{"id":13726,"date":"2000-10-27T16:57:12","date_gmt":"2000-10-27T21:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=13726"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:13:56","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:13:56","slug":"october-27-2000-divination-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/","title":{"rendered":" Divination Art"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center\">\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>BOB ABERNETHY<\/strong>: In our Belief and Practice segment this week, divination art.<\/p>\n<p>African tribal religions include diviners who are believed to communicate with the gods in the spirit world. Diviners discover and then relate what the gods want, and harness the gods&#8217; powers to help followers overcome illness and other crises. Carvings and sculptures used to capture the spirits&#8217; attention were gathered this summer at New York&#8217;s Metropolitan Museum of Art.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2000\/10\/divinationart-post02-abiodun.jpg\" alt=\"divinationart-post02-abiodun\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13727\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We talked about divination art with curator Alisa La Gamma and Professor Rowland Abiodun, an art historian at Amherst College and a follower of Nigeria&#8217;s Ifa religion.<\/p>\n<p>Professor <strong>ROWLAND ABIODUN<\/strong>: The Ifa divination process will start with a prayer invoking the presence of Orumila, which means the power that rectifies the unfortunate destiny.<\/p>\n<p>These objects are being used to facilitate prayer. They&#8217;re being used to amplify appeals.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re supposed to energize. They&#8217;re supposed to make things happen.<\/p>\n<p>The invocation and the citation that are delivered on this occasion helps in calming the patient, helps in healing the patient, helps in clearing shadows of doubt.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2000\/10\/divinationart-post01-lagamma.jpg\" alt=\"divinationart-post01-lagamma\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13728\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>ALISA LA GAMMA<\/strong>: The work that you see here is a great Nkisi Nkondo. A great power figure from central Africa. Each of these metal elements was used to draw a spirit&#8217;s attention to a matter of grave importance.<\/p>\n<p>This protruding element in the area of the abdomen is actually a container full of medicinal ingredients that would have really drawn that force to this particular site when it was invoked.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the divination systems bring together healing and psychotherapy as well as religious prayer, so it&#8217;s a convergence of a lot of different kinds of approaches to remedying a situation.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. <strong>ABIODUN<\/strong>: What we see here is more than just a beautiful work of art but something that is active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>African tribal religions include diviners who are believed to communicate with the gods in the spirit world. Diviners discover and then relate what the gods want, and harness the gods&rsquo; powers to help followers overcome illness and other crises. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":18012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[93,727,1828,10897,10899,10898],"class_list":["post-13726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-art","tag-belief-and-practice-tag","tag-divination","tag-ifa","tag-tribal-religion","topics-belief-and-practice","faith-other-world-religions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>October 27, 2000 ~ Divination Art | October 27, 2000 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"African tribal religions include diviners who are believed to communicate with the gods in the spirit world. 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Diviners discover and then relate what the gods want, and harness the gods&rsquo; powers to help followers overcome illness and other crises.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBS.ReligionEthics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2000-10-27T21:57:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-10T19:13:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2000\/10\/divinationart-thumb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Bailey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Bailey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Bailey\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/79737424ab595da57f7f35aadcd74d1d\"},\"headline\":\"Divination Art\",\"datePublished\":\"2000-10-27T21:57:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-10T19:13:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/\"},\"wordCount\":309,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2000\/10\/divinationart-thumb.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"Art\",\"belief and practice\",\"divination\",\"Ifa\",\"tribal religion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/\",\"name\":\"October 27, 2000 ~ Divination Art | October 27, 2000 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2000\/10\/27\/october-27-2000-divination-art\/13726\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2000\/10\/divinationart-thumb.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2000-10-27T21:57:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-10T19:13:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/79737424ab595da57f7f35aadcd74d1d\"},\"description\":\"African tribal religions include diviners who are believed to communicate with the gods in the spirit world. 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