Religion and Ethics in Korekore Society 1)

Abstract

The Korekore people are members of the Shona-speaking cluster of peoples, and are situated in the extreme north-east of Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe. In this paper, I use mainly data I collected during two years of intensive field research from I969 to 1971, supported by four years of less intensive contact with the communities among whom I had lived. I shall also be drawing a little on data collected by Kingsley Garbett among related communities in the early i96os, and occasionally on other material on Shona peoples. The area I wish to look into is the relationship between religious precepts, whether pronounced by some authoritative religious official or contained in oral traditions, and ethical norms according to which people make moral judgements. We do not expect Korekore behaviour simply to be determined by religious precept, any more than we would expect all Roman Catholics to refrain from using artificial methods of birth control because their Pope has said that they should, or all Christians to keep no more than one coat because their sacred scripture says: He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none. (Luke 3: I ). Not only does the behaviour of individuals often diverge from religious precepts, but people make moral judgements about religious precepts and sometimes contrary to them. Religious authority does not in fact control the ethical norms even of people who in some way give recognition to that authority: it has been argued that religion cannot in principle provide a basis for moral judgements. 2 And yet there is clearly a relationship between religion and ethics. At the lowest level, religious beliefs often contain and express moral values. Religion often provides incentives for complying with ethical norms and sanctions against their breach. Religion often appears to give moral support to traditional authority and custom (as is argued, and over-