symbol and ritual - the forest of symbols, victor turner Flashcards
1 - what is the ritual
- Focused on Ndembu of Zambia
- Example of Ritual = Nkang’a (puberty ritual)
1 - the milk tree
o Girl is wrapped in blanket and placed at bottom of mudyi sapling
o Tree is known for white latex, it lets out milky beads when the bark is scratched
o Turner calls it the ‘milk tree’
o Milk tree = symbol of human breasts and breast milk
o Milk tree = also a site of knowledge. The ritual is a process of learning about womanhood
♣ ‘the girl drinks sense as a baby drinks milk’ (53)
1 - main theme of puberty ritual
o Ceremony performed when girl is beginning to grow breasts
o Main theme = ‘tie of nurturing between mother and child’ (21)
o Focused not on biological act of breastfeeding but on the ‘social tie of profound significance both in domestic relations and in the structure of the widest Ndembu community’ (21)
1 - how does the milk tree link to social cohesion
o Women dance round tree whilst girl sleeps under it
♣ Women are linked in the fact that they all slept under it at some point = female community
♣ Men too are circumcised under milk tree = community united
o Milk tree = matrilineal but also the backbone of social organisation – unites both men and women. Interrelations between genders, unifying force.
o It is key to the initiation of both boys and girls.
1 - milk tree as site of opposition
o Milk tree = site of opposition/contradiction
♣ Gendered opposition
• Women have the power in the ceremony – refuse to let men join in with dancing
♣ Opposition between child and mother
• Mother cannot join in with ceremony
• Symbolises mother’s loss of her child
• Mother and daughter exchange bits of clothing – perhaps reflects Ndembu ritual of mourners wearing small portion of deceased’s clothing?
♣ Contradiction in the idea that the ceremony fosters female community and yet, when the girl first approaches the milk tree, she is teased by the older women
♣ ‘this… represents competition between the principles of matriliny and virilocality’ (56)
1 - three properties of ritual symbols
o Condensation
♣ ‘many things and actions are represented in a single formation’ (28)
o unification of disparate significate
♣ things are interconnected through shared analogous significance
♣ e.g. tree is linked to breasts of woman
o polarisation of meaning
♣ e.g. natural/biological aspect of puberty vs. implications it has on the moral/social order of the Ndembu society i.e. social hierarchy, relations between e
♣ genders etc.
2 - three levels of meaning in symbol
o Level of indigenous interpretation (exegetical meaning)
♣ Obtained through conversation with informants
o Operational meaning
♣ Its meaning in use – how they use symbols
o Positional meaning
♣ The relationship of a symbol to other symbols
2 - what is the ritual
- E.g. Mukanda, circumcision ritual
o Circumcised under a mudyi tree (symbolises mother-child relationship)
o Lifted over cutting of muyomba tree (shrine to village ancestors)
o Placed still bleeding on mukala log
♣ Represents elders’ wish for quick healing (‘comes from the fact that the mukala gum quickly coagulates like a scab’ 51)
♣ Also represents life of man as a hunter who must shed blood of animals
o Uncircumcised boy = unclean. Same view held of menstruating women
2 - songs during ritual
o Circumcisers perform a song with three main themes
♣ ‘killing’ of novice by circumciser
♣ conflict between circumciser and the boy’s mother
♣ impact of Mukanda on nature of Ndembu society
o song accompanied by dance
♣ violence of dancing parallels growling of lions
♣ opened legs and crouching = position of boy during circumcision
2 - ceremony and gender divide
o Ceremony emphasises gender divide. Women not involved
♣ Belief in uncircumcised men as unclean causes them to be associated more with the women’s sphere of activity
♣ It is through the ceremony that this association is terminated and the boy is included in the male community – can eat with them etc.
♣ ‘when the foreskin is removed by circumcision the effeminancy of the child is symbolically removed with it. The physical operation itself is symbolic of change of social status’ (268)
♣ having too many uncircumcised boys in a village = cause for anxiety and physical discomfort. Boys may be becoming too attached to mothers
2 - three fold symbolism of ceremony
♣ represents cut of dependency/relationship between mother and son
♣ ritual death and the association with ancestors
♣ incorporation into male community
3 - meaning of colours
- Colours are used to symbolise different social groups
- White = feminine. As seen in milk tree
- Red = masculine. As seen in circumcision
- However… this is not necessarily fixed
o In nkula rite, where a woman is rid of menstrual disorder, red clay is used to symbolise menstrual blood
o In Wubwang’u rite, performed for a woman expecting twins, the man applies white clay to the patient to represent semen. Women apply red clay to symbolise blood of mother.
o Gendered associations of colour are reversed.
