Turner - African Ritual

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Symbols in African RitualAuthor(s): Victor W. TurnerReviewed work(s):Source: Science, New Series, Vol. 179, No. 4078 (Mar. 16, 1973), pp. 1100-1105Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1734971.

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No one who has lived for long irrural sub-SaharanAfrica can fail to bestruck by the importanceof ritual inthe lives of villagersand homesteadersand by the fact that rituals are com-posed of symbols.A ritual ls a stereotypedsequenceolEactivitiesinvolvinggestures,words, andobjects, performed in a sequestcredplace, and designedto influencepreter-natural entities or forces on behalf olEthe actors' goals and interests.Ritualsmay be seasonal, hallowing a cul-turally defined moment o15change inthe climatic cycle or the inaugurationof an aCtivity uch as planting harvest-. * .ng, or movlrlg iroM wlnter to stlnlmerpasture;or they maybe contingent,heldin response o an individualor coIlectivecrisis.Contingentritualsnzaybe furthersubdivided into life-crisis ceremonies,which are performedat birth, puberty,marriage,death,andso on to demarcatethe passagefrom one phase to anotherin the individuaI'sife-cycle, and rituaIsolEaffliction, which are performed toplacate or exorcise preternaturalbeingsor forces believed to have aHlictedvil-lagers with illness,bad luclc,gynecolog-ical troubles, severe physical injuriesSand the like. Other classes of ritualsinclllde divinatory rituals; ceremoniesperformedby politicalauthorities o en-sure the health and fertility of humanbeings, animals,and crops in their territor;es; initiation into priesthoods de-voted to certain deities, into religious-associations,or into secret societies;andthose accompanyingthe daily ofTeringof food and libations to deities or anRcestral spirits or both. Africa is richindeed in ritual genres, and cach in-volves many specific performances.Each rural Afrlcan socicty (which isoften, thotlgh not atways coterminouswith a tinguisticcommunity) possessesa finitenumbernf distirlbuishableitualsthat may include a11or some of thetypcs listed above. At varyingintervals,

The atlther ;s professor5Committeeon SoclalTllought and Departxnent f Anthropology,Uni-versity of Chicago, Chicago, lllinois 60637.1100

mantic E>olesAt one pole of meanmg,empirical researchhas shown that thesigniFlcataend to refer to cornponentsof the moral and social orders-thismightbe termed he ideological(or rlor-mative) pole of symbolic meaning; atthe other,the sensory (or orectic) pole,are concentratedreferonces o phenom-ena and processesthat may be expectedto stinlulate desires and feelings. Thus,I have shown (2 pp. 2136) that themtldyitrce, or rllilk-tree Diplorrhyzlellslslossalwl/)icnsis), which is the focalsymbol of the girls' puberty ritual ofthe Ndembu ?eople of northwesternZambia,at its normativepole representswomanhood,motherhood,the mother-child bonds a novice undergoing nitiation into matre womanhood,a specificmatrililleage, he principleof matriliny,the process of learning 4'women'swls-dom," the tlnity and perdurance oNdembu society, and all of the valuesand virtuesinherent n the variousrela-tionships-domestic, legal, and polit;-cal-controlled by matrilinealdescentEach of these aspects of its normativemeaningbecomes paramount n a spe-cifie cpisode of the puberty ritual; to-gether, they form a condensed state-ment of the structuraland communalimportance of femaleness in Ndembuculture. At its sensory pole, the samesymbol standsfor breastmilk (the treeexudes milky latex-indeed, the significata associated with the sensory poItoften have a more or less direct con-nection with some sensorilyperceptibleattribute of the symbol)o mother'sbreasts,and the bodily slendernessandmental pliancy of the novice (a yotlngstendersupling of mudyi is used) Thetree, situateda short distancefrom thenovice's village, becomes the center ofa sequence of ritual opisodes rich insymbots (words, objectsX and ac-tions) that express important culturalthemes.

R;tualSymbolsand CulfuralThemesOpler has defineda theme as a paXnf a limited set of ;'dynamicatllrma-tions9'that "can be identifiedin everyculture9' 3 pe 198; 4) :[nthe "natureexpression,and relationship'of themesis to be found thc 6'key o the characterSstrtlcturc,zllld direction of the specificculttlre" 3y pe 198). The term"themes'denotes ';a posttllate or position, de-clared or implied, and usually control-ling lrehavior or stimulating activityswhich is tacitly approved or openly

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from a year to several decadesSall ofa societyesritualswill be perforrlledwhemost important[for example, the symbolic transferenceof political authorityfrom one generation to another asamong the Nyukyusa (1) of Tanzania]beingperformedperhaps he leastoften. * * erInce socletles are processesresponslveto ehange, not fixed struetu3nes,ew rit-uals are devised or borrowedsand oldones (lecline and disappear.Neverthe-less, iorms survive through flux, andnew rittlaI tems, even new ritual eorl-figurations tend more often to be vari-ants olE ld themes thanradicalTloveltiessThus it is possible for anthropologiststo describethe main featuresof a ritualsystem, or ratherritual round (succes-sive ritualperformatlces),n those partsof ruralAfrica where change is occur-nng slowly.

