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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Step 3: Analysis of Problem Found: Data were described as observed and the findings were presented and taken as facts and real without attempts to interpret them with the paradigm of science or Western

3.5 Theoretical Framework

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Two theories (Ethno-science and Phenomenology) were used as frames around which, the findings of this study revolved. These theories were used as logical network of ideas from which explanations or predictions of certain type of known events derived (Osuala, 1987:5). These theories were chosen because of the nature of the study. First, it is a study in ethno medicine, where ethno science serves as a guide; and second, as a study that is inextricably united to Yoruba culture, such that sense will be best made of the data if they are taken within the context of the Yoruba. Osunwole (1999) already noted that ―cultural beliefs and medicine sometimes overlap, data comes in both physical and spiritual nature‖ (p. 169).

This study is an attempt to rediscover what is African and make use of it to solve the ailing situation in Africa. Afrocentricism is used as a conceptual framework to achieve the purpose of the chosen theories.

This framework is chosen because Africa has been pushed to the background in the discussion of Africa. In this case, special note is being made in the area of medicine. It is believed that the West has determined and shaped Africa for Africa, and this is responsible for the difficulty that is being experience in the many attempts to diagnose and treat àmódi using Western paradigms.

It helped the researcher use the theories (Ethno-science and Phenomenology) to re-establish the use of Ifá literary corpus and its processes in the diagnosis and treatment of àmódi.

As Afrocentrists have argued, Africans must see themselves through African eyes, as agents of history, rather than as simply subjects of investigation. Their view must proceed from an inside place. If Ifá divination worked so efficiently before the Europeans came and it is still working for those that are courageous enough to hold on to it, then, it is worth bringing back to the centre stage for appraisal and rediscovery.

3.5.1 Ethno-science as a Theory

The beginning of ethno-science can be traced to the early 1960s. The name was derived from ethno and science. The term ‗ethno‘ which means race, culture, people, was combined with the term ‗science‘ which means empiric observation of measurable quantities and the testing of hypotheses to falsify or support them, to form ‗ethno-science‘ (Videbeck and Pia, 1966:71).

As a term, ethno-science is taken to be the system of knowledge and cognition of a given culture. That is, the totality of a particular society‘s folk classifications. These classifications give more complete descriptions of cultural knowledge. The roots of ethno-science as a theory can be traced back to influential anthropologists such as Franz Boas (1932), Bronislaw Malinowski (1922) and Benjamin Whorf, (1968).

Franz Boas (1932) established the importance of culture from his work in Northern Vancouver, Canada, while working with the Kwakwaka'wakw Indians (Uddin, 2005:980). Bronislaw Malinowski (1922) was

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known for his contribution to the beginning of ethno-science through his work on a family in Australia, using a sociological study perspective (Harris, 1968:547). Benjamin Whorf (1964) is known for his attempt to understand other cultures from an insider‘s perspective.

All these scholars found ethno-science very useful in their different attempts to study and understand different aspects of culture. Goodenough (1957) is credited for bringing Ethno-science to the stage in discussing cultural systems of knowledge. For him, ―a society‘s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believes in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members‖ (p. 167).

These successful attempts create the basis for the use of this theory as a guide in the attempt to study the use of Yoruba traditional system of healthcare for the diagnosis and treatment of àmódi. It was used by Augé (1999) in his attempt ―to reconstitute what serves as science for others, their practices of looking after themselves and their bodies, their botanical knowledge, their forms of classification, of making connections, etc.‖ (p. 118).

As a theory, ethno-science has introduced an understanding or a way of doing things based on a people‘s perspective. It has helped to keep cultural reality as it was perceived and lived by members of the society by attempting to describe culture from a totally emic perspective (a perspective in ethnography that uses the concepts and categories that are relevant and meaningful to the culture), thus eliminating all of the ethnographer‘s own categories (Morey and Luthans, 1985:219).

