Answer to Question 1
The plucking of thin, long keys (tongues) produces the mbira's tones. Since the tongues of the instrument itself are plucked and vibrate to produce the tones, the instrument falls within the major classification of an idiophone. (A jew's harp operates on a similar principle.)
The mbira is also called a linguaphone (from lingua or tongue) or a lamellaphone, a plucked idiophone. (See entries for these terms in The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, Edited by Don M. Randel, 1986, p. 434 and p. 452.) Other common names for the mbira are sansa, kalimba, and, outside of Africa, thumb piano.
Answer to Question 2
Mbira music helps connect the living with their ancestral spirits who can help and advise the living.
These spirits can enter the body of a living person through possession trances.
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