essay
Divination in Bunyoro, Uganda
Magic, witchcraft and curing • Garden City, N.y. • Published In 1967 • Pages: 211-231, 321-330
By: Beattie, John.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Here, Beattie discusses in more detail spirit possession and divination rituals (see document no. 5.) Diviners are mostly men who travel the country offering their services. Beattie discusses three different methods of divination: mechanical, augury, and by means of spirits. Mechanical methods involve the use of charms, plant leaves, leather strips, wooden sticks, and cowry shells, the last being the most common. Augury involves the examination of the blood flow and entrails of chickens. Divination by spirits involves sTances in which a spirit answers questions through a diviner. Another form of divination involved the use of fetishes such as magical horns which could talk. It is associated with sorcery.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Information sources listed in other works
- Spirits and gods
- Sacred objects and places
- Revelation and divination
- Magicians and diviners
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Banyoro
- 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
- Eastern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- 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.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 2002
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1951-1955
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1951-1955
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Western Province, Uganda
- NotesAdditional notes
- John Beattie
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-330)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 67012895
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Nyoro (African people)