EBOOK Dancing Dead:Ritual and Religion among the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and Northeastern Nig

Walter E. A. van Beek draws on over four decades of fieldwork to offer an in-depth        study of the religion of the Kapsiki/Higi, who live in the Mandara Mountains on the        border between North Cameroon and Northeast Nigeria. Concentrating on ritual as the        core of traditional religion, van Beek shows how Kapsiki/Higi practices have endured        through the long and turbulent history of the region.Kapsiki rituals reveal a focus        on two fundamental concepts: dwelling and belonging. Van Beek examines their        sacrificial practices, through which the Kapsiki show a complex and pervasive        connection with the Mandara Mountains, as well as the character of their        relationships among themselves and with outsiders. Van Beek also explores their        rituals of belonging, rites of passage which take place from birth through        initiation and marriage and even death, with the tradition of the "e;dancing dead,"e;        when a fully decorated corpse on the shoulders of a smith dances"e; with his mourning        kinsmen.The Dancing Dead is the result of the author's lifelong study of the        Kapsiki/Higi. It gives a unique description of the rituals in an African traditional        religion based not upon ancestors, but on a completely relational thought system,        where in the end all rituals are integrated into one major cycle.