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the cracked pot and the missing sheep
Author(s) -
GILBERT MICHELLE
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1989.16.2.02a00020
Subject(s) - possession (linguistics) , politics , appeal , contingency , mediation , sociology , conflict resolution , epistemology , aesthetics , law , political science , social science , philosophy , linguistics
This essay concerns the difficulties of separating “religion” from “political” strategy and tactics, by demonstrating the place of contingencies in ritual performances and the ways they are resolved in a small Ghanaian kingdom. Two rituals are described, both of which in differing ways failed to conform to the actors' precisely and traditionally defined expectations. The rituals themselves became opportunities to realign patterns of political relations and to reinterpret and reconstruct history, and illustrate how conflict may be resolved by appeal for mediation to different levels and hierarchies of authority.[contingency in ritual, micro‐politics, symbolism, conflict resolution, spirit possession, Ghana]