Twins in African and diaspora cultures [electronic resource] : double trouble, twice blessed / edited by Philip M. Peek.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Peek, Philip M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Twins--Social aspects--Africa.

Twins.

Twins--Africa--Religious aspects.

Twins in art.

African diaspora.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (377 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Africa, where the birthrate of twins is among the highest in the world, twins can be seen as a burden to their families and a threat to the social order, or they can be seen as a gift from God and beings with unique abilities who bring about social harmony. Philip M. Peek and the contributors to this illuminating, multidisciplinary volume explore this rich cultural heritage by examining topics such as twins in artistic representation, twins and divination, and twins in performance, cosmology, religion, and popular culture.

Contents:

Introduction : beginning to rethink twins / Philip M. Peek

Twins and double beings among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali / Pascal James Imperato and Gavin H. Imperato

Twins and intertwinement : reflections on ambiguity and ambivalence in northwestern Namibia / Steven Van Wolputte

Sustaining the oneness in their twoness : poetics of twin figures (ère ìbejì) among the Yoruba / Babatunde Lawal

"Son dos los jimagüas" ("the twins are two") : worship of the sacred twins in Lucumí religious culture / Ysamur Flores-Pena

Twins, couples, and doubles and the negotiation of spirit-human identities among the Win / Susan Cooksey

Double portraits : images of twinness in West African studio photography / C. Angelo Micheli

Forever liminal : twins among the Kapsiki/Higi of north Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria / Walter E.A. Van Beek

Snake, bush, and metaphor : twinship among Ubangians / Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers

Fiction and forbidden sexual fantasy in the culture of Temne twins / Frederick John Lamp

Embodied dilemma : Tabwa twinship in thought and performance / Allen F. Roberts

Children of the moon : twins in Luba art and ontology / Mary Nooter Roberts

Two equals three : twins and the trickster in Haitian vodou / Marilyn Houlberg

Divine children : the ibejis and the erês in Brazilian candomblé / Stefania Capone

The ambiguous ordinariness of Yoruba twins / Elisha P. Renne

Twins, albinos, and vanishing prisoners : a Mozambican theory of political power / Paulo Granjo.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-253-00163-3

OCLC:

747432797