The Primitive Mind and Modern Man

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The Primitive Mind and Modern Man By

John Alan Cohan

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CONTENTS Preface

i

CHAPTERS PART I: Primitive Societies and Cultural Frameworks 1. Why Study Primitive Cultures?

01

2. Cultural Relativism

22

3. Apollinian and Dionysian Cultures

29

PART II: Primitive Beliefs, Practices and Rituals 4. Mana

37

5. Animism

49

6. Totemism

76

7. Hunting and Cultivation Rituals

83

8. Shamanism: The “Wounded Healer”

95

9. Envy and the Evil Eye

114 PART III: Consciousness and Magical Powers

10. Altered States of Consciousness

127

11. Trance and Possession States

133

12. Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft

150 PART IV: Conflict and Death

13. Death by Suggestion: Voodoo Death, Taboo Death, and Bone-Pointing

167

14. The Placebo Effect

172

15. Dealing with Conflicts, Aggressive Impulses, Enemies and War

175

16. Treatment of the Dead

192 PART V: Status and Wealth

17. Potlatches

201

18. Status, Prestige, Recognition--the Need for Social Approval

207

PART VI: Cultural Phenomena and Folk Medicine 19. Culture-Bound Syndromes

212

20. Mass Hysteria, Mass Possession

230

21. Folk Medicine

236

PART VII: Women and Children in Primitive Societies 22. The Treatment and the Role of Women in Primitive Cultures

246

23. Child Rearing and the Treatment of Children in Primitive Cultures

255

PART VIII: When Modern Culture Meets Primitive Culture, and a Case Study 24. Cargo Cults

260

25. Nomadic Peoples: A Case Study of the Batek People of Malaysia

266

References

274

Appendix

290

Index

310

i

PREFACE Cultural anthropology is a relatively new discipline, having its origins in 19th century ethnology, which involves the organized comparison of human cultures. It was not until the 1920s that anthropologists started to actually live among primitive people for a considerable period of time, to participate in and observe the social and cultural life of the group. Up until then, an understanding of other people was important mainly to diplomats, military personnel, colonial officials, missionaries, and traders. In fact, once anthropology got going as a discipline, scholars gathered materials from these very groups. Anthropology became a recognized academic discipline in the 1890s. The first department of anthropology was established by the University of California in 1902, and the first course pertained to North American ethnology. The use of the word “primitive” in the title of this book has no derogatory implications whatsoever. “Primitive” does not mean “inferior,” but is derived from the Latin primitivus, meaning “Of or belonging to the first age, period, or stage.” It connotes traits that are simple, fundamental, and of ancient origins, unadulterated by exposure to trends of the industrialized world. “Modern” is also a controversial term, but I use it to refer to industrialized cultures and, to some degree, a materialistic, mechanistic, unnatural, highly commercialized and dehumanized pattern of living. The anthropologist is bound to consider to what extent, if any, the primitive mind differs from the modern mind or is somewhat similar. In this book we will explore the fundamental complexities of human cultures, often replete with rich organization, resilient traditions, clarity of roles and taboos, dynamic interdependence on the natural environment, and the idea that all beings exist in relation to one another. A fundamental principle in anthropology is that cultures should be studied as a whole, and that customs and beliefs can be properly understood only in the context in which they operate. This does not arbitrarily carve out from human culture a segment such as the economy, political systems, law, personality structure, or social relations, but rather focuses on human societies as an interrelated whole. Cultural anthropology seeks to describe and explain the variety of behaviors, customs and beliefs among people of the world, their forms of social organization, the manifold connections between various aspects of human life, and the shared ways of doing, thinking and making things. As we will see throughout this book, characteristics that seem to be most rigorous and distinctive in these cultures are, in many ways, found in the same thought processes and motivations of people in developed cultures. Perhaps the greatest lesson driven home by modern anthropology is the remarkable adaptability of human beings as revealed through the enormous diversity of behavior that anthropologists have discovered among cultures of the world. This book seeks to instill respect for the belief systems of other cultures. We might disagree with what other people regard as “science,” and find their logic to be perplexing, but when we put aside our cultural prejudices and try to understand these beliefs and practices from the perspective of those who engage in them-we can gain new insights about our own practices. Anthropology is of interest because human nature is of interest. Human nature is expressed in fundamentally similar patterns throughout the ages. We see, for instance in Old Testament literature, that human beings display a stream of emotions and tendencies then as they do now-envy, anger, treachery, warlike tendencies, greed, love, lust, hate, cooperation, courage, faith, doubt, generosity, and so on. In the best of circumstances it is impossible to put together a completely representative book about cultural anthropology, given the ever-changing patterns of culture. Though there is a great deal of continuity and stability within cultures from generation to generation, there is no such thing as unchanging traditions. Cultures are subject to constant change by such factors as invention, outside contact, and adaptive drift from within. In an era of

ii

globalization and shrinking borders, even isolated pockets of civilization are subject to an adaptive drift. Thus, cultures are not viewed in a static social equilibrium, but are conceived as a dynamic phenomenon. Anthropology not only explores phenomena such as magic, witchcraft, divination, ritual and ceremony, but a vast array of beliefs that often overlap with our own. Healing practices, for instance, are universal among cultures, and while modern Western medicine has made many strides toward curing disease, a majority of cultures today rely on shamans, witch-doctors and folk healers to diagnose and heal illness. Magic is relied upon in many cultures to produce rain, to overcome one’s enemies, to insure victory in battle, to cause pregnancy, to find lost objects, to prevent or cure sickness, to assure an abundant supply of food, to ward off evil omens, and so on. There are parallel belief systems in modern cultures, as discussed in this book. We will examine how people interact with others, trade, deal with conflicts, organize ceremonies, use rituals and symbols, adapt myths to suit current trends, and we will explore their practices concerning child rearing, the treatment of women, conflict and death, status and wealth, altered states of consciousness, the evil eye, magical powers, healing, witchcraft, hunting and gathering, how peoples cope with death, and other patterns of culture. It has become more important than ever to respect and understand different points of view without being so certain that our own perspective is “right,” while others are “wrong.” The tendency towards ethnocentric attitudes is pervasive in the world. In principle, there is no reason why our own beliefs should be viewed as superior to those of other cultures. Cultural relativism goes hand in hand with a study of anthropology-for from the perspective of each group of people, what is “good” or “bad” may be uniquely different from the next one. At the same time, as brought out in this book, there are certain basic values recognized by all people, suggesting a fundamental uniformity in moral principles—however, differently they may be expressed from culture to culture. In this book we will discover that different values have common cores. Today, the various cultures of the world are of interest to everyone, not only because the behavior of almost any society may have important ramifications in world affairs, but because we can now easily visit distant and formerly inaccessible places, we can develop friendships across the world (at least in cyberspace), and a great many people immigrate to live and work in cultures that have different customs and traditions than learned in their homeland. I have tried to avoid writing a “technical” book so as to engage undergraduate college students studying the social sciences, as well as general readership (“armchair anthropologists”), because I think it is important to present a broad cultural dimension in an accessible format in an age where the world is growing smaller and smaller. This book presents a systematic attempt to introduce, analyze and formulate precise concepts and clear definitions into the subject. This book is intended to make a contribution to our understanding of how various people carry on their lives and solve daily problems, and seeks to evoke the imagination of the reader to instill a genuine appreciation of cultural diversity. Anthropology has so many aspects, its roots and branches penetrate so profusely into the fabric of society, that it is difficult to study anthropology in its entirety. Anthropology today is not just of academic interest. There are numerous fields that have opened up to anthropologists in recent years, with anthropologists working for municipal, state and federal governments. Anthropologists are hired to analyze government data, track population growth, determine the sources of gang warfare, understand traffic patterns, migration patterns, demographic information, and so on. Anthropologists are called upon as expert witnesses in various court proceedings to help the jury understand the motivations behind certain conduct. The military hires anthropologists to help analyze intelligence data and help understand customs of foreign cultures. Anthropologists are hired to help analyze differences between national cultures and regional, ethnic subcultures, and to help formulate organizational as well as international policy. Business anthropology is a growing field: Almost every large company has anthropologists on staff to conduct qualitative research on employee relations, to study work processes so as to help promote greater efficiency, to study

iii

consumer behavior, organizational change, sex differences in the workplace, and to help formulate ways to adjust business practices in foreign markets. In short, the reader should find the information in this book accessible and helpful in understanding the social movements and concerns that so many cultures are confronted with in the midst of globalization.

John Alan Cohan Western State Law School USA

PART I: PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES AND CULTURAL FRAMEWORKS

The Primitive Mind and Modern Man, 2010, 01-21

1

CHAPTER 1 Why Study Primitive Cultures? Abstract. In this chapter we discuss a number of interlinked topics about what we can gain from a study of primitive cultures. What are their patterns of behavior or ways of thinking about life? A principle theme is that the modern mind is fundamentally primitive. We will compare the “primitive” world view with our “modern” counterpart, and come to understand the fundamental richness of primitive cultures. Explanation of the term “primitive.” Primitive mentality sheds light on how our minds work. Many of the practices are still current and can help us understand our own, parallel patterns of living. Discussion of what is meant by “culture,” and “human nature.” Discussion of prevalence of communal lifestyle and social cooperation, conformity to norms, non-market economies, food-sharing, ancestral worship, social atomism of some primitive cultures (i.e., lack of central leadership), prevalence of custom over law, reliance on myths and magical thinking, animistic connection to the environment. We will discuss the trend toward acculturation, the tendency of some indigenous populations to exist side-by-side with the dominant culture, the tension between the pressure to adopt new customs and the pull to retain the old. The desire to resist assimilation into the dominant group, and the inevitability of cultures changing within themselves. We will discuss the downside of acculturation: colonial imperialism, imposition of paternalistic laws outlawing traditional practices, dispossession of lands, deprivation of political power, resettlement, resulting in a demoralized population, trend of making amends for mistreatment of indigenous people in the past. We will discuss the prevalence of nativistic movements to revive and preserve traditional cultural practices.

