Traditional Healers and Childhood in ZimbabweOhio University Press, 1996 - 183 pages Based on the author's fieldwork among the people of Zezuru, this study focuses on children as clients and as healers in training. In Reynolds's ethnographic investigation of possession and healing, she pays particular attention to the way healers are identified and authenticated in communities, and how they are socialized in the use of medicinal plants, dreams, and ritual healing practices. Reynolds examines spiritual interpretation and remediation of children's problems, including women's roles in these activities, and the Zezuru concepts of trauma, evil, illness, and death. Because this study was undertaken just after the War of Liberation in Zimbabwe, it also documents the devastating effects of the war. |
Contents
The Training of Traditional Healers | 1 |
Kin Ties among Claimants to Possession | 12 |
Dreams and the Constitution of Self | 25 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
acolytes adults African alien spirits ancestors anger appendix baby behavior believe bira Botswana Bourdillon bush called cause Chaminuka Chavunduka Chihata Chikanga chil child chiremba Chirizevha chapera claim cleansed comrades consulted dead death divine dren evil spirit experience father Gelfand girl given Gororo governess guerrillas hakata Harare healing herbs ibid identified identity illness individual innocent interpretation Kazembe killed knowledge learning Liberation living Mabvuku Machena Manama Mande Mande's manfish mashave Mashonaland materia medica mbira medicine moral mother mujibha Musami n'anga Ndembu ngozi night njuzu parents patient percent person plants possessed protection purity relation Rhodesia Herald Rhodesian ritual river role sadza security forces seen sell-out shades Shona social soldiers spirit mediums story Sunday Mail supernatural symbolic system terrorists Thomas Mapfumo tion told traditional healers treat treatment trouble vadzimu village witch witchcraft woman young Zambia ZANU PF Zezuru Zimbabwe