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The social stuff of revelation: pattern and purpose in Zionist dreams and visions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Extract

Anthropologists are beginning to investigate the sociological dimension of dreams, at least of those purporting to be channels of religious revelation. Two recent examples of this tendency are Charsley (1973) and Curley (1983), each of whom researched dream phenomena in an African independent church. The sociological approach is a firm rejection of earlier and some current attempts to extract patterns of culture and personality from the subjective reconstruction of the dream-as-dreamed, a purely private event. In contrast, the sociological emphasis isolates as its primary datum the dream-as-told to others, an essentially social act, which leads to an analysis of dreams as social assets, which can be manipulated to advantage or disadvantage. Consequently, the method of analysis demands that as much attention be directed to the act of recounting as to the content of the narration, although in practice this seems to mean that content is subordinated to purpose and can be related to social arrangements only indirectly through purposive action. I shall endeavour to correct this latter impression in subsequent argument. The second methodological requirement is to connect narration to social action, social relations and social organization, and to demonstrate the tactical use of dreams in social encounters.

Résumé

La substance sociale de la révélation: modèle et objectif dans les rêves et visions Sionistes

L'analyse sociologique des rêves converge sur le rêve tel qu'il est raconté plutôt que sur le rêve tel qu'il est éprouvé. Raconter les rêves est une activité qui a un objectif et qui peut effectuer des changements dans les rapports sociaux et dans l'organisation sociale. Parmi les Sionistes zoulous, il est possible non seulement de distinguer le rêve et la vision, mais d'isoler quatre modes de révélation distincts, c'est à dire, le rêve ancestral, le rêve ‘Sioniste’, la vision indirecte et la vision directe. La co-divergence de la claireté de tels messages avec la définition sociale de leur source apporte aux Sionistes un champ continu et flexible de communications ‘révélées’, riches en possibilités de satisfaire les besoins d'un individu et d'un groupe. Le principe sur lequel repose l'emploi de ce champ complet de communication religieuse est que, la plus explicite la révélation, le plus nécessaire il est de placer la source au delà de l'examen, et le plus indéterminé le message, le plus la source peut être complètement identifiée. L'emploi tactique de rêves et de visions spécifiques peut être compris seulement si l'on connaît l'état des rapports entre les acteurs concernés et les intérêts qui les motivent. Mais, tandis que la transmission de rêves et de visions particulières est liée à des situations et à des objectifs spécifiques, une tendance générale émerge dans laquelle les visions sont utilisées de façon conservative afin d'atteindre une cohésion de groupe et une conformité et où les rêves offrent un domaine plus créatif dans lequel des individus peuvent promouvoir des intérêts divergents.

Type
Mystical means and social realities
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1985

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