L. A. Andreev, A.D. Savatsev, Moscow: Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2012, 268 p.

In the reviewed monograph, for the first time in Russian African studies, the concept of "religious experience" is introduced into the theory and practice of studies of the peoples of the continent, denoting a specific perception of the divine, the transcendent. The paper attempts to study religious experience as a modified form of consciousness, as well as the processes of its institutionalization in African societies.

The relevance of the study is due to the high public interest in the religious sphere as a whole that has manifested itself in recent decades. Of course, religion does not play an important role in the lives of all people, but even those who consider themselves non - believers inevitably encounter various forms of its manifestation-religious organizations, traditions and religious buildings.

The most reliable foundation of faith, according to the authors of the book, is personal religious experience, which was the source of all existing religions in the world.

The monograph consists of two parts: theoretical and empirical. The first section examines the content and forms of religious experience, "magic" as one of its forms, as well as"mythological worldview".

As L. L. Andreeva (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) rightly points out, a person learns about the sacred because it appears as something completely different from what makes up the ordinary world, and does not resemble either human or cosmic. Moreover, a person in principle is not able to express it adequately, since only those means that arise on the basis of ordinary experience are available to the language. A person can explain his feelings only by means of analogies or by means of symbols, which thus occupy a central place in religious thinking and teaching.

Religious experience combines two components - cognitive and emotive (affective). The first one records knowledge directly obtained as a result of gaining religious experience, which can be knowledge about the external world (God, ras, etc.) or knowledge about the inner world of the experiencer (the spiritual essence of a person). In terms of content, such knowledge largely depends on the religious-mythological, ethical, aesthetic, linguistic and other features of the cultural tradition to which the carrier belongs, as well as on individual intellectual qualities of the individual.

The emotive component of religious experience, acquired as a result of mental experience, emotional stress, is a set of emotions and sensations experienced in it. At the level of sensory perceptions, religious experience can be formed in the form of visual (vision of the deity), tactile (touch of the "hand of the Lord"), auditory ("voice of heaven", "singing of angels", etc.), odoristic (smell of sulfur-a sign of the presence of "fiends of hell") and taste (taste of ambrosia - " food gods" , etc.).

Considering such a phenomenon as " altered states of consciousness "(ISS), which include trance, obsession, physical self-torture, and various variants of "escape from reality", V. M. Khachaturian (Russian Institute of Cultural Studies) convincingly proves that most of the ISS are culturally modeled, since society has always sought to control them, partly because the spontaneous "fallout from reality" of large masses of people is dangerous for the functioning of society.

The author is certainly right, noting that the role of culturally modeled ASCs and the degree of their prevalence gradually decreased and "a tendency to their obsolescence and displacement to the periphery of culture prevailed." It should be noted, however, that the passage "a number of rituals associated with mass entry into the ISS (for example, initiations, military and hunting rituals, shamanic kamlaniyas) were preserved for some time (emphasis added-etc.), at least in rural communities" (p. 34), indicates some degree of social significance. It underestimates the importance of these rituals and ceremonies for modern Africans (Liberians, Sierra Leoneans, Ivorians, Congolians, etc.), which increases during civil wars and military-political conflicts.

A. A. Pelipenko (Russian Institute of Cultural Studies) and V. M. Khachaturian, authors of the section of the monograph devoted to one of the most complex phenomena of religious and cultural life of mankind-magic, tried to answer the question: why is the steady and seemingly quite natural process of extinction of this heritage of primitive culture clearly far from complete? Researchers rightly reject the usual references to the persistence of" remnants "of ancient beliefs and to" surges of irrationalism "that accompany transition and crisis epochs, especially since the" magical renaissance " is most clearly manifested in the most prosperous countries of the West.

According to Pelipenko and Khachaturian, the essence of magic is twofold, it has both cultural and natural beginnings. On the one hand, magic as such does not exist in nature, since it is impossible without culture and a person with consciousness, on the other hand, magical practices inevitably involve immersion in a "pre - cultural" state. Magic tries rebelled-

to develop an inherently natural way of contacting the world, using cultural means. At the same time, the magical attitude to the world cannot be completely repressed for the very reason that both man and society are unable to overcome their natural essence and isolate themselves from the natural environment.