WHAT WE CAN GAIN FROM A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CULTURES One of the best ways to understand ourselves is to understand other people. What are the customs and traditions that others hold dear to their hearts? What are their patterns of behavior or ways of thinking about life? What sort of meaning, wisdom, power and other gifts do people preserve in their culture? We can better understand ourselves by a “detour” to other cultures, even if we don’t care to adopt strange patterns of behavior or ways of thinking. At first blush, the way people of other cultures carry on their lives may stand in stark contrast to our “modern” ways. One of the main aims of anthropologists is to discover parallels between primitive lifestyles and our own “modern” way of life. Anthropologists are attracted to this discipline in part because “The opportunity to document, study, and gain insight first hand, from living tradition, is momentous” (Howard, 2002, p. 62). In this book I will compare the “primitive” world view with our “modern” counterpart, and show how we can gain a deeper perspective of our own processes by studying people with different world views than our own. As we will see, despite the apparent contrasts, in many respects there is not really a very wide gulf between primitive and modern ways of thinking. Often enough, we in modern cultures feel a peculiar nostalgia for the richness of simpler, primitive lifestyles. We frequently hear of people who want to replace their lifestyle with something basic and more authentically human. To “downsize” or “return to the sources” seem to be popular new maxims. From the experiences of primitive cultures we can rediscover an inner reality that resonates with new patterns in the industrial world. For instance, many indigenous people have a harmonious, reverential relationship with the natural world around them, and this is something that modern environmentalists find to be a comforting ideal. They tend to see unity in the world of nature, and are quick to discern traces of the sacred everywhere about them. Their cosmology embraces a connection to spirits of the land and ancestors. Perhaps somewhat romanticized, but with some measure of truth, primitive people tend to be happy and for the most part live idyllic lives. Their lives are often (but not always) free of stress or worry, despite a paucity of creature comforts. This was observed particularly in the South Pacific by early explorers reporting of the “natural happiness John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

2 The Primitive Mind and Modern Man

John Alan Cohan

and utmost sexual freedom” (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 183) of the natives of Tahiti. To some degree, as we will see, acculturation has pulled the rug from underneath otherwise carefree lifestyles. For instance, in many cases the younger generation has found satisfaction in seeking higher education and working in urban centers in a variety of jobs ranging from day laborers to government bureaucrats. When returning to their ancestral villages there can be a palpable tension with the older generation regarding native customs and the authority of elders. As we come to understand the fundamental richness of primitive cultures, as we take in the complexities of human behavior and allow for diverse perceptions, we can better understand our own inner processes. We can also learn and appreciate that the Western mind are not the only valid approach to experiencing the world. THE MODERN MIND IS FUNDAMENTALLY PRIMITIVE Are you sometimes surprised to find a “savage” nature within yourself? Do you point the finger in dismay at “brutes” in society who commit unspeakably vile acts? The fact is, the “savage” nature sometimes associated with primitives is inside each of us. According to Lucas and Barrett (1995), the primitive mind is a primal force within ourselves. As a presence within the Western self, the primitive may be either an instinctual disordering force which erupts as violence or madness, or alternatively, a wellspring of order which places us in harmonious and healthy touch with nature and our “true selves.” (p. 290) Primitive mentality sheds light on how our minds work. Do all minds function in the same manner, or do primitives have “different” mental processes? At first, it appears that the difference between the primitive, prelogical mind, and the modern mind is great and far-reaching. But as we will see, within this world of difference there is a natural similarity, perhaps most notably in such areas as collective emotion. As stated by Swift (1926): Primitive mentality was probably not essentially different, however, from modern mentality. It was dominated by collective emotion. It is largely so today. Primitive consciousness was group consciousness. It remains very largely so today. The conditions of primitive living required unity of feeling and action in the group as the common method. We, also, speak much of the values of cooperation. And we show by our persistent lapses into primitive emotionalism how near modern life is to the primitive. (p. 539) Indeed, much of modern mentality is dominated by “persistent lapses into primitive emotionalism.” Collective emotions, particularly in times of great stress, show that we have a strong “group consciousness,” as do the primitives. Often the greatest moments in an individual’s life are those that come with common experiences and unity of feeling in groups. According to Jung (1933), civilized human beings display a range of “archaic processes,” and not merely in the form of sporadic “throw-backs” from the level of modern social life. On the contrary, every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. Just as the human body connects us with the mammals and displays numerous relics of earlier evolutionary stages going back even to the reptilian age, so the human psyche is likewise a product of evolution which, when followed up to its origins, shows countless archaic traits. (p. 144) Jung claims that all people share basically the same human world view comprised of the archetypes and the collective unconscious, and this is evidenced by the universal belief in spirits. The belief in spirits-disembodied intelligences that interact with humans-is not only a hallmark of primitive cultures, but is common in highly civilized cultures. Spirits are good or bad, some spirits heal, others do harm, some are wise, others are fools. Spirits are thought to be a force field, concentrated vibrations that exist in a nonphysical domain. They might be equivalent to the soul of people who have died, and retain the personality, knowledge, and motivations of the person who has died. In Christian thought, these souls occupy a spiritual place known as limbo (or purgatory), heaven or hell. These spirits may want to communicate with us on the material plane. Some have tasks that they may wish to complete; some may wish to do harm; others may wish to communicate messages to loved ones.

Introduction

The Primitive Mind and Modern Man 3

We all know that as children we talked with spirits or entities that our parents couldn’t see or hear, that we had meaningful interactions with imaginary playmates that were real in our minds, and so on. And for the most part people in modern cultures believe in God, and that entails belief in the spirit realm. The belief in spirits is a recurring theme not only in primitive cultures but is pervasive across cultures from biblical times to the present. It seems to be something hard-wired in human beings. WHY THE TERM, “PRIMITIVE”? There are still nooks and crannies of the world in which people live just as primitively as they did thousands of years ago. We might refer to them as aboriginals, indigenous people, or natives, whether they occupy the hinterlands of Papua New Guinea, rugged regions of Australia, remote islands of the Pacific, Arctic regions, the tundra of North America, the equatorial villages of Africa, or the forests of South America. Some people are nomadic-their lives consist of wandering through a desert or a forest, foraging for wild vegetables and fruits, and hunting for food, perhaps raising livestock. Yes, we all inhabit the Earth, but there are vastly different sorts of environments that people live in. Some groups find themselves in an environment where survival is relatively easy, as in the islands of the Pacific with abundant fruit trees and easy fishing, while for those who live in the Arctic Circle, survival is a constant challenge, and death by starvation not uncommon. When you think of “primitive,” what comes to mind? Anthropologists who studied diverse cultures early in the 20th century started using the term “primitive” in a derogatory sense, implying an inferior, uncivilized, wild people living in isolated pockets of populations. In my usage, the term “primitive” does not mean “inferior,” and is hardly intended in a derogatory sense. The Oxford English Dictionary (Murray, Bradley, Craigie, & Onions, 1989), defines the word as follows: “first or earliest of its kind”; “of or belonging to the first age, period, or stage; “pertaining to early times”; “applied to behaviour or mental processes that apparently originate in unconscious needs or desires and have not been affected by objective logical reasoning”; and as applied in anthropology, a trait that pertains “to a group, or to persons comprising such groups, whose culture, through isolation, has remained at a simple level of social and economic organization.” (vol. XII, pp. 483-484) In addition, “primitive” is a term used to describe modern art of a certain genre; and “primitive” is used to describe certain elegant mathematical formulas. The term “primitive” seems appropriate because many of the traits we will discuss are simple, fundamental, and of ancient origins, unadulterated by exposure to trends of the industrialized world. I use this term because it seems to best contrast with the term “modern,” which often is associated with industrialized cultures and to many conjures up a materialistic, mechanistic, unnatural, highly commercialized and dehumanized patterns of living. Often enough, primitive people are indigenous or original people in a particular area. Many of these cultures predate Christianity, and some were well underway before Egyptian dynastic times. It is estimated that there are at least 300 million indigenous people living in about 75 countries of the world, “from the Maori of New Zealand to the U’wa of Columbia to pastoral nomads in the mountains of Afghanistan” (Cohan, 2001/2002, p. 136). However, not all indigenous people are “primitive,” and in fact many, such as Native Americans and Australian aboriginals, have become almost entirely acculturated to “modern” lifestyles, with the inevitable erosion of cultural traditions. True primitive people tend to be socially isolated from the dominant culture, and usually preserve their traditional way of life, despite pressures by the dominant culture. Primitives, as indigenous people, are those people and groups descended from original populations of a given country. Most definitions agree that indigenous peoples descend from pre-colonial inhabitants, that they have a close connection to traditional lands and other natural resources, and that they maintain a strong sense of cultural, social, economic and linguistic identity. Indigenous peoples include native peoples, tribal peoples, aboriginals, and “first nations” (Cohan, 2001/2002, p. 136).


John Alan Cohan

And, as indigenous people, primitives share the following traits: (1) close attachment to ancestral territories and natural resources; (2) self-identification and identification by others as members of a distinct cultural group; (3) possession of an indigenous language, which is often distinct from a national language; (4) presence of customary social or political institutions; and (5) subsistence-oriented production systems (Cohan, 2001/2002, p. 136). Some of the practices discussed in this book ended decades ago (e.g., cannibalism); others more recently, but many of the practices are still current and, as we will see, can help us understand our own, parallel patterns of living. We will examine how people interact with others, trade, deal with conflicts, organize ceremonies, use rituals and symbols, adapt their myths to suit current trends, and explore their practices concerning healing, witchcraft, hunting and gathering, and how they cope with death. THE MEANING OF “CULTURE” In this book we will be examining primitive cultures of the world in a quest for understanding some of our own inner processes. But just what is meant by the word “culture”? “Culture” comes from the root that has to do with cultivating a plant or crop. Fundamentally, a culture consists of a society of people who cultivate various skills such that they can harness nature to produce plants or crops. While defined in different ways, sometimes ambiguously, I find the following passage of Seagall (1990) to be helpful. [Culture] includes the products of the behavior of others, especially others who preceded us. It connotes a set of social stimuli that to a very great extent have existence prior to us. Put very simply, culture is already there for all of us as we begin life. It contains values that will be expressed and a language in which to express them.... Culture also includes language, music, and art forms. It includes preferences, appetites, and aversions. It includes rules, norms, and standards. It includes hopes and fears, beliefs and attitudes, convictions and doubts, at least to the extent that such are shared, inculcated, and transmitted from people to people. To be considered part of culture, anything, material or symbolic, need only be of human origin (pp. 26-27). A culture consists of a uniform system of beliefs, values and behavior patterns common among a people. According to Piggott (1954), culture defines “the collective and tangible outcome (pot-making, house-planning, tomb-building) of the material and spiritual traditions of a group of people” (p. 123). Culture implies a state in which there is the training, development and refinement of mind, tastes and manners, and thus culture applies to societies that have advanced beyond a state of nature (see discussion below). All cultures have some system of morals, religion, marriage, and government. Culture does not have to be “high” culture. Humans such as those who lived in the Paleolithic era of France as early as 500,000 B.C., and which left evidence of tools, hunting implements, and pottery, had a “culture.” Culture can apply to all manner of civilization, from the notorious cannibalistic Salomon Islanders, to the ancient Greeks or Egyptians at their height. HUMAN NATURE Insights from primitive cultures helps shed light on human nature writ large. An inquiry into human nature involves such questions as: What are we like as human beings? What actions are we capable of? What motivates us? How do we deal with life issues such as gathering food, raising children, trading or bartering, betrothal, marriage, death, curing of illness, worshiping of gods? How do we deal with emotions, aggression, and with conflicts? In our quest to learn about primitive cultures we will see patterns that are also evident in modern cultures, albeit in different ways. We might say there are core principles, some inherent propensities that make up human nature, that pertain to all of us. While there are many common features of human nature, the expression of these elements may vary from culture to culture. For instance, the belief in supernatural spirits is universal among cultures-though the