The SemanticStructureof the SymbolThe ritual symbol is ;'the smalIestunit of ritual which still rctains thespecificpropertiesof ritualbehavior@ lathe ultimate unit of specific structurein a ritual context" (21 p. 20)* Thisstructure s a semantic one (that is, itdeals with relationshipsbetween signsand symbols and the things tc) whichthey refer) and has the following at-tributes: (i) multiple meanings (signifi-cata)-actions or objects perceivedbythe senses in ritual contexts ( that issymbel vehicles) have many meanings;(ii) nification of apparenllydisparates-;>n;ficatathe essentially dlstinct si;,-nificataareinterconnected y allalot,yorby association irl fact or thetIghtS iii)condensation-many ideas relationssbe-tween thin;,ssactions interactio-nsandtransactionsare representedsimultancously by tle symbol vehicle (the ritualuse of such a vehicle abridges whatwoutd verbally be a lengthy statementor argument) (iv) polarizationof sig-n;ficatathe referentsass;gnedby custom to a major ritual symbol tend frequently to be grouped at opposed se

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promoted in a society" (3, p. 198).Every culture has multiplethemes, andmost themes have nlultiple expressions,some of which may be in one or moreparts of the institutionalculture (5, p.164). Ritual forms an importantsettingfor the expressionof themes, and ritualsymbols transmit themes. Themes havemultiple expressions, and ritual sym-bols, such as the mtldyi tree (and thou-sands of others in the ethnographiciiteratureof African ritual), have mul-tiple significata ( 6 ) . The major differ-ellce between themes and symbols isthat themes are postulates or ideas in-ferred by an observer from the data ofa given culture, while ritual symbolsare one class of such data. Ritual sym-bols are multivocal-that is, each sym-bol expresses not one theme but manythemessimultaneouslyby the same per-ceptible object or activity (symbol ve-hicle). Symbols have) it,nificata, hemesmay b) significata.Themes, in their capacity as signifi-cata (including both conceptions andimages), may be disparate or grouped,as we have seen, at opposed semanticpoles. Thus the mudyi signifies aspectsof female bodily imagery (milk, suck-ling, breasts, girlish slenderness andconceptions about standardsof woman-hood and motherhood, as well as thenormative ordering of these in rela-tiOla o group membership, the inheri-tance of property, and succession tosuch political offices as chieftainshipand village headmanship hrough matri-lineal descent. There are rules of ex-clusionconnectedwith the mudyi in thisritual context-all that is not concernedwith the nurtural, procreative,and es-thetic aspects of human felmaleness ndwith their culturalcontrol and structur-ing, is excluded from the semanticfield of mudyi symbolism. This is afield of themes with varying degrees ofconcreteness,abstraction,and cognitiveand orectic quality. The impulse thatleads advancedcultures o the economi-cal use of signs in mathematics inds itsequivalent here in the use of a sillglesymbol vehicle to represent simulta-neously a variety of themes, most ofwhich can be shown to be related,logicaliy or pragmatically,but some ofwhich depend for their association ona sensed likeness between variablesrather than on cognitive criteria. Oneis dealing with a "mathematics" f so-cioculturalexperience rather than witha mathematics of logical relationships.Ritual symbols differ from othermodes of thematic expressio;n,particu-16 MARCH 1973

larly from those unformalized modesthat arise in spontaneous behavior andallow for individualchoice in expression(3, p. 200). Indeed, it might be arguedthat the more ritualized the expression,the wider the range of themes that maybe Sityllified by it. On thc other hand,sillce a ritual symbol may representdisparate, even contradictory themes,the gain ill ecollomy may be oflset bya loss in clarity of commullication.Thiswould be inevitable if stlch symbolsexisted in a vacuum, but they exist inculttlral and operational contexts thatto some extellt overcome the loss in in-telli^,ibility nd to some exte,ntcapital-ize 011 it.

DominantSyl2lbols n Ritual CyclesRitLlals end to be organized in acycle of' performances annual, bienllial,quinquenllial,and so on ); even in thecase of contingent rituals, each is per-formedeventually. In each total assem-blage, or system, there is a nucleus ofdominantsymbols, which are character-ized by extreme mtlltivocality ( havingmany senses) and a central position ineach ritual performance. Associatedwith this nucleus is a much larger num-ber of enclitic (dependent symbols.Some of these are univocal, whileothers, like prepositions in language,become mere relation or function signsthat keep the ritual action going ( for

example, bowings, lustrations, sweep-ings, and objects indicative of joiningor separation). Dominant symbols pro-vide the fixed points of the total systemand recur in many of its componentrituals. For example, if 15 separatekinds of ritual can be empirically dis-tinguished in a given ritual system,dominant symbol A may be found in10 of them, B in 7, C in 5, and Din 19. The mudyi tree, for example,is found in boys' and girls' initiationceremonies, in five rituals concernedwith female reproductive disorders, inat least three rituals of the hunters'cults, and in various herbalistic prac-tices of a magical cast. Other domi-nant symbols of Ndembu rituals, as Ihave shown elsewhere (7), recur al-most as frequently in the ritual round.Each of these symbols, then, has multi-ple referents,but on each occasioll thatit is used usually an episode within aritual performancenly one or a re-lated few of its referents are drawn topublic attention. The process of "selec-tivity" consists in constructing around

the dominant symbol a context of sym-bolic objects, activities, gestures, socialrelationships betweell actors of ritualroles, and verbal behavior (prayers,formLllas,chants, songs, recitation ofsacred narratives,and so on) that bothbr.lcketand ullderline hose of its refer-ents deemed pertinent in the givensituation. Thus, only a portion of adominalltsymbol's full semantic wealthis deployed in a single kind of ritual orin one of its episodes. The semanticstructureof a dominant symbol may becompared with a ratchet wheel, eachof whose teeth represents a conceptionor theme. The ritual context is like apawl, which engages the notches. Thepoint of engagementrepresentsa mean-ing that is important in the particularsittlation. The wheel is the symbol'stotal meaning, and the complete rangeis only exposed when the whole cycleof rituals has been performed. Domi-nant symbols represelnt ets of funda-melltal themes. The symbol appears inmany rituals,and its meanings are em-phasized separately in many episodes.Since the settings in which the themesare ritually presented vary, and sincethemes are linked in different combina-tions in each setting, members-of theculture who have been exposed to theentire ritual cycle gradually learn,through repetition, variation, and con-trast of symbols and themes, what thevalues, rules, behavioral styles, andcognitivepostulatesof their culture are.Even more inlportant, they learn iinwhat cultural domains and wit-h whatintensity in each donlain the themesshould apply.

