Notes to: Board-games and divination in global cultural history a theoretical, comparative and historical perspective on mankala and geomancy in Africa and Asia Wim van Binsbergen

To Main text of this paper Part I | Part II | to homepage

NOTES

1Thus, for instance, in the voluminous literature on mankala, there are only a few passing references to its relation with divination: Pankhurst 1971; Nsimbi 1968.

2Cf. Kassibo 1992; Traoré 1979; Abimbola 1976.

3Townshend 1976-1977, 1979a, 1979b, 1982; Russ 1984.

4The literature, both scholarly and practical, on geomantic divination is voluminous, and much of it is of excellent standards. For a recent review, by the author of one of the most original contributions in this field, cf. Jaulin 1991; and on the West African material, cf. Kassibo 1992. For a more popular overview, also dealing with the spread of geomancy to late medieval Europe, where it became a standard and increasingly popularised form of divination as from Renaissance times, cf. Skinner 1980, which however should be used with caution when it comes to the early history of geomancy. On geomancy (Sikidy) on Madagascar in relation to the general African material, cf. Trautmann 1939-1940; Hébert 1961. Only for the sake of brevity, may I further refer to my own recent writings (van Binsbergen 1994, 1995, 1996, and in preparation) for extensive references on geomancy in Africa, the Islamic world, Asia and Europe.

5Culin 1890-1891; Pingree 1978, i: 38; Pugh 1988: 295.

6Like Doutté (n.d.: 326f), where under the name of zig an unmistakable form of mankala is being described) and Tajan & Maupin 1907.

7 Including Barakat 1974; Rosenthal 1975; and Pâques 1964 (which only by implication refers to the Maghreb, as part of the circum-Saharan region sharing the culture of the ‘arbre cosmique’; but here, on p. 91, again a description of zig mankala.

8Murray does not here refer to a specific work by this author; cf. Culin 1893-96, 1896, 1898, 1991, 1975.

9With Ibn al-Arabi in the early 9th century CE (cf. Fahd 1966: 197f); a single early mention also in the famous book by al-DJahiz (c. 776-868/ 9 CE), Kitab al-hayawan.

10 E.g. Petrie 1927: 55, plate 47; Parker 1981: 587f; Bell 1960: 112f. Perhaps more Egyptian mankala-like material is available than we realise. E.g. in February 1996 the Leiden Museum voor Oudheden had on display a Ancient Egyptian boat model inside whose central passenger deck was furnished, at the correct scale, with what unmistakably looked like a 2x4 mankala board. [ check exhibit’s number and historical period ]

11The general formula is C = n^k, where

C = the number of possible different configurations

n = the number of different values each tablet can assume (in this case ‘front up’ or ‘front down’, which means that n= 2), and

k = number of tablets (here: k = 4)

In this case, C = 2^4 = 16.

12E.g. Bent 1969; Bleek 1928; Brown 1926; Coertze 1931; Eiselen 1932; Giesekke 1930; Junod 1927; Laydevant 1933; Stayt 1931.

13Cf. Meek 1931: ii 314; Murray’s original reference.

14A variant of what Townshend (1979) was to call dara; Murray (1952: 49), games category (3.6.5).

15Their essential feature (see Figure 6) is a string along which, or at whose end, a number (k, often k=8) elements (cowries or coins) are attached, in such a way that each element can pivot independently around its point of attachment; since each element has an identifiable upper side and lower side and thus can take 2 different values, the total number of possible configurations is C=n^k, e.g. 2^8 = 256; Bascom 1969, a book of many hundreds of pages all reflecting the memorised knowledge of one Ifa diviner, lists all possible combinations with the elaborate praises — of divinatory meaning — that belong to each; also cf. Abimbola 1976.

16E.g. House I: bodily, psychological and intellectual constitution; House II: finance, mobile property; House III: siblings; House IV: parents, heredity; etc.

17The northernmost extension of the imaginary line marking the intersection between the ecliptic (the plane shared by earth and sun), and the plane in which the moon revolves around the earth; with its counterpart, the Dragon’s Tail marking the southernmost extension, this imaginary point moves along the zodiac. Both received, in Indian, Arabian and medieval and later European astrology, the connotations of additional planets, and as such were marked on horoscopes, were involved in the calculation of aspects i.e. meaningful angles between planets, etc.

18Cf. Dundes (1964: 277): ‘a game is, structurally speaking, a two-dimensional folk-tale’.

19Cf. Mbiti 1990; Adjaye 1994; Wiredu 1995.

20Cf. Seidenberg 1960, 1961; Schmidl 1915; Zaslavsky 1990.

21Jaulin 1966; Popova 1974; Deledicq & Popova 1977.

22Murray 1952: 236f; cf. Huizinga 1952 to whom he rightly refers.

23For a tentative theory of shrines in an agricultural context, cf. van Binsbergen 1981: 107f.

24Roberts & Sutton-Smith 1962, 1966; Roberts 1979.

25 Lévi-Strauss 1949, 1962, and references cited there.

26On formal aspects of rules in general, cf. Douglas, 1973; Ahern 1982; Black 1976.

27Anonymous 1990; Rollefson 1992. Considerably later are the Bronze Age allegedly mankala ‘gaming stones’ (mankala-like patterns in stone slabs) found elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean basin: Lee 1982; Swiny 1980; for an overview, cf. Simpson, in press (this volume), where further references may be found.

28Remarkable examples of the game’s variants being persistence to change in the face of migration across vast areas and being surrounded by distinctly different variants, are for e.g. given by Townshend 1979a: 127f.

29Murray 1952: 12f; Musées 1992; Herberger 1988; and extensive references cited there.

30The literal meaning of the name is: ‘the mother of daughters’. Not unlikely, it contains a pun on the standard Arabic term ‘umm al-walad’, ‘mother of children’, specifically referring to the female slave who has born her master children (male children being preferred over female children by far) and thereby has considerably improved her legal status; cf. Schacht 1974.

31Borger 1978: 12; character no. 105 I.

32No. 105 I (77); Borger 1978: 87.

33The applicability of the agricultural grid imagery in Arabian divination including geomancy is suggested by the fact that the table, grid or plan in which the various significant figures or values are laid out for interpretation, is called djadwal, by a word whose semantic field also includes ‘brook’, ‘watercourse’; Graefe et al. 1978.

34Schenkel 1978; Endesfelder 1979; Butzer 1976; cf. Strouhal 1993: 93f.

35Among numerous scholarly and popular editions I mention: Wilhelm & Cary 1951; Legge 1993.

