article
Belief in 'witches' among the rural Wolof of the Gambia
Africa • 24 (3) • Published In 1959 • Pages: 263-273
By: Ames, David W..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The Wolof believe in the existence of DOMA, a person who attacks and 'eats' his fellows. This article describes the behavior ascribed to the DOMA and the means of warding off their attacks. The author concludes that although the belief in DOMA suggests that the culprits may function as 'scapegoats' in the native society, it tends to increase rather than reduce social tensions and personal anxieties; therefore, the DOMA complex can be regarded as mainly dysfunctional, both in the social and psychological sense.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Sorcery
- Offenses against the person
- Magical and mental therapy
- Preventive medicine
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Wolof
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1999
- 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
- 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.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Robert Lee ; 1959
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1950-1951
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1950-1951
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Saloum districts, Gambia and Senegal
- NotesAdditional notes
- David Ames
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 29010790
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Wolof (African people)