Positional Role of Binary OppositionThe selection of a given theme froma synlbol's thenle assenlblage s a func-tion of positioning that is, of themanner in which the object or activityassigned symbolic value is placed or

. \ . . . .arrangecVlS-a-VIS slmllar obJectsor ac-tivities. One common mode of posi-tioning is binary opposition,the relatingof two symbol vehicles whose opposedperceptible qualities or quantities sug-gest, in terms of the associative rulesof the culture, semantic opposition.Thus when a grass hut is made at theNdembu t,irls' puberty ceremony forthe seclusion of the novice for severalmonths, the two principal laths of thewooden frame are made respectivelyfrom mudyi and mukula (blood tree)wood. Both species are dominant sym-

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bols. To the Ndembu, mukula repre-sents the husband whom the girl willmarry immediately after the pubertyrites, and the mudyi stands for thebride, the novice herself. Yet whenmukula is considered as a dominantsymbol of the total ritual system, it isfound to have a wide range (what llasaptlybeen called a "fan" of significata(8, 9). Its primaryand sensory mean-ing is blood-the Ndembu point to thedtlsky red gum secreted by the treefrom cracks in its bark to justify theirinterpretation.But some bloods, theysay, are masculineand some feminine.The formerincludeblood shed by war-riors, hunters, and circumcisers n thecall of duty; the latter representsbloodshown at menstruationand parturition.Another bi naryopposition within thesemanticfield of blood is betweenrun-ning blood and coagulatingblood. Thelatter is good, the former is dangerous.Thus, prolonged menstruation meansthat a woman's blood is ebbing awayuselessly; it should coagulate to formfetus and placenta. But since men arethe dangeroussex, the blood they causeto flow in hunting and war may begood-that is, beneficialfor their owngroup.Mtlkulasymbolism s adroitlymanip-ulated in different rituals to expressvariousaspectsof the human conditionas the Ndembu experience it. For ex-ample, in the Nkula ritual, performedto placate the spirit of a dead liins-woman afflicting the female patientwith menstrual roublescausingbarren-ness, mukulaand other red symbolsarecontextually connected with symbolscharacteristicof the male huntingcultsto convey the message: the patient isbehavinglike a male shedderof blood,not like a female conserver of blood,as she should be. It is her "masculineprotest" that the ritual is mainly d;-rectedat overcomingand domesticatinginto the service of her female role (9pp. 55-88). Mukulameans many otherthings in other contexts, when used inreligiotls ritual or in magical therapy.Btlt the binary opposition of mudyi tomukularestrictsthe meaningof mudyito young maturefemininityand that ofmtlkula to young mature masculinity,both of which are foundationsof a hut,the prototypical domestic unit. eThebinding together of the laths takenfrom these trees is said to representthe sexual and the procreative unionof the young couple. If these mean-ings form the sensory pole of thebinary opposition as symbol, then the

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legitimated union by marriage repre-sents the normative pole. In otherwords, even the binaryoppositiondoesnot stand alone; it must be examinedin the context of building the novicessseclusion hut and of the symbolic ob-jects comprising the htlt and its totalmeaning. There are, of course, manytypes of binary opposltion. The mem-bers of pairs of symbols may be asym-metrical (A > B, A e B); they maybe like or unlike but equal in value;they may be antithetical;one may bethought of as the product or oSspringof the other; one may be actlve theother passive; and so on. Itl this way,the Ndembu are induced to considerthe nature and function of relation-ships as well as of the variablesbeingrelated, for nonverbalsymbol systemshave the equivalentsof grammar,syn-tax, accidence, and parts of speech.

Sometimes binary opposition mayappear between complexes of symbolvehicles, each carrying a system ofdominantand secondarysymbols.Thussin the circumcisionrites of the Wiko,in Zambia (110), one group of maskeddancers may mime opposition to an-other group;each mask and headpieceis already a combinationof multivocalsymbols. Yet one team may representprotectivenessand the other,aggressive-ness. It is, in factSnot uncommon tofind complex synlbol vehicles, such asstatues or shrines, with simple mean-ings, while simple vehicles, such asmarks drawn in white or red clay,may be highly multivocal in almostevery ritual situation in which theyare used. A simple vehicle, exhibitingsome color, shape, texture, or contrastcommonly found in oness experience(such as the whitenessof the mudyiorthe rednessof the mukula) can literallyor metaphorically connect a greatrange of phenomena and ideas. Bycontrast a complex vehicle is alreadycommitted,at the level of sensory per-ception, to a host of contraststhat narrow and specify its nzessage.This isprobablywhy the great religious sym-bol vehicles such as the cross, the lotus,the crescent moon, the ark, and so onare relatively simple, although theirsignificata constitute whole theologicalsystemsandcontrolliturgicaland archi-tecturalstructuresof immensecomplex-ity. One might almost hypothesizethatthe tnore complex the ritual (manysymbols, complex vehicles), the moreparticularistic, localizedS and sociallystructured ts message;the simpler theritual (few symbols simple vehicles)

the more universalistic its message.Thtls, ecumenical liturgiologiststodayare recommending hat Christianritualbe essentially reduced to the blessing,distribtltion, and partaking of breadand wine, in order to provide mostdenominationswith a common ground.

