Healing in Polluted Places
Mountains, Air, and Weather in Zulu Zionist Ritual Practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.33646Keywords:
Christianity, ritual healing, landscape, pollutionAbstract
On the first Saturday of every month at midnight, the Zulu Zionist congregation I worked with would climb a mountaintop in their heavily polluted urban township in Durban, South Africa in search of physical and spiritual healing and restoration. I will use an ethnographic case from this event to argue that the ritual process constituted a movement through and engagement with a mountainous landscape which facilitated embodied engagements with the 'weather-world' as manifestations of a historical landscape where the spiritual world became tangible and embodied. Within this historical framework pollution was both a source of affliction and healing, hence there was no clear-cut distinction between the industrial and environmental pollution that has historically been the concern of Zulu healing rituals. As such, the status of pollution surfaced at the center of ritual locations, where mountains as contaminated places emerged as important, though highly ambivalent sources of health and wellbeing.
References
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———. 1989. Zulu Thought Patterns and Symbolism (London and Cape Town: C. Hurst & Co.).
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———. 2014. ‘Writing “Naturecultures” in Zulu Zionist Healing’, Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies 2.1: 12-18. Doi: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v2i1.2131.
———. 2016. ‘Enwinding Social Theory: Wind and Weather in Zulu Zionist Sensorial Experience’, Social Analysis 60.3: 95-111. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2016.600306.
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Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1962. Phenomenology of Perception (trans. C. Smith; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Ngubane, Harriet. 1976. ‘Some Notions of “Purity” and “Impurity” and the Zulu’, Africa 46: 274-84. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/1159399.
———. 1977. Body and Mind in Zulu Medicine: An Ethnography of Health and Disease in Nyuswa-Zulu Thought and Practice (London and New York: Academic Press).
Oosthuizen, Gerhardus C. 1967. The Theology of a South African Messiah (Leiden: Brill).
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Pauw, Berthold A. 1960. Religion in a Tswana Chiefdom (London: Oxford University Press).
Peek, S. 2002. ‘Doublespeak in Durban: Mondi Waste Management, and the Struggles of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance’, in D.A. McDonald (ed.), Environmental Justice in South Africa (Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press): 202-19.
Ranger, Terence O. 1999. Voices from the Rocks: Nature, Culture and History in the Matopos Hills of Zimbabwe (Oxford: James Currey).
Raum, Otto F. 1973. The Social Functions of Avoidances and Taboos Among the Zulu (Monogaphien zur Völkerkunde; Berlin and New York: W. de Gruyter).
Sundkler, Bengt G.M. 1948. Bantu Prophets in South Africa (London: Lutterworth Press).
———. 1976. Zulu Zion and Some Swazi Zionists (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Vilakazi, Absolom. 1965. Zulu Transformations: A Study of the Dynamics of Social Change (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press).
West, Martin E. 1975. Bishops and Prophets in a Black City: African Independent Churches in Soweto Johannesburg (Cape Town: David Philip).
Wiley, David, Christine E. Root, Sven Peek, and Seyathie Ramurath. 1996. Report on the State of the Environment and Development in the Durban Metropolitan Area, South Durban. Durban, South Africa: City of Durban, North Central Council, Physical Environment Planning Unit.
Wilson, Monica. 1951. Good Company: A Study of Nyakusa Age-Villages (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press).
Ashforth, Adam. 2000. Madumo: A Man Bewitched (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Bachelard, Gaston. 1988 [1943]. Air and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Movement (The Ballard Translations) (Dallas, TX: Dallas Instititute Publications).
Barrett, David B. 1968. Schism and Renewal in Africa: An Analysis of Six Thousand Contemporary Religious Movements (Nairobi: Oxford University Press).
Beinart, William, and Karen Brown. 2013. African Local Knowledge and Livestock Health: Diseases and Treatments in South Africa (Woodbridge and Rochester, NY: James Curry).
Benjamin, Walter. 1999. The Arcades Project (trans. H. Eiland and K. McLaughlin; Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press).
Berglund, Axel-Ivar. 1975. ‘Heaven-Herds: A Study in Zulu Symbolism’, in M.G. Whisson and M. West (eds.), Religion and Social Change in Southern Africa (Cape Town: David Philip): 34-47.
———. 1989. Zulu Thought Patterns and Symbolism (London and Cape Town: C. Hurst & Co.).
Bryant, Alfred T. 1905. Zulu–English Dictionary (Pietermaritzburg: Davis).
———. 1949. The Zulu People: As They Were before the White Man Came (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter).
———. 1983 [1909]. Zulu Medicine and Medicine-Men (Cape Town: Centaur).
Callaway, Henry. 1970 [1868]. The Religious System of the Amazulus (Africana Collectanea 35; Pietermaritzburg: Davis & Sons).
Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London and New York: Ark Paperback). Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203361832.
