Ashanti

Record summary

R. S. Rattray's Ashanti documents religious institutions, priests, shrine practices, dreams, omens and forms of divination in the Gold Coast. It is relevant to altered-state comparison because it places visionary or message-like experiences within public ritual, lineage authority and diagnosis. The book preserves historical claims and observations, not proof that spirits or precognition operate as described. Rattray's colonial position, selective informants and translation choices are central uncertainties. Researchers can compare its descriptions with Rattray's later Religion and Art in Ashanti and Ghanaian historical studies.