36As the basis for the 2^n-based binary symbolism, one adopted for Islamic geomancy a representational symbolism in terms of single or paired dots that was most probably derived from Chinese hexagrams with their broken and unbroken lines ( etc.; cf. in geomancy ) as used in I Ching, the latter being constitutive of a cosmology pervading all of Chinese life for millennia (Needham 1956; Maspero 1978: 281f).

37aThis kind of 'scutoform' images has been subject to numerous speculations; cf. Leroi-Gourhan, Marshack etc.; while formally this figure does represent a grid pattern, I am inclined to follow those interpreters who regard it as a representation of a nature bee hive

37Cf. below, section of the earth cult and its square symbolism.

38König 1973: 97; Howell c.s. 1970: 161f; Mahoudeau 1909; Howell 1970: 161.

39For relevant discussions of imagery and production forms, cf. van Binsbergen 1991 and van Binsbergen & Wiggermann, in press.

40Montet 1955; cf. Ranke 1920; Pierini 1992; Piccione 1963.

41In which there are probably, like in the ‘game of twenty fields’ which is often laid out at the bottom of senet boxes, reminiscences of the Mesopotamian apsu as both ritual tank and primordial waters of chaos; cf. Kendall 1992.

42Among the abundant literature I mention only Gadd 1934; Murray 1952: 15f.

43Saqqara, tomb of Hemaka, 1st dynasty; Aldred 1961: 103 pl. 11, 128, 393.

44A full discussion falls outside our present scope; cf. van Binsbergen, forthcoming. Let me merely mention the once enigmatic Tabula Bianchini as an example (Boll c.s. 1966: 60, 191f).

45Reiner’s extremely rich and informative text suggests - against the background of the vast literature on the topic — many links between Ancient Mesopotamian, Seleucid cuneiform, and Ancient Greek magic; even proto-geomancies can be detected here.

46A similar argument could be developed for extispicy, a widespread divinatory tradition among the Ancient Near East: the liver model, covered with a grid and the cases thus formed inscribed with divinatory clues, was at the same time a model of the landscape near the palace, and the diviner’s instructions were in terms which referred both to the sacrificial animal’s anatomy, and to the townscape (e.g. Jeyes 1978, 1989).

47A cylinder through which the dice are thrown, bouncing unpredictably on the tower’s inside steps, so as to prevent cheating.

48E.g. it is a major aspect of religions throughout Africa (cf. Schoffeleers 1979; van Binsbergen 1976, 1981, 1988; and references cited there) and around the Mediterranean (van Binsbergen forthcoming (a)).

49Cf. Gellner 1969; van Binsbergen & Wiggermann, in press; Fontenrose 1980; Fortes 1945, 1949; Simonse 1992; van Binsbergen forthcoming (a); and references cited there.

50Papyrus Berlin 8320 (Koptische Texte), as quoted in: de Jong 1921: 238f; further brief reference to this text in: Meyer & Smith 1994: 367, n. 75, l. 18, cf. p. 161; also cf. Isaiah 14: 13-14; Ezekiel 28: 2.

51Capitan & Peyrony 1921; Levy 1948: 6, 65f, and p. 41; cf. 125, 146.

52I am surprised by the statement that the meaning cannot be conjectured; of course it can, the real problem is that we have no direct means of verifying our conjecture — plausibility and persuasiveness are our main tools. The case belongs to the category of questions like

This was the motto of Robert Graves (1988) White Goddess, which ingenuously answers these and, anyway, most other questions... Considering the imaginative thrust of Levy’s pioneering book, it is hard to believe that she does not like that kind of questions, and her statement looks like a pious remark inserted in order to propitiate a more positivist editor.

53Rijksmuseum 1960: no. 33 and back cover; Anon. n.d.: 34 and pl. 40.

54Buchholz & Karageorghis 1973: 90 and pl. 1122b, with extensive bibliography.

55Gautier 1911; Parrot 1958: pl. vii a, pl. 44, and pp. 89-94; Labat 1987: 411, 496.

56Later Palatial Crete; Buchholz & Karageorghis 1973: 34 and pl. 61a, b, with extensive bibliography.

57Attested throughout the Ancient World, from the Maghreb to Iran; cf. van der Toorn 1996; for a modern study dealing with the same phenomenon, cf. van Binsbergen, forthcoming (a).

58Van Binsbergen 1994, 1995a, 1995b, forthcoming.

59Not by accident, a similar mix (except the Indian and Chinese material) went, in the same period, into the compilation of that famous piece of Arabic magic writing, GHayat al-hakim also known as Picatrix (Pingree 1980; Hartner 1965; Ritter & Plessner 1962).

60On the basis of Murray’s detailed data: o.c. pp. 178, 240f; with additional input from Townshend (1979, 1979, 1980, o.c.), and well as from the other references on mankala quoted in this paper.

61Leakey 1937: 165-173; here the interesting claim is made that mankala is not only essentially African, but also goes back to the Neolithic, thus converging with my own argument on Neolithic connotations.

62For a more detailed discussion of the same material in the context of the kind of Afrocentrism found in popular distortions of the Black Athena thesis (Bernal 1991), cf. van Binsbergen, in press (a) and (b).

63Such a travesty of ethnic boundary markers in space and time is quite common in the study of identity; for a South Central African example involving male puberty rites including circumcision as a boundary marker, cf. van Binsbergen 1993.

63a. For an extensive discussion on this point, with special reference to a signet ring from Meroe, from beginning of the Common Era, see my forthcoming book: Global Bee Flight: Sub-Saharan Africa, Ancient Egypt, and the World: Beyond the Black Athena thesis.

64As such I Ching may not even be strictly Chinese in origin, as its binary nature (as against the five and five directions elements of Chinese cosmology; cf. Needham 1956), and the puzzling un-Chinese

(Tocharian i.e. Indo-European?) etymology of such key concepts as kuan, _, I Ching symbol R, the receptive earth-like principle (cf. khthóón?) suggest; I owe this reminder to the sinologist Martin Bernal.

65Van Binsbergen, 1996 and forthcoming; partly based on Nettleton 1984.

66E.g. Townshend 1976-77: 95f, 1979a: 118, 127 — the famous case of the Kuba king Shyaam aMbul aNgoog introducing mankala, under a West African name, after a journey to the west —, 134; Frobenius 1931; d’Hertefelt & Coupez 1964: 169.

67Schoffeleers 1979; van Binsbergen 1981, 1992; and references cited there.

