0 Item

Weaving the Threads of Life

The Khita Gyn-Eco-Logical Healing Cult among the Yaka

By: Rene Devisch

Write A Review

Paperback | 1 November 1993 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
344 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.93 x 15.52 x 1.7

Paperback

$105.95

or 4 interest-free payments of $26.49 with

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

For the Yaka of Southwestern Zaire, infertility is a tear in the fabric of life, and the "Khita" fertility ritual is a trusted way of reweaving the damaged strands. In "Weaving the Threads of Life" Rene Devisch offers an extended analysis of the "Khita" cult, which leads to an original account of the workings of ritual healing.
Drawing on many years among urban and rural Yaka, Devisch analyzes their understanding of existence as a fabric of firmly but delicately interwoven threads of nature, body, and society. The fertility healing ritual calls forth forces, feelings, and meanings that allow women to rejoin themselves to the complex pattern of social and cosmic life. These elaborate rites--whether simulating mortal agony and rebirth, gestation and delivery, or flowering and decay; using music and dance, steambath or massage, dream messages or scarification--are not based on symbols of traditional beliefs. Rather, Devisch shows, the rites themselves generate forces and meaning, creating and shaping the cosmic, physical, and social world of their participants.
In contrast to current theoretical methods such as postmodern or symbolical interpretation, Devisch's praxiological approach is unique in also using phenomenological insights into the intent and results of anthropological fieldwork. This innovative work will have ramifications beyond African studies, reaching into the anthropology of medicine and the body, comparative religious history, and women's studies.

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.

Defective items

If there is a problem with any of the items received for your order then the Booktopia Customer Care team is ready to assist you.

For more info please visit our Help Centre.

Acknowledgments Prologue
Field and Method
The Yaka People
Fieldwork
Bantu Cults of Affliction
Healers in the Town
Healing as a Social and Theatrical Drama: A Critique
Body and Weave: A Semantic-Praxilogical Approach
The Cosmology of Gender Arrangements and Life Transmission
Horizontal and Vertical Space
Cosmological Portrayal of Gender
Animals and Plants
Capturing and 'Cooking' Untamed Forces
The Social Formation of Life Transmission
Life-bearing and Nurturing in the Homestead
Marriage as a Transfer "Along the Path to the Village"
The Reproductive Cell
The Two-forked Tree of Agnatic Descent and Uterine Filiation
Hunting versus Sorcery, and the Fabric of Kin
Body, Group, and Life-world: Between Maze and Weave
Physical and Sensory Modes of Contact
The Relational Body
The Body and Its Afflictions
Cults of Affliction and Communal Sodalities
Impediments of Life Transmission
Masculinist Views on Human Agencies in Infertility
Divinatory Etiology and the Work of Cults
Etiology as an Indication of Therapy
TheKhitaFertility Cult: Reversing the Evil
Khitaand Similar Cults
The First Stage: Reversing the Persecution into Uterine Bonds of Life Transmission
The Second Stage: The Decay and Cooking of Generative Forces
TheKhitaFertility Cult: Reorigination of the Fabric of Body, Kin, and Life-world
The Third Stage: Seclusion in the Uterus of the World
The Fourth Stage: Emancipating Forest Forces into Social Fecundity
Relapse of Illness
Fertility Rituals and Analyses Compared: A Look at Victor Turner
The Body as the Weaving Loom of Healing and Life
The Role of Music and Dance in Healing
The Source of Healing
Paradox, Transgression, and Homeopathic Healing
A Ternary Logic of Mediation and Effusion in Self-healing Epilogue
A Case of Infertility
Appendix B
Notes
References
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Weaving the Threads of Life

The Khita Gyn-Eco-Logical Healing Cult among the Yaka

At a Glance

Paperback

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

More in Family & Health

Labour of Love

A Midwife's Stories of Birth, Life and Speaking Up for Women

The Next Conversation

Argue Less, Talk More

The Conditions of Will

The new novel from the author of MAGNOLIA PARKS, available now!

The Anxious Generation

How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

How to be a (fantastic sensational) good enough kid

What Matters to You

How your values are the key to transforming your life and work, perfect for readers of Brene Brown, Julia Baird and Brianna Wiest

Say Everything

A Memoir

The Fourth Trimester

Unfiltered, honest and achievable advice for every new mum in the first twelve weeks after birth

All Women Want

An intimate look inside women's love lives and pursuits of pleasure, for readers of THREE WOMEN, COME AS YOU ARE and SMART SEX

A Better Second Half

Dial Back Your Age to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life. The Number 1 Sunday Times bestseller 2024.

Growing Together

Doula Wisdom & Holistic Practices for Pregnancy, Birth & Early Motherhood

Shine Your Light

A Guided Journal for Deepening Your Emotional Intelligence

Processed

How the processed meat industry is killing us with the food we love

Soph's Plant Kitchen

Delicious high protein recipes to fuel you for life

A Gut Mood Solution

A groundbreaking strategy for managing bipolar disorders

Shred Happens: So Easy, So Good

100+ Protein-packed Mediterranean Favourites with a Low-carb Twist

One Day at a Time

An inspiring memoir about the power of hope and faith for readers of Heartstrong and Girl Who Fell From The Sky

Someone Like Me

An anthology of non-fiction by Autistic writers

Parenting Different

How to raise your neurodivergent kids to be their authentic, awesome selves

The Ageless Brain

How to Sharpen and Protect Your Mind for a Lifetime

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

Updated With New Material

We Should All be Feminists

The Fast 800

Australian and New Zealand Edition

This product is categorised by