As noted by Morey and Luthans (1985), the emic perspective will be employed in this study. Findings will be allowed to speak for themselves. The researcher will drop his culturally conditioned views of self and consciousness (Spiegelberg, 1982:69-165).

In this study, this approach will help the researcher to observe the practice of the babaláwo without bias and accept the statements and observations made in the fields as valid. With this approach, it becomes very important to judge only by evidence and not according to any preconceived notions or presuppositions.

That is, to discover and describe the given in experiences as they are presented in their pure form, as the immediate data of consciousness presents them (Stumpf, 1982:455).

The choice for this theory was made because it helped in the study of Yoruba health care systems from a scientific perspective to the extent that it helped to understand how people developed different forms of knowledge and beliefs, acknowledging historical contributions of people. This has been possible in the past because of a cross-disciplinary interaction between social sciences, humanities and natural sciences (Ingold, 2000:406-7).

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In this study, an attempt was made to study Ifá divination as an indigenous method of diagnosis, learning what the Yoruba believe about Ifá divination and how they use it for healing. As an indigenous science, the cosmology of the Yoruba provided the material that was examined. This attempt was made because ethno-science as a theory has been successfully used in several studies of different cultures, relating to their linguists, folk taxonomy, and how they classify their foods, animals and plants as indicated in the work of early anthropologists (Ingold, 2000:407).

For the purpose of this study, particular focus was paid to ethno-medicine, which is the study of traditional medical practice, a cultural interpretation of healthcare, which includes disease diagnosis and cure. Ethno medicine as a practice is a complex multi-disciplinary system constituting the use of plants, spirituality and the natural environment for healthcare (Lowe, et. al. 2000:170). It is at the centre of discussion today because records show that about 80% of the world‘s population relies predominantly on plants and plant extracts for healthcare (Setzer et. al., 2006).

It is also ―a sub-field of ethno-botany or medical anthropology that deals with the study of traditional medicines, not only those that have relevant written sources (e.g. Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda), but especially those whose knowledge and practices have been orally transmitted over the centuries‖

(Acharya & Shrivastava, 2008:440).

3.5.2 Phenomenology as a Theory

Husserl (1960), in his Cartesian Meditations and Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology, developed a theory for exploring and intuitively realising the universal structures of experience.

Phenomenology as a theory holds that one must drop one‘s culturally conditioned views of self and consciousness (Spiegelberg, 1982). Husserl came up with this theory when natural science attempted to define and set limits for non-physical entities and phenomena during the age of enlightenment in Europe.

Husserl proposed that a researcher should first detach him/herself from his/her previous knowledge; that is, a philosophy without any presuppositions, looking solely to ―things and facts themselves, as these are given in actual experience and intuition‖ (Stumpf, 1982:455).

In Phenomenology, it is very important ―to judge only by the evidence‖ and not according to any preconceived notions or presuppositions. Thus, in using the theory of phenomenology, one must simply withhold any judgement about the findings/data, and only describe the experience as witnessed and observed. That is, ―to discover and describe the given in experience as it is presented in its pure form and found as the immediate data of consciousness presents it‖ (Stumpf, 1982:455).

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This theory guided the researcher and complemented the theory of Ethno-science. Anthropological phenomenology gave the methods that were utilised in the fieldwork. These helped the researcher to move into the worldview of the Yoruba people and it also helped the researcher to understand what the people were experiencing.

Mircea Eliade (1958) had used this theory in his study of religion. He kept his natural attitude in bracket and paid attention to the form and experience of the worshippers. Randall Studstil (2000) considered Eliade‘s use of the theory to be reminiscent of Husserl‘s propositions because Eliade (1958) described structures of consciousness in the mind of the believer as presented without trying to reconstruct them.

Phenomenology as a theory helped to examine divination the way the Yoruba understand and interpret it, and not as perceived through the bias of the researcher. The theory enabled the researcher to leave out (as much as possible) biases and presuppositions, and move into the thinking style or the consciousness of the Yoruba, so as to gather data as a neutral observer and treat the findings as facts that they are.