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Dinka Mythology
Dinka spirituality refers to the traditional religion of the Dinka people (also known as Muonyjang people), an ethnic group of South Sudan. They belong to the Nilotic peoples, which is a group of cultures in Southern Sudan and wider Eastern Africa. The Dinka people largely rejected or ignored Islamic (and Christian) teachings, as Abrahamic religious beliefs were incompatible with their society, culture and traditional beliefs. Creation The supreme, creator god, Nhialic, is the god of the sky and rain, and the ruler of all the other gods and spirits. He is generally seen as distant from humans. Nhialic is also known as Jaak, Juong or Dyokin by other Nilotic groups such as the Nuer and Shilluk. Nhialac created ex-nihilo and rarely involves itself with the affairs of humans. There are several versions of the Dinka creation myth which mainly concerns itself with the creation of humans. The first humans are Garang and Abuk. In some cases Nhialac created humans by blowing them out ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinka People
The Dinka people ( din, Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) are a Nilotes, Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan with a sizable diaspora population abroad. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Jonglei to Renk, South Sudan, Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal (region of South Sudan), Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out of three Provinces which were formerly located in southern Sudan), and the Abyei Area of the Ngok Dinka in South Sudan. They number around 4.5 million people according to the 2008 Sudan census, constituting about 18% of the population of the entire country and the largest ethnic tribe in South Sudan. Dinka, or as they refer to themselves, (singular) and (plural), make up one of the branches of the River Lake Nilotic peoples, Nilotes (mainly sedentary agropastoral peoples of the Nile Valley and African Great Lakes region who speak Nilotic languages, including the Nuer language, Nuer and Luo (Kenya and Tanzania), Luo). Dinka are noted for their height, and, along with the Tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abuk
Abuk is the first woman in the myths of the Dinka people of South Sudan and the Nuer of South Sudan and Ethiopia, who call her Buk or Acol. She is the only well-known female deity of the Dinka. She is also the patron goddess of women as well as gardens. Her emblem or symbols are, a small snake, the moon and sheep. She is the mother of the god of rain and fertility (Denka Deng, also known as Denka, is a sky, rain, and fertility god in Dinka mythology for the Dinka people of Sudan and South Sudan. He is the son of the goddess Abuk.Lynch, Patricia Ann, ''African Mythology A to Z'', Infobase Publishing (2004), p. 2 ...). The story from her birth to marriage and child-birth is: References External linksDinka mythology Dinka mythology Nuer mythology African goddesses Agricultural goddesses Lunar goddesses {{Africa-myth-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animism In Africa
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words—as animated and alive. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion, as a term for the belief system of many Indigenous peoples, especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions. Animism focuses on the metaphysical universe, with a specific focus on the concept of the immaterial soul. Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples, that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "reli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586, it is the second oldest university press after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics known as the Delegates of the Press, who are appointed by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho. For the last 500 years, OUP has primarily focused on the publication of pedagogical texts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godfrey Lienhardt
Ronald Godfrey Lienhardt (17 January 1921 – 9 November 1993) was a British anthropologist. He took many photographs of the Dinka people he studied. He wrote about their religion in ''Divinity and Experience: the Religion of the Dinka''. Life and field work Born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, of mixed Swiss and Yorkshire parentage,Douglas H.JohnsoObituary: Godfrey Lienhardt ''The Independent'', 17 November 1993 he went to Cambridge University in 1939, where he read English at Downing College under F. R. Leavis until he was called up and became a transport officer, stationed in Africa. He was followed in 1946 to Downing by his brother Peter Lienhardt, who also read English and became an anthropologist. After returning to civilian life, Godfrey's academic interests were redirected to anthropology by an encounter with Edward Evans-Pritchard, under whom he subsequently studied at Oxford. His chosen field of research were the Dinka of southern Sudan, a people ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Puff Adder
