ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how that diagnosing a case of empongo in terms of medicines initiates a different chain of behaviour, a different set of social control mechanisms, from that which follows a diagnosis in terms of one of the several manifestations of itonga. Formal diagnoses of empongo are to be understood as those arrived at through the processes of divination or autopsy, while informal diagnoses are those aired in diffuse gossip. The principal difference between the two kinds of diagnosis is that formal diagnoses, unlike rumours, represent the consensus of a clearly specifiable social group. The chapter explains that -ly-, -lody-, endasa, and -gun- are aetiological categories which all trace their origin to the unseen power of itonga. It shows that the diagnoses of itonga into a dispute situation points up this status relationship between the antagonists. Endasa, it will be recalled, is a mortal affliction of people who possess the power of itonga.