A>ctors xperienceSymbolsasPowersand as Meanings

The second characteristicof ritualcondensation, which compensates insome meastlre or semanticobscurity, sits efficacy.Ritual is not just a concen-tration of referents,of messages abouts alues and norms; nor is it simply aset of practicalgtlidelinesand a set ofsymbolic paradigms for everyday ac-tion, indicatinOhow spouses shouldtreat each other, how pastoralistsshould classify and regard cattle, howhuntersshould behave in differentwildhabitats, and so on. It is also afusi-onof the powers believed to beinherent in the persons, objects, rela-tionships, events, and histories repre-sentedby ritualsymbols.It is a mobili-zation of energies as well as messages(11). In this respect, the objects andactivities n point are not merelythingsthat stand for other things or some-thing abstract, they participatein thepowers and virtues they represent. ItIse"virtue"advisedly, or manyobjectstermed symbols are also termed medi;cines. Thus, scrapingsand leaves fromsuchtreesas the mtldyiand the mukulaare poundedtogetherin meal mortars,mixed with water, and given to theafflicted o drinkor to wash with. tIerethere is direct communicationof thelife-givingpowers thought to inhere incertain objects under ritual conditioins(a consecratedsite, invocationsof preternaturalentlties, and so orl). Whenan object 1s used analogously,it func-tions unambiguously s a symbol.Thus,when the mudyi tree is used in pubertyrites it clearlyrepresents mother'smill;here the association is through sight,not taste. But when the mudyi is usedas medicine in ritual, it is felt thatcertain qualities of motherhood andnurturing are being communicatedphysically.In the first case, the mudyis used lecause it is "good to thinkratherthan S'good oeat" (12); in thesecond, it is used because it has maZternal power. The same objects areused both as powers and symbols,metonymically and metaphorically itis the context that distinguishesthem.

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covers what values they represent-grief, joy, anger, triumph, modesty,and so on. Anthropologists are nowstudying several genres of nonverballanguagc, from iconography (the studyof symbols whose vehicles picture theconceptions they signify, rather thanbeing arbitrary,conventionalsigns forthem) to kinesics (the study of bodilymovements, facial expressions, and soforth as ways of communicationor ad-juncts and intensifiersof speech). Sev-eral of these fall wnder the rubric ofa symbol's operational meaning. Non-exegetical, ritualized speech, such asformalized prayers or invocations,would also fall into this category.Hereverbal symbols approximate nonverbalsymbols. The investigator is interestednot only in the social organizationandstructure of those individualswho op-erate with symbols on this level, butalso ila what persons, categories, andgroups are absent from the situation,for formal exclusion would reveal so-cial values and attitudes.In the positional dimension, the ob-server finds in the relations betweenone symbol and other symbols an imUportant source of its meaning. I haveshown how binary opposition may, incontext, highlight one (or more) of asymbols many referents by contrastingit with one (or more) of another sym-bol's referents. When used in a ritualcontext with three or more other sym-bols, a particular symbol reveals fur-ther facets of its- total "meaning."Groups of symbols may be so arrayedas to state a message, in which somesymbols function analogously to partsof speech and in which there may beconventional rules of connection. Themessage is not about specific actionsand circumstances,but about the givencuIture's basic structures of thought,ethics, esthetics, law, and modes ofspeculationabout new experience.In several African cultures, particu-larly in Wcst Africa, a complex systemof rituals s associatedwith myths (14).These tell of the origins of the gods,the cosmos, human types and groups,and the key institutions- f culture andsociety. Some ritual episodes reenactprimordialevents, drawingon their in-herent power to achieve the contempo-rary goals of the members of theculture (for example,adjustment o pu-berty and the healing of the sick).Ritual systems are sometimes based onmyths. There may coexist with mythsand rituals standardizedschemata ofinterpretationhat may amount to theo-

logical doctrine. But in wide areas ofEast and CentralAfrica, there may befew myths connected with rituals andno religious system interrelatingmyths,rituals, and doctrine. In compensation,there may be much piecemeal exegesisof particularsymbols.

Foundations of MeaningMost African languages have termsfor ritual symbol. The Nyakyusa, forexample, speak of ififwanilikenesses);the Ndembu use chiJikijilu a land-mark, or bIaze), which is derivedfromkujikijila to blaze a trail or set up alandmark). The first connotes an asso-ciation, a feeling of likeness betweensign and signified, vehicle and concept;the second is a means of connectingknown with unknown territory. (The

Ndembu compare the ritual symbol tothe trail a hunter blazes in order tofind his way back from unexploredbush to his village. Other languagespossess similar terms. In societies thatdo not have myths, the meaning of asymbol is built up by analogy and as-sociation of three foundatioIls-Ilom-inal, substantial, and artifactual-though in any given instance only oneof these might be utilized. The nom-inal basis is the name of the symbol, anelement in an acous-tic ystem; the sub-stantial basis is a symboi's sensorilyperceptible physical or chemical prop-erties as recognized by the culture; andits artifactual basis is the technicalchanging of an object used in ritual byhuman purposive activity.For example: At the start of a girl'spuberty ritual amoing he Nyakyusa ofTanzania (15), she is trcated with a"medicine" alled undumila. his medi-cine is also an elaborate symbol. Itsnominal basis is the derivation of theterm from ukuluz7zila,eaning "to bite,to be painful." The substantialbasis isa natural property of the root afterwhich the medicine is named it ispungent-tasting. As an artifact, themedicine is a composite of several sym-bolic substances. The total symbol in-volves action as well as a set of objects.Wilson writes (15, p. 87) that the root"is pushed throughthe tip of a funnelor cup made of a leaf of the bark-clothtree, and salt is poured into the cup.The girl takes the tip of the root in hermouth and pulls it inwardwith herteeth, thus causingthe salt to trickleinto her mouth."The root and leaffunnel, togetherwith their ritual use,

