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Oracles, Trauma, and the Limits of Contextualization: Naming the Witch in Contemporary Kenya

Oracles, Trauma, and the Limits of Contextualization: Naming the Witch in Contemporary Kenya Abstract This article revisits Terence Ranger’s call for scholars of the occult in Africa to better historicize, contextualize, and disaggregate the subject. I argue that Ranger’s imperative fails to define what type of object of study the occult is and take seriously the ‘aggregation’ of the occult as an empirical ethnographic fact. I suggest that ‘the occult’ is often experienced as both a proliferating series of oracular institutions for contending with feelings of affliction, and as invisible forces whose origin and nature are compound. I turn to James Siegel’s work on witchcraft to bring attention to the experiential dimension of the occult, and provide an extended ethnographic account of a moment in which the source, nature, and means of redress of an individual’s occult affliction cannot be determined. I argue, in line with Siegel, that historicization and contextualization, while important, risk denaturing the occult and impairing our understanding of its persistence. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Religion in Africa Brill

Oracles, Trauma, and the Limits of Contextualization: Naming the Witch in Contemporary Kenya

Journal of Religion in Africa , Volume 43 (3): 329 – Jan 1, 2013

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4200
eISSN
1570-0666
DOI
10.1163/15700666-12341255
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract This article revisits Terence Ranger’s call for scholars of the occult in Africa to better historicize, contextualize, and disaggregate the subject. I argue that Ranger’s imperative fails to define what type of object of study the occult is and take seriously the ‘aggregation’ of the occult as an empirical ethnographic fact. I suggest that ‘the occult’ is often experienced as both a proliferating series of oracular institutions for contending with feelings of affliction, and as invisible forces whose origin and nature are compound. I turn to James Siegel’s work on witchcraft to bring attention to the experiential dimension of the occult, and provide an extended ethnographic account of a moment in which the source, nature, and means of redress of an individual’s occult affliction cannot be determined. I argue, in line with Siegel, that historicization and contextualization, while important, risk denaturing the occult and impairing our understanding of its persistence.

Journal

Journal of Religion in AfricaBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2013

Keywords: Kenya; witchcraft; occult; oracle; uncertainty

References