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Ifá Divination: A Method of Diagnosing and Treating Chronic Illnesses/Àmódi among Yoruba People

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Chronic Illness, Spirituality, and Healing

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Abstract

The possibility of illness is a human reality that we face daily and has created in every culture methods of responding to illnesses. This reality moves from the realm of ordinary reality when an illness does not follow the expected course or lasts longer than anticipated. In the Western biomedical paradigm, such a course may be labeled chronic. But for the Yoruba, such a course is not labeled chronic; it is rather labeled as having a supernatural cause. It is at this point that a Yoruba traditional healer turns to Ifá divination. This conceptualization is not unique. Many cultures incorporate the idea that suffering during an illness may be the result of some spiritual imbalance just as the relief from suffering may come from the same spiritual source.

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Authors
  1. Akinmayowa Akin-Otiko
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia, USA

    Michael J. Stoltzfus (professor of Religious Studies) & Rebecca Green RN, DNS (assistant professor of Nursing) (professor of Religious Studies) &  (assistant professor of Nursing)

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© 2013 Michael J. Stoltzfus, Rebecca Green, and Darla Schumm

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Akin-Otiko, A. (2013). Ifá Divination: A Method of Diagnosing and Treating Chronic Illnesses/Àmódi among Yoruba People. In: Stoltzfus, M.J., Green, R., Schumm, D. (eds) Chronic Illness, Spirituality, and Healing. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137348456_12

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