The puff adder (''Bitis arietans'') is a viper species found in savannahs and grasslands from Morocco and western Arabia throughout Africa except for the Sahara and rainforest regions.U.S. Navy. 1991. ''Venomous Snakes of the World''. US Govt. New York: Dover Publications Inc. 203 pp. . It is responsible for causing the most snakebite fatalities in Africa owing to various factors, such as its wide distribution, frequent occurrence in highly populated regions, and aggressive disposition.Spawls S, Howell K, Drewes R, Ashe J. 2004. ''A Field Guide to the Reptiles Of East Africa''. A & C Black Publishers Ltd., London. 543 pp. . Like all other vipers, it is venomous. Two subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here. The species is commonly known as the puff adder,Mallow D, Ludwig D, Nilson G. 2003. ''True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers''. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, Florida. 359 pp. .Spawls S, Branch B. 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly existed before that. Evidence of ritual human sacrifice can also be found back to at least pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica as well as in European civilizations. Varieties of ritual non-human sacrifices are practiced by numerous religions today. Terminology The Latin term ''sacrificium'' (a sacrifice) derived from Latin ''sacrificus'' (performing priestly functions or sacrifices), which combined the concepts ''sacra'' (sacred things) and ''facere'' (to do or perform). The Latin word ''sacrificium'' came to apply to the Christian eucharist in particular, sometimes named a "bloodless sacrifice" to distinguish it from blood sacrifices. In individual non-Christian ethnic religions, terms translated as "sacrifice" include the Indic '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words—as animated and alive. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion, as a term for the belief system of many Indigenous peoples, especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions. Animism focuses on the metaphysical universe, with a specific focus on the concept of the immaterial soul. Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples, that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wind
Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hours, to global winds resulting from the difference in absorption of solar energy between the climate zones on Earth. The two main causes of large-scale atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet ( Coriolis effect). Within the tropics and subtropics, thermal low circulations over terrain and high plateaus can drive monsoon circulations. In coastal areas the sea breeze/land breeze cycle can define local winds; in areas that have variable terrain, mountain and valley breezes can prevail. Winds are commonly classified by their spatial scale, their speed and direction, the forces that cause them, the regions in which they occur, and their effect. Winds have var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya. Its population was estimated as 12,778,250 in 2019. Juba is the capital and largest city. It gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011, making it the most recent sovereign state or country with widespread recognition as of 2022. It includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile and known locally as the '' Bahr al Jabal'', meaning "Mountain River". Sudan was occupied by Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty and was governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon broke out in 1983 and ended in 2005 w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Egypt to the north, Eritrea to the northeast, Ethiopia to the southeast, Libya to the northwest, South Sudan to the south and the Red Sea. It has a population of 45.70 million people as of 2022 and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres (728,215 square miles), making it Africa's List of African countries by area, third-largest country by area, and the third-largest by area in the Arab League. It was the largest country by area in Africa and the Arab League until the 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum, secession of South Sudan in 2011, since which both titles have been held by Algeria. Its Capital city, capital is Khartoum and its most populated city is Omdurman (part of the metropolitan area of Khar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ex Nihilo
(Latin for "creation out of nothing") is the doctrine that matter is not eternal but had to be created by some divine creative act. It is a theistic answer to the question of how the universe comes to exist. It is in contrast to ''Ex nihilo nihil fit'' or " nothing comes from nothing", which means that all things were formed from preexisting things; an idea by the Greek philosopher Parmenides (c.540-480 BC) about the nature of all things, and later more formally stated by Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 – c. 55 BC) Theology ''Ex nihilo nihil fit'': uncreated matter ''Ex nihilo nihil fit'' means that nothing comes from nothing. In ancient creation myths the universe is formed from eternal formless matter, namely the dark and still primordial ocean of chaos. In Sumerian myth this cosmic ocean is personified as the goddess Nammu "who gave birth to heaven and earth" and had existed forever; in the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish pre-existent chaos is made up of fresh-wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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