article
Married in the water: spirit kin and other afflictions of modernity in southeastern Nigeria
Journal of religion in Africa = Religion en Afrique • 27 (2) • Published In 1997 • Pages: 116-134
By: Bastian, Misty L..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is another study of OGBAANJE (see document no. 37). Ogbaanje are incarnate spirits who 'possess' children at birth but soon have their fill of human life returning to the spirit world, which results in premature death. In one type of ogbaanje, the water spirit MAMI WATA promises her victims automobiles, wristwatches and computers, but usually delivers disease and death. Beautiful, tantalizing, capricious, ogbaanje women do not marry, nor have children and therefore are of little value to the patrilineage. A newspaper account of a bridegroom's suicide interprets the death in terms of ogbaanje possession. It also reveals in Igbo patrilineal society the comeptition between wives and mothers over affections of their husbands and sons, respectively.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Spirits and gods
- Revelation and divination
- Magicians and diviners
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Igbo
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2003
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 2001
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1987-1988
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1987-1988
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Onitsha, Anambra State, Nigeria
- NotesAdditional notes
- Misty L. Bastian
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-134)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- sf 80000812
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Igbo (African people)