1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780573903321

Autore

Lambek Michael

Titolo

Knowledge and practice in Mayotte : local discourses of Islam, sorcery and spirit possession / / Michael Lambek

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 1993

©1993

ISBN

1-4426-3861-3

1-281-99727-7

9786611997274

1-4426-7653-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (499 p.)

Collana

Anthropological Horizons

Disciplina

306.6/09694

Soggetti

Islam - Mayotte

Spirit possession - Mayotte

Knowledge, Theory of (Islam)

Electronic books.

Mayotte Social life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents -- Tables and Figures -- Preface -- Stylistic Conventions and Conundrums -- Dramatis Personae -- PART I: INTRODUCTIONS -- 1 Knowledge and Hubris -- Knowledge, Power, and Morality -- Towards an Anthropology of Knowledge -- Transcending Subdisciplinary Boundaries -- Ethnography as Hermeneutic Practice -- 2 Locating Knowledge in Mayotte: Structure, History, and Practice -- Cultural Diversity in Mayotte -- Historical Overview -- The Three Traditions -- Historical Practice -- Islam 'Versus' Possession? -- From the Sweep of Traditions to Local Views

3 Village Organization and the Distribution of KnowledgeThe Social Distribution of Knowledge -- Portrait of the Villages -- The Social Organization of the Village from the Perspective of Knowledge -- The Village Fundis -- The Economic Basis of the Experts -- PART II: THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF TEXTUAL KNOWLEDGE -- 4 Islam: The



Perspective from the Path -- Prayer and the Projection of Moral Imperatives -- The Social Production of Prayer -- Prayer and Reciprocity -- The Politics of Prayer -- The Economy of Justice

5 Educating Citizens: The Reproduction of Textual KnowledgeThe Three 'R's': Reading, Writing, and Recitation -- The Transmission of Knowledge and Authority -- Learning as the Embodiment of Knowledge -- Individuation through Learning: An Example of an Educated Citizen -- The Value of Learning -- 6 Islamic Experts: Practice and Power -- The Vulnerability of Authority -- Islam and Politics: Two Public Figures -- Styles of Practice: Two Village Fundis -- Moral Intervention and Understanding -- Friday Prostrations: A Conflict of Interpretations and Modes of Legitimation

The Articulation of Heterogenous Knowledge in PracticeCertain Knowledge, Contestable Authority -- PART III: COUNTERPRACTICES: COSMOLOGY AND THE INS AND OUTS OF SORCERY -- 7 Knowledge with Power: The Discipline of Cosmology -- Relations of (Re)production -- Divination as Calculation -- World and Body -- Indispensable Knowledge, Amoral Authority -- Interdisciplinary Challenges -- A Cut in Time -- 8 Knowledge and Antipractice: Committing Sorcery -- The Dark Side of Knowledge -- The Imagination of Evil -- A Dead End -- Sorcery in Practice

Postscript: Unleashed Accusations9 Removing Sorcery: Committing (to) the Cure -- Extractor and Client -- Extraction in Theory -- Tumbu in Practice -- Scepticism and the Conversation between the Disciplines -- The Extraction Itself: Experience and Sincerity -- Extraction as Performance -- Conviction and Good Faith -- PART IV: EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE AND THE PRACTICE OF SPIRIT MEDIUMS -- 10 The Reproduction of Possession: Gaining a Voice -- Spirit Possession as Embodied Knowledge -- Gaining a Spirit as Moral Agency -- Public and Personal Aspects of Succession

Sommario/riassunto

In a witty, evocative style accessible to both the specialist and non-specialist reader, Michael Lambek provides a significant contribution to writing on African systems of thought, local forms of religious and therapeutic practice, social accountability, and the place of explicit forms of knowledge in the analysis of non-western societies.