The Ashanti, also known as the Akans, are a people who live in the central region of Ghana. As with other African societies, for the Ashanti dreams hold the status of superior realities, and, it has been suggested, for some individual Ashantis dreams have as much if not more reality than waking experiences. R.S. Rattray, for example, has reported if a husband learns that another has dreamed of sexual intercourse with his wife, he will sue the dreamer for adultery because their souls are believed to have had sexual intercourse.
In an ethnopsychiatric study of the Ashanti, M.J. Field focuses on the distinction frequently made between "free" or spontaneous dreams and stereotypical dreams that is, those dreams individuals have repeatedly. Field describes how certain common elements of dream narratives indicate what they represent. For instance, in a dream the theme of being chased-whether by a deity, an animal, or even a weapon-indicates an individual who is afraid of retribution for a sin.
The Dream Encyclopedia. 1995 ©Visible Ink Press (VisibleInkPress.com). All rights reserved.
