Il rituale dell’“agnalenà” della donne Diola di Casamance nel Senegal

This paper concerns the figure of the agnalenà of the Diola people of Casamance. The Diola believe that a woman cannot have children or loses them at an early age due to the hostility of metahistorical powers. To overcome this situation, the Diola community has elaborated a specific ritual practice, which will be the subject of the present work. My framework for interpreting it is structured on symbolic thought and its efficacy, Ernesto de Martino's concept of “come se” – a central fulcrum of “magicalreligious destorification” –, and the concepts of “rites of passage” by Arnold Van Gennep and “liminality” by Victor Turner.