Introduction


type of spiritual entity varies among cultures-from the belief in angels and demons, to communion with the dead, spirits of the forest, of the river, and other beliefs we will explore. The environment in which we each develop has a unique differential. Human nature is not something that can be considered in a vacuum. Certain innate dispositions may be actualized, triggered or suppressed, depending on environmental factors and social contexts. No one growing up in the world is totally shaped by one’s genes. The circumstances in which we are born, the norms that are inculcated from infancy onwards, the need to belong, to be accepted by others, and other factors all play their part in how human nature expresses itself. One of the main themes of this book is that human nature is fundamentally the same for all of us, so that differences among social norms, rules customs and beliefs are more apparent than real. FROM STATE OF NATURE TO SOCIAL COOPERATION A great many people today and in the recent past, live for the most part in a state of nature, as defined below. Many of these people revere the fact that they live in a state of nature. Others have moved out of a state of nature and settled in villages that straddle both worlds, adopting some modern conveniences, while preserving simple and natural conditions in their daily lives. And of course, in modern cultures many of us long to return to a state of nature-hence the popularity of summer camping trips in the forest, of visits to state parks, and the fascination people have with nature documentaries. By “state of nature” I mean circumstances of living in the wilderness, in relatively pristine, insulated conditions, with little or no contact with “civilization.” Sometimes it is the case, particularly with nomads and indigenous people who have for centuries occupied wilderness areas, that the people live much the same way as people did in prehistoric times. In prehistoric times, according to Hobbes (1651/1946) and other theorists, primitive human beings were simply biological machines moved by appetites and aversions, ruled by various passions and impulses, somewhat animalike. In a state of nature, the situation was kill or be killed. Others cannot be trusted, and one should look superior or else one will be perceived as weak. If a conflict occurred in a state of nature, it was resolved by recourse to violence: And therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies; and in the way to their end... endeavour to destroy one another. (ch. 13, para. 13.3) Hobbes coined the term homo homini lupus: man is a wolf to his fellow man-suggesting that human beings are vicious and destructive by nature. In the Hobbesian state of nature, there were no values, norms or laws, no contracts or agreements, and no duties. People just did whatever they wanted. People struggled with one another for control over goods needed for survival. There was no such thing as “justice.” Hobbes says that this state was solitary, brutish, nasty and short. In a state of nature reason may have served only a calculating function, to judge and to foresee various available courses of action and their consequences, but did not provide us with a separate motive to act. At a certain point in our development it must have become obvious that it would be collectively self-defeating for people to continue functioning purely from a dog-eat-dog mentality. In the wilderness people started living in groups, and some sort of cooperation was needed to facilitate joint action for the survival of the whole group. Instead of a dog-eat-dog mentality, when we step into social structures we are better off if we control our passions, promote cooperation, tolerate others, and respond to and respect each other’s desires. The idea of social cooperation is often part of what the dominant culture tries to convey when it seeks to acculturate primitive populations. Well-intended government programs seek to “help” the natives come into the “modern age”


John Alan Cohan

for their own good-so as to enjoy modern health care, formal education for their children, sustainable crop production, and so forth. But as we will see, often enough indigenous people are perfectly happy with their traditional way of life and do not want to have the rug pulled from under them. Today, primitive populations that have little or no contact with “civilization,” nonetheless have rules of social cooperation that contribute to the survival of its members. Even “the simplest hunters already possess a full-fledged moral system, which in specific respects comes closer to our own than that of intermediate peoples” (Lowie, 1941, p. 244). Every primitive culture has its own range of acceptable and unacceptable ways of doing things. Children have to be produced, fed, sheltered and trained. There has to be a system of exchange for goods and services. People operate within a set of laws, norms, duties and customs, and have some method of meting out justice for deviation from those norms. There has to be some mechanism for the settlement of disputes. And so on. These objectives are handled in different ways, as we will see throughout this book. The values people share and the rules they live by may be completely different from what we in modern cultures deem normative. Often there will be self-help approaches to mete out justice for the violation of laws, customs and morals-approaches such as witchcraft, sorcery, or revenge killing, for instance. Until recently many primitive cultures engaged in practices that we would regard as somewhat barbaric-such as head-hunting, cannibalism, and suttee (the sacrifice of widows). COMMUNAL LIFESTYLE, COLLECTIVE INTERDEPENDENCE Rousseau spoke of the “noble savage” that lived in ancient times, when life was dominated by collective emotion and group activity, excluding all individuality. “The significant experiences of primitive man were common experiences. Living, though it be largely mere existence, might be good because it was a shared living, a common life” (Swift, 1926, p. 539). Further, in primitive cultures, The bond of unity was produced through ritual and ceremony. It was a common life, in which all shared and shared for the most part alike. It was the earliest and perhaps the most sincere social democracy. Individuals were “members one of another.” It was this by necessity, for only thus could they live at all. To deny that “I am my brother’s keeper,” easy and common enough nowadays, was the greatest of heresies as well as the most inhuman of sentiments (Swift, 1926, p. 540). One of the most enduring traits of primitive cultures is the tendency to a communal lifestyle in which group support and interdependence are key. These elements are deemed necessary for survival. For primitives a key theme of living is “I am my brother’s keeper.” There is a “we-ness” in these cultures. The collective takes precedence over the individual, that is, the people tend to have “lowered ego boundaries” (Kiev, 1972, p. 50). There is an emphasis on groupthink, on conformity, on cooperation, as opposed to individuality. In Western cultures, in contrast, the underlying ground of being, as portrayed on TV talk shows and sitcoms, is one of expressive individualism. We shun dependency, and the ideal goal of mature adults is to be an autonomously functioning individual. “We measure our individual worth in terms of competitive achievements, material wealth, power, and control”(Kirmayer, 2007, p. 250). Of course, many of us, particularly in work settings, at least unconsciously subscribe to groupthink mentality. And as is well known, teenagers are especially vulnerable to peer pressure to conform to the means and ways of the “in” group, or else suffer as a social outcast. In primitive cultures, people’s lives are structured from early childhood around collective solidarity. There is an emphasis on fellowship, on shared activities. Ceremonial gatherings are part and parcel of social life. People have no individuality as such, but are members of their family, clan and tribe. People in primitive cultures tend to have much stronger and extended kinship ties than people in modern cultures, a matter that we will see in different contexts throughout this book. All the members of a family, for instance, are

Introduction


responsible for the debt of one of them. Revenge for murder may be exacted against any member of the murderer’s family or clan. In Papua New Guinea, upon harvesting taro from one’s garden, the produce will be given to every person in the clan. This is not for the purpose of “bragging” for being a successful gardener and a good provider to one’s family, but is a way of life expected of every fully participating adult male. Sharing of one’s bounty is a means of avoiding envy, ill will, and the evil eye-revenge in the form of sorcery (see chapter 9, “Envy and the Evil Eye”). People are vigilant to avoid the impression that they are “better off” than others, or that they have accumulated more wealth than others. There is never any boasting. According to Parker (1962), the strong communal nature of the Eskimo is “imposed on them by their physical environment and concomitant food-gathering techniques, such as cooperative hunting from kayaks or the organized caribou drive and hunting for whales” (p. 84). By the way, the word “Eskimo” means “eaters of raw meat,” and was concocted by the Algonquin Indians of eastern Canada, who were neighbors. Today the Eskimos usually prefer to be referred by their own term, “Inuit,” which means “real people.” It is customary for food to be shared, especially if resources are scarce. As long as some members of the community have little to eat, the others are obliged to share their resources. Elaborate rules exist for dividing up the product of a hunt among the individuals who participate in the catch. Although the winter supplies of the Caribou Eskimos ordinarily belong to the families that store them, in time of scarcity anyone who is hungry may simply take from the others’ meat cache without being considered a thief. (Parker, 1962, p. 84) Food-sharing is common in many other cultures. According to French (2002), the Melanesians “in general put a great deal of themselves into producing food and may even feel that the spirits of their ancestors permeate the food that is produced on ancestral land or with the ancestors’ magical assistance,” so, “people may regard sharing food as creating a bond of bodily and spiritual substance. The obligation to share is part of kinship in Melanesia, but-in a way-sharing food also makes people kin” (p. 40). The communal lifestyle also finds its expression in hunting rituals: “The lone Eskimo hunter of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay is sometimes not permitted to eat his catch until he finds company. Among the Unalit of Alaska, the first large game killed by a young hunter is divided and consumed by the villagers ‘without leaving a particle for the young hunter’” (Parker, 1962, p. 84, quoting Nelson). There is a peculiar idea in parts of the world that to catch sight of something confers a sort of right to it. Among the Wodani of Irian Jaya, for instance, a man who sees another man eating a sweet potato can grab it from his hands without explanation. To see a piece of fruit in another’s garden entitles one to take it. In their language the verb “to see” means “to find again,” and expresses the idea of placing something under one’s control (Breton, 2000, p. 569). A kind of food sharing exists in Mexican villages. When someone drops by it is imperative to offer the guest something to eat, and it is equally imperative to accept the invitation. This food and drink exchange is especially important between friends and neighbors. Also in Mexican villages we see a kind of dyadic contractual relationship between people. This custom involves people extending courtesies to each other in a more or less balanced reciprocity, whether providing money, food, accompanying others on errands, or other exchanges that are accepted without question by all villagers (Foster, 1961). The exchange is different from “gifts.” Rather, it is a quid pro quo that simultaneously repays a past debt and incurs a future obligation, and reaffirms the contractual “relationship” between the parties. This dyadic system is different from the “personalismo” or “personalism” relationship in Latin America in which the parties distrust the system and rely on personal ties. And it is different qualitatively from friendships in that there is an ongoing exchange of goods and services, while friends do not ordinarily form this kind of obligation.


