This chapter takes up a reading of certain classic texts of British anthropology to ask how are anthropological concepts generated? Looking closely at the terms around which religious beliefs and practices are organized among the Dinka and the Nuer, as described by Lienhardt and Evans-Pritchard respectively, the chapter shows that the idea of God is transported from the Old Testament notions to decide which terms can qualify to be translated as God depending on what is taken to be real and what an illusion. As a thought experiment, the chapter draws on different notions of god(s) and of ritual practices (such as sacrifice) from Vedic texts in the Sanskritic tradition and asks what if gods were seen as entities produced through grammar, brought into existence only for the duration of a ritual, as some texts on ritual hermeneutics in India argued? Would we have thought of the Dinka and Nuer concepts of god or witches or spirits differently? The chapter also offers a way to think of what Cora Diamond called a “crisscross” philosophy as a tapestry of overlapping threads put together patiently and with many hands.
This Old Testament ‘annunciation’ prophesies the birth of Samson, one of the popular heroes of medieval story and art. There is a plenitude of evidence on this point, but his popularity could be deduced quite simply from the song which is the subject of this article. Samson dux fortissime is well known; it is often referred to, and it has been recorded at least twice in recent years. However, there is no adequate published edition of it, no comparative study of its sources and notations, and no analysis of the way in which the imposing rhetoric of its poetry is combined with an intricately patterned melody.1 This complex monophonic song offers a chance to examine melody and rhythm, rhetoric and rhyme, working together on a large scale in a harmonious and impressive whole.2
Sir James George Frazer is a well known authority on the subject he has made his own, and his voluminous works are familiar to every student of anthropology and the history of religions. The fact that he has put his extensive knowledge at the disposition of the Old Testament student is to be welcomed. This he has done in the works mentioned below, the larger one in three volumes, the smaller one by condensation and omission giving the main points of interest. That the larger work meets a felt want is indicated by the fact that a second printing was called for the year after the first publication, a symptom of the present interest in the comparative study of religions.
A Comparative Study of the Concept of Atonement in the Aboakyer Festival of the Effutu Tribe in Ghana and the Yom Kippur Festival of the Old Testament: Implications for Adventist Mission Among the Effutu