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  1. Home
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  3. Religion and Custom in a Muslim Society
  • Cited by 25
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
August 2009
Print publication year:
1991
Online ISBN:
9780511521102
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511521102
Subjects:
Area Studies, African Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology
Series:
Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology (78)
Information

Book description

Among the Berti of Northern Darfur (Sudan), as among many Muslim societies, the formal religious practices are predominantly the concern of men, while local, unorthodox customary rituals are performed mainly by women. It is usual to dismiss such local, popular practices as pre-Islamic survivals, but Professor Holy shows that the customary rituals constitute an integral part of the religious system of the Berti. Carefully analysing the symbolic statements made in Berti rituals, Professor Holy demonstrates that the distinction between the two classes of rituals is an expression of the gender relationships characteristic of the society. He also examines the social distribution of knowledge about Islam, and explains the role of the religious schools in sustaining religious ideas. The work is not only an ethnographic study of ritual, belief and gender in an African society. It also makes a significant contribution to current anthropological discussion of the interpretation and meaning of rituals and symbols.

Reviews

‘… an intriguing monograph about Berti religious and ritual life that opens up dilemmas in the presuppositions inherent in the representations of Muslim societies.’

Source: African Affairs

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