68In the light of current insights in the nature and periodisation of irrigation in Ancient Egypt it is no longer tempting to follow Wittfogel (1957) and Harris (1978) and claim a direct relationship between irrigation and kingship.

69Often historical indications lie hidden in seemingly meaningless details waiting to be read in their proper light. E.g., among the West African Dogon any game involving pebbles can only be played outside the house lest it omens disaster for the family; while the playing of mankala, as one of these pebble games, and in general any game which may lead to one’s enslavement, is viewed as a bad omen (Griaule 1938). In this gerontocracy without elaborate political organisation, do these fears reflect past experiences with slave raiding and with a more central political organisation featuring — like in so many African contexts — the mankala game as a sign of royal power?

To Main text of this paper Part I | Part II | to homepage

References

Abimbola, ‘W., 1976, Ifa: An exposition of the Ifa literary corpus, New York: Nok.

Adelaar, S., 1994, ‘Asian roots of the Malagasy: A linguistic perspective’, paper presented at the congress on Malagasy cultural identity from the Asian perspective, Leiden, 28-29 March 1994.

Adjaye, J.K., ed. (1994) Time in the Black experience, Westport (Conn.)/ London: Greenwood.

Ahern, E.M., 1982, ‘Rules in oracles and games’, Man, n.s. 17, 2: 302-312.

al-DJahiz, Abu ‘Utman ‘Amr b. Bahr, Kitab al-hayawan, 1408 H/ 1988 CE, ed. A.M. Harun, Cairo, 7 vols; earlier edition 1356-64/ 1938-45.

al-Zanati, Muhammad, 1923 AD/1341 H, al-Fasl fi usul ‘ilm al-raml, wa-yalihi: Risala fi’l DJafr wa-Kura li-Sayyidi DJafar al-Sadik, Cairo; English translation with commentary by R. Badawy & W.M.J. van Binsbergen, forthcoming.

Aldred, C., 1961, ‘Eerste bloeitijd van het oude Egypte’, in: Piggott, S., ed., 1961, De wereld ontwaakt, Den Haag: Gaade, pp. 97-132, 393-394; Dutch tr. of The dawn of civilisation, London: Thames & Hudson, 1961.

Anfray, F., 1970, ‘Notes archéologiques’, Annales d’Ethiopie, 8, 35. [ add pages ]

Anonymous (1990) ‘Playing board games in the Stone Age’, ‘‘Geographica’’, National Geographic Magazine 177, 2.

Avelot, R., 1906, ‘Le jeu des godets’, Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, 5th series, 7: [ add pages ] .

Avelot, R., 1908, ‘L’ouri’, Bulletin et Mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, 5th series, 9: 9-22 .

Barakat, R.A., 1974, Tawula: A Study in Arabic Folklore, F.F. Communications No. 214, Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia/ Academia Scientiarum Fennica.

Barnes, R.H., 1975, ‘Mancala in Kedang: A structural test’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 131, 1: 67-85.

Bascom, W., 1969, Ifa divination: Communication between gods and men in West Africa, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Bastin, M.L., 1959, ‘Ngombo: Notes sur des instruments de divination employés dans le district de la Lunda en Angola’, Congo-Tervuren, 5: 100-106.

Béart, C., 1955, ‘Jeux et jouets de l’Ouest africain’, Bulletin de l’IFAN (Institut Français de l’Afrique Noire, Dakar), série B, sciences humaines, 2: 475 [ check 275 - ] -515; also as Mémoire de l’IFAN, 1955, no. 42.

Becq de Fouquières, L., 1869, Les jeux des ancients, Paris: Reinwald.

Bell 1960...

Bent, J.T., 1969, The ruined cities of Mashonaland, Bulawayo: Books of Rhodesia, Rhodesiana Reprint Library, volume 5, facsimile reproduction of the third edition, Longmans, Green & Co., London/New York/Bombay, 1896, first published 1892.

Bernal, M., 1991, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization, London etc.: Vintage, reprint of the original 1987 edition.

Birket-Smith, K., 1946, Geschichte der Kultur: Eine allgemeine Ethnologie, Zürich: Orell Füssli.

Black, M., 1976, Models and metaphors: Studies in language and philosophy, Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press, 6th printing; first ed. 1962.

Bleek, D.F., 1928, The Naron: A Bushman tribe of the Central Kalahari, Cambridge: [ publisher ]

Bloch, M., 1992, Prey into hunter: The politics of religious experience, Cambridge [ check London ] : Cambridge University Press.

Boll, F.J., C. Bezold & W. Gundel, 1966, Sternglaube und Sterndeutung: Die Geschichte und das Wesen der Astrologie: 5. durchgesehene Auflage mit einem bibliographischen Anhang von H.G. Gundel, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftlichte Buchgesellschaft; first published Leipzig 1926: Teubner Verlag.

Borger, R., 1978, Assyrisch-babylonische Zeichenliste, Kevelaer/ Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon & Bercker/ Neukirchener Verlag.

Bouché-Leclercq, A., 1879, Histoire de la divination dans l’antiquité, 4 vols., Paris: Leroux.

Breasted, J.H., 1935, Ancient times: A history of the Ancient World, New York: Harper & Brother, first published 1926.

Breuil, H., 1928, ‘Les Roches Peintes schématiques d’Helechal (Badajoz) Estremadure’, in: Koppers, W., ed., Festschrift/Publication d’hommage offerte au P. W. Schmidt, Vienna: Mechitaristen-Congregations-Buchdruckerei, pp. 781-799.

Breuil, H., 1952, ‘The influence of classical civilisations on the cave paintings of South Africa’, Proceedings of the first Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, Nairobi, 1947, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 234-237.

Breuil, H., H. Lothe & le Col. Brenans, 1954, Les roches peintes du Tassili-n-Ajjer, Paris: Arts et Métiers graphiques.

Brown, J. T., 1926, Among the Bantu Nomads: A record of forty years spent among the Bechuana, a numerous & famous branch of the Central South African Bantu, with the first full description of their ancient customs, manners & beliefs, London: Seeley, Service & Co Ltd.

Browne, Sir Thomas, [ year ] , Urn burial, [ place, publisher ]

Buchholz, H.-G, & Karageorghis, V., 1973, Prehistoric Greece and Cyprus: An archaeological handbook, tr. F. Garvie, London: Phaidon.

Burgess, C., 1990, ‘The chronology of cup-marks and cup-and-ring marks in Atlantic Europe’, Revue Archéologique de l’Ouest, Supplément 2: 157-171.

Butzer, K.W., 1976, Early hydraulic civilisation in Egypt, Chicago: [ publisher ] .

