Religion, Embodiment, and Materiality: A Study of Divination

This essay delves into the concept of embodied religion, focusing on divination practices, particularly the role of Kayongo in North-western Zambian traditions. It examines how lived religion manifests through material objects and the human body, emphasizing the diviner's experiences, including physical pain and spiritual connection. The essay explores the process of basket divination, where the diviner interacts with the spirit Kayongo, representing a lifelong relationship. It discusses the duality of Kayongo, including its negative implications, and its role in communicating ancestral knowledge through physical suffering. The essay also highlights the synergy between the material and embodied subject with the spirit, creating a process of spiritual concretization. Ultimately, the essay emphasizes the importance of lived religion in allowing humans to regain control and understand the world through embodied and material experiences, as seen in the divination process.

Running head: RELIGION
Religion
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1RELIGION
The knowledge of lived and embodied religion can be embodied with its engagement
in the material world. Additionally, lived religion is also where the people and the community
can live according to their own terms and independently as well. The embodied and lived
religion is where the session of divination starts with a speech, which is very long so that it
can invoke the individuals (Joyce and Lynn). The speech is given with respect to the
renowned political leaders and chiefs who may be dead or alive while shaking a rattle in the
right hand. After the invocation has been done through the speech, the diviner keeps aside the
rattle and starts the most important section that is reads out the important sections from the
séance. The diviners also have the job to interpret the configurations so that it can be audible
to the common people. The session of divination also consist of the various rounds of shaking
of the basket, observing the configurations and translate the material messages in to verbal
sense (Freist).
When the session of divination is in progress, the diviner moves through the readings,
which helps them in gaining knowledge. This results in feeling a sharp pain on their chest,
which indicates that the truth has been signalled through the basket, which needs to be
communicated with the clients in simple language. It is seen that the diviners reach their
conclusion by attaining pain in their bodies. This experience is known as ‘Kayongo’ where
the movement is felt from the heart to the head with a faster and heavier heartbeat. It is seen
that Kayongo is experienced in the body of the diviner (Schneiders). Kayongo is a
knowledge source that is related to divinatory power and is a spiritual entity as well. The
diviner does not deliver the message instantly, as they need to understand it in a proper
manner before communicating. Kayongo can be communicated through the use of words,
pain and material objects. The basket of divination represents the body of the person through
which the truth of Kayongo becomes visible to the humans through the sense of sight. The
diviner is human in nature who is not only aware of the Kayongo through sight but has to be

2RELIGION
audible as well so that the words can be communicated and physical pain has to be endured.
This brings a feeling that the basket and the diviner becomes Kayongo, as the process of
embodiment is completed (Obeyesekere).
The importance of the embodied religion is in the divination of the basket where the
lifelong relationship between the Kayongo and diviner has to be considered. The primary
moment is when the diviner enters the universe through the divination of the basket. Kayongo
however also has negative implications, which results in causing reproductive and menstrual
problems in women along with chest pains. It is also known for its cruel attitudes that is
shown towards the clients and diviners (Raja and Jorg). The communication process of
Kayongo is through the process of physical suffering and pain. It causes strong headaches
and may also be the reason for lunatic acts. The spirit of Kayongo is ambivalent in nature and
the knowledge is delivered through pain in the chest whenever the truth emerges through the
basket. The diviners develop a lifetime association with Kayongo and has to maintain certain
rules, breaking which causes confusion in their minds and pain in their bodies. It is a cruel
manifestation of the ancestors that results in getting the answers through pain in their bodies
(Hurd).
Kayongo is a belief system that allows the realm of ancestors to be in place with the
cosmology. The ancestral manifestation that is ‘lihamba’ travels through the wind and resides
on a Kayongo. It is a manifestation of spirits of the dead relatives while practicing the basket
divination for lifetime. Kayongo is known to be the body of the diviner and the shaking of the
divination basket results in pain. It is more than embodied and material religion fir the fact
that it helps in bringing out the relationship between the interaction with the spirit along with
the material and human subject (Grab). The basket divination is not merely a process that
helps in setting the ontological entities to interact with each other. The effect of synergy
between the material and embodied subject along with the spirit creates a process of spiritual

3RELIGION
concretization. The concretization process is done through a certain pattern that helps in
distinguishing between the ontological categories, which is then combined in predictable
ways. Through Kayongo, the divination basket represents the embodied subject and the
diviner becomes the medium for Kayongo. The relation between the human body and the
material object can be described in a better manner when the material object is personified
and the human subject is objectified (Hopflinger).
The North-western Zambian scholars are of the opinion that the possession of spirit is
a continuum of the experiences and the definition of culture where the spirits are placed. This
causes the consciousness state to be altered but not falling off in to a trance. They also think
that the concept of possession may be a realm towards the material objects. The effectiveness
of the divination in the basket is almost the reversal that takes place when the Kayongo
comes out in an ontological manner (Ownby). There is an existential theme that is tied with
the process of basket divination and the diviners allow the Kayongo in taking over the bodies
so that it can result in a sense of subjectivity. The pain has to be endured by the diviners and
their sensations of the body will be lost, as they suffer on behalf of the clients, as they have a
better knowledge regarding the value for which they are suffering (Raja and Jorg). The pain
that is suffered by the diviners is then communicated with the clients so that they can
understand the meaning of it. The basket divination represents the circle of suffering where
the circle is built on the principle of suffering, which transforms in to a healing power. The
existential movement towards clarity from confusion along with resoluteness is the main
thing in the divination of the basket. In terms of lived religion, the basket divination is a
project where the humans try to regain their control (Grab).
The material religion concept helped in recognizing the place where the embodied
human subjects and the material objects through the lived religion. The lived religion concept
is infused with the insights regarding life that is lived on ground based on embodied human

4RELIGION
subjects with relation to the material objects. The diviners participate in the séances so that
they can take control over the Kayongo and explain the predicament through their own terms
to the clients. This shows that lived religion is based on embodied and material religion
without reducing it to disembodiment and immaterialism (Joyce and Lynn).

5RELIGION
Reference List
Freist, Dagmar. Living with religious diversity in early-modern Europe. Routledge, 2016.
Gräb, Wilhelm. "Practical theology as a theory of lived religion conceptualizing church
leadership." International Journal of Practical Theology 18.1 (2014): 102-112.
Höpflinger, Anna-Katharina. "Clothing as a Meaningful Marker of Space: A Comparative
Approach to Embodied Religion from a Cultural Studies Perspective." Religious
Representation in Place. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2014. 177-192.
Hurd, Elizabeth Shakman. Beyond religious freedom: The new global politics of religion.
Princeton University Press, 2015.
Joyce, Rosemary A., and Lynn M. Meskell. Embodied Lives:: Figuring Ancient Maya and
Egyptian Experience. Routledge, 2014.
Obeyesekere, Gananath. Medusa's hair: An essay on personal symbols and religious
experience. University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Ownby, Ted. Subduing Satan: Religion, Recreation, and Manhood in the Rural South, 1865-
1920. UNC Press Books, 2014.
Raja, Rubina, and Jörg Rüpke. "Appropriating Religion: Methodological Issues in Testing
the'Lived Ancient Religion'Approach." Religion in the Roman Empire 1.1 (2015): 11-19.
Reynolds, Jack. Understanding existentialism. Routledge, 2014.
Schneiders, Sandra M. "Biblical spirituality." Interpretation 70.4 (2016): 417-430.