Medial Deities and Relational Meanings: Tracing Elements of an Akan Grammar of Knowing
To date, few phenomenological studies analyze African religions at the level of epistemology. This essay engages in such an analysis with a focus on the cosmological tradition associated with the Akan of southern Ghana. I argue that medial Akan deities can be understood as constitutive elements of a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
The Pennsylvania State University Press
[2015]
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| In: |
Journal of Africana religions
Year: 2015, Volume: 3, Issue: 4, Pages: 397-441 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Akan
/ World view
/ Gods
/ Relationship
/ Knowledge
/ Meaning
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| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AG Religious life; material religion BB Indigenous religions KBN Sub-Saharan Africa NBC Doctrine of God NBH Angelology; demonology RC Liturgy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | To date, few phenomenological studies analyze African religions at the level of epistemology. This essay engages in such an analysis with a focus on the cosmological tradition associated with the Akan of southern Ghana. I argue that medial Akan deities can be understood as constitutive elements of a grammar of knowing, the latter designating a mode of meaning construction serving as a formative component of an epistemology rooted in the significantly relational idea of sunsum (spirit). I argue further that Akan conceptions of the abosom (medial deities) in conjunction with certain attendant ritual observances and practices signal three epistemological principles that can be described as follows: (1) knowing as a function of regular contact with the spiritual world (asamando), (2) knowing as a heterogeneous, paradoxical experience marked by both power and limitation, and (3) knowing as an ethical mandate. |
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| ISSN: | 2165-5413 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Africana religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.3.4.0397 |