Of particular interest is the section "African Religious Experience and Mythological Worldview". Stating that in traditional societies mystical experience is the first stage in the development of religious experience and that for a representative of a traditional society, everything that surrounds him / her is "filled with invisible life that has secret mystical powers" (p. 67), A. N. Moseyko (Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences) shows that the predominant place in the ideas of religious about invisible forces: anxious expectation, a set of emotional reactions that can be defined as fear, often turning into horror, despair, panic. In the primary religious experience, not only are all objects and phenomena endowed with mystical powers, but the connections between them are also mystical, which seem impossible to a modern person, and quite real to a representative of traditional culture.

In the mystical experience, there is a stable idea of the identity of the image and the depicted. "A painted or sculptured image that is more or less similar to the original is perceived as the abode of a part of the original's soul, a part of its life force" (p.68). That is why, as the author rightly notes, Africans in remote areas are afraid of photographing, believing that an image that has fallen into the wrong hands can cause real harm. Equally disturbing is the attitude towards one's own shadow: an outsider should not be allowed to step on it, as this can bring trouble. There is also no distinction between reality and appearance: dreams, for example, are often experienced more deeply by a person than everyday life, and force him to act according to the "instructions"received in them. The dream is perceived as a reality, as a prediction, communication with the spirits of the dead.

The author emphasizes that the result of the development of mystical thinking was the ordering of impressions and experiences, the formation of images of spirits and deities who acquired zoomorphic or anthropomorphic features. This is how mythological characters appear, and faceless mystical forces take on their own forms, names, and images. Images of geometric shapes have a sacred meaning, especially the spiral, which in Tropical Africa symbolizes the emergence and development of life.

The most developed peoples of Africa tend to have complex mythological systems with a vast pantheon of heroes and deities. They are characterized by a number of features: the presence of the main deity of the creator of all things or the one with whom "everything began"; the presence of a divine couple, often symbolizing the union of the heavenly god and the earth; the saturation of mythologies with characters, actions, and experiences. "Mythical heroes are jealous, take revenge, make mistakes and correct them, cheat and mock, deceive and malice" (p. 75). Based on the rich empirical material, the author concludes that generalizations, symbols, a kind of anticipation of the great ideas of humanity, which are seen in African myths, are not yet fully realized cultural wealth of Africa.

In the second part of the monograph, the phenomenon of religious experience is analyzed in an empirical context, where specific historical phenomena and events become the object of research. At the same time, some authors consider religious experience mainly as a psychological phenomenon in a specific ethnic and cultural context. Others focus on the forms of its institutionalization, the formation of religious traditions, and legal norms.

The presented studies show that the social significance of religious experience exists due to transmission, accumulation and reproduction in religious traditions. In its turn, religious tradition is, in relation to religious experience, a system of connecting the present with the past, through which the stereotyping of religious experience is carried out. Religious experience finds its practical embodiment in the formation of a cult that provides an ordered structure of worship of a religious object.

L. A. Andreeva examines in detail the emergence of Afro - Christianity at the end of the XIX century, as a result of the adaptation of Christian confessions to local beliefs, represented by a variety of trends. In the center of her research is the identity of the missionary William Vale Harris, who arrived in what is now Ivory Coast in 1913, who considered himself a messenger of Jesus Christ and predicted the imminent coming of the Savior. Harris made a mistake

a kind of revolution in the consciousness of the Africans: in his time the people, having destroyed their fetishes, "flooded into the Catholic churches" (p. 86).

Using the example of Harris, the author shows how the appearance of the prophet, his charisma and the success of his sermons create favorable conditions for religious conversion. Moreover, the missionary's personal religious experience transformed the lives and worldviews of tens of thousands of Africans.

According to A. D. Savatsev (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences), one of the most striking examples of the effectiveness of religious experience in Africa is the life practice of adherents of Muslim spiritual and religious, or mystical, orders (tariqas). The author suggests that religious experience in Islam as a whole plays a greater role than in other religious systems, and is generated by the emotional experiences of believers "during the performance of special psychotechnical exercises, the purpose of which is to comprehend God, approach him, and know him" (p.102).

One cannot but agree with A. D. Savateev's statement that the emergence and development of Islamic orders or fraternities in the region under study indicate the ability of African peoples to assimilate the experience of other civilizations, creatively processing it to such an extent that a new religious idea is born. Africans were able to create their own model of sociocultural organization of society within the framework of the "big" Muslim tradition, which the author calls a "small" tradition: so organically it entered the life of an African, his economic activities, culture, philosophy, etc.And due to the large number and organization of their members, fraternities gain the opportunity to influence political processes.

