Divinatory symbols as a resource for meaning making in Major Odù Ifá Corpora: Peirce's Semiotic perspective

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of divinatory symbols as a resource for meaning-making in Major Odu Ifa (MOI) corpora. MOI is an African divination system used by the Yoruba people of West Africa. It is a corpus of sixteen principal divinatory symbols, each having its own set of interpretations and meanings. This paper uses Peirce's three-way classification of sign types as a theoretical framework to analyse the structure and meaning of the MOI corpus. Through a close examination of the MOI corpus, it is demonstrated that divinatory symbols are used as a resource for communicative purposes by the practitioners of MOI. Signs are utilised in the MOI corpus to convey complex meanings that are embedded within the divinatory system. By incorporating Peirce's three-way classification of sign types, it is possible to explore the structure and meaning of communicative systems such as MOI. Through the analysis of the MOI corpus, it is shown that the use of different divinatory symbols enables the practitioners to communicate complex ideas about reality. The results of this paper demonstrate that divinatory symbols are used as a resource for meaning-making in the MOI corpus. This paper provides insight into the communicative functions of MOI and also provides a deeper understanding of the structural and semantic aspects of the MOI corpus.