Ifá: Section Index
Guide to the eleven files covering Ifá as divination system, literary corpus, binary structure, profession, and living practice.
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Guide to the eleven files covering Ifá as divination system, literary corpus, binary structure, profession, and living practice.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Ifá na Yorùbá divination system, collection of poetry wey dem dey pass down by word of mouth wey reach like one hundred thousand poems or pass so, bank of medical, historical and ethical knowledge, and profession wey training dey take twenty years. Dis section cover all di four. E describe di system as scholarly research take document am, and e no be manual: e no get any instruction on how to do divination or ritual, and anywhere wey published record stop because na only initiates get di knowledge, di files talk am and mark confidence level as e suppose be.
Concepts wey belong to Yorùbá cosmology, Olódùmarè, orí, àṣẹ, ìwà, destiny, Èṣù and ẹbọ, appear everywhere for inside and dem treat dem for 04-cosmology.
01. Wetin Ifá Be. Ifá as divination system, literary collection, body of knowledge and profession; Ọ̀rúnmìlà and di Ifá relationship; and why "fortune telling" wrongly describe di mechanism, di content, di professional structure and di epistemology all together at once.
02. Di Binary Structure. Two columns of four positions, each one single or double, wey dey give four bits per column and 256 Odù; di marking rules, di orientation rule, clear example from casting reach signature, and proper explanation of wetin di binary structure permit and wetin e no permit.
03. Di 256 Odù. Complete reference table of all 256 with signatures, di sixteen major Odù for di different ranking orders wey dey, di naming rules, and di documented disagreement between lineages, regions and traditions about di order.
04. Ẹsẹ Ifá: Di Verses. Di eight-part verse structure wey get four compulsory parts and four free parts, how many verse dey, how di collection belong to everybody together instead of one single person, and several verses in full three-layer translation with commentary.
05. Di Divination Procedure. Ikin, ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀, ọpọ́n Ifá, iyèròsùn, ìróké, ìbò and di rest; di sequence of consultation from di question wey person whisper reach di prescribed sacrifice; and di separation between wetin di diviner dey decide and wetin im no dey decide.
06. To Become Babaláwo. Di ten years or more of memorisation, di stages of training and initiation, professional ethics, how practitioners dey verify each other, and di real scholarly and community disagreement about women for Ifá.
07. Ifá as Information and Memory System. Di mathematics, di mnemonic architecture, wetin Eglash really document and which system e talk about, and point-by-point correction of di Leibniz claim and di other popular exaggerated claims.
08. Di Divination Family. Ẹẹ́rìndínlógún, obì, agbigba, Fọ̀n Fa, Ewe Afa, di Cuban and Brazilian systems, and Bascom argument on why di fact say divination systems resemble each other for form no prove reach wetin people dey think.
09. Ifá and Other Knowledge Domains. Traditional medicine, ethics as reasoning from cases, di corpus as historical source, and how far di comparison between ẹsẹ Ifá and case law reach before e break down.
10. Ifá Today. Di 2005 proclamation and 2008 UNESCO inscription, di community of practitioners for Nigeria and diaspora, digital and commercialised divination, Christian and Muslim pressure, and how outsider wey dey curious suppose and no suppose approach di tradition.
11. Study Guide. Which books matter and which editions, wetin dey legitimately available online, di order to read dem, and six practical tests to judge di unreliable material wey you go first see.
Orientation. 01, den 10, den 11.
The binary and information-system question. 01, den 02, den 07, den 03 as reference.
The literature. 01, den 04, den 09, den 11.
Practice and profession. 01, den 05, den 06, den 10.
Dem mark files as high, medium or contested for dia frontmatter, and dem use di markers strictly. contested mean say di sources really disagree or dem know say di published record no complete, no be say di material dey doubtful. Three files carry am: file 03, because Bascom document 21 alternative rankings of di sixteen Odù across 86 lists and no single order dey universal; file 06, because di matter of women participation dey disputed among scholars, among Nigerian practitioners, and between Nigerian and diaspora communities; and di parts wey be say na only initiates suppose know wey dem flag inside files 05 and 06.
Where di conflict na di information itself, di files dey show di conflict instead of to try resolve am.
Ifá is a Yorùbá system for reaching a decision by casting a signature, retrieving the memorised verses filed under it, and reasoning from the precedents they contain.
Each Odù is two columns of four marks, every mark single or double, giving four bits per column, eight bits in total, and exactly 256 possible signatures.
All 256 Odù listed with signatures, the 16 principal Odù in the competing ranking orders, and an honest account of where the sources disagree.
Which books matter, which editions to get, what is legitimately available online, what to read in what order, and how to judge the sources you will meet.
The verses filed under each Odù are case reports in verse, built to a described eight-part structure, held collectively across practitioners rather than by any one person.
What the instruments are, how a consultation runs from the client's whispered question to the prescribed offering, and which decisions belong to the diviner and which do not.