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As long as a person continues to give and to receive from a partner, he is assured that the particular relationship is in good order. In modern society, while we often feel proud that we are “free from” traditional and group constraints, we also tend to be estranged from one another. Living becomes an individual problem, perhaps shared with one’s immediate family and friends. “[T]he emphasis is placed on individual initiative, individual responsibility, and technology replaces ritualism” (Swift, 1926, p. 539). Still, despite the vogue for independent lifestyles, the value of cooperation, of a common method of going at things, cannot be denied. In global politics the idea of consensus is the hallmark of such organizations as the United Nations, and in national politics people of all stripes extoll the virtues of seeking “bipartisan” cooperation. And often, in the midst of crisis or calamity, with globalization and instant communication, we see a primitive-like wave of collective emotion permeating the planet. The 9/11 terrorist attacks is an example of how modern cultures can express a kind of group consciousness. In many other situations people in urban centers will erupt with collective outbursts in response to highly charged situations, even rioting-e.g., as masses of people did in Pakistan on the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December, 2007. And in urban centers throughout the world, we often yearn for a connectedness to a greater whole, as seen in peaceful protests, political rallies, in sports and concert audiences, and in other collective group experiences. We lose a sense of individuality, or separation, or alienation, and our personal identity merges with the group identity. But unlike primitives, when we return to our cars and drive home we lose a sense of being part of the collective and return to our individual world. These occasions show that collective consciousness is a human phenomenon that intersects across cultures. NON-MARKET ECONOMIES Many people live in what is known as a non-market economy. That is, people do not buy or sell goods, services or land. Rather, most things of value are produced and distributed according to certain customs, often to do with communal sharing. Instead of the standard market principles in which things are bought or sold, things are distributed and reciprocated as expressions of kinship right or tribal affiliation. This usually goes hand-in-hand with subsistence economies whereby people are able to sustain themselves on their own agricultural endeavors as well as hunting and gathering. In these economies there is a “we” consciousness, a communal-type sharing of the bounty of the Earth, as we noted above, where no one’s livelihood depends on producing things for sale. And in subsistence cultures, while some people might occasionally sell their produce in the marketplace, one’s “success” in the marketplace does not “trickle” down, and market profits don’t help or hinder one’s wellbeing. Indeed, commercial success will usually be frowned upon, viewed with suspicion, and will subject the individual to all sorts of gossip, not to mention the evil eye. What a contrast to life in the big city! Imagine telling someone in a job interview that you frown upon commercial success! But the truth is that even our modern economy has its roots in the barter system. Before the time that the governments started to coin money, the economic survival of people depended precisely on the same type of sharing and exchange as we still see operative in many primitive cultures. In many cultures certain things can be traded only for certain other things: e.g., fish traded for vegetables, certain types of shelled necklaces for certain types of shells or bracelets. People in some cultures, such as in the highlands of Borneo, have a mixed economy. They will utilize currency and are paid in currency if they work, say, at a resort or as a laborer-but for many things they still rely on traditional exchange methods as well. SOCIAL ATOMISM OF SOME PRIMITIVE CULTURES Few people live in groups that are entirely self-sufficient. For most, it is important to have interaction with other social groups, to trade with them, to exchange wives with them, to establish alliances for mutual defense against

Introduction


enemies. While most primitive cultures tend to be interdependent in lifestyle, there is an opposite tendency that sometimes comes into play. Anthropologists use the term “atomistic” to refer to groups that have little or no social integration or centralization. While these groups retain certain elements of collective living-most notably the sharing of food-we see, particularly in nomadic groups, a kind of leaderlessness and lack of central authority characteristic of atomism. In atomistic cultures there is no formal tribal organization, no institutionalized penal sanctions, no juridical procedures-and no official or central authority to punish crime or settle disputes. Political authority of the chief or elders is weak. There are few mechanisms for reinforcing group social solidarity beyond the individual family unit. In these groups it is not uncommon for family units to break away and live apart from the larger community of which they are a part. In contrast to communal groups, there is little or no economic cooperation outside the family unit: no communal hunting, no sharing of food, and the motto seems more like what Hobbes described for the prehistoric state of nature: Every man is for himself and his own family. The rougher the state of nature that people find themselves in, the more likely the culture will be atomistic. But atomism is also found in some agricultural cultures. Atomistic cultures tend to be those that live in groups that are somewhat isolated from one another, so that it is impossible to know what is going on with the other groups. This is particularly the case with nomadic tribes, such as the Bedouin in the Middle East. Their continuous mobility makes it the case that they do not identify with any particular place, and it is difficult for them to develop a community with political leadership. (See chapter 25, “Nomadic Peoples: A Case Study of the Batek People of Malaysia.”) There is no paramount chief or territorial “center” at which leaders of smaller groups, if there are any, might call the people to assemble for meetings. At the same time the people have a strong sense of unity within because all the people are named after their foundational ancestor, and thus they have kindred feeling towards one another. Actually, we might say that the Bedouins are semi-atomistic, since the people within each tribe and among other tribes are mutually dependent for their survival. Their livelihood depends on free access to pastures, and networks of personal relationships help to coordinate moves based on pasture and water sources. Despite the lack of leadership, there is a kind of loose tribal confederation. Sometimes a pasture will be shared by several tribes, each regarding it as its own territory, based on a kind of priority right. At times the Bedouin, under pressures of hostile neighbors, are compelled to organize leadership, and political association with other tribes, to negotiate with and defend against their enemies (Marx, 1977). According to Turnbill (1961), for the Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri forest in Zaire, the forest serves as a kind of moral leader: If you ask a Pygmy why his people have no chiefs, no lawgivers, no councils, or no leaders, he will answer with misleading simplicity, “Because we are the people of the of forest.” The forest, the great provider, is the one standard by which all deeds and thoughts are judged; it is the chief, the lawgiver, the leader, and the final arbitrator (p. 125). If the forest were displeased with the people, “it might punish them by causing storms, trees to fall, ill health, and poor hunting” (Edgerton, 1985, p. 133). The forest would be displeased if the people got into disputes or exhibited, laziness, aggressiveness, or disputatiousness, but any conflict that threatened harmony and, therefore, economic cooperation was dangerous. If the forest was to remain beneficent, the Mbuti believed, they had to avoid conflict... and restore peace and harmony as rapidly as possible. (Edgerton, 1985, pp. 133-134) The harsh climate of the Arctic tends to lend itself towards atomism in numerous hunting-gathering groups: In the physical world of the Arctic, hazards include treacherous weather and deceptive landscapes. Wind and temperature continually alter travel conditions; ice can break up under one’s feet and the ground


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disappear altogether in a “whiteout” caused by blowing snow. The markers one needs to find one’s way are subtle and complex, and the appearance of the land changes radically from season to season, by day and by night, when the moon is present and when it is not.... [Even today in emergency situations] one must figure out how to melt water when there is neither fire nor fuel, how to dry caribou hides when there is neither sun nor warmth, and how to open a 45-gallon oil drum without tools. (Briggs, 1991, p. 260) Ecological conditions of the Arctic favor, if not require, dispersal into small settlements. These smaller groups tend to be atomistic in that they do not usually have a “leader.” Today, many Inuits of the Arctic region live in modern camps, so that the perils of harsh winters, food shortages and death by starvation are not what they were in the past (Briggs, 1991). The people are still known for their love of solitude and still are uncomfortable if they have to be in camp at the trading post crowds. Many very old people wish to and do live alone in the wilderness. In the past, because of the difficulty of life, when people got old and unable to take care of themselves, people would kill them, more or less by tacit agreement or custom. The son would kill his father by strangulation or some other quick means (Speck, 1933). Samoa is another culture in which atomism has prevailed. No centralized political authority was possible on the local or the supra-local level because of the nature of their kinship structure. In Samoa most people are members of several descent groups known as septs, and people can freely transfer residence from one of these to another, as long as one provides labor and observes local customs. Only members of the particular sept can live at a given location. Each sept has a particular area of land, and a local chief. Groups of septs live together in villages. Until recent decades social atomism among these people was evident when villages banded together for temporary purposes such as war: no one was accorded anything like “general” command authority. Moreover, local chiefs had little authority because decisions tended to be made by village councils and had to be unanimous in order to elicit concerted action by the village as a whole. And whenever a council of chiefs from several villages was convened, decisions had to be unanimous or else in order to have binding effect. As mentioned, atomism is more the exception than the rule in primitive cultures. In contrast to communal structures, the people tend to have multiple and autonomous divisions, each more or less self-contained, and to the extent there are chiefs, their authority is limited by the requirement of unanimous consent among the people. We will see more of this in our discussion of the Batek people of Malaysia in chapter 25, where decisionmakingsuch as when to pick up camp and move elsewhere-is spontaneous and unanimous. At the same time, none of these groups can entirely escape from communal traits such as food-sharing, particularly in time of need. CUSTOMARY LAW OR PUBLIC OPINION LAW In primitive cultures there usually are no written laws or constitution. Rather, there are unwritten rules, customs and morals that delineate the rights and duties of everyone, and which are regarded as binding upon the people. These rules are what everyone agrees to be customary norms of carrying on, and the basis for these rules is, if nothing else, public opinion, which in effect carries the weight of law. These norms are referred to as customary law, or “public opinion law” (Lips, 1937). One cannot underestimate the importance of public opinion-of the collective will of the community-in these cultures. What other people say about you has great importance. How one appears in the eyes of one’s peers is of supreme importance. Public shame is a powerful social control. Lowie (1947) found the following: Among the Crow personal brawls are looked upon with contempt, and a man will not readily imperil his social position and invite the public derision of his joking-relatives by engaging in fisticuffs with a fellow-tribesman. To become the laughing-stock of his daily associates for minor misdemeanors and to be completely ostracized for graver offenses are terrific punishments for the native and they have a deterrent force of which the infliction of penalties in our sense is often quite devoid (p. 398).