Camps, G., 1982, ‘Beginnings of pastoralism and cultivation in north-west Africa and the Sahara: Origins of the Berbers’, in: J.D. Clark, ed., The Cambridge History of Africa, vol. I: From the earliest times to c. 500 BC, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 548-623.

Capitan, L., & Peyrony, D., 1921, ‘Découverte d’un sixième squelette moustérien à la Ferrassie, Dordogne’, Revue Anthropologique, 31: 382f.

Chaplin, J.H., 1956, ‘A note on Mankala games in Northern Rhodesia’, Man, 56: 168-170, no. 193.

Coertze, P.J., 1931, Dolosgooiery in Suid-Afrika, Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch, Annale van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch, vol. ix, series B, issue 2.

Cole, S., 1954, The prehistory of East Africa, Harmondsworth: Penguin. .

Corcelle-Bellessort, M.N., 1991, Les jeux de société dans l’Egypte ancienne: Recherche et catalogue des jeux de table du département égyptien du Musée du Louvre, Mémoire de l’Ecole du Louvre, Paris: l’Ecole du Louvre.

Costermans, le Dr., 1949, ‘Relevé des stations préhistoriques dans les territoires de Watsa-Gomabri et de Dungu’, Zaire, iii, 2: 154-166.

Culin, S., 1890-91, ‘East Indian Fortune-telling with dice’, Proceedings of the Numismatic and Anthropological Society of Philadelphia, 1890-91: 65.

Culin, S., 1893/ 1896, ‘Chinese games with dice and dominoes’, Annual Reports of the United States National Museum, 491 (1893), 671 (1896), p. 491-537.

Culin, S., 1896, Mankala, the national game of Africa, US National Museum Annual Report, Washington, pp. 595-607.

Culin, S., 1898, Chess and playing-cards, Smithsonian Institution Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1896, Washington: Smithsonian Institution. .

Culin, S., 1975, Games of the North American Indians, New York: Dover; facsimile reprint of the original 1907 edition, which was the Accompanying Paper of the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, 1902-1903, by W.H. Holmes, Chief.

Culin, S., 1991, Korean games: With notes on the corresponding games of China and Japan, New York: Brooklyn Museum in association with Dover; facsimile reprint of the original 1895 edition

d’Hertefelt, M., & Coupez, A., 1964, La royauté sacrée de l’ancient Rwanda, Bruxelles: [ publisher ] .

Davies, R., 1925, ‘Some Arab games and riddles’, Sudan Notes and Records, 8: 140-144.

de Jong, K.H.E., 1921, De magie bij de Grieken en Romeinen, Haarlem: Bohn.

de Lame, D., 1996, Une colline entre mille: Le calme avant la tempête: Transformations et blocages du Rwanda rural, Ph.D. thesis, Free University, Amsterdam; published by Tervuren: Musée Royale de l’Afrique Centrale.

Delachaux, T., 1946, ‘Méthode et instruments de divination en Angola’, Acta Tropica, 3, 1-2: 41-72, 138-149.

Deledicq, A., & Popova, A., 1977, Wari et solo: Le jeu de calculs africain, Paris: CEDIC.

Denbow, J., & E. Wilmsen, 1983, ‘Iron Age pastoralist settlements in Botswana’, South African Journal of Science, 79: 405-408.

Devisch, R., 1987, ‘Interweaving the vital flow and the symbolic function: The therapist’s liminal function among the Yaka of Zaire’, paper presented at the Third Satterthwaite Colloquium on African Religion and Ritual, Satterthwaite, Cumbria (U.K.).

Devisch, R., 1991, ‘Mediumistic divination among the northern Yaka of Zaire’, in: Peek, P.M., ed., 1991, African divination systems: Ways of knowing, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 112-132.

Dornan, S.S., 1925, Pygmies and Bushmen of the Kalahari: An account of the hunting tribes inhabiting the great arid plateau of the Kalahari desert, their precarious manner of living, their habits, customs & beliefs, with some reference to Bushman art, both early & of recent date, & to the neighbouring African tribes, London: Seeley, Service & Co.

Douglas, M., 1973, ed., Rules and meanings, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Doutté, E., n.d. [ ca. 1900 ] , Merrâkech. [ complete reference ]

Driberg, J.H., 1933, ‘[ Sudan: Magic: Driberg ] Divination by pebbles’, Man, 33, 3: 7-9.

Driedger, W., 1972, ‘The game of bao or mankala in East Africa’, Mila (Journal of the Institute of African Studies, Nairobi), 3, 1: 7-20.

Dundes, A., 1964, ‘On game morphology: A study of the structure of non-verbal folklore’, New York Folklore Quarterly, 20: 276-288.

Durkheim, E., 1912, Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse, Paris: Preses Universitaires de France.

Eagle, V., 1995, ‘On some newly described mancala games from Yunnan province, China, and the definition of a genus in the family of mancala games’, in: de Voogt, A.J., ed., New approaches to board games research: Asian origins and future perspectives, Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies, pp. 48-63.

Edgerton, R., with W. Goldschmidt, 1971, The individual and cultural adaptation: A study of four East African peoples, Berkeley/ Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.

Edwards, I.E.S., 1985, ‘The early dynastic period in Egypt’, in: Edwards, I.E.S., C.J. Gadd & N.G.L. Hammond, eds., 1985, Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 1 part 2: Early history of the Middle East, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 3rd ed., 1st published 1971, pp. 1-70.

Eiselen, W., 1932, ‘The art of divination as practiced by the Bamasemola’, Bantu Studies, 6: 1-29, 251-263.

Endesfelder, E., 1979, ‘Zur Frage der Bewässerung im pharaonischen Ägypten’, Zeitschrift für die ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 106: 37-51.

Evans-Pritchard, E.E., 1965, Theories of primitive religion, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Evans-Pritchard, E.E., 1972, Witchcraft, oracles and magic among the Azande, London: Oxford University Press, reprint of the first edition of 1937.

Evans-Pritchards, E.E. (1967) The Nuer: A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a Nilotic people, Oxford: Clarendon; reprint of the original edition of 1940.

Fahd, T., 1966, La divination arabe: Etudes religieuses sociologiques et folkloriques sur le milieu natif de l’Islam, Leiden : Brill.

Fahd, T., 1978, ‘KHatt’, in: C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, B. Lewis & C. Pellat, eds., The encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, volume IV, fasc. 77-78, Leiden: Brill, pp. 1128-1130.

Faulkner, R.O., 1962, A concise dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute.

