Benjamin C. Ray

Sacred Space and Royal Shrines in Buganda

In this paper I want to explore one aspect of the notion of sacred space which has not received much attention. It is the often mentioned but seldom examined opposition between the sacred and the profane, particularly as it relates to the structure of sacred space. Although some anthropologists have argued that the sacred/ profane opposition as it derives from Durkheim is analytically unsound and overly ethnocentric, I believe that it still has considerable methodological value.1 It is, of course, one of the most universal modes of symbolic classification, like the dichotomy between right and left. But it also risks becoming a prefabricated cliche unless its scope and character are carefully defined according to the materials to which it is applied. One of the difficulties is that, unlike the right/left opposition, the sacred/profane distinction is not always explicit. Many languages do not draw precisely this kind of distinction, nor are people necessarily aware of its existence in their culture. This circumstance makes matters more complex, but it does not count

Recent Studies of African Religions

The four works under review are representative of the main types of modern studies of African religion: a fieldwork monograph, a set of essays on a major theme, a general survey, and a study of the idea of God. Since each of these volumes is typical of previous studies, it is worth asking, first of all, whether they represent an advance upon earlier work. The second question I want to ask concerns the significance of these studies for historians of religion. I pose this question because SubSahara Africa, unlike the Near East, South Asia, Oceania, or North America, has been relatively neglected by historians of religion. Do these recent studies in African religions have any contribution to make to the perennial concerns of historians of religion, especially in regard to the religions of nonliterate societies ? Sheltons Igbo-Igala Borderland, is a fieldwork monograph in the timehonored anthropological tradition of the study of small scale, nonliterate societies. His perspective is the well-worn functionalist approach to religion as a mechanism of social control. What is relatively new, however, is his focus on the historical dimension. His is the first field mono-

African Religious Movements: Phenomenology and History

and philosophical trends of his own day.9 The careful scrutiny of the rich texts of N6, when combined with study of the genesis and later development of such theater, is itself a vast topic. When we add to it the necessity of delving into the connection between these and the fascinating but dense theoretical treatises by Zeami, we have the outline of a domain of research that rightly could occupy our studies for a very long time.