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Datura fastuosa: Its use in tsonga girls’ initiation

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Abstract

This paper is a description and sociocultural analysis ofDatura fastuosa ingestion in the girls’ puberty school of the Tsonga (Shangana-Tsonga) of Mozambique and the northern Transvaal. The rite involves music/color synesthesia and the hearing of a supernatural voice and is associated by the Tsonga with fertility. The origin and function of the rite is discussed and, in connection with certain of its aspects, cross-cultural comparisons are made.

The author did extensive fieldwork in southern Africa during the twoyear period 1908–70 under grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (#2504) and the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a graduate of the California State University at Hayward (M.A. in Music, 1968) and the California State University at Fullerton (M.A. in Anthropology, 1972). Some of the present material formed part of a Ph.D. dissertation submitted in 1972 to the University of the Witwatersrand, and at present under examination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Western Washington State College, Bellingham, Washington

    Thomas F. Johnston (Assistant Professor of Anthropology)

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  1. Thomas F. Johnston
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Johnston, T.F. Datura fastuosa: Its use in tsonga girls’ initiation. Econ Bot 26, 340–351 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860704

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860704

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