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Religion, Epic, History

Notes on the Underlying Functions of Cults in Benin Civilizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Claude Tardits

Extract

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The interest now being manifested in the history of African civilizations (an interest which one may be assured in advance can never be satisfied), raises the question whether the function which, in our societies devolves upon the diffusion of history, has not sometimes been fulfilled on the African continent by activities based on specific functions generally considered devoid of historical significance, as, for example, religion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 10 , Issue 37 , March 1962 , pp. 16 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © 1962 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 Vodun and Orisha, respectively, designate the gods of the Adja and Yorouba pantheons.

2 P. Verger, Dieux d'Afrique, Paris, Hartmann, 1954.

3 A. Métraux, Le vaudou haïtien, Paris, Gallimard, 1958, p. 113.

4 P. Verger, Notes sur le culte des orisha et vodun à Bahia, la baie de tous les saints au Brésil, et à l'ancienne cóte des esclaves en Afrique, Dakar, Travaux et Mémoires de l'IFAN No. 51, 1957; pp. 29-30.

5 M. Herskovits, Dahomey, An Ancient West African Kingdom, New York, J. J. Augustin, 1938, p. 218.

6 Ibid., p. 211.

7 Ibid., p. 221.

8 The initiation of the women of the Orishas has been described by R. Bastide in Le Candomblé de Bahia, Paris, Mouton, 1958.