Path: typhoon.sonic.net!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news.voicenet.com!nntp.upenn.edu!eballard From: Eoghan Ballard Newsgroups: alt.lucky.w,alt.religion.orisha,alt.magick.tyagi Subject: Re: Coon Can (was Re: African Divination systems) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 09:42:35 -0400 Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 15 Sender: eoghanballard@cgs41.sas.upenn.edu Message-ID: References: <39C73B2C.53C4@luckymojo.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: cgs41.sas.upenn.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.0 (PPC) Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.lucky.w:8250 alt.religion.orisha:7547 alt.magick.tyagi:25217 To further this thread, there is evidence that dice which were introduced into Bantu East Africa by either Arabs, Indians or both were at least co-opted into divination systems there and may ultimately be the source of Hakata and similar systems of divination. It is not at all clear that they contributed to the use of bones in divination, although as in the example of the Hakata which are sometimes called bones, there are grey areas. Bones in Bantu Africa tend to be quite complex systems, some related systems such as Ngombo ya Cisuka of South Central (former) Zaire, Zambia, and many parts of Angola are quite far from being "bones" as in the more clearcut systems of the Amazulu and Venda, and use many small sculptures, animal parts and seeds as well as bones. Eoghan