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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Rain and water symbolism in southern African religious systems: continuity and change
Authors:Müller, RetiefISNI
Kruger, Frans
Year:2013
Periodical:Exchange: Journal of Contemporary Christianities in Context (ISSN 0166-2740)
Volume:42
Issue:2
Pages:143-156
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:religious rituals
Zionist churches
rain
symbols
water
environment
External link:https://doi.org/10.1163/1572543X-12341261
Abstract:This article presents a diachronic perspective on rain and water rituals in Souh Africa. The authors claim that contemporary rituals can only be properly understood when cognisance has been taken of their deep roots into the past. In contemporary South Africa,much of the ritualization involving water or rain occurs within one of the Zionis churches, of which the Zion Christian Church is the best knownThe authors indicate how water and rain rituals show signs of continuity between past and present, in spite of the dramatic upheavals created by the arrival of colonialism and missionary Christianity. The authors furthermore argue that such rituals are not only of 'religious' importance, but also indicative of the material concerns concerning the environment in the communal consciousness of ordinary people. The popular interest in these types of rituals may indeed be understood as the refusal by ordinary people to submit to a dominant globalization paradigm which has a vested interest in casting them in the role of permanently helpless victims. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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