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The power aspect of a symbol derivesfrom its being a part of a physicalwhole, the ideational aspect from ananalogy between a symbol vehicle andits principalsignificata.Each symbolexpresses many themes,and each theme is expressed by manysymbols. The cultural weave is madeup of symbolicwarp and thematic weft.This weaving of symbols and themesserves as a rich store of information,not only about the natural environmentas perceivedand evaluatedby the ritualactors, but also about their ethical,esthetic, political, legal, and ludic (thedomain of play, sport, and so forth ina culture) ideas, ideals, and rules. Eachsymbol is a store of info.mation, bothfor actors and investigators, but inorder to specify just which set ofthemes any particular ritual or ritualepisode contains, one must determinethe relations between the ritual's sym-bols and their vehicles, incltldingverbalsymbolic behavior. Thc advantages ofcommunication by means of rituals innonliterate societies are clearly great,for the individualsymbols and the pat-terned relations between them have amnemonic function. The symbolic vo-cabularyand grammar to some extentmake up for the lack of writtenrecords.

The Semantic DimensionsSymbols have three especially sig-

nificant dimensions: the exegetic, theoperational, and the positional. Theexegetic dimension consists of the ex-planations given the investigator byactors in the ritual system. Actors ofdifferent age, sex, ritual role, status,grade of esoteric knowledgc, and soforth provide data of varying richness,explicitness, and internal coherence.The investigatorshould infer from thisinformation how members of a givensociety think about ritual. Not allAfrican societies contain persons whoare ready to make verbal statementsabout ritual, and thc percentage ofthose prepared to offer interpretationsvaries from group to group and withingroups. But, as much ethnographicwork attests (13), many African so-cieties are well endowed with exegetes.In the operationaldimension, the in-vestigatorequates a symboles meaningwith its use-he observes what actorsdo with it and how they rclate to oneanother in this process. Hc also recordstheir gestures, expressions, and othernonverbalaspects of behaviorand dis-16 MARCH 1973


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constitutean artifactw hese three basesof signiScanceare substantiatedby theNyakyusaWilsontalkedto. One womantold her (15, p. 102): ';The pungentroot is the penis of the husband, thecup is her vagina,the salt, also plangent,is the semen of her husband.Bitingtheroot and eating the salt is copulation."Another woman confirmed this: "Theundusnila s put through the leaf of abark-cloth ree, shapedinto a cup, andit is a sign of man and woman, thepenis in the vagina. It is similarto theplantainswhich we give her when wewash her. The plantains are a symbolof the husband.lf we do not give her. . . the undumilaXhe constantly hasperiods and is barren.' A third infor-mantsaid: i'lt is the painof periodsthatwe symbolize in the sharpnessof theundumilaand salt." Thus undumila isat once a symbol of sexual intercourse,a prophylactic against pain in inter-course and against frequent or painfulperiods, and (according to other ac-counts) a ritual defense against thosewho are "heavy"-that is, those ac-tively engaged in sexual intercourse,especially women who have just con-ceived. If a heavy personstepsover thenovice's footprints, the novice will notbear a child, but will menstruatecon-tinually. These explanationsalso dem-onstratethe multivocalityand economyof referenceof a single dominantsym-bol. The same symbol vehicles canrepresentdifferent, ven disparate,proc-esses marital intercourse and men-strual difficulty although it may beargued that the Nyakyusa, at an un-conscious level regarda woman's"dis-taste' for intercourseas a cause of herbarrennessor menorrhagia.

Symbolsand CosmologiesSimilar examples abound in theethnographyof subsaharan;Africa, butin the great West African cultures ofthe Fon, Ashanti, Yoruba, Dahomey-ans, and Dogon, piecemeal exegesis

gives way to explicit, complex cosmol-ogies. Among the Dogon, for example(16, 17), a symbol becomes a fixedpoiintof linkage between animal, vege-table,and mineralkingdomsSwhich arethemselves regarded as parts of "ungigantesque organisme humaine." Thedoctrine of correspondences reigns-everything is a symbol of everythingelse, whether in ritual context or not.Thus the Dogon establisha correspond-ence between the different categoriesof minerals and the organs of the1104

body.The varioussoils in the area areconceived of as the organs of 6'theinterior of the stomach," rocks areregardedas the loonesof the skeleton,and various hues of red clay are lik-ened to the blood. Sometimes thesecorrespondencesare remarkably pre-cise: one rock resting on another rep-resents the chest; little white riverpebblesstand for the toes of the feet.The same parole du monde principleshold true for the relationshipbetweenman and the vegetable kingdom. Manis not only the graln of the universe,but each distinctpart of a single grai nrepresentspart of the human body. Infact, it is only science that has emanci-pated man from the complex weave ofcorrespondences, based on analogy,metaphor, and mystical participation,and"that nableshim to regardall rela-tions as problematical,not preordained,until they have been experimentallytested or systematicallycompared.The Dogon further conceive of asubtle and finely wroughtinterplaybe-tween speech and the components ofpersonality. The body constitutes amagnet or focus for man's spiritualprinciples,which neverthelessare capa-ble of sustainingan' independentexis-tence. The Dogon contrastvisible andinvisible ("spiritual' components ofthe human personality. The body ismade up of four elements: water (theblood and bodily fluids , earth (theskeleton), air (breath), and fire (ani-mal warmth). There -is a continuousinterchangebetweerlthese internal es-pressionsof the elements and their es-ternal aslpects.The body has 22 parts:feet, shins, thighs, lumbar region,stomach, chest, arms, neck, and headmakeup nine parts (it would seemthatDogon reckondouble parts, as they dotwins,as a unit);the fingers eachcount-ing as a unit) make'up ten parts;andthe male genitalsmake up three parts.Further numerical symbolism is in-volved: there are believed to be eightsymbolicgrains represeintinghe prin-cipal cerealcropsof the region lodgedill the' collarbones of each Dogon.These grains represent the mysticalbond between man and his crops. Thebody of speech itself is, like the humanbody, composed of four elements:water is salivaswithoutwhich speech isdry; air gives rise to sound vibrations;earth gives speech its weight and sig-nificance; and fire gives speech itswarmth. There is not only homologybetween personality and speech, butalso a sort of functional interdepen-dence for words are selected by the

