Sex and the Empire That Is No More

"Matory's ethnography commands serious respect. His centralthesis concerning the gendering of power relations in the Oyo Empire, and its continuing expression in the cult of Sango, is brilliant and original. The symbolic analysis of contemporary initiation to the Sango cult ... shows real virtuosity ... [Also] of great value is his account of the state of religious heterogeneity in Oyo North. This book should make a significant mark outside the field of Yoruba studies, in the anthropology of gender at large." · J.D.Y. Peel, FBA, University of London

"An exemplary exercise in historical anthropology ... with interpretive and forensic skill [the author] narrates how the traditions of Sango and Ogun are carried into and participate inthe post-independence political and economical developments, and how they relate to contemporary Islamic and Christian religious streams." · Stanley J. Tambiah, Harvard University

"A bold and innovative study of the interplay between gender,power and religion. Its relevance to feminist theory is unquestionable ... Gender categories and all that is associated with them are changed by the negotiation of politically interested actors, both male and female ... It situates itself within a 'mythic' paradigm which, the author argues, is close to indigenous conceptualizations of the past and present; but at the same time it is unmistakably located in the real, hybrid and confusing world of contemporary Nigeria, and not in some idealized world of 'tradition'." · Karin Barber, University of Birmingham

"[Matory's] richly argued text, strong with insight, strong with documents, is a classic in Yoruba studies." · Robert F. Thompson, Yale University

"This second edition of the seminal [book] seems more salient in retrospect as the international interest in orisha worship and the meaning of transatlantic aesthetics that claim a Yoruba ancestry increases...Along with his theoretical guidance, Matory provides rich procedural, ritual detail that contextualizes the multifaceted aspect of orisha worship for specific sets of completed ritual communities." · International Journal of African Historical Studies