Anne Fournier: « L’appel des génies ». Un devin au bord de la transe (Sèmè du Burkina Faso)
Abstract
The article presents a sequence in which the Sèmè diviner recounts a journey across the territory of his village to summon spiritual entities (an example of it is reproduced in the appendix). After a brief introduction concerning the nature of divination, the author discusses characteristics of articulate discourses. In this context, the observable aspects of the rite, its semantic content, its prosody and acoustic aspects, statements of the diviner, the sites and persons invoked are explained. The imaginary applied as well as the psychic state of the officiant during the sequence are further examined by means of the diviners’ glosses. The author concludes that during the performance, the diviner seems to be just on the edge of a trance-like state that enables him to get closer to the bush-spirits.
[Burkina Faso, Seme (Siamou) divination, ritual performance, oral texts, psychic state of the diviner, link to the territory]
