Soc Sci Med. 1989 ; 28(9): 917-24.

The assessment of diviners and their knowledge by civil servants in southwestern Nigeria.

Pearce TO.

Department of Sociology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria.

Belief systems are continuously being modified through the interpretations individuals give to the cultural order. The present study investigates the evaluations which educated Nigerians have of diviners and their knowledge claims. Two hundred civil servants in Abeokuta, a state capital in the Southwestern region, were asked to assess diviners. It was discovered that diviners are believed to have access to supernatural knowledge and that this knowledge is seen as medically useful. Further development of the diviner's knowledge was endorsed by 70% of the sample. The respondents were however ambivalent towards diviners as persons or the bearers of the knowledge. They (diviners) are believed to have become unduly materialistic and prone to dubious activities. The implications of these findings for social change were then considered.