Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga

Among the Thonga in southern Africa, blood is not the key element in sacrifices. Information from H.A. Junod’s fieldwork raises questions about both the sociology and cuisine of sacrifice. What is represented during major rites of marriage or bereavement through the animal’s cut-up carcass is the ve...

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Autor principal: de Heusch, Luc
Format: Article ou chapitre numérique
Idioma:Français
Publicat: Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire 2013
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Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
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spelling openedition-oai:revues.org:span_362 https://doi.org/10.4000/span.362 urn:doi:10.4000/span.362 fr https://journals.openedition.org/span/362 2013-06-06T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/kvs0 All rights reserved Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire École pratique des hautes études. Sciences humaines info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2268-1558 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0294-7080 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/span de Heusch, Luc sacrifice insults domestic animals marriage grief exorcism maternal kin cuisine destructuration/restructuration Mozambique Among the Thonga in southern Africa, blood is not the key element in sacrifices. Information from H.A. Junod’s fieldwork raises questions about both the sociology and cuisine of sacrifice. What is represented during major rites of marriage or bereavement through the animal’s cut-up carcass is the very “body” of the society, shared between patrilineal and matrnal lineages. A herd of goats constitutes a literal stock for sacrifices, as compared with the bovine “capital” used in transactions for wives. During the sacrifice that puts an end to bereavement, the animal’s rumen (used raw) and the two distinct but requisite ways of cooking (roasting, boiling) underscore differences of both social status and place of residence. Carving up the goat both asserts and wards off the menace of society being destructured. The Thonga thus claim that bloodletting sacrifices help “build the village”. Another paradigm applies to the sacrifice of exorcism. It has the function of restoring the unity of the body and mind of the possessed person, who has fallen victim to a violent aggression by a supernatural power alien to the village community. In this case, the culinary code involves taking in and vomiting the animal’s raw blood and the calcination of its bones in a process for restructuring the sacrifier’s social personality.
collection OpenEdition Journal
language Français
format Article ou chapitre numérique
building 0/Bibliothèque numérique/
1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/
topic sacrifice
insults
domestic animals
marriage
grief
exorcism
maternal kin
cuisine
destructuration/restructuration
spellingShingle sacrifice
insults
domestic animals
marriage
grief
exorcism
maternal kin
cuisine
destructuration/restructuration
de Heusch, Luc
Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga
description Among the Thonga in southern Africa, blood is not the key element in sacrifices. Information from H.A. Junod’s fieldwork raises questions about both the sociology and cuisine of sacrifice. What is represented during major rites of marriage or bereavement through the animal’s cut-up carcass is the very “body” of the society, shared between patrilineal and matrnal lineages. A herd of goats constitutes a literal stock for sacrifices, as compared with the bovine “capital” used in transactions for wives. During the sacrifice that puts an end to bereavement, the animal’s rumen (used raw) and the two distinct but requisite ways of cooking (roasting, boiling) underscore differences of both social status and place of residence. Carving up the goat both asserts and wards off the menace of society being destructured. The Thonga thus claim that bloodletting sacrifices help “build the village”. Another paradigm applies to the sacrifice of exorcism. It has the function of restoring the unity of the body and mind of the possessed person, who has fallen victim to a violent aggression by a supernatural power alien to the village community. In this case, the culinary code involves taking in and vomiting the animal’s raw blood and the calcination of its bones in a process for restructuring the sacrifier’s social personality.
author de Heusch, Luc
author_facet de Heusch, Luc
author_sort de Heusch, Luc
title Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga
title_short Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga
title_full Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga
title_fullStr Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga
title_full_unstemmed Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga
title_sort le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les thonga
publisher Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire
publishDate 2013
container_title URI:https://journals.openedition.org/span
url https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/span.362
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/span/362
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