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This book purports to show that ritual is a very important stabilizing factor in a society. It also acts in a didactic fashion and provides individuals with psychological security, a guard against personal angst and social anomie. Much data is drawn from Dr. Mendonsa´s fieldwork among the Sisala of Northern Ghana. The empirical findings in the African research have implications of the malaise that has overcome America. Perhaps, this is due to a loss of ritual in everyday life.

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Mendonsa, Eugene
Dr. Eugene L. Mendonsa holds a Ph.D in social anthropology from Cambridge University in England. He is the author of numerous academic books, as well as books of fiction. He produced and directed the ethnographic film "Sisala Divination: The Mystic Tradition".

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