Twins in African and Diaspora Cultures

by Peek, Philip M.

• ISBN13: 9780253223074
• ISBN10: 0253223075
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-18
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

In Africa, where the birth rate of twins is among the highest in the world, twins can be seen as a burden to their families and a threat to the social order, or they can be seen as a gift from God and beings with unique abilities who bring about social harmony. Philip M. Peek and the contributors to this illuminating, multidisciplinary volume explore the rich cultural heritage by examining topics such as twins in artistic representation, twins and divination, and twins in performance, cosmology, religion, and popular culture.

Author Biography

Philip M. Peek is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Drew University. He is editor of African Divination Systems: Ways of Knowing (IUP, 1991).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: Beginning to Rethink Twins	p. 1
Roots
Twins and Double Beings among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali	p. 39
Twins and Intertwinement: Reflections on Ambiguity and Ambivalence in Northwestern Namibia	p. 61
Doubles and Dualities
Sustaining the Oneness in Their Twoness: Poetics of Twin Figures (Ère Ìbejì) among the Yoruba	p. 81
ôSon Dos los Jimagüasö (ôThe Twins Are Twoö): Worship of the Sacred Twins in Lucumí Religious Culture	p. 99
Twins, Couples, and Doubles and the Negotiation of Spirit-Human Identities among the Win	p. 116
Double Portraits: Images of Twinness in West African Studio Photography	p. 137
The Centrality of Liminality
Forever Liminal: Twins among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and Northeastern Nigeria	p. 163
Snake, Bush, and Metaphor: Twinship among Ubangians	p. 183
Fiction and Forbidden Sexual Fantasy in the Culture of Temne Twins	p. 206
Embodied Dilemma: Tabwa Twinship in Thought and Performance	p. 232
Children of the Moon: Twins in Luba Art and Ontology	p. 251
Transformations
Two Equals Three: Twins and the Trickster in Haitian Vodou	p. 271
Divine Children: The Ibejis and the Erês in Brazilian Candomblé	p. 290
The Ambiguous Ordinariness of Yoruba Twins	p. 306
Twins, Albinos, and Vanishing Prisoners: A Mozambican Theory of Political Power	p. 327
List of Contributors	p. 349
Index	p. 353
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