Book
Sex and the empire that is no more: gender and the politics of metaphor in Oyo Yoruba religion
University of Minnesota Press • Minneapolis • Published In 1994 • Pages:
By: Matory, James Lorand.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This book provides a historical analysis of how women continue to redefine power and religion in Yoruba soceity. Based on historical and cultural information relating to the state and religion in pre-colonial Oyo empire (a subsection of the Yoruba kingdom), the book discusses the many ways by which women excercised effective political power as priestesses in a female dominated spirit-possesion royal cults called Sango and Yemoja. It further shows how women managed to transform this power into an important voice in contemporary Nigeria and among people of Yoruba origin in the diaspora where these cults are increasingly reviving. The experiences of these empowered women call for a new conceptualization of gender not as asimple cultural elaboration on a 'naturally' given dichotomy between biological men and women, but as a central organizing principle which could also allow for the construction of both 'male wives' and 'female husbands.'
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Gender status
- General character of religion
- Priesthood
- Revelation and divination
- Congregations
- Organized ceremonial
- Form and rules of government
- Chief executive
- Family relationships
- Lineages
- Kin relationships
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Yoruba
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- 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
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- 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.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2007
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1982-1992
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1800-1992
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nigeria
- NotesAdditional notes
- J. Lorand Matory
- Revision of thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1991
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-284) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 93037980
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Yoruba (African people)