brain,stir up the liver, and rise assteam rom the lungs to the clavicles,which decide ultimately whether thespeechs to emergefrom the mouth.To the 22 parts of the personalitymustbe added the 48 types of speech,whichare divided into two sets of 24.Eachset is under the siginof a super-naturalbeing, one of the androgynoustwinsNommo and Yourougou.Here Imustdraw on Griaule and Dieterlen'sextensive work on the Dogons' cos-mogonic mythology (16). The twinsarethe creationsof Amma.YourougourebelledagainstAmma and had sexualrelationswith his mother he was pun-ishedby being changedinto a pale fow.Nommo saved the world by an act ofself-sacrifice, brought humans, ani-mals, and plants to the earthfand be-came the lord of speech. Nommo'sspeechis humanand can be heard;theFox's is silent, a sign language madeby his paw marks, and only divinerscan interpretit. These myths providea classificationand taxonomyof cosmosand society; explain many details ofritual, including the forms and colorsymbolism o-f elaborate masks; and,indeed, determilne where and howhousesare constructed.OtherWest Af-rican cultures have equally elaboratecosmologies, which are manifested inritual and divinatorysymbolism.Theirinternalconsistencyand symmetrymaybe related to traditionsof continuousresidenceand farmingin a single habi-tat, combined with exposure to trans-Saharan cultural elements, includingreligiousbeliefs, for thousandsof years-ancient Egyptian,Roman, Christian,nNeo-Platonic, Gnostic, Islamic. Thehistory of West Africa contrasts withthat of CentralAfrica, where most so-cieties descend from groups that mi-grated in a relatively short period oftime across several distinct ecologicalhabitatsand that were then exposed toseveral centuries of slave raiding andslave trading.Groupswere fragmentedand then combined with the socialdetritus of other societies into newX

temporary polities. There were con-quests, assimilationsl reconquests, therise and fall of "kingdoms of thesavannah," and temporary centraliza-tion followed by decentralization ntolocalized clans. Swidden (slash-and-burn agriculture kept people con-stantly on the move; hunting and pas-toralismcompoundedthe mobility.Be-cause of these circumstances, herewaxless likelihood of complex, integratedreligiousand cosmologicalsystemsaris-ing in Central Africa than in WestSCIENCE,VOL. 179


7/7

Press, Manchester, England, 1961); in An-thropological Approaches to the Study ofReligion, M. Banton, Ed. (Tavistock, London,1966), pp. 47-84; in Forms of Sytnbolic Action,R. F. Spencer, Ed. (Univ. of WashingtonPress, Seattle, 1969), pp. 3-25.8. , The Forest of Symbols (Cornell Univ.Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1967), pp. 28, 31, 42, 51,55, 213-217.9. , The Drlfms of Agiction (Clarendon,Oxford, 1968), pp-. 59-60, 68-69, 71-74, 82-87,160, 203.10. M. Gluckman, in Social Structure: Studies Pre-se)1ted to A. K. Radeliffe-Brown, M. Fortes,Ed. (Clarendon, Oxford, 1949), pp. 165-67.11. This problem of the sources of the effective-ness of symbols has been discussed by C.Levi-Strauss, Structlfral Anthropology (Basic,New York, 1963), pp. 18S205; V. W. Turner,The Ritual Process (Aldine, Chicago, 1969),pp. 10-43; N. Munn, in Forms of SyelbolicA ction, R. F. Spencer, Ed. (Univ. of Wash-ington Press, Seattle, 1969), pp. 178-207.12. See C. Levi-Strauss's formulation regarding"totemic" objects, countering the "cornmon-sense" view of J. Frazer and other early 20th-century anthropologists [Le Totemisme A u-jolJrd'hui (Presses Universitaires de FranceParis, 1962)].13. For example, M. Wilson, Amer. Anthropol.56, 228 (19543; A. Richards, Chisungm (Faber,London, 1956); M. Griaule, Conversations withOgotemme^li (Oxford Univ. Press, London,1965); E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Nuer Religion(Clarendon, Oxford, 1956); M. Douglas, Africa27, 46 (1955); C. M. N. White, Afr. Stud. 7,146 (1948); T. O. Beidelman, Africa 31, 250(1961); P. Morton-Williams, W. Bascom,E M. McC]elland, ibid. 36, 406 (1966); J.Beattie, ibid. 38, 413 (1968).14. Examples of African cosmological systems maybe found in D. Forde, Ed., African Worlds(Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1954). Seealso T. O. Beidelman on aspects of Swazicosmology [Africa 36, 379 (1966)].15. M. Wilson, Rituals of Kinship alulong theNlZakyusa (Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1957),pp. 87, 10216. G. Calame-Griaule, Ethnologie et Langage:Le Parole Chez les Dogon (Gallimard, Paris,1966); G. Dieterlen, Les Ames des Dogo)l(Institut d'Ethnologiet, Paris, 1941); Le RenardPale (Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris, 1963).17. M. Douglas, Africa 38, 16 (1968).