Introduction


To suffer disapproval or shame is the gravest indignity in these cultures, and nothing is more powerful a motivator to conform to norms than public opinion. (For a discussion on “saving face” and the importance of public opinion in these cultures, see chapter 18, “Status, Prestige, Recognition-the Need for Social Approval.”) For the Montagnais-Naskapi Indians of Labrador, the main “legal” principal has been that of mutual assistance. Bad luck in hunting, sickness, or unfavorable weather meant possible starvation-unless one is in good standing with one’s neighbors. The attitude of the community towards you is important because in time of need you must turn to neighbors or else starve. Habitual troublemakers are ostracized, and this can literally lead to death by starvation in this extremely harsh environment. Their system of public opinion law is preventive rather than punitive for the most part. In the vast woods of Labrador people would put up a “signal post” indicating illness, accident or hunger-set in the snow at the edge of a hunting ground or on a path-pointing to the direction of the tent of the man seeking help, and indicating the distance. One who passes by the signal post will rush to provide aid as soon as possible. The custom of mutual assistance was so strong that even the most hated neighbor or the most bitter enemy would come to to assist upon seeing a signal post. If it became known that anyone maliciously disregarded a signal erected in extreme need, the result would be that he would likewise be disregarded in case of his own need. Another aspect of mutual aid in this culture was that hunting rights could be violated due to necessity. Even beaver rights, which were especially treasured, could be violated if one were really in need. Necessity also permitted one to take food from a food depot of another Indian without asking permission and without paying, although return of what was taken was customary. Customary law among primitive cultures also pertains to offenses that are regarded as sins against supernatural spirits, taboo violations, and behavior that dead ancestors would find offensive. As we will see in chapter 6, “Totemism,” the belief that unseen powers will avenge certain wrongs is a strong motivator to behave properly in many cultures. Throughout this book we will see a variety of ways in which public opinion law, or customary law, manifests. In our modern lives, we can relate to the idea of “customary law” in that a great deal of our behavior is governed by unwritten rules, such as how to treat others with respect, what it means to be kind or polite, how not to step on other peoples’ toes, and things of that sort. If we violate the unwritten rules of society we might not anticipate being punished by the spirits of dead ancestors, but we can expect to suffer social ostracism, gossip, humiliation, loss of reputation and other undesirable consequences. PROXEMICS Proxemics has to do with how we structure space-how close we stand next to others in conversation or in other daily situations such as waiting for our turn at an ATM machine, the extent of eye contact, the loudness of voices, the extent of body contact such as touching, sleeping arrangements in families, and so forth (Hall, 1968). Proxemics also deals with the organization of space in interiors and the layout of towns. The Asian practice of Feng Shui is a wellestablished art of proxemics, involving organizing furniture in one’s home, finding a burial site and agricultural planning-for optimum good luck and blessings from the gods. Different cultures have different customs to do with proxemics. Different proxemics patterns are most noticeable in the spatial distances of social interaction. Americans usually have a lot of space between them while conversing: it is annoying if someone encroaches within that zone. In contrast, in Middle Eastern cultures, in India, and in many other parts of the world people are accustomed to speaking practically “in-your-face.” In all cultures there is a sense of entitlement for the one who first comes into territorial possession of a space. According to Stevens (2003): As with most territorial species, the ‘first come, first served’ principle operates. A man seated in a train compartment has the right to stare at a newcomer without being thought impolite. The interloper recognizes the occupant’s


John Alan Cohan

territorial rights by asking ‘Is this seat taken?’ or even formally requesting permission to enter and sit. Similar behaviour is to be observed in crowded restaurants. Apparently the territorial ‘rules’ decree that he who occupies a territory first possesses certain inalienable rights which must be uncritically accorded to him: this made possible the building of empires (‘planting the flag’) and the staking out of claims to land in the Far West. (p. 268) People of different cultures have drastically different customs pertaining to touching. In France it is customary for a man to kiss a woman on both cheeks or at least to kiss her hand, when being introduced, while in Arab countries it is against the law for a man and a woman to be caught committing khalwat, or being in close proximity, in public, unless they are married or otherwise related. In some cultures the language has certain limitations in words describing feelings, so that the face may assume a curious expression, and these facial expressions are formalized as part of the language. The same is true of intonation and gesture. For example, among the Kaingang Indians of Brazil feelings and ideas that are expressed easily in other languages are expressed in this culture by means of intonation, changes in pitch, gesture and facial expression (Henry, 1936). As we will see, for the most part in primitive cultures there is very little privacy, people live in closely grouped clusters, and often it is acceptable to trespass on other peoples’ gardens, or visit unannounced. MYSTICAL, MAGICAL MINDS Just what constitutes reality is, of course, a fundamental philosophical question. Both modern science and primitive cultures seek order, regularity and simplicity in the apparent disorder and randomness of nature. Both seek to understand underlying causes so as to provide an explanation of the here and now. But people of primitive cultures tend to perceive the way the world works-the world of causality, space, time and matter-and the contents of their lives, in entirely different ways than we do. What we might judge to be an objective fact-such as an illness being caused by a bacterial infection-will likely be explained by primitives as sorcery, the evil eye, or some other supernatural cause. Primitive people generally have little conception of the future: they live solely in the present and the past, particularly the primeval past. Life in the present is possible only through continual contact with the primeval past. There is a tendency towards mystical perception-something that has been all but lost in modern civilization. By mystical perception I mean that people view things not just as the visual and aural images that come from ordinary sense perception. Rather, the phenomena of perception are viewed as having meaning above and beyond the ordinary. On this point, T. S. Eliot offered this: The mystic properties with which things and beings are imbued form an integral part of the idea to the primitive, who views it as a synthetic whole. It is at a later stage of social evolution that what we call a natural phenomenon tends to become the sole content of perception to the exclusion of the other elements, which then assume the aspect of beliefs, and finally appear superstitious. (as quoted in Harmon, 1976, p. 800) Primitive cultures tend to be extremely animistic, as we will see in some detail in chapter 5 (“Animism”). That is, they have a profound sense that they are mysteriously linked to everything in the environment, they are part of the universal whole, and that all life, and even inanimate features of nature, have a kind of consciousness. They have a profound sense of what lies beyond death and of what exists outside one’s body. To them, accidents, disease, drought and death are never “natural,” or “accidental” or a product of chance, but are caused by some mystical agency. Primitive people do not put much faith in what we would call “logical” or “intellectual” conclusions or “objective data,” “external facts,” “generally accepted ideas,” or “scientific truths.” The nature of rationality for them is different than for many of us in the modern world. Their inner logic is entirely different from our own-they do not see the causal relations that we think are valid, and instead place great credence on intuition. They do not have logically consistent ideas or motivations. To us, they may seem to rely on things that might seem irrelevant or bizarre. Malinowski (1925) argued that primitive man

Introduction


has no sober moods at all, that he is hopelessly and completely immersed in a mystical frame of mind. Incapable of dispassionate and consistent observation, devoid of the power of abstraction, hampered by “a decided aversion towards reasoning,” he is unable to draw any benefit from experience, to construct or comprehend even the most elementary laws of nature.... Nor can there exist for them any clear idea of substance and attribute, cause and effect, identity and contradiction. Their outlook is that of confused superstition, “pre-logical,” made of mystic “participations” and “exclusions.” (p. 28, quoting Lucien Levy-Bruhl) According to Jung (1933), this “illogical” outlook only strikes us in this way because we start from assumptions wholly different from those of primitive man. If we were as convinced as he is of the existence of sorcerers and of mysterious powers, instead of believing in so-called natural causes, his inferences would seem to us perfectly reasonable. As a matter of fact, primitive man is no more logical or illogical than we are. His presuppositions are not the same as ours, and that is what distinguishes him from us. His thinking and his conduct are based on assumptions other than our own. To all that is in any way out of the ordinary and that therefore disturbs, frightens or astonishes him, he ascribes what we should call a supernatural origin. For him, of course, these things are not supernatural; on the contrary, they belong to his world of experience. (p. 146) Also according to Jung (1940), primitives perceive phenomena as “psychic events”: The mind of the primitive is little concerned with an objective explanation of obvious things, but has an imperative need or, rather, its unconscious psyche has an irresistible urge to assimilate all experience through the outer senses into inner, psychic happening. The primitive is not content to see the sun rise and set; this external observation must at the same time be a psychic event-that is, the sun in its course must represent the fate of a god or hero who dwells, in the last analysis, nowhere else than in the psyche of man. (p. 54) Thus, concerns that we might have in life about the “causes” of phenomena-simply do not exist in their world view. Rather, invisible powers, inaccessible to the senses, are part of reality, and explain what occurs. These invisible influences are, to them, more real than data gleaned by the senses. Yet to a large degree, modern man also relies on irrational factors in decision-making. We can see every form of mental contagion, from the crudest sentimentalism to the most subtle, secret poisoning of reason, and this among the so-called normal people-the average individuals who largely make up a nation or a state. Their amazing defencelessness against suggestions, even against the wildest social and political ideas and ideals, is not exactly a proof of the strength of consciousness and reason. But since there must be strength somewhere, it is presumably in that which overcomes reason-in the irrational and emotional factors. (Jung, 1940, p. 10) Primitive cultures, for the most part, view the spirit world with fear and distrust. Regarding the spiritual or unknown world as evil and to be feared is in contrast to the Christian one of love and faith in the unknown. In primitive cultures one continually engages in a mythic battle of dualistic forces of good and evil. This is particularly evident in healing practices where people seek to restore a sense of order, either in their outer or internal lives. The shaman acts as a mediator of power, to counter-balance disorder, so as to restore harmony in the patient. (Of course, in modern society we also are concerned about the struggle between good and evil forces, but we approach the problem in a different way.) There are three main areas of “invisible forces” that preoccupy primitive peoples: (1) spirits of the dead; (2) spirits of nature, associated with animals, plants, sacred spaces, rocks, streams, artifacts and so forth; and (3) forces from witchcraft, curses, the evil eye, evil spirits, and forces generated by violating a taboo. The explanation for, say, too much or too little rain, or the death of a pig, or an earthquake, or a hunting accident, or the death of a child-will be that witchcraft was afoot or that an ancestor has been offended by something the people have done, and so on.


