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Wim van Binsbergen -- Selected writings on divination |
return to | webpage 'Divination through space and time | Topicalities index | Ancient Models of Thought index | African religion index | index Shikanda portal |
The list below brings together most of Wim van Binsbergen's writings on divination over the past two decades.
Texts in green cells are those specifically focussing on divination.
topic and shortened title |
publication details |
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| 'Divination through space and time' (click for fast-loading presentation of a detailed theoretical and comparative argument of set out in more than a hundred slides, with lavish illustrations) | 'Divination through space and time', key note address, International conference, Leiden, National Museum for Ethnology (conveners: Philip Peek, Walter van Beek, Jan Jansen, Annette Schmidt): ‘Realities re-viewed / revealed : Divination in sub-saharan Africa -- Realites revues / revelees: Divination en afrique sub-saharienne, July 4 – 5, 2005; click here for abstract | |||
| Intercultural encounters: African and anthropological lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality |
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| Rupture and fusion in the approach to myth | van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003,
'Rupture and fusion in the approach to myth Situating myth analysis between philosophy, poetics, and long-range historical reconstruction, with an application to the ancient and world-wide mythical complex of leopard-skin symbolism' paper read at the International Conference ‘Myth: Theory and the Disciplines’, 12 December 2003 University of Leiden: Research School CNWS (School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies), IIAS (The International Institute for Asian Studies); and NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) includes a discussion of what it means to combine the study of myth with actually living a myth, as a Southern African diviner-healer |
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| From an African bestiary to universal science? | van Binsbergen, WM.J.,
unpublished (2001), 'From an African bestiary to
universal science? Cluster analysis opens up a world-wide historical perspective on animal symbolism in divine attributes, divination sets, and in the naming of clans, constellations, zodiacs, and lunar mansions' |
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| 'The underpinning of scientific knowledge systems: Epistemology or hegemonic power? The implications of Sandra Harding’s critique of North Atlantic science for the appreciation of African knowledge systems' (PDF) | van Binsbergen, WM.J., 2002, 'The underpinning of scientific knowledge systems: Epistemology or hegemonic power? The implications of Sandra Harding’s critique of North Atlantic science for the appreciation of African knowledge systems', paper presented at the Colloquium ‘La rencontre des rationalites’, organised by the African Centre for Advanced Studies, the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH) and UNESCO, Porto Novo, Benin, September 18-21, 2002 | |||
| The
leopard's unchanging spots: Long-range comparative research as a key to enduring patterns of African agency |
van Binsbergen, W.M.J.,
2003-4, 'The leopard's unchanging spots: Long-range
comparative research as a key to enduring patterns of
African agency', slide presentation, Theme Group on
Agency in Africa, African Studies Centre, Leiden,
November/December 2003 (version short core group); later
versions to be presented at the 6th Round Table on Myth,
Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard
University, Boston (USA), 7-8 May, 2004; and the
International Conference on Agency in African History,
African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, 25-27
May, 2004 an extensive discussion of the global background, traced all the way into the Middle Palaeolithic, of leopard-skin symbolism as featuring in the Southern African sangoma cult note that there are also quite different variants of the argument, specifically geared to
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| 'Islam as a constitutive factor in African ‘traditional’ religion: The evidence from geomantic divination' (PDF) | paper read at the conference on Transformation processes and Islam in Africa, African Studies Centre and Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, The Netherlands, 15 October, 1999; forthcoming in: Breedveld, A., van Santen, J., & van Binsbergen, W.M.J., eds., Islam and transformations in Africa, Leiden: Brill | |||
A critical appraisal of Mudimbe: |
' ''An incomprehensible
miracle'': Central African clerical intellectualism
versus African historic religion: A close reading of
Valentin Mudimbe’s Tales of Faith';
Opening lecture in a series 'Reading
Mudimbe', organized by Louis Brenner and Kai Kresse,
Centre of African Studies, School of Oriental and African
Studies, London, United Kingdom, 1st February, 2001; full
version (60 pp) to appear in the Journal of African
Cultural Studies, July 2005 (long overdue) contains a discussion contrasting Mudimbe's turning away from African religion and towards global universalism, with the author's own movement which is in the opposite direction |
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| First religious fieldwork: Tunisia 1968 |
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| First published in: van der
Geest, J.D.M., & van der Veen, K.W., 1979, eds., In
search of health: Essays in medical anthropology,
Amsterdam: Antropologisch Sociologisch Centrum, pp. 19-90 contains glimpses of South Central African divination practices |
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| Church and state in contemporary Botswana | A
shortened version appeared as: Van Binsbergen, W.M.J.,
1993, ‘African Independent churches and the state in
Botswana’, in M. Bax & A. de Koster, eds, Power and
prayer: Essays on Religion and politics, Amsterdam: VU [
Free University ] University Press, pp. 24-56. contains a discussion of a sangomas' professional organisation |
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| The land as body in Manjak religion, Guinea Bissau | Van
Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1988, ‘The land as body: An essay
on the interpretation of ritual among the Manjaks of
Guinea-Bissau’, in: R. Frankenberg, ed, Gramsci,
Marxism, and Phenomenology: Essays for the development of
critical medical anthropology, special issue of Medical
Anthropological Quarterly, new series, 2, 4, december
1988, p. 386-401 discussion of oracular shrines |
