Orí, Ayé and the ontogeny of society

It is difficult for any scholar on Yoruba culture to escape contact with the extensive literature on Orí, a metaphysical, ontological predicate for the existence of human selfhood, and self-other relations. This is not only because much has been written on the subject by scholars of different disciplinary persuasions, but also because this scholarship claims to be advancing, a peculiar point of view that originates a new way of looking at situation in terms of certain local categories and possibilities of action. Yoruba belief that Orí is that to which other deities (for it could be raised as a deity) should defer: all, except God, the maker of all things. Thus, it is reverenced, because it is about the self and because it cannot be reduced to any position of inferiority in any human actions.