essay
'Medicines' and the sexual transmission of disease among the Suku of Zaire: (with some relevence to AIDS)
Body and space: symbolic models of unity and division in African cosmology and experience • Stockholm • Published In 1991 • Pages: 303-314
By: Kopytoff, Igor.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article discusses the cultural meanings and medicinal functions of traditional Suku religious objects called "lineage medicines." These are associated with lineages because, unlike other types of Suku medicine, they are held not by individuals but by the matrilineage. An important function of such medicines is ensuring the corporate wellbeing of matrilineages by controlling the transmission of disease and misfortune due to sexual relations.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Theory of disease
- Medical therapy
- Shamans and psychotherapists
- Ethnopsychology
- Lineages
- Gender roles and issues
- Ethnoanatomy
- Sorcery
- Pharmaceuticals
- Sex and marital offenses
- Purification and atonement
- Avoidance and taboo
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Suku
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2016
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central 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.
- 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 ; 2014
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1958-1959
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1920-1959
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Kwango district, Bandundu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- NotesAdditional notes
- Igor Kopytoff
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 314)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 92168732
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Suku (African people)