article
Dualism in Somali notions of power
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland • 93 • Published In 1963 • Pages: 109-116
By: Lewis, I. M..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Somali distinguish sharply between secular and religious power. Feuds between lineages and DIA-paying groups are decided through physical fighting. The victory of a group is never attributed to supernatural power but plainly to superior strength in number of warriors. Religious power is considered to be purely a matter of men of religion (sheikhs and waadads) who at least ideally are not involved in feuds and fighting. Through their religious power they are able to call blessings on people from God, which the average man, as warrior, can do insufficiently, only. Sorcery is of little significance amongst the Somali, who apparently due to their pre-occupation with physical fighting have little need for means of spiritual aggression. Cursing is, however, feared from Sab-bondsmen, who, as a numerically small and economically dependent group, can never take up physical fighting against a Somali-group.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Sorcery
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Somali
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1997
- 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
- 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
- Sigrid Khera, John Beierle ; 1970-1974
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1955-1957
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Somalia, Djibouti, and southeastern Ethiopia
- NotesAdditional notes
- by I. M. Lewis
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 116)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- sn79006341
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Somalis