Ritual: Power, Healing and Community

by Malidoma Patrice Some

Overview

The stories within these books have the poignancy of new discoveries as well as the unworn imagination of the ancestors. The commentary has the sharp edge of modern thought and the intricacy which results from the intellect being woven through the ritual complexities of tribal life. The purpose of constructing thresholds that bring this world together is to find the powers that can heal the rends in tribal as well as modern communities.? —Michael Meade, from the Introduction

Versed in the languages of psychology, comparative literature, as well as ancient mythology, healing, and divination, Malidoma Patrice Some bridges paths between the ancient tribal world of the West African Dagara culture and modern Western society. Ritual is written with wild imagination, careful critical reflection, and intuitive insights that will force the reader to encounter the world anew.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140195583
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/01/1997
Series:	Compass
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	361,786
Product dimensions:	5.54(w) x 8.41(h) x 0.34(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Malidoma Patrice Somé, born in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) West Africa, is initiated in the ancestral traditions of his tribe, and is a medicine man and diviner in the Dagra culture. He holds three master's degrees and two doctorates from Sorbonne and Brandeis University, and has taught at the University of Michigan. He currently devotes himself to speaking and, with his wife, Sobonfu, conducting intensive workshops throughout the United States.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: by Michael Meade
My Beginnings in Ritual
The Dimensions of Ritual
Ritual: The Anti-Machine
Pain and Ritual
Ritual, Ceremony and Us
Our Role in Ritual
The Hidden Space of Ritual
Ritual as Show
Power on Display
Sabotaging Ritual Space
Ritual and Community
Models of Ritual and Constraints of the Modern World
Money and Spirit
Power and Corruption
The Structure of Ritual
A Ritual Sampler: The Funeral and the Language of Grief
Invocation and the Funeral Ritual
The Re-enactment
Speeches and the Pyre
Modernity and Death
The Farewell
How to Ritualize Life

Editorial Reviews

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.

Library Journal