The Forest of Symbols: Aspects Of Ndembu Ritual

by Victor Turner

Collection of 10 articles previously published on various aspects of ritual symbolism among the Ndembu of Zambia; p.83-4; brief mention of C.P. Mountford on Aboriginal colour symbolism; Primarly for use in cultural comparison.


"This is a collection of ten essays dealing with various aspects of symbolism and ritual among the Ndembu of Zambia in central Africa. . . . Using data of extraordinary richness, it presents some of the most provocative and suggestive theories recently advanced in the study of ritual behavior and symbolism. . . It provides one of the few postwar studies sure to rank as an ethnographic classic."-Africa

"A collection of ten of the most brilliant and important essays on ritual yet written. These papers by Victor Turner . . . are all seminal and distinguished."-American Anthropologist

Genres: Anthropology, Africa, Ethnography, Religion, Nonfiction, Social Science, Academic

417 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1967

About the author

Victor Witter Turner was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals, and rites of passage. His work, along with that of Clifford Geertz and others, is often referred to as symbolic and interpretive anthropology.

Reviews

[Tian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. I'd advise reading it, but doing so critically so as to not fall prey to the sort of colonized knowledge he utilizes.

[Glinsky]

Turner (1967) reports Marwick (1952) via Douglas (1963): ‘When Cewa social relations become intolerably strained, witch beliefs help to “dissolve relations that have become redundant”; they “blast down the dilapidated parts of the social structure, and clear the rubble in preparation for new ones.”’

Turner parenthetically wonders, ‘(What kind of structure, one is prompted to ask, is this: forced abstract or reinforced concrete?)’, but the question ought to be, ‘What has any of this to do with witchcraft?’ The explanation—if that is what it is—in terms of social structure does absolutely nothing to explain why it is precisely witch beliefs that are supposed to help in this way.

And this is what anthropological and psychological ‘explanations’ generally look like: lacking any direct grasp of the phenomenon in view, or even willingness to attempt any such thing given what they take to be its patent irrationality or (if they are condescending enough) pseudo-rationality, they simply substitute another on which they feel they have a theoretical handle and then publish themselves into a career in defence of this transparent bait-and-switch.

The point is: it is not, or not primarily, a failure of intelligence, it’s that you can know an awful lot about something without understanding the first thing about it.

[Anthony Chiteta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book educating many on the Ndembu culture.

[Vic · Rating 4 out of 5]

poetic and metamorphic, this book speaks on the idea of change and symbolism between life and death, the change of undergoing adulthood thrhough examples of religious ritual.

[Lily Bronski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry. I'm going to be the one to say it. There's a reason people only ever read "Betwixt and Between." The rest is loose and specious and unconvincing analytically and reading this almost made me give up on semiotic analysis.

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best essay in here was "Muchona the Hornet," a portrait of the anthropologist's favorite informant, previously published in In the Company of Man. Also excellent was "A Ndembu Doctor in Practice," which shows how the diviner untangles all the bad vibes in the social relations around the patient and then makes all the key players take active part in a healing ritual before the entire village. I wish our tribe did that... when someone has psychosomatic symptoms, that the doctor calls in family members, co-workers, bosses, local politicians and makes everyone confess publicly all the b.s. between them all the while putting on an amazing show with trances, sleight of hand, blood, music and frightening supernatural threats... that would be great!

The longest of the ten essays in here is about the Ndembu rite of circumcision. That went on way too long and all the characters got confusing the way Russian novels sometimes do. When I read anthropology, I want to either be carried away to an unfamiliar culture or else I want stuff to think about, ideas that shake up the "common sense" about "human nature." This book had moments of both but wasn't very consistent for me.

Also, I wanted to be in the forest, but the Ndembu are actually villagers. Or at least they were at the time this was written. Turner goes over and over in detail the multifaceted symbolic significance of various trees used in Ndembu ritual and I had a hard time seeing "The Forest of Symbols" for the trees.

[Marcos Núñez Núñez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este es uno de mis libros antropológicos favoritos. Desde que leí este libro en la licenciatura, el panorama de la antropología cambió para mí. Ciertamente, esta ciencia ya tenía tiempo que había pasado por el simbolismo, pero resulta que a finales de la década de 1990, Víctor Turner regresaría con más fuerza al brindar posibilidades de análisis para el caso de los rituales. El ritual como un evento donde se usan símbolos, donde la gente hace cosas con símbolos, donde intentan transmitir ideas y lograr ciertos fines con el uso de los símbolos.
Para entonces, el simbolismo como ruta antropológica dejaría de darle importancia al desciframiento del símbolo para pasar a describir los intereses y las acciones humanas, ya que en la acción, en la representación o en la performance, los sentidos y las interpretaciones son dinámicas, nunca estáticas. Un gran libro, de lectura algo retadora, pero un deber dentro de la antropología.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am I winking or am I 'winking'?

[Yokonita · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is complex... paradox is the main issue

[Lyndsey Wolfe]

Very insightful if you are interested in rituals and the aspects of ritual process. The chapter on color classification was really interesting.

[versarbre · Rating 5 out of 5]

1967 collections