Ferrand, G., 1891-1902, Les musulmans à Madagascar et aux Iles Comores, 3 vols (1891, 1893, 1902), Paris: Ernest Leroux.

Fink, E., 1966, Le jeu comme symbole du monde, Paris: Ed. de Minuit.

Finkel, I.L., 1992, ‘Les plus anciens jeux de table: La tablette des règles du jeu royal d’Ur’, in: Musées 1992: 154-155.

Finkel, I.L., 1995, ‘Board games and fortunetelling: A case from Antiquity’, in: de Voogt, A.J., ed., New approaches to board games research: Asian origins and future perspectives, Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies, pp. 64-72.

Fleuret, P.C., 1985, ‘The social organization of water control in the Taita Hills, Kenya’, American Ethnologist, 12, 1: 103-118.

Fontenrose, J., 1980, Python: A study of Delphic myth and its origins, Berkeley etc.: University of California Press; first published 1959.

Frobenius, L., 1931, Erythräa: Länder und Zeiten des heiligen Königsmordes, Berlin/ Zürich: Atlantis-Verlag.

Gadd, C.J., 1934, ‘An Egyptian game in Assyria’, Iraq, 1: 45-50.

Gautier, J.E., 1911, ‘Le sit shamshi de Shilkhak-In-Shushinak’, Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse, 12: 143-151.

Gellner, E., 1969, Saints of the Atlas, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Giesekke, E.D., 1930, ‘Wahrsagerie bei den baVenda’, Zeitschrift für Eingeborenensprache, 21, 1: 257-310.

Gilbert, P., 1965, ‘Irrigation, jeux de damier et sens du rectangle dans l’art égyptien’, Chronique d’Egypte, 40: 72-78.

Goody, J., 1968, ‘Introduction’, in: Goody, J., ed., Literacy in traditional societies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-26.

Graefe, E., D.B. MacDonald & M. Plessner, 1978, ‘DJadwal’, in: C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, B. Lewis & C. Pellat, eds., The encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, volume V, Leiden: Brill, pp. 370.

Granet, M., 1988, La pensée chinoise, Paris: Albin Michel, nouvelle édition précédée d’une préface par V. Eliseeff; earlier ed. 1934.

Graves, R., 1988, The White Goddess: A historical grammar of poetic myth, London/ Boston: Faber & Faber, reprint of 1961 edition.

Green, [ init ] & Nissen [ init ] , [ year ] Zeichenliste der archaischen Zeichen aus Uruk [ place ] : [ publisher ]

Griaule, M., 1937, ‘Note sur la divination par le chacal (Population dogon de Sanga)’, Bulletin du Comité d’études historiques et scientifiques de l’Afrique Occidentale Française, 20, 1-2: 113-141.

Griaule, M., 1938, Jeux dogons: Thèse complémentaire pour le doctorat ès lettres présentée à la faculté des lettres de l’Université de Paris, Paris: Travaux et Mémoires de l’Institut d’Etnologie, vol. 32.

Groos, K., 1901, The play of man, tr. E.L. Baldwin, London: [ publisher ] .

Gross, W.H., 1979, ‘Kernos’, in: Ziegler, K., & Sontheimer, W., eds., Der Kleine Pauly: Lexikon der Antike in fünf Bänden, München: Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag, vol. III, p. 202.

Haddon, A.C., 1896, Study of man, London: [ publisher ] .

Hamilton, C., 1962, ‘Notes on the newly found bau petroglyphs and the Masai game ‘‘ngeshui’’ ’, Journal of the East African Natural History Society, 24, 1: 50-52.

Hân Yîng Cídian/ A Chinese English dictionary, 1988, Beijing: [ publisher ] .

Harris, M., 1978, Kannibalen en koningen, Utrecht/Antwerpen: Amsterdam Boek; Dutch tr. of: Cannibals and kings: The origins of culture, New York: Random House.

Hartner, W., 1965, ‘Notes on Picatrix’, Isis, 56: 438-51.

Hébert, J.C., 1961, ‘Analyse structurale des géomancies comoriennes, malgaches et africaines’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, 31, 2: 115-208.

Herberger, C.F, 1988, The riddle of the Sphinx: Calendric symbolism in myth and icon, Anixi Attikis (Greece): Efstathiadis, reprint of the 1979 edition, New York etc.: Vantage Press.

Herskovits, M.J., 1960, ‘The cattle complex in East Africa’, American Anthropologist, 27, 1: 230-272; 2, 361-380; 3: 494-528; 4: 633-644.

Howell, F.C., & the Editors of Time-Life Books, 1970, Early man, Life Nature library, n.p.: Time-Life Nederland, revised international edition, orig. English edition 1965.

Huizinga, J., 1952, Homo ludens: Proeve eener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur, Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 4th ed..

Jaulin, R., 1966, La géomancie: Analyse formelle, Cahiers de l’Homme, Ethnologie—Géographie—Linguistique, N.S., iv, Paris: Mouton.

Jaulin, R., 1991, Géomancie et islam, éd. Christian Bourgeois, [ place: publisher ] .

Jensen, A.E., 1936, Im Lande des Gada, Stuttgart: Strecker & Schröder.

Jeyes, U., 1978, ‘The ‘‘palace gate’’ of the liver: A study of terminology and methods in Babylonian extispicy’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 30: 209-233.

Jeyes, U., 1989, Old Babylonian extispicy: Omen texts in the British Museum, Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut.

Jones, A.M., 1964, Africa and Indonesia: The evidence of the xylophone and other musical and cultural factors, Leiden: Brill.

Junod, H.A., 1927, The life of a South African tribe, London: Macmillan.

Kassibo, B., 1992, ‘La géomancie ouest-africaine: Formes endogènes et emprunts extérieurs’, Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines, 32, 4, no. 128: 541-596.

Kendall, T., 1992a, ‘Les plus anciens jeux de table: Le jeu de "58 trous": Règles du jeu’, in: Musées 1992: 160.

Kendall, T., 1992b, ‘Les plus anciens jeux de table: Le jeu des vingt cases’, in: Musées 1992: 148-152.

Kendall, T., 1992c, ‘Les plus anciens jeux de table: Le jeu du "Senet" ‘, in: Musées 1992: 130-133.

Kenny, M.G., 1978, ‘Carved rock gaming-boards in western South Nyanza, Kenya’, Azania, 13: 189-192.

Kidd, D., 1904, The essential kafir, London: Black.

König, M., 1973, Am Anfang der Kultur: Die Zeichensprache des frühen Menschen, Berlin: Mann.

