TAUXIER1931-001 - ethnographic attestation
Toura (Tura)
Toura mountains, Biankouma, western Cote d'Ivoire - West Africa
Sacred / spirit
Goton / Godon fr
Source term: Goton ou Godon
When Goton means to come out, he says so himself: a piece of iron whirled on a cord in the bush, and the fetishers insist it is Goton who speaks. Then he appears - one initiate high on stilts, two dancers on foot beside him - in the last light before dark. Women and children are free to watch. Among the made gods of the Toura that openness is the remarkable thing: their Gue is death for a woman to see, while Goton the stilt-walker performs for everyone.
Il consiste en un morceau de fer qu'on fait tourner au bout d'une corde, dans la brousse, et ses feticheurs disent que c'est Goton qui parle... Les femmes et enfants peuvent le voir.
It consists of a piece of iron spun at the end of a cord, in the bush, and its fetishers say that it is Goton who speaks... Women and children may see it.
Louis Tauxier, 'La religion des Touras,' Journal de la Societe des Africanistes 1 (1931), printed p. 266
- Object
- A piece of iron whirled at the end of a cord; no dimensions or perforation recorded. It keeps its own hut behind the village, and its keeper bears the title gotonzan.
- Function
- The voice of the divinity Goton, sounded in the bush to announce his own coming-out - the fetishers say plainly 'c'est Goton qui parle.' The apparition itself is a stilt masquerade: one initiate on stilts with two dancers on foot, out by day or in the evening before dark. Women and children may see it, and it does not concern itself with sorcerers, murderers or thieves.
- Map confidence
- medium - Biankouma regional anchor for Toura country, western Cote d'Ivoire.
- Source location
Page references
printed p. 266 (folio '266' and running head verified on the rendered Persee page); corroborated at p. 265, where Tauxier lists 'des rhombes sacres' among the Toura's made gods
- Spirit voice