: WOMEN AS DIVINER'S CLIENTS 204 Male-Female Relationships 205 Women, Men and Diviners . • 222 CHAPTER SEVEN: DIVINATORY DIAGNOSIS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF AGREEMENT 228 Problems and their Diagnosis 228 Competition and Collusion in the Negotiation of Consensus 235 Divination and the Definition of Reality 243 Divination and Social Function • 247 CHAPTER EIGHT: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 252 APPENDIX: TWO STORIES OF PA LULU, THE DIVINING BIRD 258 BIBLIOGRAPHY 264 TABLES AND FIGURES: Table 1: Constructs applied to 'specialist' person- categories 104 Figure 1 125 Figure 2 125 Figure 3 126 Figure 4 12 7 Figure 5 127 Figure 6 128 Figure 7 136 Figure 8: Temne House Plans 160 - 5 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is based on field research in four locations in Sierra Leone: Petbana Masimbo (Bombali Sebora Chiefdom), Matotoka (Tane Chiefdom), Freetown and Koidu. I would firstly like to express my gratitude to the Temne chiefs and people of these places for their co-operation and generosity, particularly my friends Bay Kafari III, Pa Yamba Kore, Pa Kapar Bana, Pa Alfa Koroma, Pa Manke Koroma, Pa Abdul Conteh, Mr. John Myers, Pa Biyare Seri, Pa Yamba Nhoni Kamara, Ya Mari Gbla and Ya Mabiiiti Kamara. My deepest gratitude is to my field assistant, Michael Sanasi Kalokoh, his mother, Mrs. Kadiatu Tejan-Kamara and his grandmother, Ya Rukoh .Kamara, for their invaluable help, hospitality and friendship. I acknowledge with thanks financial support from the Social Science Research Council and additional field work grants from the Royal Anthropological Institute's Emslie Horniman Anthropological Research Fund and the University of London's Central Research Fund. - Special thanks are due to my current supervisor, Professor David Parkin, and my former supervisor, Professor John Middleton, for their encouragement and valuable advice. I am also indebted to Dr. David Dalby for his generous assistance and for his lessons in the Temne language. Of the many ojthers who are too numerous to name and thank properly, I would like to mention a few. Dr. Cecil Magbaily Fyle, Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Sierra Leone - Fourah Bay College and the late Mr. Jonathan Edowu Hyde, the former Secretary of the Institute, gave me a room and the use of the Institute's facilities during my stay in Freetown. Mr. Douglas McClure, Driector of the Integrated Agricultural Development Project in Sierra Leone's Ministry of Agriculture, and Mr. Gerald Vinck, the former Director of Foster Parent Plan Inter­ national in Sierra Leone, both gave me much hospitality and practical assistance. Finally, Dr. Loretta Reinhardt of the University of Toronto greatly assisted my study with her advice and support. I would like to record my gratitude to all of them. CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Part One: Anthropological Approaches to Divination Although there have been a great many descriptions of divination in the literature, anthropological theories of divination have been relatively few. This is surprising when, one considers the wealth of anthropological analyses of witchcraft or of spirit-possession, for example. The following theories of divination have been presented by anthropologists. 1. Cathartic A common approach argues for a cathartic function: divination is seen as a way of 'coping psychologically with the problems and dangers of an unpredictable environment in the absence of any adequate empirical means of doing so. This has long been recognized as an outdated explanation of ritual, but it often seems to be thrown into articles on di.vination as a matter of course: In reply to the question as to what useful purpose is served by recourse to magic and religion as fortifications against the elements and misfortune, one can only answer that lacking other means of control, such as is often afforded men in civilized societies, native peoples fall back on their oracles. This gives them hope and courage and keeps them from being paralyzed by inaction.1 As Evans-Pritchard points out with respect to ritual in 2 general, how could this alleged cathartic function be proved? Moreover, while it is quite likely that discovering the agent of sickness would reduce anxiety, since steps - 7 - could now be taken towards remedial action, it is unwarranted to turn this effect into a causal theory. Not all situations in which diviners are consulted are associated with stress (for instance, the choosing of a child's name in A fa divi- 3 nation among the Ibo ), and it is certainly not the case that all clients who consult diviners are in a state of anxiety. 2. Cognitive Lienhardt and Fortes both present cognitive approaches 4 to divination. Lienhardt's explanation of the diagnosis of affliction by the Dinka diviner focuses on the sufferer's experience of his situation. Among the Dinka, sickness, like affective states, is externalized so that man is seen as the passive subject acted upon by the spiritual power who is the active agent. The diviner is called in because the afflicted person has not been able to dissociate this active subject from his own suffering, the diviner's task being to bring about a 'division in experience' without which no remedial action is possible. Through divination, experience is structured and put into the appropriate conceptual categories. It is a pity that this analysis forms such a small part of Lienhardt's book, and is not developed more fully with regard to other aspects of Dinka divination.
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