The author gives a justifiably high assessment of the contribution of Sufi mystics (experts in mystical practices and teachings) to world culture: "we can say with good reason that it was the spiritual geniuses of this trend in Islam who gave a humanistic, spiritual content to the civilization of Islam, which in the XX century in Europe, and in the world as a whole, began to forget focusing on fundamentalist, political Islam" (p. 109). The manuals on Sufi practice and theological teachings created in the Middle Ages in the centers of Islam, as well as the special nature of fraternal relations between Sufis in orders, contributed to the formation of a special way of life in them, passed down from generation to generation. To a large extent, as A.D. Savateev notes, this tradition is also reproduced in the tariqas that spread in sub-Saharan Africa. To a lesser extent, black Africans inherited the intellectual aspects of the life of the orders.

The author examines the phenomenon of Muslim clerics (Marabouts) being promoted to the forefront of public and political life in a number of countries (Mauritania, Cameroon, Senegal, etc.) in West Africa. Savateev notes that the African community, both urban and rural, is largely built not on the principles of blood kinship or neighborhood, but on the consciousness of a spiritual and religious community, belonging to a single culture of Islam and familiarizing with the mystical mysteries of a particular tariqa.

The author makes an interesting conclusion that fraternities, representing islands of consolidation of society, resist social and cultural disintegration. They mitigate the problems of marginalization, contribute to the survival of the individual at the personal level and his self-identification. Against the background of the socio-political instability that has been observed on the continent in recent decades, they look like hotbeds of order and organization.

Focusing on some aspects of the religious experience in Madagascar, A. N. Moseyko, based on his observations during his stay in the country, argues that the Malagasy mentality, along with modern knowledge, religion and worldview, contains stable traditional ideas and values. Meanwhile, there is no complete mythological system in Madagascar, such as the Dogon, Bambara, Fang, etc., and its reconstruction is possible only on the basis of folklore and analysis of ethnographic data. However, it appears original, markedly different from the mythologies of other African peoples. For example, in Malagasy mythology, you can find the water element personified in the female deity Rafara (maiden, younger daughter), and the terrible monster of the seven - headed serpent Fanampituluhu-the reincarnation of the murdered hero.

Stating that "the institution of sacralization of the ruler's power cannot arise and function without relying on the basic religious experience institutionalized in the religious tradition" (p. 169), O. I. Kavykin (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences), in the section devoted to the evolution of the institution of traditional rulers in Zambia, shows how the introduction of new forms of religious-

The reorientation of public consciousness towards a different religion or a secular worldview paradigm leads to the fact that old institutions face the need to find new grounds for legitimacy. An example of this is the partial desacralization of the power of traditional rulers, previously based on paganism.

A. V. Voevodsky (RSUH), describing the religious traditions of the South African Xhosa in the conditions of European colonization (late XVIII-first half of the XIX century), notes that, like most other African tribes, their worldview was characterized by a connection between the supernatural and the world of everyday life. The Xhosa believed that "the human soul retains an interest in the life of its kind and actively participates in everything that happens to its members" (p. 191). For example, people prayed to the spirits of their ancestors to give them more children. Xhosa had a special group of people responsible for maintaining harmony in society's relations with otherworldly forces, and there were six types of healers and sorcerers, whose duties included treating people, identifying malicious witches, protecting against enemy magic during war, summoning rain in case of drought, etc. Religious norms regulated relations within the whole society.

However, as the author rightly notes, with the advent of Europeans, the lifestyle of Xhosa changed. At first, white people were not seen as a threat to the existing order. But after the expulsion of the Xhosa communities west of the Great Fish River from the Cape Colony, the situation changed. However, with the spread of Christianity through European missionaries and other means, the traditional way of life was almost completely destroyed. Until the middle of the 19th century, Christianity did not enjoy mass popularity. In contrast, there were local prophets who told people what they wanted to hear (i.e., religious experiences had a clear social context), and Africans took on faith those ideas that best fit the needs of the current moment. Only when they became disillusioned with their system of beliefs did the Xhosa begin to pay attention to Christianity and look for support in the changing world. But even in this case, syncretism was clearly present in both form and content. The author's conclusion about the close relationship between the worldview of Africans, the surrounding reality and the state of society itself is indisputable.