Flikke, Rune. 2006. ‘Embodying the Occult: Religious Experiences and Ritual Practices in Urban Zulu Zionism’, in J. Kiernan (ed.), The Power of the Occult in Modern Africa: Continuity and Innovation in the Renewal of African Cosmologies (Berlin: Lit Verlag): 206-40.
———. 2007. ‘Thandis historie. Når tid, sted og kropp møtes’, Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift 18.3-4: 296-307.
———. 2014. ‘Writing “Naturecultures” in Zulu Zionist Healing’, Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies 2.1: 12-18. Doi: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v2i1.2131.
———. 2016. ‘Enwinding Social Theory: Wind and Weather in Zulu Zionist Sensorial Experience’, Social Analysis 60.3: 95-111. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2016.600306.
Golinski, Jan. 2007. British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226302065.001.0001.
Harris, Oliver J.T., John Robb, and Sarah Tarlow. 2013. ‘The Body in the Age of Knowledge’, in J. Robb and O.J.T. Harris (eds.), The Body in History: Europe from the Palaeolithic to the Future (New York: Cambridge University Press): 164-95.
Ingold, Tim. 2005. ‘The Eye of the Storm: Visual Perception and the Weather’, Visual Studies 20.2: 97-104. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14725860500243953.
———. 2007. ‘Earth, Sky, Wind, and Weather’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute NS 13: s19-s38. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00401.x.
———. 2010. ‘Footprints through the Weather-World: Walking, Breathing, Knowing’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16 (Supplement s1): s121-s139. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2010.01613.x.
———. 2011. Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description (London and New York: Routledge).
Jankovic, Vladimir. 2007. ‘Gruff Boreas, Deadly Calms: A Medical Perspective on Winds and the Victorians’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute NS 13: s147-s164. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00403.x.
Janzen, John M. 1978. The Quest for Therapy: Medical Pluralism in Lower Zaire (Berkeley and London: University of California Press).
———. 1992. Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520072657.001.0001.
Kiernan, Jim P. 1984. ‘A Cesspool of Sorcery: How Zionists Visualize and Respond to the City’, Urban Anthropology 13.2-3: 219-36.
Krige, Eileen Jensen. 1950 [1936]. The Social System of the Zulus (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter).
Kuriyama, Shigehisa. 1999. The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine (New York: Zone Books).
Livingstone, David. 1857. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London: J. Murray).
Lloyd, Geoffrey. 2007. ‘Pneuma between Body and Soul’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute NS 13: s135-s146. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00409.x.
Low, Chris. 2007. ‘Khoisan Wind: Hunting and Healing’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute NS 13: s71-s90. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00402.x.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1962. Phenomenology of Perception (trans. C. Smith; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Ngubane, Harriet. 1976. ‘Some Notions of “Purity” and “Impurity” and the Zulu’, Africa 46: 274-84. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/1159399.
———. 1977. Body and Mind in Zulu Medicine: An Ethnography of Health and Disease in Nyuswa-Zulu Thought and Practice (London and New York: Academic Press).
Oosthuizen, Gerhardus C. 1967. The Theology of a South African Messiah (Leiden: Brill).
Parkin, David. 2007. ‘Wafting on the Wind: Smell and the Cycle of Spirit and Matter’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute NS 13.1: s39-s53. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00408.x.
Pauw, Berthold A. 1960. Religion in a Tswana Chiefdom (London: Oxford University Press).
Peek, S. 2002. ‘Doublespeak in Durban: Mondi Waste Management, and the Struggles of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance’, in D.A. McDonald (ed.), Environmental Justice in South Africa (Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press): 202-19.
Ranger, Terence O. 1999. Voices from the Rocks: Nature, Culture and History in the Matopos Hills of Zimbabwe (Oxford: James Currey).
Raum, Otto F. 1973. The Social Functions of Avoidances and Taboos Among the Zulu (Monogaphien zur Völkerkunde; Berlin and New York: W. de Gruyter).
Sundkler, Bengt G.M. 1948. Bantu Prophets in South Africa (London: Lutterworth Press).
———. 1976. Zulu Zion and Some Swazi Zionists (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Vilakazi, Absolom. 1965. Zulu Transformations: A Study of the Dynamics of Social Change (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press).
West, Martin E. 1975. Bishops and Prophets in a Black City: African Independent Churches in Soweto Johannesburg (Cape Town: David Philip).
Wiley, David, Christine E. Root, Sven Peek, and Seyathie Ramurath. 1996. Report on the State of the Environment and Development in the Durban Metropolitan Area, South Durban. Durban, South Africa: City of Durban, North Central Council, Physical Environment Planning Unit.
Wilson, Monica. 1951. Good Company: A Study of Nyakusa Age-Villages (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press).
Published
2018-06-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Flikke, R. (2018). Healing in Polluted Places: Mountains, Air, and Weather in Zulu Zionist Ritual Practice. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 12(1), 76-95. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.33646