Kühn, H., 1955, De kunst van het oude Europa, Amsterdam: Paris, Dutch tr. of Die Kunst Alteuropas, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.

Labat, R., 1987, ‘Elam and Western Persia c. 1200-1000 B.C.’, in: Edwards, I.E.S., C.J. Gadd, N.G.L. Hammond & E. Sollberger, eds., 1987, Cambridge Ancient History, Third Edition, vol. 2 part 2: History of the Middle East and the Aegean region c. 1380-1000 B.C., Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press, first published 1975, pp. 482-506.

Lanning, E.C., 1956, ‘Rock-cut Mweso boards’, Uganda Journal, 20, 1: 97-98.

Laydevant, F., 1933, ‘The praises of the divining bones among the Basutho’, Bantu Studies, 7: 341-373.

Le Scouézec, G., H. Larcher & R. Alleau, 1965, Encyclopédie de la divination, n.p. [ Paris ]: Tchou.

Leakey, L.S.B., 1937, White African, London: [ publisher ] .

Lee, J., 1982, ‘Early Bronze Age game stones from Bab edh-Dhra, Jordan’, Levant: Journal of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 14: 171-174.

Lee, J., 1982, ‘Early Bronze Age game stones from Bab edh-Dhra, Jordan’, Levant: Journal of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 14: 171-174.

Legge, J., tr. & ed., 1993, I Ching/Book of Changes, The Chinese-English bilingual series of Chinese classics, Beijing: Hunan Publishing House.

Leroi-Gourhan, A. 1976, Les religions de la préhistoire: Paléolithique, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, first published 1964.

Leroi-Gourhan, A., 1984, Hand und Wort: Die Evolution von Technik, Sprache und Kunst, Frankfurt a/M.: Suhrkamp, 2nd ed., first ed., 1980; German tr. of 1964, Le geste et la parole: Technique et language, Paris: Albin Michel.

Lévi-Strauss, C., 1949, Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Lévi-Strauss, C., 1962, Le totémisme aujourd’hui, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Lévi-Strauss, C., [ year ] The origin of table manners: Mythologiques volume III, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Levy, G.R., 1948, The gate of horn: A study of the religious conceptions of the stone age, and their influence upon European thought, London: Faber & Faber.

Long, J.K., 1977, ‘Extrasensory ecology: A summary of evidence’, in: Long, J.K., ed., Extrasensory ecology: Parapsychology and anthropology, Metuchen (N.J.) & London: Scarecrow Press, 371-396.

Mahoudeau, P.-G., 1909, ‘Sur un très ancien procédé de capture du Bison’, Revue de l’Ecole d’Anthropologie, 19: 282-291.

Marcy, G., 1931, ‘Origine et significations des tatouages de tribus berbères’, in: Revue de l’Histoire des Religions , 51, tome 102: 13-66.

Marshack, A., 1972, The roots of civilization: The cognitive beginnings of man’s first art, symbol and notation, London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson/New York: McGraw-Hill.

Maspero, H., 1978, China in antiquity, tr. F.A. Kierman, Folkestone: Dawson, of La Chine antique, revised edition, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France; first published 1927.

Matson, A.T., 1962, ‘Bau petroglyphs’, Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society, 24, 1: 43-49.

May, R., 1992a, ‘Les plus anciens jeux de table: Le jeu de "58 trous" ‘, in: Musées 1992: 156-159, 162-163.

May, R., 1992b, ‘Les plus anciens jeux de table: Le jeu du "Senet": histoire’, in: Musées 1992: 134-147.

Mbiti, J. (1990) African religions and philosophy, London: Heinemann, second edition.

Meek, C.K., 1931, Tribal Studies in Northern Nigeria, London: [ publisher ]

Meggitt, M., 1958, ‘Two Australian Aboriginal games and a problem of diffusion’, Mankind (Official Journal of the Anthropological Societies of Australia), 5, 5: 191-194.

Meyer, M., & Smith, R., 1994, Ancient Christian magic: Coptic texts of ritual power, San Francisco: Harper Collins.

Montet, P., 1955, ‘Le jeu du serpent’, Chronique d’Egypte, 30: 189-197.

Morris, R.W.B., & M. Milburn, 1977, ‘Some cup-and-ring marks of Western Aïr’, Amogaren, 7: 143-145.

Moulin, R.-J., 1966, Het ontstaan van de schilderkunst, Utrecht/Antwerpen: Spectrum; Dutch tr. of: 1965, Sources de la peinture, Lausanne: Rencontre

Murray, H.J.R., 1913, A history of chess, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Murray, H.J.R., 1952, A history of board-games other than chess, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Musées, 1992, Musées de Marseille/Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1992, Jouer dans l’Antiquité, [ catalogue d’une exhibition au ] Musée d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne - Centre de la Vieille Charité 22 novembre 1991-16 février 1992, Marseille: Musée d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne.

Needham, J., with Wing Ling, 1956, Science and civilization in China, vol. 2. History of scientific thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nettleton, A.C.E., 1984, ‘The traditional figurative woodcarving of the Shona and Venda’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Witwatersrand.

Noy, T., 1979, ‘Stone cup-holes and quaerns from Gilgal I: A pre-pottery Neolithic A site in Israel’, Paléorient, 5: 233-238.

Nsimbi, M., 1968, Omweso: A game people play in Uganda, UCLA African Studies Center, Occasional Paper 6, Los Angeles: UCLA African Studies Center; Reprinted, Uganda Publishing House.

Pager, H., 1975, Stone Age myth and magic: As documented in the rock paintings of South Africa, Graz (Austria): Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt.

Pâques, V., 1964, L’Arbre cosmique dans la pensée populaire et dans la vie quotidienne du Nord-Ouest africain, Travaux et Mémoires de l’Institut d’Ethnologie de l’Université de Paris, no. 70.

Parker, H., 1981, Ancient Ceylon: An account of the aborigines and of part of the early civilisation: With illustrations by the author, New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, facsimile reprint of the original edition, London: Luzac & Co, 1909.

Parrot, A., 1958, De schatten van het Louvre en de Bijbel, Nijkerk: Callenbach; Dutch tr. of Le Musée du Louvre et la Bible, Neuchâtel/Paris: Delachaux & Niestlé.

Paulme, D., 1937, ‘La divination par les chacals chez les Dogon de Sanga’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, 7, 1: 1-14.

Pennick, N., 1992, Secret games of the gods: Ancient ritual systems in board-games, York Beach (Maine): Weiser, reprint of the 1989 ed; first published London: Century, 1988.