Press, Manchester, England, 1961); in An-thropological Approaches to the Study ofReligion, M. Banton, Ed. (Tavistock, London,1966), pp. 47-84; in Forms of Sytnbolic Action,R. F. Spencer, Ed. (Univ. of WashingtonPress, Seattle, 1969), pp. 3-25.8. , The Forest of Symbols (Cornell Univ.Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1967), pp. 28, 31, 42, 51,55, 213-217.9. , The Drlfms of Agiction (Clarendon,Oxford, 1968), pp-. 59-60, 68-69, 71-74, 82-87,160, 203.10. M. Gluckman, in Social Structure: Studies Pre-se)1ted to A. K. Radeliffe-Brown, M. Fortes,Ed. (Clarendon, Oxford, 1949), pp. 165-67.11. This problem of the sources of the effective-ness of symbols has been discussed by C.Levi-Strauss, Structlfral Anthropology (Basic,New York, 1963), pp. 18S205; V. W. Turner,The Ritual Process (Aldine, Chicago, 1969),pp. 10-43; N. Munn, in Forms of SyelbolicA ction, R. F. Spencer, Ed. (Univ. of Wash-ington Press, Seattle, 1969), pp. 178-207.12. See C. Levi-Strauss's formulation regarding"totemic" objects, countering the "cornmon-sense" view of J. Frazer and other early 20th-century anthropologists [Le Totemisme A u-jolJrd'hui (Presses Universitaires de FranceParis, 1962)].13. For example, M. Wilson, Amer. Anthropol.56, 228 (19543; A. Richards, Chisungm (Faber,London, 1956); M. Griaule, Conversations withOgotemme^li (Oxford Univ. Press, London,1965); E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Nuer Religion(Clarendon, Oxford, 1956); M. Douglas, Africa27, 46 (1955); C. M. N. White, Afr. Stud. 7,146 (1948); T. O. Beidelman, Africa 31, 250(1961); P. Morton-Williams, W. Bascom,E M. McC]elland, ibid. 36, 406 (1966); J.Beattie, ibid. 38, 413 (1968).14. Examples of African cosmological systems maybe found in D. Forde, Ed., African Worlds(Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1954). Seealso T. O. Beidelman on aspects of Swazicosmology [Africa 36, 379 (1966)].15. M. Wilson, Rituals of Kinship alulong theNlZakyusa (Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1957),pp. 87, 10216. G. Calame-Griaule, Ethnologie et Langage:Le Parole Chez les Dogon (Gallimard, Paris,1966); G. Dieterlen, Les Ames des Dogo)l(Institut d'Ethnologiet, Paris, 1941); Le RenardPale (Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris, 1963).17. M. Douglas, Africa 38, 16 (1968).

Africa. Yet the needs and dangers ofsocial and personal survival providedsuitableconditio;nsor the developmentof rituals as pragmatic instruments(from the standpointof the actors) forcoping with biological change, disease,and naturalhazardsof all kinds. Socialaction in responseto materialpressureswas the systematic and systematizingfactor. Order,cosmos, came from pur-pose, not from azn laborateand articu-lated cosmology. It is an order thataccordswell with human experienceatpreindustrial echnological levels; evenits discrepancies accurately reflect the"factsof life"- in contrastto consistentand harmonious cosmologies whosesymbolsand myths mask and cloak thebasic contradictionsbetweenwishesandfacts.

The ContinuingEfficacyof AfricanRitualSymbols

Nevertheless, from the comparativeviewpoint, there are remarkablesimi-larities among symbols used in ritualthroughoutsub-SaharanAfricaS n spiteof differencesin cosmological sophisti-cation. The same ideas, analogies, andmodes of association underlie symbolformation and manipulationfrom theSenegal River to the Cape of GoodHope. The same assumptions about

Africa. Yet the needs and dangers ofsocial and personal survival providedsuitableconditio;nsor the developmentof rituals as pragmatic instruments(from the standpointof the actors) forcoping with biological change, disease,and naturalhazardsof all kinds. Socialaction in responseto materialpressureswas the systematic and systematizingfactor. Order,cosmos, came from pur-pose, not from azn laborateand articu-lated cosmology. It is an order thataccordswell with human experienceatpreindustrial echnological levels; evenits discrepancies accurately reflect the"factsof life"- in contrastto consistentand harmonious cosmologies whosesymbolsand myths mask and cloak thebasic contradictionsbetweenwishesandfacts.

The ContinuingEfficacyof AfricanRitualSymbols

Nevertheless, from the comparativeviewpoint, there are remarkablesimi-larities among symbols used in ritualthroughoutsub-SaharanAfricaS n spiteof differencesin cosmological sophisti-cation. The same ideas, analogies, andmodes of association underlie symbolformation and manipulationfrom theSenegal River to the Cape of GoodHope. The same assumptions about

powers prevail in kiingdoms-and no-madic bands. Whether these assem-blages of similar symbols representunits of complex orders or the debrisof formerlyprevalentones, the symbolsremain extraordinarilyviable and thethemes they represent and embodytenaciously rooted. This may be be-cause they arose in ecological andsocial experiences of a kind that stillprevailsin large areas of the continent.Since they are thus sustained andsince there is a continuous flux andreflux of people between country andcity, it is not surprisingthat much ofthe imagery found in the writin^gs fmodern African novelists and in therhetoric of politicians is drawn fromritual symbolism-from which it de-rives its power to move and channelemotion.

