Table of Contents

Preface
Foreword
Note on Orthography

Chapter 1. A Ritual History
Chapter 2. The Oyo Renaissance
Chapter 3. Igboho in the Age of Abiola
Chapter 4. A Ritual Biography
Chapter 5. Engendering Power: The Mythic and Iconic Foundations of Priestly Action
Chapter 6. Re-dressing Gender
Chapter 7. Conclusion: Dialogue, Debate, and the Chose du Texte

Appendix I: Oriki Yemoja (Yemoja Panegyrics)
Appendix II: A Partial Genealogy of the Oyeboode Priests
Appendix III: Yemoja in the Kingdom of Sango: The Ritual Calendar
Appendix IV: Sango Pipe (Sango Panegyrics)
Appendix V: The Naming Ceremony

Bibliography

About the Author

J. Lorand Matory is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and of Afro-American Studies at Harvard University.

Reviews

Second edition, with a new introduction by the Author "Matory's ethnography commands serious respect. His centralthesis concerning the gendering of power relations in the Oyo Empire, and its continuing expression in the cult of Sango, is brilliant and original. The symbolic analysis of contemporary initiation to the Sango cult ... shows real virtuosity ... [Also] of great value is his account of the state of religious heterogeneity in Oyo North. This book should make a significant mark outside the field of Yoruba studies, in the anthropology of gender at large."  · J.D.Y. Peel, FBA, University of London "An exemplary exercise in historical anthropology ... with interpretive and forensic skill [the author] narrates how the traditions of Sango and Ogun are carried into and participate inthe post-independence political and economical developments, and how they relate to contemporary Islamic and Christian religious streams."  · Stanley J. Tambiah, Harvard University "A bold and innovative study of the interplay between gender,power and religion. Its relevance to feminist theory is unquestionable ... Gender categories and all that is associated with them are changed by the negotiation of politically interested actors, both male and female ... It situates itself within a 'mythic' paradigm which, the author argues, is close to indigenous conceptualizations of the past and present; but at the same time it is unmistakably located in the real, hybrid and confusing world of contemporary Nigeria, and not in some idealized world of 'tradition'."  · Karin Barber, University of Birmingham "[Matory's] richly argued text, strong with insight, strong with documents, is a classic in Yoruba studies."  · Robert F. Thompson, Yale University “This second edition of the seminal [book] seems more salient in retrospect as the international interest in orisha worship and the meaning of transatlantic aesthetics that claim a Yoruba ancestry increases…Along with his theoretical guidance, Matory provides rich procedural, ritual detail that contextualizes the multifaceted aspect of orisha worship for specific sets of completed ritual communities.”  · International Journal of African Historical Studies