Anthropos: Anthropos, 79.1984

Anthropos, 79.1984

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711819

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711819

Persistenter Identifier:: 1512370864325

Titel:: Anthropos, 79.1984

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1984

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 79, 1984, Heft 1-3

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: The Deus Otiosus Concept in Traditional Igbo Religion: An Examination through Transactional Analysis

Sonstige Person:: Nwanunobi, C. Onyeka

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Anthropos 79. 1984: 145-154 The Deus Otiosus Concept in Traditional Igbo Religion: An Examination through Transactional Analysis C. Onyeka Nwanunobi .. as men imagine the gods in human form, so also they suppose their manner of life to be like their own” (Aristotle, Politics 1.1.7) I. Introduction The notion that societies model their idea of the spirit world after what holds true of their own earthly experience has recurred with frequency at various times in the history of the social sciences. Some of the implications of this viewpoint form the basis for arguments which attribute mono theism or polytheism to societies according to whether these societies are centralized or uncen tralized. For instance, Robertson Smith, a major proponent of this line of thought, imputes the polytheism of classical Greece and Rome to the historical fact that in those places the monarchy was, at the relevant period, supplanted by the aristocracy. In that case, according to Smith, the multiplicity of aristocrats was reflected in the plurality of gods in the cosmology. On the other hand, in Asia, a monarchy subdued the aristoc racy. This situation found expression in the Asiatic conception of a cosmology dominated by a supreme deity. Whatever influence Robertson Smith and his group might have had in their time, subsequent research shows that their views on the present issue are no longer tenable, for it is now widely accepted that there is no regular correspondence C. Onyeca Nwanunobi, Ph. D. in Anthropology (1976, University of Toronto, Canada); teaching at the Department °f Anthropology, Erindale College, Univ. of Toronto (1976/ ?7), and since 1977 at the Department of Sociology/ Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka; present rank: Senior Lecturer; - Academic interests are Social History, Social Inequality, and Sociology of Religion; - Doctoral thesis ° n “The Significance of Separatist Religious Movements: Indigenous Sects in Contemporary Eastern Nigeria” (see also Anthropos 75.1980). between socio-political organizations and reli gious beliefs even after a time lag has been taken into consideration. This explains why a non- centralized political group such as the !Kung (L. Marshall 1965) could have a Supreme God in their cosmology while a unicentric society may profess a polytheistic religion. It seems, however, that irrespective of what people in the various socio-political systems believe in, their approach to the objects of their belief, that is, the way they relate to their acknowledged god or gods necessarily reflects the prevalent type of interpersonal relations within the given group. This paper is, therefore, on how the members of a given group “transact business” of whatever nature with the gods in their cosmology. The investigation of this transaction is particularly in relation to the concept of the deus otiosus or the “withdrawn High God” in traditional Igbo relig ion. Studies so far done on this issue of otiositas have relied almost exclusively on ontological explanations about the Supreme God and about religion - subjects which, by their very nature are unverifiable. Such efforts to account for otiositas in the context of the relationship between man, minor divinities, and the Supreme God have consistently failed to take the tip from Georg Sim- mel that religion reflects social relationships (1959: ix); or as Robin Horton puts it that “... the encounter with God [is] the supreme archetypal social relationship” (1971: 95). Interpretations which ignore these observations have, therefore, not exhausted the explanatory possibilities. In the quest for a viable and alternative explanation to what has so far been offered, this paper constructs a model for man/god transac tions in traditional Igbo religion - the underlying assumption here being as F. Barth puts it that

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