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Religion as Play: Bori, a Friendly "Witchdoctor"

Religion as Play: Bori, a Friendly "Witchdoctor" RELIGION AS PLAY: BORI, A FRIENDLY "WITCHDOCTOR" BY FRANK SALAMONE (St. John's University, Jamaica, N. Y.) On play we may move below the level of the serious, as the child does; but we can also move above it - in the realm of the beautiful and the sacred. 1 Huizinga found it surprising that anthropologists had paid little attention to the interrelationship between play and religion.2 With very few exceptions that neglect seems to have persisted into the pres- ent. Analysis of reasons for that neglect would require a separate paper. 3 However, the existence of that neglect is a fact that has re- tarded the development of a more complete qualitative understanding of the religious experience. By insisting on the serious nature of religion while treating "play" as synonymous with "frivolous", scholars have failed to focus on an important aspect of the sacred, namely, its playful nature. The sacred, as Huizinga, following Plato, states, is supremely playful. Indeed, Levi- Strauss' identification of anomalous categories 4 with the sacred is a case in point. Play soars beyond ordinary boundaries and creates a world in which extraordinary things are possible, where the unthink- able is thought and the forbidden http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Religion in Africa Brill

Religion as Play: Bori, a Friendly "Witchdoctor"

Salamone, Frank
Journal of Religion in Africa , Volume 7 (3): 201 – Jan 1, 1975
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1975 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4200
eISSN
1570-0666
DOI
10.1163/157006675X00111
Publisher site
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Abstract

RELIGION AS PLAY: BORI, A FRIENDLY "WITCHDOCTOR" BY FRANK SALAMONE (St. John's University, Jamaica, N. Y.) On play we may move below the level of the serious, as the child does; but we can also move above it - in the realm of the beautiful and the sacred. 1 Huizinga found it surprising that anthropologists had paid little attention to the interrelationship between play and religion.2 With very few exceptions that neglect seems to have persisted into the pres- ent. Analysis of reasons for that neglect would require a separate paper. 3 However, the existence of that neglect is a fact that has re- tarded the development of a more complete qualitative understanding of the religious experience. By insisting on the serious nature of religion while treating "play" as synonymous with "frivolous", scholars have failed to focus on an important aspect of the sacred, namely, its playful nature. The sacred, as Huizinga, following Plato, states, is supremely playful. Indeed, Levi- Strauss' identification of anomalous categories 4 with the sacred is a case in point. Play soars beyond ordinary boundaries and creates a world in which extraordinary things are possible, where the unthink- able is thought and the forbidden

Journal

Journal of Religion in Africa – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1975

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