Święto Jamów we współczesnej Ghanie. Tradycja ponad podziałami religijnymi

Anna  Niedźwiedź

Titles

Abstract

The Yam Festival in Contemporary Ghana: Tradition Beyond Religious Boundaries

This article is based on ethnographic field research conducted in the central part of Ghana, in the Brong Ahafo region. It gives a description of two yam festivals performed in 2010 in the small town of Jema and the nearby village of Kokuma. The author depicts the meanings associated with yams in traditional indigenous cultures and vernacular religions in Ghana as well as within the broader region of the Gulf of Guinea. Contemporary yam festivals are interpreted in relation to the old symbolic and sacred meanings of the yam as “the king of crops” as well as in relation to the contemporary circumstances of African societies which are becoming modernised and less dependent on traditional agriculture. A special focus is placed on the position of chiefs, royal attributes (stools) and involvement of people from different religious backgrounds (Christians, Muslims, “traditionalists”). The concept of “sensational forms” proposed by Birgit Meyer is discussed in relation to yam festivals, which are treated here as performances generating a specific religious “style” shared by contemporary Ghanaians irrespective of their religious affiliations.

Keywords

Ghana, antropologia religii, etnografia Afryki Zachodniej, Święto Jamów, wodzowie, tradycja ; Ghana, anthropology of religion, ethnography of West Africa, yam festival, chiefs, tradition

Ghana, anthropology of religion, ethnography of West Africa, yam festival, chiefs, tradition

References

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Information

Information: Studia Religiologica, 2014, Volume 47, Issue 3, pp. 237 - 252

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Święto Jamów we współczesnej Ghanie. Tradycja ponad podziałami religijnymi

English:

The Yam Festival in Contemporary Ghana: Tradition Beyond Religious Boundaries

Authors

Anna Niedźwiedź

Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland

Published at: 01.12.2014

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Anna Niedźwiedź (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

Polish

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