CIRCULAR TIME AS A LIFE ORGANIZER IN TRADITIONAL SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA (Czas kolisty organizujacy zycie w tradycyjnej Afryce Subsaharyjskiej)

• Authors: Bakalarska Malwina
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Drawing a distinction between circular and linear time is only one of many possible divisions. It can coexist and overlap with sacrum and profanum, ecological and structural as well as with objective and subjective time. Moreover, the very same event, such as for example the rite of initiation, by most community members considered as a manifest of circular time, by individuals can be seen as linear in their personal perception. Closing the passing of time in a circular, cyclic or spiral figure contradicts the scientific principle of anizotropia. Therefore, to fully understand the essence of circular time, meant as a kind of 'return of time', it is necessary to abandon the terms of modern physics and try to analyse the myth, the genealogy, history, the astrological and meteorological cycles, observed in a preindustrial society. Different forms of perceptions of this subject can be found in ancient India, ancient Greece, and another in traditional sub-Saharan Africa. Time treated as a cicrcle is relatively static, non-cumulative, it is also focused on ancestors, emphasises the importance of archetypic myth, and it can be seen as unfavourable to the development of a modern industrial society.

Keywords

EN

CIRCULAR TIME; MYTH; RHYTHM OF NATURE; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; TRADITIONAL CULTURE

Discipline

• ANTHROPOLOGY: ANTHROPOLOGY

• Publisher: Warsaw University, Faculty of Geography & Regional Studies
• Journal: Afryka, Azja, Ameryka Lacinska (Africa, Asia, Latin America )
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 84
• Pages: 61-74
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Bakalarska Malwina

• Malwina Bakalarska, Zaklad Krajów Pozaeuropejskich PAN, ul. Nowy Swiat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09PLAAAA067412