Wrestlers on the Awasena Path: Wrestling, Fertility, and Rites of Passage among the Diola of Southern Senegal
The existing literature on religion and sport focuses on the ways that sporting events take on many aspects of religious events, fostering a sense of community and reinforcing a sense of opposition to external groups. This article focuses on a different aspect, the use of ritual to reduce the uncert...
| Published in: | Numen |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2017
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| In: |
Numen
Year: 2017, Volume: 64, Issue: 4, Pages: 418-433 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Senegal
/ Diola
/ Religion
/ Wrestling
/ Rite of passage
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| IxTheo Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BS Traditional African religions KBN Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Further subjects: | B
African Religions
Diola
Senegal
ritual
uncertainty
religion and sports
religion and wrestling
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | The existing literature on religion and sport focuses on the ways that sporting events take on many aspects of religious events, fostering a sense of community and reinforcing a sense of opposition to external groups. This article focuses on a different aspect, the use of ritual to reduce the uncertainties of athletic competition in wrestling matches and its role in socializing boys and girls into the religious obligations that they will assume as adults. Utilizing a case study from the southern Diola of the Casamance area of Senegal, it builds on the author’s participation in wrestling rituals to analyze the ways in which rituals surrounding wrestling matches socialize boys and girls into ritual life, while providing individual wrestlers with a sense of protection against spiritual attacks and the uncertainties of individual competitions. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5276 |
| Contains: | In: Numen
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341473 |