John Alan Cohan

Thus, as we will see in more detail in chapter 12 (“Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft”), primitive minds simply do not follow the sort of chain or reasoning we usually employ as to the causes of an accident, illness, or death: If someone’s baby gets sick, the mother or father will be accused of violating some taboo held to be sacrosanct by the people, so that a shaman or medicine-man will be engaged to perform a ritual to restore the status quo. If a group of women are washing clothes in the stream and one of them is taken by a crocodile and killed, the other two will be accused of witchcraft, as well as whoever lives nearby. If someone on a hunting excursion suffers an injury, the other men in the group will be accused of witchcraft. And if one man in a group of fisherman catches a really good amount of fish, while the others don’t, his ill-begotten gain will be attributed to sorcery and the man will be shunned. While it is perfectly understandable to us that people die of advanced age or as the result of diseases that are recognized to be fatal, this is not the case with primitive man. When old persons die, he does not believe it to be as a result of age. He argues that there are persons who have grown much older. Likewise, no one dies as the result of disease, for there have been other people who recovered from the same disease, or never contracted it. To him, the real explanation is always magic. Either a spirit has killed the man, or sorcery has done so. Many primitive tribes recognize death in battle as the only natural death. Still other tribes regard even death in battle as unnatural, holding that the adversary who brought it about must either have been a sorcerer or have used a charmed weapon. (Jung, 1933, p. 144) An illness might be caused by touching a certain tree, vine or other spirit-inhabited object that belongs to another tribe. If a pregnant woman does this her child might be born deaf or blind. Relief of illness in such cases is by revisiting the site, finding the offended tree or other plant, and making a gift of money and food (e.g., by hanging a string of shells on the branches, rubbing the trunk with pig fat). For illness caused by infringement of social rules (e.g., cutting down someone else’s tree), one must offer the owner compensation for the infringement; and the appeased owner then applies medicinal plants and barks on the victim’s skin or gives him a meal of pork. The magical thinking of primitive peoples, if viewed under the lens of Western psychiatry, might be classified as Schizotypal Personality Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or even schizophrenia (Lucas & Barrett, 1995, p. 296). Western psychiatry describes schizophrenia “as a weakening of the ego, a loss of self-possession, a vulnerability to external influence, or a merging of the self with others” (Lucas & Barrett, 1995, p. 296). And symptoms of Schizotypal Personality Disorder include the tendency to place “incorrect” or “unusual” interpretations on the cause of events, and the belief in the efficacy of magical rituals. (For further discussion, see “Psychopathic Tendencies of Shamans?” in chapter 8.) As we will emphasize in some detail later, as the Western world becomes more multicultural, we need to be better informed about the belief systems of a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, for this will contribute to our understanding of humanity as a whole. Just what constitutes a mental disorder and how that varies across cultures will be discussed in chapter 19 (“Culture-Bound Syndromes”). MYTHS Myths, form a rich fabric in the lives of indigenous peoples, whether they are Native Americans or some of the more primitive cultures. Throughout history, myths have been a potent factor shaping the world view of people in highly advanced as well as primitive civilizations. Through myths, people confirm their identities as members of a tribe or other social unit. No pre-scientific society could possibly distinguish between myth and non-myth since there was no scientific criteria available. According to (Niles, 2007), For those people who believe in them, myths are regarded as embodying a truth beyond truth, a sacred narrative so definitive and important that anyone who doubts its truth stands in danger of being regarded as a subversive or a heretic. At the same time, the events portrayed in a myth are often so outrageously fantastic, when measured against the ordinary events of nature, that one may well find that if taken literally, a myth is patently absurd. (p. 2)

Introduction


Myths are “value-charged.” Myths represent how the people see themselves. The people do not think of them as “myths” because they are thought to be true (Gotesky, 1952). The theme of many myths is that divine powers govern human fate. People will use myths to justify many of their cultural beliefs and practices. Myth and reality, history and legend are one and the same. If people believe something is real then actions taken in accordance with their belief are likewise real to them. Myths often are at odds with scientific information about how the world works, just as creationism-the idea that God created the world in seven days-is at odds with the theory of evolution. Some myths are not susceptible to scientific proof or falsification because they lie outside of experience and therefore cannot be “tested” at any time (e.g., the belief in the coming of the Messiah or the end of the world). When myths originate-and every society creates its own myths-people believe them to be true. It is at a later time where the story becomes a myth in the sense that it is no longer believed, for it is now known to be false, perhaps through science. Still, a myth can easily persist despite being proven false-so that there can be a (false) belief in spite of evidence disproving the myth. That is, people may recognize that a myth is not true, but they will believe in it anyway. As is well known in social studies, human beings are subject to the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance, so that even in the face of evidence that disproves a cherished belief, individuals will continue to believe what is false. Many people disagree as to whether certain biblical accounts are historical facts or myths-such as Adam and Eve, the parting of the Red Sea by Moses, the plagues of Egypt, and so on. Many religious wars have been fought over doctrinal differences-the Crusades being a notable example. Do you believe in certain modern day myths? Do you believe in the 9/11 conspiracy, for instance? In modern society some myths are known to be false by overwhelming counter-factual information, yet people persist in believing them because of their “value-charge” or “value-significance.” The persistence of a myth in the minds of people can help establish a strong bond among like-minded people who are dedicated to a “cause.” The belief in certain myths provides a sense of solidarity among “true believers” against the dominant culture, against defeat, frustration, and disappointment. And among people in more primitive cultures, myths help to preserve traditional customs, institutions and institutional process. Primitive superstitions, long outgrown by modern society and thrust into the background, continue to live in the souls of people. They are never completely rooted out. In times of crisis or chaos, when a higher faith goes to pieces and one knows not what to believe is true-older superstitions are apt to rise once more to the surface and gain credence. For example, even in modern society, if people are diagnosed with a serious illness, often their first thought is that God is punishing them for some sin-an idea on par with the primitive belief that illness is caused by spirits, or by the angry ancestors. PRIMITIVES ARE CONSERVATIVE, TRADITION BOUND, AND RESISTANT TO CHANGE Primitive cultures tend to be tradition bound. They tend to adhere vigilantly to the same customs, myths, traditions and modes of living that have prevailed for many generations. Indeed, for the most part their morals, mythology and sacred traditions are not only compulsory to all members of the tribe, but no difference of opinion is tolerated. Indigenous people often react with quizzical amusement when anthropologists ask about certain long-standing practices in their culture. They don’t spend time reflecting on what they do or how they do it, but simply take their traditions for granted. Quite often the explanation for certain customs practiced in primitive cultures is elusive. These customs are of ancient origin, which manifestly had a meaning back in time, and now are carried on based on tradition, without a clear idea of their meaning. Original motives often disappear from the consciousness of the group, and habit becomes the primary force for the ongoing pattern. If we could go back in time and interview the ancestors who started certain practices, we might not get satisfactory information as to their purpose, for strong impulses might be imbued with unconscious processes that defy logical explanation. According to Newell (1906), ...[A]s we recede in time and in the order of culture, formality, habit, rigid custom, precise ritual, appears to prevail. Go back as far as we may, we never arrive at origins, or at simple and natural opinions; we find


John Alan Cohan

only artificial and complicated systems of belief and worship, built on the ruins of other antecedent systems, extending farther than the eye can reach. (p. 9) The anthropologist Franz Boas (1910) once considered why certain of the Eskimos had a taboo against eating caribou and seal meat on the same day. Boas pointed out that the Eskimos lived, alternating at different times the year, inland and at the coast. When hunting inland there are deer to be had, but no seals; on the coast there are seals but no deer. Over time, these facts may have simply given rise to a rule. A simple fact about the environment somehow led to a deeply felt tendency to avoid eating both of these meats on the same day. According to Jung (1958), if you ask yourself what the meaning is of long-standing traditions that are part of your own heritage, you, too might be hardpressed to provide a coherent answer: You may ask many civilized people in vain for the reason and meaning of the Christmas tree or of the coloured eggs at Easter, because they have no idea about the meaning of these customs. The fact is, they do things without knowing why they do them. I am inclined to believe that things were generally done first and that only a long time afterwards somebody asked a question about them, and then eventually discovered why they were done (p. 115). Primitive people are intensely conservative and are misoneists, that is, haters of novelty, and thus they adhere as much as possible to traditional customs. They will resist adopting new practices, despite the best efforts of missionaries and colonial interlopers. The idea of adopting ways that are new, improved, better-is simply unpersuasive. They even resist changes that they themselves might recognize as an improvement. To implement a new and better way of working with iron, or of treating certain native diseases, or discovering new methods of harvesting-is to arouse suspicion. Once a custom is established, for whatever reason, the custom acquires a life of its own. Children learn the custom, and the custom is carried forward more or less without questioning its rationale. In many cultures people have little awareness of the distraction, excesses and overstimulation of consumerism that plagues modern society. Even those who have moved to urban centers, as we will see in our discussion of acculturation in the next section, often tend to stick to their traditional way of life, customs, beliefs, values and norms, despite contrary pressures in their new setting. As we alluded to in the preceding section, irrational thinking is, perhaps to the surprise of some, a common phenomenon in modern as well as primitive cultures. Our decisionmaking is to a large extent motivated by unconscious emotions and motivations. Maternal love, friendship, romance, artistic creativity, faith in an afterlife, and heroic greatness are examples of the life-affirming power of the irrational in our lives. We recognize in our own behavior, something essentially absurd in irrational acts, for which no explanation can be given. People failing to abide by the rules of logic is something behavioralists claim is a consistent and persistent human trait. In other words, irrational tendencies in human cognition are systematic and predictable. (Cohan, 2002, p. 282) Western behavioralists have extensively studied irrationality and cognitive biases in how people think, documenting “how we form initial beliefs or hypotheses outside of rational or logical norms, and how we then maintain a bias for the persistence of these beliefs even when we are confronted with thoroughly discrediting evidence” (Cohan, 2002, p. 282). This phenomenon of holding onto beliefs that may no longer serve a useful purpose is actually quite common in the Western corporate world, where “initial beliefs may persevere in the face of a subsequent invalidation of the evidence on which they are based” (Anderson, Lepper & Ross, 1980, p. 1045), even where the basis for a belief may be weak. Could it be that there is something hard wired in human nature that makes people resistant to change? Perhaps innovation and change are things that people of all stripes tend to resist, at least until they get accustomed to the new ways. From the perspective of primitives, perhaps they fear that innovations would require modifying their traditional customs, and this would anger their ancestors, and as punishment their yams and sago would not grow,

Introduction


and their fields would lie barren. Anyone who succeeds in greater measure than others, or has crop in greater abundance than others-due for instance to some innovative farming technique-will be immediately accused of witchcraft-and plotted against by others-unless the individual distributes his newfound wealth to others. We will see numerous examples of the tension between traditional customs and the pressure to adopt new ways, throughout this book. LACK OF CONCERN FOR “MEANING” IN LIFE Among primitive peoples there is an apparent lack of concern for the question of whether one’s life has meaning or whether one is a “success” life-questions that permeate modern society. While we might ponder whether we have made a difference in the world and whether our lives have meaning-these are questions of no importance to people in primitive cultures. It does not matter much to them, either, whether they are “productive” in their endeavors, and the idea of whether what they do is “fulfilling” simply does not enter their minds. We take it to be something fundamental to ascribe some meaning to our lives, whether that meaning has subjective value or whether there is some objective standard by which we can ascribe “meaning.” Most people seem to behave in ways that suggest they are looking for worthwhile things to do with their lives. We tend to organize our lives around some focal or guiding concern. We actively seek projects to which we are attracted and which we believe are worthwhile and give our lives meaning. We want to assure ourselves and convince others that our lives are important and meaningful, and we are proud of our accomplishments, people we have known, places we have visited, and prestige we have garnered. When we eulogize the deceased we emphasize what their passions and accomplishments were. Primitive cultures tend to be existential when it comes to the search for meaning in life. They see meaning in dreams, in oracles, in communication from the spirit realm, from dead ancestors, from spirits of the forest, of the mountains, and from animals, and so on-but they do not ponder what philosophers and theologians often take to be so fundamental-the meaning of life itself, and whether an individual’s life is “meaningful” or “successful.” Nor are the primitive cultures plagued with a nihilistic angst-a sense that life is all for naught, that nothing, not even great accomplishments, can take away from the meaninglessness of life and the human condition. As we will see in our discussion of animism in chapter 5, primitive cultures believe they are connected to all of life. They are contented with their identity and that of their community. It takes very little to make them happy. To the extent that discontent emerges in primitive cultures, this seems to be a product of external influences such as hegemony on the part of colonial interlopers, pressures by the dominant culture to change, the whittling away of their sacred sites by industry, and similar incursions that erode their traditional way of life-issues we will explore throughout this book. THE TREND TOWARDS ACCULTURATION In an era when travel across the globe is so accessible, we can be profoundly affected by how others live their lives when we visit and experience diverse cultures. We can see that others are happy with relatively few possessions, for instance, or with significantly constrained infrastructures. Such admissions can show us that our understanding of human flourishing need not be confined to the status quo of our point of view. Indeed, “downsizing” is something of a trend in modern society, particularly when forced into this by economic and other external circumstances. People find that they can get on perfectly well with less. There seems to be a trend in globalization to understand and absorb the perspectives and experiences of people from distinctly different cultures and to avoid parochialism, the tendency to see all issues and evaluate all norms through the lens of one’s own culture. (Cohan, 2001/2002, p. 135)


