Truth in motion : the recursive anthropology of Cuban divination / Martin Holbraad.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Holbraad, Martin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ifa--Cuba.

Ifa.

Divination--Cuba.

Divination.

Cuba--Religion.

Cuba.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (346 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Embarking on an ethnographic journey to the inner barrios of Havana among practitioners of Ifá, a prestigious Afro-Cuban tradition of divination, Truth in Motion reevaluates Western ideas about truth in light of the practices and ideas of a wildly different, and highly respected, model. Acutely focusing on Ifá, Martin Holbraad takes the reader inside consultations, initiations, and lively public debates to show how Ifá practitioners see truth as something to be not so much represented, as transformed. Bringing his findings to bear on the discipline of anthropology itself, he recasts the very idea of truth as a matter not only of epistemological divergence but also of ontological difference-the question of truth, he argues, is not simply about how things may appear differently to people, but also about the different ways of imagining what those things are. By delving so deeply into Ifá practices, Truth in Motion offers cogent new ways of thinking about otherness and how anthropology can navigate it.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction: The Question of Truth in the Historiography and Ethnography of Ifá Divination

Chapter 1. Truth in Anthropology: From Nature and Culture to Recursive Analysis

Chapter 2. Truth Beyond Doubt: The Alterity of Divination

Chapter 3. Living Ifá: The Matter of Truth

Chapter 4. Mythical Transcendence and Ritual Elicitation: The Cosmo-Praxis of Ifá Divination

Chapter 5. The Ontology of Motion: Power, Powder, and Vertical Transformation

Chapter 6. Divinatory Metamorphosis: Symbolism, Interpretation, and the Motility of Meaning

Chapter 7. The Event of Truth: Coincidence, Revelation, Bewilderment

Chapter 8. Definition and Obligation: The Truth of the Oracles

Conclusion: Anthropological Truth

Epilogue: On Humility

Appendix A: The Naming and Ranking of Divinatory Configurations

Appendix B: "Papers of Ifá": An Example

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786613587022

9780226349220

0226349225

9781280491795

1280491795

OCLC:

793511133