Book
Magic, divination and witchcraft among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia
Chatto and Windus • (3) • Published In 1963 • Pages: 19, 181 , plates
By: Reynolds, Barrie.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Reynolds compiled this survey of Barotse sorcery from records of investigations and judicial proceedings conducted by British officials in 1956 during a 'wave' of sorcery and witchcraft incidents. The information is organized by the vernacular differentiations among specialists: MULOI, NG'AKA, MULAULI, and SITONDO (sorcerers, witchdoctors, diviners, and rain makers respectively). Reynolds stresses throughout that a particular specialist will often take up the practices of one of the other specialists; a MULOI will be acquainted with some of the legerdemain of the NG'AKA. Reynolds concludes that the particular intensity of the 1956 outbreak can be attributed to culture contact and culture change phenomena, and fears that the British authorities were perhaps overzealous in the execution of justice. In 8: Gluckman, 'The judicial process among the Barotse', pp. 423-6, there is an important critique of Reynold's work.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Sorcery
- Shamans and psychotherapists
- Magic
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Lozi
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1995
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southern 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.
- 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
- Adolph Hoehling ; Sigrid Khera
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1957
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1956
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Zambia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Barrie Reynolds
- Bibliography: p. 170
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Lozi (African people)