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Title: Sixteen Cowries
ISBN: 0253208475
Author:
William Bascom
Publicate Date: 1993-11-01
Publish: 1993-11-01
List Price: $40.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $36.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $48.42
Amazon Merchant Price: $36.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Great book
A really great book but a bit hard to read at times. It gives the reader a solid idea from where the Yoruba religion came from. This is not a book on how to learn to cast the cowries shells.
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2: NOT WHAT I EXPECTED
THIS SIS A LOT OF MIXTURE AND CONFUSION OF PATHS AND FAITHS. RECOMMENDED ONLY FOR THOSE HEAVILY INTO THESE WAYS. OTHERWISE, IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME. DON'T EVEN ATTEMPT TO READ IT. MAYBE FOR THOSE INITIATED INTO SOMETHING LIKE THIS IT WOULD BE USEFUL BUT I AM NOT SURE. THIS IS NOT WHERE YOU WOULD FIND INFORMATION TO LEARN. READ OTHERS FIRST.
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3: Necesario
Creo que quien desee saber un poco sobre las raices del caracol aqui encontrara lo que busca.
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4: The best and most readily available resource on Yoruba cowry divination.
This is by far one of the greatest books on Yoruba traditional religion ever written and is THE best book on Cowry Divination i've ever gotten my hands on. As I understand it, some of the tonal markings in the Yoruba transcription are incorrect, but that can be easily reconciled by the diligent student. The premise is great; gather the complete knowledge of an elder and well respected cowry diviner, and translate his own words into English. This book succeeds in presenting a thorough window into the religion, mythology and divination systems without the obstructions placed by Western "thinkers", adding and deleting what is not really fit to be added or deleted. Any practitioner of the Lukumi-Santeria religion (Yoruba religious Diaspora) with some fundamental knowledge of the faith will quickly find many counterparts to their own knowledge in this book. The more knowledge one has of Lukumi, the more they will appreciate this book. It may be because my own knowledge of Ifa divination is lacking, but Bascoms Ifa: Divination between Gods and Men pales in comparison in the eyes of a student who wishes to learn more about the similarities, and not the differences between cultures.
For the Lukumi cowry diviner, and olorisha in general, several, if not many songs being sung by rote memorization without idea of meaning will be illuminated.
Some other Yoruba cowry books, pamphlets rather since they hardly go over fifty pages, are more practical in that they are short and concise and can probably be memorized in a matter of weeks. However, the unadulterated insight Bascom's book offers is priceless.
Iba'se Salako, oluko wa
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5: Too many verses too few informtions
8/10 of this book are verses. However in despite Bascom had made a greate Job in Ifa Divination, here, I don't agree.
The meridilogun is based in Odu interpretation not only in verses. There is no information regard each Odu message, meaning, how to read the signm sub-signs.... If you want to understand how the meridilogun works, it is not here. I can believe people can use this system to use the Oracle, but, if is far from to be the only method. At least in case of this research it is failed. We have some Cuban's book about Meridilogun and I was waiting to find here the african reference (nos diasporic), but, well can't be so diferent.
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