Yoruba peoples of southwestern Nigeria conceive of rituals as journeys--sometimes actual, sometimes virtual. Performed as a parade or a procession, a pilgrimage, a masking display, or possession trance, the journey evokes the reflexive, progressive, transformative experience of ritual participation. Yoruba Ritual is an original and provocative study of these practices. Using a performance paradigm, Margaret Thompson Drewal forges a new theoretical and methodological approach to the study of ritual that is thoroughly grounded in close analysis of the thoughts and actions of the participants. Challenging traditional notions of ritual as rigid, stereotypic, and invariant, Drewal reveals ritual to be progressive, transformative, generative, and reflexive and replete with simultaneity, multifocality, contingency, indeterminacy, and intertextuality. Throughout the book prominence is given to the intentionality of actors as knowledgeable agents who transform ritual itself through play and improvisation. Integral to the narrative are interpolations about performances and their meanings by Kolawole Ositola, a scholar of Yoruba oral tradition, ritual practitioner, diviner, and master performer. Rich descriptions of rituals relating to birth, death, reincarnation, divination, and constructions of gender are rendered all the more vivid by a generous selection of field photos of actual performances.

Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency

Drewal, Margaret Thompson

Indiana University Press

"... an exceptionally rich source for all those interested in symbolic, religious or social studies." —Tribus
"... an excellent book... fascinating to read." —Research in African Literatures
"... a volume that establishes the standards by which future works on the masked festivals of the Yoruba and other Sub-Saharan African peoples will be judged." —African Arts
"... the most sophisticated art historical analysis of a single African aesthetic tradition." —Tribal Arts Review

Gelede: Art and Female Power among the Yoruba (Traditional Arts of Africa)

Arts & Photography

Drewal, Henry John

History & Criticism

Yoruba peoples of southwestern Nigeria conceive of rituals as journeys sometimes actual, sometimes virtual. Performed as a parade or a procession, a pilgrimage, a masking display, or possession trance, the journey evokes the reflexive, progressive, transformative experience of ritual participation. "Yoruba Ritual" is an original and provocative study of these practices. Using a performance paradigm, Margaret Thompson Drewal forges a new theoretical and methodological approach to the study of ritual that is thoroughly grounded in close analysis of the thoughts and actions of the participants. Challenging traditional notions of ritual as rigid, stereotypic, and invariant, Drewal reveals ritual to be progressive, transformative, generative, and reflexive and replete with simultaneity, multifocality, contingency, indeterminacy, and intertextuality. Throughout the book prominence is given to the intentionality of actors as knowledgeable agents who transform ritual itself through play and improvisation. Integral to the narrative are interpolations about performances and their meanings by Kolawole Ositola, a scholar of Yoruba oral tradition, ritual practitioner, diviner, and master performer. Rich descriptions of rituals relating to birth, death, reincarnation, divination, and constructions of gender are rendered all the more vivid by a generous selection of field photos of actual performances.

Religion & Spirituality

Yoruba peoples of southwestern Nigeria conceive of rituals as journeys sometimes actual, sometimes virtual. Performed as a parade or a procession, a pilgrimage, a masking display, or possession trance, the journey evokes the reflexive, progressive, transformative experience of ritual participation. "Yoruba Ritual" is an original and provocative study of these practices. Using a performance paradigm, Margaret Thompson Drewal forges a new theoretical and methodological approach to the study of ritual that is thoroughly grounded in close analysis of the thoughts and actions of the participants. Challenging traditional notions of ritual as rigid, stereotypic, and invariant, Drewal reveals ritual to be progressive, transformative, generative, and reflexive and replete with simultaneity, multifocality, contingency, indeterminacy, and intertextuality. Throughout the book prominence is given to the intentionality of actors as knowledgeable agents who transform ritual itself through play and improvisation. Integral to the narrative are interpolations about performances and their meanings by Kolawole Ositola, a scholar of Yoruba oral tradition, ritual practitioner, diviner, and master performer. Rich descriptions of rituals relating to birth, death, reincarnation, divination, and constructions of gender are rendered all the more vivid by a generous selection of field photos of actual performances.

Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency (African Systems of Thought)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Indiana Univ. Pr

"... an exceptionally rich source for all those interested in symbolic, religious or social studies." â€”Tribus
"... an excellent book... fascinating to read." â€”Research in African Literatures
"... a volume that establishes the standards by which future works on the masked festivals of the Yoruba and other Sub-Saharan African peoples will be judged." â€”African Arts
"... the most sophisticated art historical analysis of a single African aesthetic tradition." â€”Tribal Arts Review

Gelede: Art and Female Power Among the Yoruba (Traditional Arts of Africa)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Drewal, Margaret Thompson. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Drewal, Margaret Thompson

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Drewal, Margaret Thompson. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency

Gelede: Art and Female Power among the Yoruba (Traditional Arts of Africa)

Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency

Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency (African Systems of Thought)

Gelede: Art and Female Power Among the Yoruba (Traditional Arts of Africa)