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Ukuthwasa
''Ukuthwasa'' is a Southern African culture-bound syndrome associated with the calling and the initiation process to become a sangoma, a type of traditional healer. In the cultural context of traditional healers in Southern Africa, the journey of ''ukuthwasa'' (or ''intwaso'') involves a deeply spiritual process marked by rituals, teachings, and preparations. It begins with a calling, idlozi, from ancestors, often received through dreams or altered states of consciousness. ''Ukuthwasa'' process entails physical, psychological, and spiritual manifestations, which are believed to cleanse and prepare the initiate. The term ' meaning "come out" or "be reborn," signifies the transformative nature of the experience. Both men and women can become traditional healers through this calling. Initiate, known as ''ithwasane'' ''or ithwasa'' , undergo formal training under a mentor, ''gobela'', which can last months to years. Training covers traditional healing practices, ceremonies, herbal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirit World (Spiritualism)
The spirit world, according to Spiritualism, is the world or realm inhabited by spirits, both good or evil of various spiritual manifestations. Whereas religion regards an inner life, the spirit world is regarded as an external environment for spirits. Although independent from the natural world, both the spirit world and the natural world are in constant interaction. Through mediumship, these worlds can consciously communicate with each other. The spirit world is sometimes described by mediums from the natural world in trance. According to the book 'Laws of Spirit World' the spirit world is divided into 7 realms. The lowest being Hell and the highest being heaven. Each soul progresses from lowest to higher realms based on the karmic lessons learnt. History By the mid-19th century most Spiritualist writers concurred that the spirit world was of "tangible substance" and a place consisting of "spheres" or "zones". Although specific details differed, the construct suggested organi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amafufunyana
''Amafufunyana'' is an unspecified "culture-bound" syndrome named by the traditional healers of the Xhosa people that relates to claims of demonic possession due to members of the Xhosa people exhibiting aberrant behavior and psychological concerns. After study, it was discovered that this term is directed toward people with varying types of schizophrenia. A similar term, ukuthwasa, is used to refer to positive types of claimed possession, though this event also involves those with schizophrenia. It has also found cultural usage among some groups of Zulu peoples. The direct translation of the term ''amafufunyana'' is nerves and is a part of a much more complex cultural ideology connecting varying types of psychosis with religious, social, and recently psychiatric beliefs and activities. In a 1998 interview with Xhosa people with schizophrenia by Lund et al., it was determined that through interaction with scientists and psychological services, the preferred treatment for the cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearson South Africa
Pearson Education is a British-owned education publishing and assessment service to schools and corporations, as well for students directly. Pearson owns educational media brands including Addison–Wesley, Peachpit, Prentice Hall, eCollege, Longman, Scott Foresman, and others. Pearson is part of Pearson plc, which formerly owned the ''Financial Times''. It claims to have been formed in 1840, with the current incarnation of the company created when Pearson plc purchased the education division of Simon & Schuster (including Prentice Hall and Allyn & Bacon) from Viacom and merged it with its own education division, Addison-Wesley Longman, to form Pearson Education. Pearson Education was rebranded to Pearson in 2011 and split into an International and a North American division. Although Pearson generates approximately 60 percent of its sales in North America, it operates in more than 70 countries. Pearson International is headquartered in London, and maintains offices across Euro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychotic Depression
Psychotic depression, also known as depressive psychosis, is a major depressive episode that is accompanied by psychotic symptoms.Hales E and Yudofsky JA, eds, The American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Psychiatry, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2003 It can occur in the context of bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder. It can be difficult to distinguish from schizoaffective disorder, a diagnosis that requires the presence of psychotic symptoms for at least two weeks without any mood symptoms present. Unipolar psychotic depression requires that the psychotic features occur only during episodes of major depression. Diagnosis using the DSM-5 involves meeting the criteria for a major depressive episode, along with the criteria for " mood-congruent or mood-incongruent psychotic features" specifier. Signs and symptoms Individuals with psychotic depression experience the symptoms of a major depressive episode, along with one or more psychotic symptoms, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdrawal, decreased emotional expression, and apathy. Symptoms typically develop gradually, begin during young adulthood, and in many cases never become resolved. There is no objective diagnostic test; diagnosis is based on observed behavior, a history that includes the person's reported experiences, and reports of others familiar with the person. To be diagnosed with schizophrenia, symptoms and functional impairment need to be present for six months (DSM-5) or one month ( ICD-11). Many people with schizophrenia have other mental disorders, especially substance use disorders, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and obsessive–compulsive disorder. About 0.3% to 0.7% of people are diagnosed with schizophrenia during their lifet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Muslims
