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Africa - Anthropology & Sociology, Africa - African Peoples - West, Psychological Self-Help - General & Miscellaneous, Religious Rituals & Practices - General & Miscellaneous, Socio-Cultural Anthropology - General & Miscellaneous
Ritual: Power, Healing and Community by Malidoma P. Some β€” book cover

Ritual: Power, Healing and Community

by Malidoma P. Some
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Overview

Since time out of mind, ritual has been the public expression of private beliefs. It makes use of pageantry and familiarity to confirm the individual's commitment to the group. Grief rituals serve as a prototype for an intensive examination of the uses and dangers of traditional ritual practice. The author not only examines the purpose of various rituals, but describes how they are performed.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Some is the ideal author for this book, which presents traditional beliefs about spirit possession and the need for ritual. He grew up in a village in West Africa and holds advanced degrees from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University, and he is also a Dagara medicine man and diviner. Some presents his own reactions to Western culture's enslavement to machine technology, which, he states, ``is the spirit of death made to look like life.'' He concentrates on the need for grief ritual and ways of working with emotion in Western culture. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.

Book Details

Published
March 1, 1993
Publisher
The Windrush Press
Pages
124
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780963231024

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