No description available.

The thesis examines the process of social change among Tharaka agao (healers) in the Meru District of Kenya: it analyzes the rationale of the social and cultural processes involved for an existing occupation to become a recognized professional activity in modern Kenya. The thesis argues that a radical redefinition of professional 'jurisdictions' is required in the medical field. The concept of 'jurisdiction' is discussed here in metaphorical terms in order to question the common assumption that professionalization in the Western-type is the only possible model of development for African healers. The first part of the thesis, after information related to the structural and cultural context of Tharaka, provides an overview of the Tharaka experience of management of illness, with an emphasis on health-seeking behaviour and the division of labour in health care. The second part establishes the cultural boundaries of the healing 'jurisdiction' of the Ugao and the mechanisms used to gain the claimed control over it: this is done by presenting and analyzing the ethnographic material which I collected during a period of apprenticeship with three Tharaka healers. The third part investigates the social dimension involved in the development of that 'jurisdiction', by examining group formation among healers and the problems generated within the emerging profession. It also considers the matter of integration of Tharaka healers within the local health care system through an analysis of their interrelationship with the biomedical personnel and the health care facilities. Finally, it discusses the problem of legitimation the whole process of professional development raises at the local and national level.

Bibliography: leaves 231-241. / This thesis is an attempt to find out how much justified the missionaries and some local authors are in identifying Molimo with their Christian God (Sky-Divinity). A critical analysis of various Basotho cultural elements and what the early Basotho told the missionaries reveal that Molimo as an ultimate object of worship in the traditional religion of the Southern Sotho, is Water-Divinity, namely, Water Snake and not a celestial being or Sky-Divinity.

Thesis (M Med (Pharmacology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2005.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Richard Lennan / Thesis advisor: Dominic Doyle / Religion is central and vital for an Igbo person. No Igbo person exists in isolation from his/her community. An indigenous and traditional Igbo society is communal; it does not entertain any sense of individuality. But the coming of the missionaries broke into this communal bond with a new religion that threatened the traditional society when it began to exalt the individual soul. The Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, in his book Things Fall Apart, portrays a situation in which an African indigenous missionary (Mr. Kiaga) succeeds in separating a son (Nwoye) from his African parent (Okonkwu) so that the son can become a Christian and be saved. But alone? As the son leaves his parents’ house for the mission compound the missionary quotes the Bible, “Blessed is he who forsakes his father and mother for my sake…” Achebe’s story depicts a situation in which the family is utterly divided as a result of the parents’ or their children’s conversion to Christianity. At this point, things fall apart. The pivotal core of the traditional Igbo society cannot hold again. The majority of the missionaries saw African religion from within their Western understanding and concluded that it was heathen, anti-Christian, and repulsive. African societies started to disintegrate when traditional religion was attacked. A rift occurs between the family and the extended family. Instead of bringing reconciliation and understanding, Christianity in this case brings division. This is because converts were instructed to leave everything behind, including families, for the sake of the gospel. But the Igbo Traditional Religion looked at life in a holistic way. There was no contradiction between sacred and profane, hence many people were horrified when the first converts wanted to set themselves apart, away from other members of the community. This is why inculturation is important, as it enables the Igbo Christian to see and experience life in a holistic manner without doing needless violence to cultural values. The failure of the early missionaries to inculturate the cultural values of the people is the conundrum. The result raises some theological problems. In the attempt to ascertain a balance, most times, the Christians in Africa, particularly in Igboland, find themselves oscillating between Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR). The need for a reconciliation is long overdue. It is best given a lasting, concrete and a dialogical chance through inculturation. / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

No abstract available / Dissertation (MA (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / MA / unrestricted

The history of African Traditional Religions (ATRs), both inside and outside academia, is one dominated by exclusions. These exclusions were created by the colonial framing of ATRs as primitive, irrational and inferior to other religions. This colonial legacy is in danger of being preserved by the absence of ATRs from the academic study of religion, legal definitions of religion, and global and local conversations about religion. This thesis will explore the ways that a more considered and accurate examination of the understudied religious dimensions within ATRs can potentially dismantle this legacy. It will do so by demonstrating what this considered examination might look like, through an examination of Yoruba divine conceptualizations and the insights they bring to our understanding of three concepts in Religious Studies discourse: Worship, Gender, and Syncretism. This thesis will demonstrate how these concepts have the ability to challenge and contribute to a richer understanding of various concepts and debates in Religious Studies discourse. Finally, it will consider the implications beyond academia, with a focus on the self-understanding of ATR practitioners and African communities. It frames these implications under the lens of the colonial legacy of ‘monstrosity’, which relates to their perception as primitive and irrational, and concludes that a more considered examination of ATRs within the Religious Studies framework has the potential to dismantle this legacy.

Thesis advisor: Catherine Cornille / Thesis advisor: Margaret Guider / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Magister Artium - MA / This mini-thesis provides empirical evidence on the level of public participation and its correlation with trust, reciprocity, class and power amongst African traditional health practitioners (ATHPs) in the regulation of African traditional medicines (ATMs) in South Africa. Data on public participation of ATHPs was collected and analysed, using a social capital theoretical model created from an adaptation of Putnam’s (2000) concepts of trust and reciprocity as central to social capital theory. The analysis further employed Bourdieu’s (1968) thinking to link power and class to the concept of social capital and borrowed from feminist and historical materialism theories. The thesis sought to test how the analysis of power and class, once politicised, could be used to convert Putnam’s notion of trust and reciprocity into "critical trust” and “critical reciprocity”, based on hyper-reflexive engagement of social agents with their own reality within social networks. ATHPs were requested to rank themselves from a scale of high to low to determine their level of involvement. Public participation (the dependant variable) was tested against acts of reciprocity, trust, power and income or class (the independent variables) to ascertain correlation. Data was analysed using STATA, a computer-based programme for analysing quantitative data. The findings of the study showed that income and power play a significant role in determining public participation. The level of one’s income and power determines whether one is active or passive in participation. The high levels of trust and reciprocity demonstrated by ATHPs towards government had no particular significance in facilitating active participation instead trust, in particular, played a negative role, in that it demobilised ATHPs from active participation since they trusted that government will protect their best interest in the regulation process. The argument in this thesis is that trust and reciprocity has to be converted into ‘critical trust’ and ‘critical reciprocity’ through active questioning and analysis of power and class dynamics for it to activate and invoke conscious active participation. A follow-up study is necessary to test the possibility and success of such a conversion for public participation.