Book

Body and mind in Zulu medicine: an ethnography of health and disease in Nyuswa-Zulu thought and practice

Academic PressLondon • 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.
Subjects
Reviews and critiques
Theoretical orientation in research and its results
Pharmaceuticals
Gender status
Mode of marriage
Arranging a marriage
Nuptials
Lineages
Clans
Public welfare
Theory of disease
Sorcery
Magical and mental therapy
Medical therapy
Eschatology
Spirits and gods
Prayers and sacrifices
Revelation and divination
Ethnophysics
culture
Zulu
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)