References and Notes1. M. Wilson, Commlfnal Rituals of the Nyakyusa(Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1959), pp. 49-69.2. V. W. Turner, in Closed Systems and OpenMinds: The Limits of Naivety in SocialAnthropology, M. Gluckman, Ed. (Oliver &Boyd, Edinburgh, 1964), pp. 2>51.3. M. E. Opler, Amer. J. Sociol. 51, 198 (1945).4. , Southwest. J. Anthropol. 24, 215(1968).5. J. B. Watson, in A Dictionary of the SocialSciences, ]. Gould and W. L. Kolb, Eds.(Tavistock, London, 1964), pp. 163-164.6. V. W. Turner, in Themes in Culture, M. D.Zamora, ]. M. Mahar, H. Orenstein, Eds.(Kayumanggi, Quezon City, Philippines, 1971),pp. 27s284.7. V. W. Turner, Ndembl Divination: ItsSymbolism and Technigzfes (Manchester Univ.

powers prevail in kiingdoms-and no-madic bands. Whether these assem-blages of similar symbols representunits of complex orders or the debrisof formerlyprevalentones, the symbolsremain extraordinarilyviable and thethemes they represent and embodytenaciously rooted. This may be be-cause they arose in ecological andsocial experiences of a kind that stillprevailsin large areas of the continent.Since they are thus sustained andsince there is a continuous flux andreflux of people between country andcity, it is not surprisingthat much ofthe imagery found in the writin^gs fmodern African novelists and in therhetoric of politicians is drawn fromritual symbolism-from which it de-rives its power to move and channelemotion.

References and Notes1. M. Wilson, Commlfnal Rituals of the Nyakyusa(Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1959), pp. 49-69.2. V. W. Turner, in Closed Systems and OpenMinds: The Limits of Naivety in SocialAnthropology, M. Gluckman, Ed. (Oliver &Boyd, Edinburgh, 1964), pp. 2>51.3. M. E. Opler, Amer. J. Sociol. 51, 198 (1945).4. , Southwest. J. Anthropol. 24, 215(1968).5. J. B. Watson, in A Dictionary of the SocialSciences, ]. Gould and W. L. Kolb, Eds.(Tavistock, London, 1964), pp. 163-164.6. V. W. Turner, in Themes in Culture, M. D.Zamora, ]. M. Mahar, H. Orenstein, Eds.(Kayumanggi, Quezon City, Philippines, 1971),pp. 27s284.7. V. W. Turner, Ndembl Divination: ItsSymbolism and Technigzfes (Manchester Univ.

NEWS AND COMMENT

TechnologyIncentives:NSF Gropesfor Relevance

NEWS AND COMMENT

TechnologyIncentives:NSF Gropesfor Relevance

said, 'SThey'vemade presentations tous and submitted plans which we'vebeen going over with a fine tooth comb.. . . We were disappointedwith someprevious plans." NBS's share of theprogram known as the ExperimentalTechnology Incentives Program is inthe same boat, with most of its fundsimpoundedexceptfor a smlallallotmentfor planning purposes.-Impoundmentof ERDIP's funds bythe OMB is surprisingin view of thefact that the program is one of thefew tasks that has ever been directlyassigned to the NSF by presidentialinitiative.Although it is hard to assessa programthat has produced so little,the first anniversaryof its announce-ment would seem a justifiabletime toinquire exactly what had been accom-plished so far.Conversations with the program'sstaff, with industrialand academiccon-sultants to ERDIP, and with knowl-edgeableofficials in other agenciessug-gest that ERDIP so far has no clearidea as to how technological innova-

tros

said, 'SThey'vemade presentations tous and submitted plans which we'vebeen going over with a fine tooth comb.. . . We were disappointedwith someprevious plans." NBS's share of theprogram known as the ExperimentalTechnology Incentives Program is inthe same boat, with most of its fundsimpoundedexceptfor a smlallallotmentfor planning purposes.-Impoundmentof ERDIP's funds bythe OMB is surprisingin view of thefact that the program is one of thefew tasks that has ever been directlyassigned to the NSF by presidentialinitiative.Although it is hard to assessa programthat has produced so little,the first anniversaryof its announce-ment would seem a justifiabletime toinquire exactly what had been accom-plished so far.Conversations with the program'sstaff, with industrialand academiccon-sultants to ERDIP, and with knowl-edgeableofficials in other agenciessug-gest that ERDIP so far has no clearidea as to how technological innova-

tros

A year ago, on 16 March 1972, Pres-ident Nixon announced in his firsttechnology message a new plum forthe National Science Foundation(NSF), an ambitious sounding schemeknown as the ExperimentalR & D In-centives Programor ERDIP. The mes-sage directed the NSF, together withthe National Bureau of Standards(NBS), to investigate ways in whichthe government could "improve theclimate for technological innovation"throughexperimentingwith alternativepolicies to achieve this go al.The incentives programs were her-alded as a possiblestep towardimprov-16 MARCH 1973

A year ago, on 16 March 1972, Pres-ident Nixon announced in his firsttechnology message a new plum forthe National Science Foundation(NSF), an ambitious sounding schemeknown as the ExperimentalR & D In-centives Programor ERDIP. The mes-sage directed the NSF, together withthe National Bureau of Standards(NBS), to investigate ways in whichthe government could "improve theclimate for technological innovation"throughexperimentingwith alternativepolicies to achieve this go al.The incentives programs were her-alded as a possiblestep towardimprov-16 MARCH 1973

ing industrial productivity and, ulti-mately, the trade balance through amore sophisticated uningof the privateR & D establishment. n its own minorway, then, NSF was givenla chance tocontribute something to White H:ousepolicy-making on vital national inter-ests a promise that at present is notbeing fulfilled.A year later, however, the NSF hasonly received and obligated about $2million of the $18.5 million whichCon-gresswarmlyappropriatedor the fiscal1973 program.The rest has been with-held by the Office of ManagementandBudget (OMB). A spokesman there

ing industrial productivity and, ulti-mately, the trade balance through amore sophisticated uningof the privateR & D establishment. n its own minorway, then, NSF was givenla chance tocontribute something to White H:ousepolicy-making on vital national inter-ests a promise that at present is notbeing fulfilled.A year later, however, the NSF hasonly received and obligated about $2million of the $18.5 million whichCon-gresswarmlyappropriatedor the fiscal1973 program.The rest has been with-held by the Office of ManagementandBudget (OMB). A spokesman there

Documents

Turner - African Ritual