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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Prayers, Amulets, and Charms: Health and Social Control |
Author: | Handloff, Robert |
Year: | 1982 |
Periodical: | African Studies Review |
Volume: | 25 |
Issue: | 2-3 |
Period: | July-September |
Pages: | 185-194 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Ivory Coast - Côte d'Ivoire Africa |
Subjects: | healers psychotherapy divination Dyula Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Health and Nutrition Religion and Witchcraft |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/524216 |
Abstract: | Medical sociologists have examined the role of medical establishments in the exercise of social control. Their definition of social control as 'the means by which society secures adherence to social norms' implies the power to impose a particular difinition of the world on its members. This definition is central to the purpose of this paper, which describes and analyzes in a West African context (Bondoukou, a city in eastern Ivory Coast) the use of prayers, amulets and charms in the distribution of health services and, at the societal level, their role in social control. In Dyula medecine social control operates primarily as a collection of beliefs, morals, and internalized norms all subsumed under the rubric of selfcontrols, and relational controls which include such every day interactions as gossip, ridicule, and group support. The Dyula were recent settlers in Bondoukou. They were all Muslims and mostly traders who made Bondoukou the principal market and largest city in the kingdom of Gyaman. The Dyula 'karamokos' (healers), incorporating western medecine into their traditional practice, continue to exercise social control. Notes, ref. |