Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T18:30:24.533Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Shaman and the Ghosts of Unnatural Death: On the Efficacy of a Ritual

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Boyd Michailovsky  and
Philippe Sagant
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In the Himalayan region, and even beyond it, odd behavior, illnesses, and especially sudden or accidental deaths, are attributed to the actions of the dead who have come back to torment the living.

Among the Limbu tribesmen of eastern Nepal, these attacks take many different forms. The symptoms have very little in common from illness to illness. The eyes of infants roll back into their heads; they refuse to take the breast and die after only several months of life (they are called sa-sik). Women – as well as men – remain infertile, and are subject to bouts of confusion and temporary madness. Pregnancies often come to bad endings: there are spontaneous abortions, death in childbirth (sugup), an inability to produce milk. Men complain of stomach aches, tremendous headaches, vertigo, and various other troubles: they too are stricken with temporary madness, with loss of consciousness, and with inexplicable terrors that lead to fatal accidents or that even drive the victim, in a fit of rage, to murder or suicide (sogha). People of both sexes and all ages are affected. At home the family chickens often die suddenly and pigs choke to death.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 40 , Issue 158 , June 1992 , pp. 19 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Berreman, G.D., Hindus of the Himalayas. Los Angeles: University of California, 1963.Google Scholar
Bonnerjea, B., L'Ethnologie du Bengale. Paris: Geuthner, 1927.Google Scholar
Bouillier, V., Naître Renonçant. Nanterre: Laboratoire d'ethnologie, 1979.Google Scholar
Crooke, W., The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. Delhi: Manoharlal, 1978.Google Scholar
Ekvall, R., Tibetan Sky-lines. New York: Farrar 1952.Google Scholar
Evans-Wentz, W.Y., The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960. Le livre des morts tibétain. Paris: Maisoneuve 1977.Google Scholar
Fürer-Haimendorf, C. von, The Sherpas of Nepal. London: Oxford Book Company 1964.Google Scholar
Gaborieau, M., “Les Bayu du Népal central”, Purushatha, I (1975): 70. Paris, 1975.Google Scholar
Gorer, G., Himalayan Village: an Account of the Lepchas of Sikkim. London: Nelson, 1967.Google Scholar
Granet, M., La Civilization Chinoise. Paris: Albin Michel, 1968.Google Scholar
Hamayon, R.N., La Chasse à l'âme, esquisse d'une théorie du chamanisme sibèrien. Paris: Société d'Ethnologie, 1990.Google Scholar
Harva, U., La Religion des peuples altaîques. Paris: Gallimard, 1959.Google Scholar
Hitchcock, J.T., The Magars of Banyan Hill. New York: Holt, 1966.Google Scholar
Höfer, A., Tamang Ritual Texts, vol. I. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1981.Google Scholar
Jones, S., “Limbu spirit possession and shamanism.” In Spirit Possession in the Nepal Himalayas, eds. Jones, R.I. and Hitchcock, J.T.. New York: Aris and Philips, 1976.Google Scholar
Lot-Falck, E., “Tsychopathes et chamanes yakoutes.” Mélanges offerts à C Lévis-Strauss. Paris: Mouton, 1971.Google Scholar
Macdonald, A.W., “Le guèrisseur népalais.” Le Monde du Sorcier. Paris: Le Seuil, 1966, 281–304.Google Scholar
Mills, J.P., The Rengma Nagas. Gauhati: Spectrum Publications, 1980.Google Scholar
Moréchand, G. Le Chamanisme des Hmong. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nebesky-Wojkowitz, R. de, Oracles and Demons of Tibet. Graz: Akademische Druck, 1975.Google Scholar
Sagant, P., “La cure du chamane et l'interprétation des laîcs,” in l'Ethnographie, Rituels himalayens, Macdonald, A.W., ed., 1987, 100–101, 246–274.Google Scholar
Stein, R.A., L'Épopée tibétaine de Gesar dans sa version lamaique de Ling. Paris: P.U.F., 1956.Google Scholar
Vitebsky, P., Le chamanisme pour les laîcs: comment on fait le deuil dans la société Saora. Manuscript, Cambridge University, Department of Anthropology (undated).Google Scholar