Quel est le rôle de Macardit chez les Dinka ?

Macardit personnifie le versant sinistre et fatal de la puissance divine. On lui attribue la souffrance, la mort brutale et la stérilité, c'est-à-dire les malheurs qui n'ont pas d'autre cause apparente.

Comment les Dinka se comportent-ils envers Macardit ?

Ils l'invoquent dans les rituels et lui offrent des sacrifices pour l'apaiser, tout en cherchant à s'en séparer et à le tenir éloigné de la communauté.

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MACARDIT

Q: Où Macardit est-il documenté ?

Sa figure est surtout décrite dans l'ouvrage de référence de Godfrey Lienhardt, Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka, qui l'analyse parmi les divinités libres.

ally

God

✦ SoulDinka →Dinka — DinkaElder

Gender: MasculineSign: malheur

Macardit is, in the Dinka religion of South Sudan, a free divinity associated with the sinister and fatal aspect of the power that orders the world. The anthropologist Godfrey Lienhardt describes him as one of the most important and most active free divinities, alongside Deng, Garang and Abuk. Macardit is held to be the ultimate cause of the suffering, death and misfortunes that find no other explanation, notably sudden deaths, sterility and the ending of things. His name evokes a great blackness, echoing his fearsome character. In the cult, the Dinka invoke him while seeking to part from him, acknowledging that he kills but striving to keep him at a distance from the community. Macardit receives sacrifices meant to appease his destructive side. He thus embodies, in Dinka thought, the dark and inevitable slope of the divine order, complementary to the powers of life and fecundity.

Powers & Attributes

misfortunedeath

Role in the ROHO universe

Ferryman of souls. MACARDIT ensures the circulation of souls and prevents stagnation between the worlds. Bound to the Dinka pantheon.

Sacred Mask

An ancient ritual mask of vegetable ivory, amethyst and sacred wood, engraved with symbols of misfortune and death, embodiment of the power of Macardit

Era

Ancient cycle

Frequently asked questions

What is Macardit's role among the Dinka?

Macardit personifies the sinister and fatal slope of the divine power. To him are attributed suffering, sudden death and sterility, that is, the misfortunes that have no other apparent cause.

How do the Dinka behave towards Macardit?

They invoke him in the rituals and offer him sacrifices to appease him, while seeking to part from him and to keep him away from the community.

Where is Macardit documented?

His figure is described above all in the reference work of Godfrey Lienhardt, Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka, which analyses him among the free divinities.

Related spirits

GARANG LONGAR CANDIT NHIALIC

Sources and references

Godfrey Lienhardt, Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka, Oxford University Press, 1961
Francis Mading Deng, Dinka Cosmology (1980)
Charles Gabriel Seligman et Brenda Z. Seligman, Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (1932)