H. M. Turyinekaya (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences) focused on the culture, history and religious experience of the Bamum people (Western Cameroon). By the end of the 19th century, Bamum was a centralized state entity with a well-defined social stratification, a developed official hierarchy, and a sacral power of rulers, the most famous of whom was Njoya. Considering the processes of Islamization and Christianization of Bamum in the Njoya era (late XIX - first quarter of XX century), the researcher shows how interest in Islam in the circles of the ruling elite of Bamum arose under the influence of Fulbe and Hausa Muslims, and the destabilization of the political situation in the state and in the region as a whole was the impetus for the transformation process in the sphere of religious experience.

Military magic, in a society constantly beset by internal conflicts and wars with its neighbors, occupied an important place in the life and traditional culture of Bamum. "Carefully designed rituals that accompanied the preparation and marked the end of hostilities were aimed at ensuring military success," the author notes (p.210). If in the pre-Islamic period the courage of soldiers was given special magic potions, then in the course of Islamization, the Muslim prayer was perceived as a new "medicine for military success".

As for Christianity, the favorable attitude of the ruler to this religion was explained by friendly relations with the new - German colonial authorities, which practically did not limit the powers of the traditional leader. However, the "interest" in Christianity did not lead Njoya to convert to this faith, because of the reluctance to abandon the traditional polygamy for Bamum. Islam turned out to be more attractive and suitable to the traditional beliefs and way of life of this people. After the ruler's conversion to Islam, this religion received the status of a state religion and a more intensive stage of Islamization began. The author rightly points out that, firstly, this situation was an example of how the adoption of a new religion by the ruler becomes a signal for the conversion of subjects, and, secondly, how a religious and cultural system is formed as a result of the interaction of introduced religions and autochthonous beliefs, including pronounced syncretic features.

Considering the phenomenon of written magic as the most important part of the religious practice of African Muslims, N. A. Dobronravii (SPb.GPU) notes that in those countries of the continent that have not experienced a strong influence of Islam, magical purposes can be used once a year.-

personal items, while in societies that have been actively Islamized, written amulets are being distributed, and not only among Muslims. West African written amulets are regularly published in both collections and individual sheets, mainly in Nigeria, from where these products are distributed to all parts of West Africa. The author examines the distribution and use of magical texts in certain areas of the continent from the 17th century to the present day, pointing out, in particular, that the use of written magic in the religious practice of African Muslims is condemned by fundamentalists, who, seeking to" purify " Islam, reject the centuries-old Sufi tradition of the Maghreb and Sudan, including the production and distribution of amulets.

Senior curator of the Foundation "Australia, Oceania, Indonesia" of the MAE RAS "Kunstkamera" T. A. Sokolova explores the significance of one of the most ancient cultural phenomena - masks in the acquisition of religious experience by the peoples of West Africa. Noting the variety of functions and forms of the mask, the author makes a number of considerations concerning their study, which is somewhat difficult. First, it is "the transformation of traditional culture and its adaptation to the requirements of the time, which leads to the withering away or washing out of the meanings of many components inherent in the tradition" (p. 238). Secondly, it is the inconsistency of the available information. Third, the very diversity of masks and their spheres of existence. Sokolova's approach to the study of the phenomenon is interesting: we are not talking about a mask-a disguise that usually attracts the attention of art historians, but about the mask as a creature hidden under a suit and endowed with supernatural power. According to the author, the mask is a complete image that includes both the costume itself and the essence itself, acting through the medium of a person.

The use of masks in Africa is a typical example of the artificial production of religious experiences, and they play an extremely important role as intermediaries between the human world and the supernatural world. In turn, the wearer of the mask is reincarnated as a supernatural being for the duration of the ritual, receiving a personal religious experience.

It is known that religion occupies an important place in the life of the peoples of Tropical Africa. The authors of the book come to the general conclusion that the religious form of consciousness is likely to be dominant in the region for many more decades. Under these conditions, on the one hand, faith will contribute to maintaining the socio-political organization of society, replacing the rational type of thinking, on the other hand, religious consciousness can easily lead the entire civilization to a logical impasse, degradation. The way out of the potential trap, according to the researchers, will "consist in the assimilation of the truths of rational knowledge and empirical aspects of cognition by African societies" (p.258).

The monograph, the authors of which consider various aspects of religious experience, from entering a trance to "communicating" with the spirits of our ancestors, differs significantly from previous works on religious studies. In previous studies, internal, hidden, psychological factors and the nature of the emergence of African beliefs were often left out of the researchers ' attention. This paper fills this gap by referring to the concept of "religious experience" as an explanation of the origin and functioning of religion.

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