Petrie, Flinders, 1927, Objects of daily use, London: [ publisher ]

Phillipson, D.W., 1985, African archaeology, [ place: publisher ] .

Piccione, P.A., 1963,’ Mehen: Mysteries and resurrection from the coiled serpent’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 39: 60-75.

Pierini, G., 1992, ‘Les plus anciens jeux de table: Le jeu du serpent ou "mehen" ‘, in: Musées 1992: 125-129.

Piggott, S., 1961, Prehistoric India: To 1000 B.C., Harmondsworth: Penguin, first publ. 1950

Pingree, D., 1978, The Yavanaj‹taka of Sphujidhvaja, Harvard Oriental Series 48, 2 vols, Cambridge (Mass.)/London: Harvard University Press.

Pingree, D., 1980, ‘Some of the Sources of the GHayat al-hakim’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 43: 1-15.

Popova, A., 1974, ‘Analyse formelle et classification des jeux de calcul mongols’, Etudes Mongoles, cahier 5: 14-17.

Pugh, J., 1988, ‘Divination and ideology in the Banaras Muslim community’, in: Ewing, K.P., ed., Shari‘at and ambiguity in South Asian Islam, Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 288-306

Quinn, F., 1971, ‘Abbia Stones’, African Arts, 4, 4: 30-32.

Ranke, H., 1920, Das altägyptische Schlangenspiel, Heidelberg: [ publisher ] .

Reiner, E., 1995, Astral magic in Babylonia, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 85, 4 , Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society.

Renfrew, C., 1979, Before civilisation: The radiocarbon revolution and prehistoric Europe, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Rennell of Rodd, F., 1966, People of the veil, being an account of the habits, organisation and history of the wandering Tuareg tribes which inhabit the mountains of Air or Asben in the Central Sahara, Oosterhout, repr. of 1926 edition.

Rheingold, H., 1991, Virtual reality, London: Secker & Warburg.

Rijksmuseum, 1960, 5000 jaar kunst uit Egypte uit de musea van Kaïro, Alexandriè en Leiden: 16 oktober-31 december 1960, Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum.

Ritter, H. & M. Plessner, 1962, ‘Picatrix’: Das Ziel der Weisen von Pseudo-Magriti, London: Studies of the Warburg Institute, 27.

Roberts, J.M., & Sutton-Smith, B., 1962, ‘Child training and game involvement’, Ethnology, 1: 166-185.

Roberts, J.M., & Sutton-Smith, B., 1966, ‘Cross-cultural correlates of games of chance’, Behavioral Science Notes: HRAF [ Human Relations Area Files ] Quarterly Bulletin, 1: 131-144.

Roberts, J.M., 1979, ‘Comment on: "Games of strategy: A new look at correlates and cross-cultural methods" ‘, in: H.B. Schwartzman, ed., Play and culture: 1978 Proceedings of the Association for the Anthropological Study of Play, West Point (N.Y.): Leisure Press, pp. 226-227.

Roberts, J.M., M.J. Arth & R.R. Bush, 1959, ‘Games in culture’, American Anthropologist , 61: 579-605

Robinson, K.R., 1959, Khami ruins: Report on excavations undertaken for the commission for the preservation of natural and historical monuments and relics, Southern Rhodesia, 1947-1955, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rodrigues de Areia, M.L., 1985, Les symboles divinatoires: Analyse socio-culturelle d’une technique de divination des Cokwe de l’Angola (ngombo ya cisuka), Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra.

Rollefson, G.O. (1992) ‘A Neolithic game board from ‘Ain Ghazal, Jordan’, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 286, May 1992: 1-5.

Rosenthal, F., 1975, Gambling in Islam, Leiden: Brill.

Russ, L., 1984, Mancala games, Algonac (Michigan): Reference Publications.

Sahlins, M., 1972, Stone Age economics, Chicago: Aldine.

Schacht, J., 1974, ‘Umm al-walad’, in: Gibb, H.A.R., & Kramers, J.H., eds., Shorter encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden: Brill, reprint of the first edition of 1953, pp. 601-603.

Schenkel, W., 1978, Die Bewässerungsrevolution in Alten Ägypten, Mainz a/Rhein: [ publisher ] .

Schmidl, Marianne, 1915, ‘Zahl und Zahlen in Afrika’, Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 45: 165-209.

Schoffeleers, J.M., 1979, ed., Guardians of the Land: Essays on African territorial cults, Gwelo: Mambo Press.

Segy, L., 1953, ‘Circle-dot sign on African ivory carvings’, Zaïre, 7, 1: 35-54.

Seidenberg, A., 1960, ‘The Diffusion of Counting Practices’, University of California Publications in Mathematics, 3, 4: 215-299.

Seidenberg, A., 1960-1962, ‘The ritual origin of geometry,’ Archive for History of Exact Sciences (Berlin), 1: 488-527.

Siegel, M., 1940, ‘A study of West African carved gambling chips’, Supplement to American Anthropologist, 42, 4, Part 2 (1940). .

Simonse, S., 1992, Kings of disaster: Dualism, centralism and the scapegoat king in southeastern Sudan, Leiden etc.: Brill.

Simpson, St. J., in press, ‘Homo ludens: Early board games in the Near East’, in: Finkel, I.L., ed., Ancient board games, London: British Museum (this volume).

Skinner, S., 1980, Terrestrial astrology: Divination by geomancy, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Stayt, H., 1931, The Bavenda, London: Oxford University Press.

Strouhal, E., 1993, Leven in het oude Egypte, Haarlem: Becht; Dutch tr. of: Life in ancient Egypt, 1992, London: Cambridge University Press.

Sutton, J.E.G., 1984, ‘Irrigation and soil conservation in African agricultural history: With a reconsideration of the Inyanga terracing (Zimbabwe) and Engaruka irrigation works (Tanzania)’, Journal of African History, 25: 25-41.

Sutton-Smith, B., 1993, ‘Games’, Grolier New Multimedia Encyclopedia, 6th edition.

Swiny, S., 1980, ‘Bronze Age gaming stones from Cyprus’, Report of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, 54-78.

Tajan, G., & Maupin, E., 1907, ‘Les jeux de hasard dans les villes du littoral algérien et tunisien’, Revue africaine, 51: 41-47.

Townshend, P., 1976-1977, ‘The SWA game of | | h‹us (das Lochspiel) in the wider context of African Mankala’, Journal - SWA Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (Windhoek), 31: 85-98.

Townshend, P., 1979a, ‘Mankala in eastern and southern Africa: A distributional analysis’, Azania, 14: 109-138.

