This page groups sacred sites by the story that first marks them as holy. Wikipedia notes that "as described in the Bible's Book of Exodus, Moses was instructed to remove his shoes before approaching the burning bush, as the ground was considered holy." Browsing this way lets a visitor see the founding story behind why a given site was set apart in the first place.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingSites of orisa worship in Yorubaland: groves and rivers attached to particular orisa, lineage and palace shrines, and Ile-Ife, from which Yoruba tradition dates the creation of the world and from which every oba traces the right to rule. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredThe Yoruba are a cluster of subgroups - Oyo, Ife, Ijesa, Ekiti, Egba, Ijebu, Ondo, Owo, Ketu and others - each with its own dominant orisa and its own account of descent from Ile-Ife. There is no single Yoruba pantheon held unchanged across them. 2 Status
Status TodayLiving, in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and the acknowledged source of the Candomble, Lucumi and other American orisha traditions, whose practitioners travel to these sites as to a source rather than as visitors. 3 Learn More
Yoruba Sacred Sites
This group holds sacred sites of the Yoruba tradition of West Africa, the sacred groves, shrines and cities bound to the orishas and to the sacred history of the Yoruba people, whose religion also gave rise to the diaspora traditions of the Americas.
The browser will find the sites the atlas gathers. The entries describe each place's association with the orishas and its role in Yoruba religious life.
Originated In
Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Sites grouped for the Yoruba tradition.
Source Ifa: An Exposition of Ifa Literary CorpusWande Abimbola
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief
E. Bolaji Idowu, Longmans, 1962on the orisa and their shrinesView the Source 3. Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble
J. Lorand Matory, Princeton University Press, 2005on the traffic between Yorubaland and the AmericasView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
Ifa: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus
Wande Abimbola, Oxford University Press, 1976
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