John Alan Cohan

In some instances indigenous populations exist side-by-side in relative insularity with the dominant culture. People want to preserve obscure languages, traditional apparel, cuisines and other elements of their culture. But for hundreds of years European explorers viewed strange new cultures as populated by degenerate, inferior, barbaric, superstitious, savage, fallen beings. Even today, The dominant culture may be convinced that because the indigenous cultures are savage and heathen, this gives it the right to “look out for” them and speak for them. (Cohan, 2001/2002, p. 138) However, Indigenous peoples generally, by definition, do not want to be assimilated into the dominant culture or even that of other indigenous groups, nor want to have their cultural identity suppressed, or their land and resource based traditions denied or denigrated. (Cohan, 2001/2002, p. 138) Acculturation refers to the assimilation of the old culture into a new one, with adoption of new traditions and new ways of life, with radically different perspectives. Often this is a voluntary process. For example, if a villager moves from India to take on a job in the Silicon Valley of California, the individual might seek to adopt an entirely different lifestyle, and formulate new ideas as to what is good for human flourishing-as a way of more or less fitting into the new culture. No culture is trapped in a particular tradition forever. Cultures change within themselves, which we have seen many times in history. We see a certain social Darwinism that can generate a veritable psychological shift of attitude within cultures. For instance, societies may undergo collective movements for peace and cooperation in rebuilding their infrastructure after a period of war. Or conflicts within a society regarding certain norms may be a potent force impacting on what the people tolerate or accept. An example of this is the movement towards the legalization of same sex marriage-and other civil rights movements born out of frustration with the establishment’s hostility towards various minorities. Rather than conform to what the establishment wishes to perpetuate, people will form civil rights movements and work towards encouraging a greater toleration, and even acceptance, of a new norm. In our own culture the norm in the 1950s was the nuclear family model, and unwed mothers and even unmarried couples living together were stigmatized. Later, the feminist movement, a burgeoning divorce rate and other pulls generated a shift in our culture’s collective attitude, so that for the most part there has emerged a tolerance of diversity in lifestyles. But these examples are not acculturation, but simply a process of change within a society due to political and social dynamics from within the culture. ACCULTURATION AND CULTURAL IMPERIALISM The arrival of foreigners who, through colonial rule or other hegemony, become the dominant culture over indigenous peoples, often carries with it inevitable pressures for the natives to change their ways. Historically, acculturation and demoralization-cultural imperialism-go hand in hand. We saw this with the treatment of Native Americans, and on multiple levels a similar pattern has repeated itself in other parts of the world. The story is appalling in much the same way, whether in Papua New Guinea or India: Indigenous people are pushed around, some of their customs are outlawed, they are deprived of political power, dispossessed of their lands, and subjected to forced resettlement and colonial “plans” for their absorption into the dominant society. Authorities pressure indigenous people into accepting new housing, modern medicine instead of folk healing, and the schooling of their children in the dominant language. Much of ancient wisdom and the richness of folklore can be lost in the process, resulting in a demoralized population. The loss of indigenous knowledge is something that affects not only their own people, but is a loss to people in other cultures. And, as was observed when Columbus explored America, there is the risk of exposing indigenous people to diseases for which they lack immunity. Columbus himself learned that European-carried diseases could be a leading cause of the demise of native populations. It is only in recent years that developed nations have become sensitive to the errors of the past, and in various ways have tried to make amends for the mistreatment of indigenous peoples. For instance, the Australian Prime Minister

Introduction


issued a formal apology to the aboriginal people of his country, who for many years were subjected to forced relocations and discriminatory policies. The government of Canada formally apologized to Native Canadians for forcing about 150,000 native children into government-financed and church operated residential schools starting in the 1920s. The schools were dedicated to eradicating the languages, traditions and customs of Native Canadians (Austen, 2008). Today, in an era of globalization, while colonial hegemony seems to be a thing of the past, some primitive cultures straddle two worlds. They remain relatively insular, and are vigilant to retain and hand down their customary way of life-and at the same time they participate in global trade and other aspects of “modernity.” For example, in many regions we see native populations agreeing to export resources important in world trade-timber, phosphorus, ore, gold, oil. Repeated exposure to globalized business practices influences many people to choose to adopt Western attitudes and reject old native patterns of their own. Whether it ultimately to their advantage or not, the remolding of indigenous people appears to be inevitable. In some cases indigenous people are eager to embrace new ways, in others the process is disquieting. Clearly, the main fallout in the intrusion of “modernity,” particularly when indigenous people become “homogenized” with the dominant culture, is the elimination of traditional cultural and religious practices. COLONIAL PACIFICATION OF “BRUTE NATIVES” During European colonialism all over the world-something that extended well into the 20th Century and continues to some extent today-the occupying authorities seem to act out a sort of ethnocentricism-the idea that one’s own way of life is to be preferred over all others. A “social demoralization” develops when the dominant group “actively deprecates the things others hold to be of value” (Herskovits, 1972, p. 103). Often, colonial “pacification” of indigenous people requires the latter to observe a new set of taboos-no more polygamy, no more raids, no more headhunting, inter-tribal fighting, or burial of bodies within the home. No more use of tobacco, no more obscene language, no more adultery, no more magic, witchcraft or shamanism. This causes a profound shift in their moral orientation and relationships among themselves. With colonial rule authorities might “severely lecture” the people for infractions, and serious violations such as revenge homicide are dealt with by arrest and trial before a regional magistrate. From the standpoint of colonial authorities and missionaries, these new rules are in the best interest of the native people. In fact paternalistic laws-laws designed to protect people from their own foolishness-form a large part of laws in all societies (e.g., seat belt laws). Despite colonial efforts to outlaw certain practices, natives would often persist in their traditional practices, albeit underground, and today in a post-colonial era, shamanism, folk medicine, witchcraft and other practices are extremely widespread. In Siberia, for instance, after an extended period during which shamans were imprisoned under Stalin’s anti-religious campaigns, shamans today have re-emerged as a vibrant element of indigenous culture. Acculturation can result in some people ending up completely rejecting their traditional practices-throwing out the baby with the bath water. This occurred among the Ambonwari people of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. In the 1950s after Roman Catholic missionaries visited their village, the people embraced the new religion, and this started a process resulting some 40 years later in the people abandoning their traditional animistic-based religion. Formerly, people would speak to and consult spirits whom they believed were present everywhere. “Whenever there was a serious sickness in the village, the men put a pig’s head into a men’s house asking spirit-crocodiles for their help, while other men decorated a stick with shells and stuck it into the ground at the front of their men’s house” (Telban, 2008, p. 229). In recent years villagers started to embrace a Catholic Charismatic movement. They began practicing laying of the hands and singing of prayers as a means of healing the sick. They stopped going to traditional healers. They stopped post-mortem divination. They took all carved spirits into the forest and left them to rot. They tore down the men’s houses and rebuilt them into recreational “wind houses.” They visited formerly tabooed areas and cut down the trees. Not only did Ambonwari abandon their relationships with the spirits, they blame them for all illnesses and deaths in the past, for them living so remote from the rest of the world, for their having violent relationships with their neighbours, and for their not receiving any wealth (Telban, 2008, p. 230).


John Alan Cohan

Young men in the community “began to question the deepest cosmological and cultural aspects of their lives, including initiation rituals. If the latter were once essential for the rebirth and revitalization of the village and its cosmology, they suddenly became a synonym for illness, dying and destruction” (Telban, 2008, p. 230). On the other hand, there are still quite a few who, while they practice Christianity, also maintain “good relations” with the spirits of their village. The children attend a local school. The villagers use guns for hunting, they use cotton mosquito nets, kerosene lamps and outboard motors, which they know how to repair. If someone buys a new outboard motor, he will have an inauguration ceremony performed at the men’s house so that the motor can receive its own name and become an Ambonwari being. They buy rice, tinned foods and other commercial products. They have radios and tune into news of the world. Some of them work on tourist boats and in a nearby lodge, and some open trade stores. However, these stores usually fail. People understand that a business can be successful only if goods are paid for, but the owners are continually obliged to give them either on indefinite loan or for nothing. Thus all businesses in Ambonwari collapse shortly after they begin. If one does not follow the “good way” of giving things, someone will break into the store and steal the goods.... Whenever men who earn wages return to the village they are put under pressure... by others who ask them for money, petrol, purchased goods, and so on. (Telban, 1998, p. 225) The example of the Ambonwari is a theme is echoed in many other tribal communities that have been influenced by missionaries of all sects. Sometimes people will adopt a hybrid form of belief, combining animistic rituals with Christian liturgy. In other cases there may be outright hostility towards the efforts of missionaries. For indigenous people in Fiji there has been significant social unease due to ongoing competition between Methodist leaders and traditional chiefs, with infighting among themselves for political power, on top of feelings of hostility towards indentured Indian laborers. In some places, such as Malaysia and Borneo, native people have a cultural commitment to “live in both worlds.” People in isolated villages often travel by motor boat or on new roads and bridges to regional towns to conduct trading. They will certainly want to get a radio, blue jeans, canned goods, store-bought stockings, baseball hats, tshirts, and modern tools. They return home with new perceptions of the world around them-but in returning to their ancestral village they are content to follow their indigenous language, customs and morals. In other cases the intrusion of modernity creates tension among villagers, particularly between parents and children. Younger people tend to be more susceptible to breaching cultural boundaries. Younger people often leave the villages seeking new lives and relief from the oppressive social life and obligations in the village, with the attraction of economic success, material goods, high social status, privacy and modern sanitation in urban centers, where they can cast away their own “cultural baggage.” These young adults bring back their new lifestyles and personal stories when they return home. There is an inevitable clash with ancestral norms. By the same token, we see this same inter-generational clash between parents and children in all cultures, but it is more striking in primitive cultures because of the tremendous contrast between their traditional practices and urban lifestyles. On the other hand, many think that village life has its own kind of autonomy. Smith (2002), for examples, states: Villagers may be enveloped in a web of kinship obligations, but they are not nakedly dependent for their basic livelihoods on a boss, a distant government department, or a mercurial national economy. And fellow villagers can see each other as whole people, not just as bosses and employees, buyers and sellers, cogs in a bureaucracy, or inhabitants of different social strata. (p. 165) In Papua New Guinea we see evidence that young people in villages often want to meld their own ancestral practices with those introduced by the dominant culture. In that region social changes are often induced by the introduction of a cash economy, by Christianity, by travel and school education, all of which require new, or rather, different values to be embodied in a person belonging to the nation state of Papua New Guinea. As one old man commented, once