3 - specific symbolism for colours
o White ♣ Goodness ♣ Purity ♣ Power ♣ Life (male and female?) ♣ Health ♣ Bringing forward life (male and female?) ♣ Huntsmanship etc. (male) o Red ♣ Blood of animals ♣ Blood of all women etc. (female) ♣ H… seen in circumcision ritual o Black ♣ Badness ♣ Lack of purity ♣ Disease ♣ Witchcraft ♣ Sexual desire
3 - importance of black for men nd women
o Connection between death and maturation
♣ When a girl first menstruates, she has matured (figured as death of previous stage)
♣ Nkang’a ceremony: girl lies motionless for 12hrs. As seen with boys, site of operation = ifwilu (place of suffering/dying)
o Circumcision rites
♣ Site of operation (ifwilu) = place of dying
♣ Where boys are still bleeding, mukala, is associated with spirits. Meaning of mukala = ‘to mature’
3 - black and sexual passion
o During seclusion, older women take black bark of trees and put it on the girl’s vulva. Aim = to make her more sexually attractive
o Women with very black skin = more attractive. Better as mistresses not wives
4 - Douglas and pollution
o What is unknown/unclear is regarded as unclean
o Could thus argue that transitional beings = polluting
- ‘we may have to distinguish between pollution notions which concern states that have been ambiguously or contradictorily defined and those which derive from ritualised transitions between states’ (97)
4 - liminal period
- indeed, during transitory rituals, liminal period = defined as a ‘seclusion site’
- neophytes are disguised/hidden in some way (apply this to Chisungu and Ndembu – girls are wrapped in clothing/covered in clay etc.)
- ‘If the liminal period is seen as an interstructural phase in social dynamics, the symbolism both of androgyny and sexlessness immediately becomes intelligible in sociological terms without the need to import psychological… explanations’ (98)
- transitional beings have nothing, no status etc.
‘their condition is indeed the very prototype of sacred poverty’ (99
4 - chisungu
- Richards, Chisungu
o Bemba speak of ‘growing a girl’ when they mean initiating her
o Shows sense of comradeship present in liminal ceremonies
o Growing a girl = ontological transformation
10 - what is the ritual
- Looks at case study of Ndembu chimuki (doctor)
- Ndembu = ‘amalgam of Lunda invaders from the Katanga and the autochthonous Mbwela and Lukolwe’ (359)
10 - social cause of sickness
o ‘all persistent or severe sickness is believed to be caused either by the punitive action of ancestral shades or by the secret malevolence of male sorcerors or female witches’ (360)
o rites of exorcism = key component of social conflict involved
♣ ‘Rites of affliction’ – 292
♣ ‘Therapy then becomes a matter of sealing up the breaches in social relationships simultaneously with ridding the patient of his pathological symptoms’ (360)
o factional rivalry = often starts conflict and claims of ‘disease’
o death prompts accusation of sorcery. Deemed the cause of death
10 - divination
o begins with death/reproductive trouble etc.
o starts with conversation in the village about next steps
o consult a diviner = central phase
♣ death, disease etc. due to social relations
♣ ‘diviners try to elicit from their clients responses that give clues about the patterns of current tensions in their groups of origin’ (361)
♣ ‘Divination therefore becomes a form of social analysis’
o decide prescription and carry it out e.g. exorcism/herbal medicines
♣ ‘the herbal medicines employed derive their efficacy, according to the Ndembu, from mystical notions, and native therapy is an intrinsic part of a whole magico-religious system’ (361)
o Looks both backwards as cause and forwards to ‘remedial measures’
o ‘divination therefore becomes a form of social analysis, in the course of which hidden struggles among individuals and factions are brought to light’ (361)
10 - therapeutic rites
o There are cult associations that are devoted to specific types of ancestral shades
o Cult members are united in their modes of affliction
o ‘since there are many cults and sine the focal symbols of each refer to basic values and beliefs shared by all Ndembu, it may be said that the total system of cults of affliction keeps alive, through constant repetition, the sentiment of tribal unity’ (362)
o Political decentralisation – villages split and reassemble
o Cults of affliction is counterbalance to this structural instability
10 - ihamba cult
o Associated with hunting ritual
o Ihamba means upper central incisor of deceased individual = complex part of beliefs and symbols associated with ritual
o When a gun-hunter dies, their incisors (left – mother’s side, right – dad’s side) are inherited
o Ihamba is put into bed of corn in a pouch (mukata). Above it are two cowrie shells (mpashi) which are known as the ‘eyes’ (mesu). They give the owner of the mukata the same powers as the mesu i.e. ability to see animals
o Mukata is hung up when not in use. Women are forbidden to approach shrine closely
o Key part of Ndemnu ritual is that ‘blood of huntsmanship’ must not be mixed with ‘the blood of motherhood’ or the ‘blood of procreation’ (363)
10 - ihamba and hunting
o When a woman is giving birth, husband must remove all hunting gear
♣ ‘behind this principle lies the notion that, for a child to be born, the maternal blood must coagulate around the fetus. Hunters shed blood and cause it to gush and flow. Again, women give life, while hunters take it. The two functions are anthithetical’ (363)
o ihamba = symbol of aggressive power of hunter. Can ‘bite’ people – bites only when there has been moral/customary transgression
o women are excluded from becoming ihamba doctors as doctors must be hunters, and hunters are male. This is paralleled with the idea of the ihamba as a ‘manifestation of a male shade’ (365)
