Book
Body and mind in Zulu medicine: an ethnography of health and disease in Nyuswa-Zulu thought and practice
Academic Press • London • Published In 1977 • Pages: xvi, 184
By: Ngubane, Harriet.
Abstract
This source, based on field work on the Nyuswa Reserve, is concerned with Zulu beliefs and practices about sickness and health. Among the topics covered are: Zulu ideas about natural and supernatural causes of illness; sorcery and witchcraft; Zulu cosmology; rituals and sacrifices to the ancestral spirits; spirit possession and divination; and medical treatment. The author's main interest is in applying symbolic analysis as practiced by British social anthropologists to her Zulu data. Hence, the data presented are limited and carefully selected and the Zulu medical system is presented as linked to and reflecting social cleavages within and between lineages and members of polygamous, extended family homesteads. In addition, the author discusses the anomalous position of women within a patrilineal society, color symbolism, and notions of pollution and purity. On the whole, the book seems less concerned with Zulu medical beliefs and practices than with British social anthropological beliefs and practices.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2005
- Region
- Africa
- Sub Region
- Southern Africa
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Types
- Ethnographer
- Indigenous Person
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Eleanor C. Swanson ; Marlene Martin ; 1979
- Field Date
- 1963-1964 (7mos.); 1971 (8 mos.); intermittently between 1964-1971
- Coverage Date
- 1963-1971
- Coverage Place
- Nyuswa Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Notes
- Harriet Ngubane
- Originally presented as the author's thesis
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-169) and index
- LCCN
- 76016982
- LCSH
- Zulu (African people)