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| Socio-cultural aspects of Manjak religion, Guinea Bissau | Van
Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1984, ‘Socio-ritual structures and
modern migration among the Manjak of Guinea Bissau:
Ideological reproduction in a context of peripheral
capitalism’, Antropologische Verkenningen (Utrecht), 3,
2: 11-43 discussion of oracular shrines |
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| Becoming a sangoma, Francistown, Botswana |
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| Transregional and historical connections of the Southern African four-tablet oracle | Van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1996, ‘Transregional and historical connections of four-tablet divination in Southern Africa’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 26, 1: 2-29 | |||
| The Southern African four-tablet oracle as medical technology | Van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1995, ‘Four-tablet divination as trans-regional medical technology in Southern Africa’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 25, 2: 114-140 | |||
| 'Sangoma in the Netherlands: On integrity in cultural mediation' |
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| The astrological origin of Islamic geomancy | van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1996, 'The astrological origin of Islamic geomancy', paper read at The SSIPS/ SAGP 1996, 15th Annual Conference: ‘Global and Multicultural Dimensions of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and Social Thought: Africana, Christian, Greek, Islamic, Jewish, Indigenous and Asian Traditions’, Binghamton University, Department of Philosophy/ Center for Medieval and Renaissance studies (CEMERS), October 1996 (PDF) | |||
| Diffusionism and ludology: geomantic divination and mankala board-games | van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1995, Diffusionism and ludology: geomantic divination and mankala board-games, much revised and expanded version of: Van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1995, ‘Divination and board-games: Exploring the links between geomantic divination and mancala board-games in Africa and Asia’, paper read at the international colloquium 1995: Board-games in Academia’, Leiden, 9-13 April 1995; a somewhat shortened and adapted version was published as: Van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1997c, ‘Rethinking Africa’s contribution to global cultural history: Lessons from a comparative historical analysis of mankala board-games and geomantic divination’, in: Van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1997, ed, Black Athena: Ten Years After, special issue, Talanta: Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society, volumes XXVIII-XXIX/ 1996-1997, pp. 221-254 |
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| Improvising away from fixed verbal formulae in the four-tablet oracle of sangomas in contemporary Botswana | van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003, 'Improvising away from fixed verbal formulae in the four-tablet oracle of sangomas in contemporary Botswana', paper presented at the session ‘Het discours van de expert, orale traditie tussen formule en uitvoeringtradition between formula and ’ (‘the expert’s discourse: oral performanceAssociation of African Studies, 2003 ’), Convenor: Jan Jansen, Netherlands Conferentie perspectives in Africa studies’, 26 ‘Power, Politics and Poetry: Dutch september, Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Pieter de la Courtgebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden | |||
| Crossing cultural boundaries: In vindication of Southern African sangoma science | van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2000, ‘Crossing cultural boundaries’, Compass Newsletter: For endogenous development, Number 3, July 2000, ‘Vitality, Health and Disease: In soils, crops, animals and people’, guest editor Sarshan Shankar, pp. 12-13. | |||
| 'The translation of Southern African sangoma divination towards a global format, and the validity of the knowledge it produces' |
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| 'Sangoma en filosoof: Eenheid in de praktijk, dilemma in de theorie' | van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003, ‘Sangoma en filosoof: Eenheid in de praktijk, dilemma in de theorie’, in: Bulhof, I.N., Poorthuis, M., & Bhagwandin, V., eds., Mijn plaats is geen plaats: Ontmoetingen tussen wereldbeschouwingen, Kampen: Klement-Pelckmans, pp. 219-231 | |||
| Ubuntu and the globalisation of Southern African thought and society |
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| ‘‘We are in this for the money’’: The sangoma mediumistic cult of Southern Africa | van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1999,
‘ ‘‘We are in this for the money’’: The sangoma
mediumistic cult of Southern Africa: limitations and
potential of an interpretation in terms of
commodification’, paper presented at the international
conference: Commodification and identities: Social Life
of Things revisited, Amsterdam, 10-13 June, 1999 a shortened final version of this paper is published as: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2005,‘ ‘‘We are in this for the money'': Commodification and the sangoma cult of Southern Africa' , in: Commodification: Things, Agency and Identities (Wim van Binsbergen & Peter Geschiere, eds., Berlin/Muenster: LIT, pp. 319-348 -- which requires the Cumulative bibliography of the entire book (click here) |
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| Photo essay on Wim van Binsbergen's training and initiation as sangoma, Francistown and Matshelagebedi, Botswana, 1989-1991 | ||||
| click here for a webpage on which many of Wim van Binsbergen's writings on sangomahood have been brought together, with clickable links to the full texts | ||||
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Experience beyond scholarly analysis: click on the icon to the left (representing the first tablet, Kwame, of the sangoma four-tablet oracle) if you require information as to how to initiate a consultation with Wim van Binsbergen/ Johannes Sibanda as a sangoma diviner-priest, via the Internet; alternatively, click on the icon to the right (showing Wim van Binsbergen's oracular Four Tablets) for general background information on Southern African sangomahood |  |
return to | webpage 'Divination through space and time | Topicalities index | Ancient Models of Thought index | African religion index | index Shikanda portal |
| page last modified: 24-10-05 12:14:58 |  |
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