Twins in African and Diaspora Cultures: Double Trouble, Twice Blessed

In Africa, where the birthrate of twins is among the highest in the world, twins can be seen as a burden to their families and a threat to the social order, or they can be seen as a gift from God and beings with unique abilities who bring about social harmony. Philip M. Peek and the contributors to this illuminating, multidisciplinary volume explore this rich cultural heritage by examining topics such as twins in artistic representation, twins and divination, and twins in performance, cosmology, religion, and popular culture.

"Well-researched, well-presented, and theoretically informed. This volume displays a good range of themes as well as extensive geographical coverage." --Ferdinand de Jong, University of East Anglia

"[T]his book will prove useful to general readers and academics alike, especially those who are interested in religion, cosmology, cultural transfers, sociology, history, and anthropology." --African Studies Quarterly

"Philip Peek is to be congratulated on marshalling such a diverse range of papers on the topic of twins in ritual practice, belief and the arts.... He succeeds entirely in including sufficiently diverse approaches to the topic to annoy and satisfy everyone in equal measure. The broad range of views and wide ethnographic coverage of twins in sub-Saharan and diaspora communities encompassed here makes this an indispensable work for researchers, lecturers and students alike." --Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

Philip M. Peek is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Drew University. He is editor of African Divination Systems (IUP, 1991).

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Beginning to Rethink Twins / Philip M. Peek

Part 1. Roots

2. Twins and Double Beings among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali / Pascal James Imperato and Gavin H. Imperato

3. Twins and Intertwinement: Reflections on Ambiguity and Ambivalence in Northwestern Namibia / Steven Van Wolputte

Part 2. Doubles and Dualities

4. Sustaining the Oneness in their Twoness: Poetics of Twin Figures (Ère Ìbejì) among the Yoruba / Babatunde Lawal

5. "Son Dos los Jimagüas" ("The Twins Are Two"): Worship of the Sacred Twins in Lucumí Religious Culture / Ysamur Flores-Pena

6. Twins, Couples, and Doubles and the Negotiation of Spirit-Human Identities among the Win / Susan Cooksey

7. Double Portraits: Images of Twinness in West African Studio Photography / C. Angelo Micheli

Part 3. The Centrality of Liminality

8. Forever Liminal: Twins among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and Northeastern Nigeria / Walter E. A. Van Beek

9. Snake, Bush, and Metaphor: Twinship among Ubangians / Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers

10. Fiction and Forbidden Sexual Fantasy in the Culture of Temne Twins / Frederick John Lamp

11. Embodied Dilemma: Tabwa Twinship in Thought and Performance / Allen F. Roberts

12. Children of the Moon: Twins in Luba Art and Ontology / Mary Nooter Roberts

Part 4. Transformations

13. Two Equals Three: Twins and the Trickster in Haitian Vodou / Marilyn Houlberg

14. Divine Children: The Ibejis and the Erês in Brazilian Candomblé / Stefania Capone

15. The Ambiguous Ordinariness of Yoruba Twins / Elisha P. Renne

16. Twins, Albinos, and Vanishing Prisoners: A Mozambican Theory of Political Power / Paulo Granjo

List of Contributors

Index