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Nkisi or Nkishi (plural varies: ''minkisi'', ''zinkisi'', or ''nkisi'') are spirits, or an object that a spirit inhabits. It is frequently applied to a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa that are believed to contain spiritual powers or spirits. The term and its concept have passed with the Atlantic slave trade to the Americas.〔(Nkisi in Palo Mayombe )〕 ==Meaning== The current meaning of the term derives from the root, '' *-kitį''- referring to a spiritual entity, or material objects in which it is manifested or inhabits in Proto-Njila, an ancient subdivision of the Bantu language family.〔Jan Vansina, ''Paths in the Rainforest: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa'' (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), p. 146 and 297; but see also Vansina's corrective statements in ''How Societies Are Born: Governance in West Central Africa Before 1600 (Charlottesville, VA and London: University of Virginia Press, 2004), pp. 51-52.〕 In its earliest attestations in Kikongo dialects in the early seventeenth century it was transliterated as "mokissie" (in Dutch), as the mu- prefix in this noun class were still pronounced. It was reported by Dutch visitors to Loango in the 1668 book ''Description of Africa'' as referring both to a material item and the spiritual entity that inhabits it.〔Olfert Dapper, ''Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Africa Gewesten'' (Amsterdam, 1668), p. 548 (see English translation in John Ogilby, ''Africa'' (London, 1670), p. 514).〕 In the sixteenth century, when the Kingdom of Kongo was converted to Christianity, ''ukisi'' (a substance having characteristics of nkisi) was used to translate "holy" in the Kikongo Catechism of 1624.〔John Thornton, "The Development of an African Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Kongo, 1491-1750," ''Journal of African History'' 25 (1984): 156-57.〕 In the eighteenth century, the ''mu-'' prefix evolved into a simple nasal ''n-'', so the modern spelling is properly n'kisi, but many orthographies spell it nkisi (there is no language-wide accepted orthography of Kikongo). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nkisi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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