The Drums of Affliction: A Study of Religious Processes among the Ndembu of Zambia

352 Pages·1981·31.9 MB·English

by  Victor Turner

A classic of social anthropology—
Now available in paperback for the first time!
The Drums
of Affliction
A Study of Religious Processes
among the Ndembu of Zambia
Victor Turner
Series Editor:
VICTOR TURNER
THE DRUMS OF AFFLICTION
A Study ofReligious Processes
among the Ndembu ofZambia
SYMBOL, MYTH, AND RITUAL SERIES
GeneralEditor: Victor Turner
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and Society
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Mircea Eliade, Australian Religions: An Introduction
Frederick Karl Errington, Karavar: Masks and Power in a Melanesian
Ritual
Raymond Firth, Symbols: Public andPrivate*
Ronald L. Grimes, SymbolandConquest:PublicRitualandDrama in Santa
Fe, New Mexico
Alf Hiltebeitel, TheRitual ofBattle: Krishna in the Mahabharata
Eva Hunt, The Transformation of the Hummingbird: Cultural Roots of a
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Church ofJohn Maranke
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Sally Falk Moore and Barbara G. Myerhoff, eds., Symbol andPolitics in
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Nancy D. Munn, WalbiriIconography: GraphicRepresentation andCultural
Symbolism in a CentralAustralian Society
Barbara G. Myerhoff, Peyote Hunt: The SacredJourney of the Huichol
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Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human
Society*
V. W.Turner, TheDrumsofAffliction:AStudyofReligiousProcessesamong
theNdembu ofZambia^
Victor Turner, Revelation andDivination in Ndembu Ritual*
Victor Turner, The RitualProcess: Structure andAnti-Structure^
Roy Wagner, LethalSpeech: Daribi Myth as Symbolic Obviation
*Also available in a Cornell Paperbacks edition.
tAvailable from Cornell University Press only in a Cornell Paperbacks edition.
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THE DRUMS OF
AFFLICTION
A
Study of Religious Processes
among the Ndembu of Zambia
TURNER
V. W.
Cornell University Press
ITHACA, NEW YORK
©
Copyright 1968, ig8i by V. W. Turner
Originally published 1968 by Oxford University Press
and The International African Institute.
First published, Cornell Paperbacks, 1981.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, mustnotbereproducedinanyformwithoutpermissioninwritingfrom
the publisher. For information address Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts
Place, Ithaca, New York 14850.
Library ofCongress Catalog Card Number 80-66889
International Standard Book Number 0-8014-9205-X
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
TO EDIE
FOREWORD
Recently both the research and theoretical concerns of
many anthropologists have once again been directed toward the
—
role of symbols religious, mythic, aesthetic, political, and even
—
economic in social and cultural processes. Whether this revival
is a belated response to developments in other disciplines (psy-
chology, ethology, philosophy, linguistics, to name only a few),
or whether it reflects a return to acentral concern after a period
of neglect, is difficult to say. In recent field studies, an-
thropologists have been collecting myths and rituals in the con-
text of social action, and improvements in anthropological field
technique have produced data that are richer and more refined
than heretofore; these new data have probably challenged
theoreticians to provide more adequate explanatory frames.
Whatever may have been the causes, there is no denying a re-
newed curiosity about the nature of the connections between
culture, cognition, and perception, as these connections are re-
vealed in symbolic forms.
Although excellent individual monographs and articles in
symbolic anthropology and comparative symbology have re-
cently appeared, acommon focusor forum that can be provided
by a topically organized series of books has not been available.
The present series is intended to fill this lacuna. It is designed to
include notonly field monographs and theoretical and compara-
tive studies by anthropologists, but alsowork by scholars inother
disciplines, both scientific and humanistic. The appearance of
studies in such a forum encourages emulation, and emulation
can produce fruitful new theories. It is therefore our hope that
the series will serve as a house of many mansions, providing
hospitality for the practitioners of any discipline that has a ser-
ious and creative concern with comparative svmbologv. Too
often, disciplines are sealed off, in sterile pedantry, from signifi-
cant intellectual influences. Nevertheless, our primary aim is to
bring to public attention works on ritual and myth written by
anthropologists, and our readers will find a variety of strictly
FOREWORD
vii
anthropological approaches ranging from formal analyses of
systems of symbols to empathetic accounts of divinatory and
initiatory rituals.
Victor Turner
University ofVirginia
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The material presented here was collected while I was a
Research Officer in the employment of the former Rhodes-
Livingstone Institute. First drafts of several chapters were
written when I was arecipientofa Simon Research Fellowship
at the University of Manchester. I am also grateful to the
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences for
affording me leisure to reflect on the field data and continue
the writing. Thanks are due to the International African
Institute for a grant towards the publication of this study.
I am indebted to Professor Gluckman's seminar at Manchester
and to the Intercollegiate Seminar at London University for
many trenchant comments and criticisms. Forskilled secretarial
help at several stages on the way to the final draft I would like
to express my warm thanks to Carmel Rosenthal,Jean Pearce,
Lorene Yap, Susan Wilson, Julie Raventos, Linda Hickman,
My
Carolyn Pfohl andJoan Oltz. wife, Edie, from first to last,
from fieldwork to index, has given me her careful and insightful
help. To the many Ndembu who took us into their lives and
explained with patience and good humour so many ritual
minutiae go my deep thanks, especially to Musona, Muchona,
Manyosa, Ihembi and Windson Kashinakaji.
—
I have —disguised the names of certain Ndembu villagers
and chiefs and Europeans who through no fault oftheir own
have been discussed somewhat less than charitably by their
opponents in factional or sectional struggles.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
List ofPlates xii
List ofFigures xiii
INTRODUCTION
I. I
i. Ritual in Social Dynamics 5
2. Ndembu Social Organization 8
3. Village Structure 10
4. Matriliny and Virilocality: Some Implications 11
5. Some Features ofNdembu Religion 13
II. DIVINATION AND ITS SYMBOLISM 25
i. Introduction 25
2. Divination and its Symbolism 27
3. Divination as a Phase in a Social Process 46
HI. THE MORPHOLOGY OF RITUALS OF AFFLICTION 52
Nkula
(a) Sequence ofEpisodes 55
(b) Introduction 55
(c) The Mythological Charter 58
(d) Aims ofNkula 58
(e) Ku-lembeka 59
(/) Ku-tumbuka 67
(g) Commentary on Nkula 78
(h) Conclusion 87