What is it about?
The book considers the variety of different forms of Mambila divination (including spider divination which sometimes is done with crabs!) As well as considering the conceptual logic of consulting divination the book considers the way that the questions asked are in themselves revealing of patterns of concern and significance in society.
Featured Image
Photo by Nareeta Martin on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The book seeks to change the emphasis in academic research from the diviners to the clients of divination. There is a large literature on how divination is undertaken, but very little has been written about the clients and the questions asked.
Perspectives
This is based on ongoing involvement in Cameroon with Mambila people gong back to 1985 when my doctoral research started. The most recent data was collected in 2019.
Professor David Zeitlyn
University of Oxford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mambila divination, February 2020, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9780367199517-8.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Divination
Online readings and a simulation of Spider Divination
VIMS
The ERA site has material on divination. For background on mambila see http://www.mambila.info
Book interview
Interview by Stephan Feuchtwang for the CAMP linguistic anthropology blog
From Arachnophobia To Arachnophilia | THE SHED
Discussion about spider divination in context of the work of Tomas Saraceno
Discussing Mambila Spider Divination and Visual Anthropology in Cameroon
Know-show discussion about Spider Divination and Visual Anthropology in Cameroon
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