Islam in Africa is the continent's second most widely professed faith behind Christianity. Africa was the first continent into which Islam spread from Southwest Asia, during the early 7th century CE. Almost one-third of the world's Muslim population resides in Africa. Muslims crossed current Djibouti and Somalia to seek refuge in present-day Eritrea and Ethiopia during the '' Hijrah'' ( ar, هِـجْـرَة, 'Migration') to the Christian Kingdom of Aksum. Like the vast majority (90%) of Muslims in the world, most Muslims in Africa are also Sunni Muslims; the complexity of Islam in Africa is revealed in the various schools of thought, traditions, and voices in many African countries. Many African ethnicities, mostly in North, West and East Africa consider Islam their Traditional religion. The practice of Islam on the continent is not static and is constantly being reshaped by prevalent social, economic, and political conditions. Generally Islam in Africa often adapted to Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Christians
Christianity in Africa first arrived in Egypt in approximately 50 AD, reached the region around Carthage by the end of the second century. In the 4th century, the Aksumite empire in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea became one of the first regions in the world to adopt Christianity as their official religion. The Nubian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia followed two centuries later. Important Africans who influenced the early development of Christianity include Tertullian, Perpetua, Felicity, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo. The Islamic conquests into North Africa brought pressure on Christians to convert to Islam due to special taxation imposed on non-Muslims and other socio-economic pressures under Muslim rule. The Eastern Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (which separated from each other during the Chalcedonian Schism) in Egypt and the Orthodox Tewahedo Church ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Divination
African divination is divination practiced by cultures of Africa. Divination is an attempt to form, and possess, an understanding of reality in the present and additionally, to predict events and reality of a future time. Cultures of Africa to the year circa C.E. 1991 were still performing and using divination, both within the urban and the rural environments. Diviners might also fulfill the role of herbalist. Divination might be thought of as a social phenomenon, and is thought of as central to the lives of people in societies of Africa (circa 2004 at least).''Issue 46 of Semeia studies'' Of the five regions of Africa,users.clas.ufl.edu/rserra/The%20Main%20Five%20Regions%20of%20Africa.doc The Main Five Regions of Africa, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - The University of Florida. Retrieved January 12, 2017. of which there are 54 countries of Africa, the proceeding countries are shown in the contents of this article: *North: Algeria, Egypt. * East: Djibouti Eritre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on ''baasskap'' (boss-hood or boss-ship), which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's Minoritarianism, minority White South Africans, white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Indian South Africans, Indians and Coloureds, then black Africans. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day. Broadly speaking, apartheid was delineated into ''petty apartheid'', which entailed the segregation of public facilities and social events, and ''grand apartheid'', which dictated housing and employment opportunities by race. The f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of South Africa
The first modern humans are believed to have inhabited South Africa more than 100,000 years ago. South Africa's prehistory has been divided into two phases based on broad patterns of technology namely the Stone Age and Iron Age. After the discovery of hominins at Taung and australopithecine fossils in limestone caves at Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, and Kromdraai these areas were collectively designated a World Heritage site. The first nations of South Africa are collectively referred to as the Khoisan, the Khoi Khoi and the San separately. These groups were displaced or sometimes absorbed by migrating Africans (Bantus) during the Bantu expansion from Western and Central Africa. While some maintained separateness, others were grouped into a category known as Coloureds, a multiracial ethnic group which includes people with shared ancestry from two or more of these groups: Khoisan, Bantus, Bantu, English people, English, Afrikaners, Austronesians, East Asians and South Asians. Euro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christianity In South Africa
Christianity is the dominant religion in South Africa, with almost 80% of the population in 2001 professing to be Christian. No single denomination predominates, with mainstream Protestant churches, Pentecostal churches, African initiated churches, and the Catholic Church all having significant numbers of adherents. Importantly, there is significant and sustained syncretism with African Traditional Religion among most of the self-professed Christians in South Africa. Christianity has played an important role in South African history. Some Christian denominations and Churches theologically supported inequality, subjugation and racial segregation (Apartheid), while other denominations and Churches others opposed segregation. History Christianity arrived in South Africa with settlers from Europe, starting with Jan van Riebeeck in 1652, when Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC, Dutch East India Company) authorized him to establish a post to resupply food and fuel to ships traveling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