Townshend, P., 1979b, ‘Games of strategy: A new look at correlates and cross-cultural methods’, in: H.B. Schwartzman, ed. Play and culture, New York: West Point, pp. 217-225.

Townshend, P., 1982, ‘Bao (Mankala): The Swahili ethic in African idiom’, Paideuma 28: 175-191.

Townshend, P., 1986, ‘Games in culture: A contextual analysis of the Swahili board game and its relevance to variation in African mankala’, Ph. D. thesis, Cambridge, Department of Anthropology.

Traoré, M.L., 1979, ‘Vers une pensée originelle africaine: Exposé géomantique, critiques de la négritude et du consciencisme’, Thèse de 3e cycle, Paris-IV.

Trautmann, R., 1939-1940, La divination à la Côte des Esclaves et à la Madagascar: Le Vôdoû Fa — le Sikidy, Mémoires de l’Institut Français d’Afrique Noire, no. 1, Paris: Larose. [according to cover 1939, according to title page 1940].

Turner, V.W., 1961, Ndembu divination: Its symbolism and techniques, Manchester: Manchester University Press, Rhodes-Livingstone Paper no 31.

Turner, V.W., 1967, The forest of symbols: Aspects of Ndembu ritual, Ithaca (N.Y.): Cornell University Press.

Turner, V.W., 1975, Revelation and divination in Ndembu ritual, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1976, ‘Shrine Cult and Society in North and Central Africa: a Comparative Analysis’, paper read at Annual Conference, Association of Social Anthropologists, Manchester.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J, 1994, ‘Divinatie met vier tabletten: Medische technologie in Zuidelijk Afrika’, in: S. van der Geest, P. ten Have, G. Nijhoff en P. Verbeek-Heida, eds., De macht der dingen: Medische technologie in cultureel perspectief, Amsterdam: Spinhuis, pp. 61-110.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J, in preparation, Four tablets: A Southern African divination system in its transregional and historical context.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1980, ‘Popular and formal Islam, and supralocal relations: The highlands of northwestern Tunisia, 1800-1970’, Middle Eastern Studies (London), 16, 1: 71-91.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1981, Religious change in Zambia: Exploratory studies, London/ Boston: Kegan Paul International.

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: 386-401.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1992, Tears of Rain: Ethnicity and history in central western Zambia, London/Boston: Kegan Paul International

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1993, ‘Mukanda: Towards a history of circumcision rites in western Zambia, 18th-20th century’, in: J.-P. Chrétien, avec collaboration de C.-H.Perrot, G. Prunier & D. Raison-Jourde, eds., L’invention religieuse en Afrique: Histoire et religion en Afrique noire, Paris: Agence de Culture et de Coopération Technique/Karthala, pp. 49-103.

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.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1996a, ‘Time, space and history in African divination and board-games’, in: Tiemersma, D., & Oosterling, H.A.F., eds., Time and temporality in intercultural perspective: Studies presented to Heinz Kimmerle, Amsterdam: Rodopi, [ add pages ] .

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1996b, ‘Transregional and historical connections of four-tablet divination in Southern Africa’, Journal of Religion in Africa., 1996, 1: 2-29.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1996c, ‘Virtuality as a key concept in the study of globalisation: aspects of the symbolic transformation of contemporary Africa’ , in: Global culture and local identities: Workshop of the department of cultural anthropology/Sociology of development, Friday June 7, 1996, Amsterdam: Free University, 1996, pp. 119-141

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., forthcoming (c) Shrines, saints and sufis.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., in press [ 1996 ] , ‘Black Athena and Africa’s contribution to global cultural history’, Quest, [ volume ] [ add pages ]

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., in press [ 1996 ] , ‘Martin Bernal’s Black Athena read as an invitation to rethink Africa’s contribution to global cultural history’, in: W.M.J. van Binsbergen, ed., Under the aegis of Black Athena, theme issue, Talanta, 1996.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., zzz& F.A.M. Wiggermann, in press, ‘Magic in history: A theoretical perspective and its application to Ancient Mesopotamia’, in: T. Abusch & K. van der Toorn, eds., Magic in the Ancient Near East, Groningen: Styx.

van der Toorn, K., 1996, A man and his god, Leiden: Brill.

Viereck, A., 1973, Die Felsbilder von Twyfelfontein, Windhoek: [ publisher ]

von Luschan, F., 1906, ‘Berichte über eine Reise in Süd-Afrika’, Zeitung für Ethnologie, 38: 881.

von Luschan, F., 1919, ‘Zusammenhänge und Konvergenz’, Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 48: 51-55.

Vroon, P., 1992, Wolfsklem: De evolutie van het menselijk gedrag, Baarn: Ambo.

Wang Hongyan, 1993, The origins of Chinese characters, Beijing: Sinolingua.

Werbner, R.P. 1989, ‘Making the hidden seen: Tswapong wisdom divination’, in: Werbner, R.P. (1989) Ritual passage sacred journey: The process and organization of religious movement, Washington/ Manchester: Smithsonian Institution Press/ Manchester University Press, ch. 1, pp. 19-60.

Wieger, L., 1965, Chinese characters: Their origin, etymology, history, classification and signification: A thorough study from Chinese documents, tr. L. Davrout, New York: Paragon Book Reprint/Dover, reprint of second edit., Catholic Mission Press, 1927; first edition 1915.

Wilhelm, R., & F.B. Cary, translators, 1951, The I Ching or Book of Changes, i-ii, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

Wilmsen, E.N., 1989, Land filled with flies: A political economy of the Kalahari, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.

Wilmsen, E.N., 1995, ‘Primitive politics in sanctified landscapes: The ethnographic fictions of Laurens van der Post’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21, 2: 201.

Wiredu, K., 1995, ‘Time and African thought’, paper read at the ‘International conference on time and temporality in intercultural perspective’, Rotterdam, 14-15 December, 1995; revised version included in the present volume. [ anders ]

Wittfogel, K.A., 1957, Oriental despotism: A comparative study of total power, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Woodburn, J., 1982, ‘Social dimensions of death in four African hunting and gathering societies’, in: Bloch, M., & Parry, J., eds., Death and the regeneration of life, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 187-210.

Zaslavsky, C., 1990, Africa counts: Number and pattern in African culture, Brooklyn (N.Y.): Lawrence Hill, second paperback edition; first published 1973, Boston: Prindle, Weber & Schmidt.

Zuckerkandl, V., 1963, Die Wirklichkeit der Musik, Zürich: Rhein Verlag.

To Main text of this paper Part I | Part II | to homepage

page last modified 11-04-99