Introduction


upon a time the big men directed village life, but today it is the young people’s decisions which dominate the village. Nevertheless, because opposition to practices and habits which are at the same time also part of young people’s lives would seriously threaten the stability of the village, even young people endorse those activities which they see as providing that stability. Young people also recognize the powers of their ancestors and their spirits, and when they go on a trip they say that the village spirit will follow them and protect them. (Telban, 1998, p. 200) If rapid change occurs in native populations, this tends not only to cause erosion of traditional customs, but will often cause community fragmentation, the breakdown of family structures, the breakdown of individuals, and an increase in mental illness, so that “society goes mad, literally” (Sow, 1980, p. 238). On the other hand, in some cases, people are pleased to acculturate to the ways of the dominant culture. Take Angaur, which is in the southernmost of the Palau group of islands (Micronesia, part of Caroline Islands). During World War II the Americans took over the islands from the Japanese, who had been in colonial control. (Prior to that the Germans and Spanish had colonial control.) The Americans thought that they would be encountering primitive lifestyles, but a half century of Japanese influence brought the people of Angaur many attributes of modern civilization. They had adopted new and deeply ingrained Japanese customs: e.g., bowing in greeting. The people were not interested in returning to their aboriginal style of dress. Once the Americans took occupation of the island, children were more interested in learning American customs than their old customs; youth wanted to do Western dances, not ancient dances; and Western movies were more popular than native festivals (Useem, 1945). NATIVISTIC MOVEMENTS Often in response to acculturation, particularly in urban centers, we see what is called “nativistic” movements. According to Linton (1943), nativistic movement is “any conscious, organized attempt on the part of a society’s members to revive or perpetuate selected aspects of its culture” (p. 230). We might call this a response to a feeling of inequality and disrespect that the people feel from the dominant culture, and to frustration that their practices are at odds with what be rapid social change. This is largely a conscious process in which people have a deep seated desire to rekindle and hand down to their children their own cultural traditions rather than that of the new culture. Thus, nativistic movements focus on revitalizing cultural patterns of old, and perpetuating them. Nativistic movements often are evidenced by the formation of neighborhoods within urban centers-such as Chinatown, Koreatown, or “Little India”-thus helping people preserve their cultural heritage and maintain social solidarity. In Philippine, Chinese, Irish, and Mexican neighborhoods, to name a few examples, nativistic movements seek to preserve particular cultural elements of culture, not necessarily the culture as a whole. For instance, where ethnic populations abound people will seek to preserve folk healing practices or certain rules of modesty for women that are part of their customs, but not all elements of their traditions. People will seek to preserve ancient languages, as seen in Ireland with many seeking a Celtic language revival. We will see many other examples throughout this book. Sometimes companies will advertise and promote commercial products to indigenous populations as if the products were aligned with traditional ways of life. For instance, in Papua New Guinea, PepsiCo and Arnott’s Biscuits have produced advertising that conveys cultural images such as models wearing traditional costumes and accessories, while holding up the company’s product. These efforts seek to capitalize on native themes to convey the idea that there is full consonance “between a completely traditional identity and a fully modern soft drink-consuming, biscuiteating identity” (Errington & Gewertz, 1996, p. 118). What this comes to is a redefining of the traditional and passing off new values for old-in an effort to manipulate a shift in the way indigenous people make choices as consumers. Of course, that is what advertising is always after-influencing consumer choices. There are many reasons why people wish to revitalize their native culture. People might find that certain aspects of their ancestry appear desirable in hindsight. People can gain a sense of comfort in the face of frustrations with the dominant culture in which they find themselves entrenched. Preserving traditional patterns helps bring back memories of when their society was happy or great. And nativistic movements help the people enjoy a sense of pride over their native culture in the face of adverse conditions.

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CHAPTER 2 Cultural Relativism Abstract. There are tremendous variations in how people carry on their lives across cultures. All cultures have some sort of system of “public morals” or norms or rules that provide a structure that guides behavior. Cultural relativism holds that moral principles are relative, so that there is no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” morality. The forms under which good and evil appear are different. By coming to know the presuppositions of people, we can better understand their moral perspective. We will discuss idea that, despite variations in behavior patterns among cultures, there are certain basic moral concepts recognized by all peoples-e.g., respect for life and property, some form of religious faith. All societies have some means of dealing with social outcasts, criminals, cheats and the like. The dilemma of cultural relativism is whether it is appropriate to interfere with practices of other cultures that we regard as morally repugnant. Today the activities within one culture can affect people in other cultures-most notably in the arena of environmental pollution. People have a limit as to what sort of things they will tolerate in other cultures. All nations condemn genocide, slave trade, torture, the use of human subjects for experimentation, and summary execution. In studying diverse cultures we should keep an open mind in taking in the practices that we might find offensive or repugnant or even barbaric. Change is particularly difficult when cultures sincerely believe, as they do, that their moral practices are sound, well-founded and of fundamental importance to their very identity as people.

THE DIVERSITY OF NORMS ACROSS CULTURES Anthropology has learned that there are tremendous variations in how people carry on their lives across cultures. This is one of the big things anthropology has “discovered” in the past century or so-that people often live with unique or distinct norms that are at odds with those of other cultures. All cultures have some sort of system of “public morals” which arise from standards developed by the people over time. All of us share a common orientation and understanding of the “rules of the game.” These rules provide a structure that guides our behavior, and which most of us do not easily question. These rules involve what a society has come to deem appropriate for its flourishing and survival, and are handed down so that we learn what is approved of by our community in early childhood. Any society that lacks a value system can easily break down. We not only guide our own action with reference to these rules, but we learn that praise or blame is based on compliance or deviation from those norms. If there is confusion in a community as to what norms of behavior apply, this can lead to the disorganization, disintegration, and breakdown of values, leading to a transition and establishment of a revised value system. The term moral relativism (or ethical relativism) holds that moral principles are relative, so that there is no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” morality. Moral principles are not self-evident propositions that are truth assessable, final or certain. Terms such as “right” and “good” are relative terms so that if I say “X is good,” that simply means “My culture regards X as good.” A different culture might claim that “X is bad,” and this inconsistency is explained simply by the idea that there is no objective truth in the matter. Here is the essence of cultural relativism: The fact that diverse cultures have different solutions to moral dilemmas makes it inappropriate to argue that a particular norm is good or bad for everyone. There is a wide diversity among cultures in how human beings carry on in their relations with one another. While people of one culture might disapprove of certain practices, in another culture these same practices might be morally approved. Jung (1933) commented that Primitive man is no less prompt than we are to value an ethical attitude. His good is just as good as ours, and his evil is just as bad as ours. Only the forms under which good and evil appear are different; the process of ethical judgement is the same (p. 147). Jung (1933) further observed: John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Cultural Relativism


the fact that the primary assumptions of archaic man differ essentially from ours-that he lives, if I may use the expression, in a different world. Until we come to know his presuppositions, he is a riddle hard to read, but when we know them, all is relatively simple. We might equally well say that primitive man ceases to be a riddle when we have come to know our own presuppositions (p. 149). Therefore, the validity of a moral code is context-dependent, and must be analyzed, if at all, with reference to the distinct cultural backdrop of the particular culture. To make sense, statements about values must be linked to specific circumstances of a culture-the myths that operate in the culture, the environment, long-held traditions with obscure origins, and other factors. People tend to regard their own patterns and customs as “good.” All cultures “regard that which contributes to the need and survival of the group as good,” and there is no culture that does “not condemn conduct interfering with the satisfaction of common needs and threatening the stability of social relations” (Ginsberg, 1953, p. 124). There are often significant differences in the moral codes of different cultures. By moral codes I am referring to obligatory norms that are binding on all people within the culture, which are not subject to human “discretion,” and the violation of which the people regard to be sinful or immoral. Foster (1965) states that [t]he members of every society share a common cognitive orientation which is, in effect, an unverbalized, implicit understanding of the “rules of the game” of living imposed upon them by their social, natural and supernatural universes. A cognitive orientation provides the members of the society it characterizes with basic premises and assumptions normally neither recognized nor questioned which structure and guide behavior (p. 293). There are many contrasting moral codes among cultures. One broad divide can be seen is this: In the West, according to Kantian morality, we must always act in such a way that we treat people (including ourselves) as ends in themselves, never merely as a means. It is a kind of Golden Rule-treat others as you would want them to treat you under like circumstances. Kant doesn’t argue that there is something wrong with treating people as a means-we do this all the time-when we ask someone for traffic directions or make a purchase from a vendor, and thereby use the other as a means to an end. We can’t live without treating each others as means-but Kant’s point is that we should never treat others merely as a means. In other words the dignity of humanity requires that we treat each other with respect, never that we treat others as “things.” And according to Kant, there are categorical imperatives, that is, certain things are right or wrong absolutely-universally, under all circumstances. This is in contrast to other cultures that think it is all right to treat people as a means to ends. For instance, the Gahuku-Gama, and other tribes of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea, do not have a moral system that appeals to abstract principles, but rather they emphasize the practical consequence of moral deviation. Morality is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. That is, “If you don’t help others, others won’t help you” or “Give food to those who visit you so they will think well of you.” In that culture there are no “universal” norms; that is, injunctions against adultery, against lying, theft and slander and murder are right or wrong, depending on the circumstances. In particular, one has no moral duties to people of other tribes; it is justifiable to kill them, to steal from them and to seduce their women. And within the tribe, one’s moral obligations to others are differentially apportioned depending on one’s social position and kinship ties. The social context largely determines the moral character of a particular action. Cultural variants appears to be commonplace not only among human cultures, but other species as well. Certain behavioral variations among groups of animals apparently are due to the same sort of cultural variants that we humans display. For example, primatologists have seen that there are important differences in behavior patterns among various groups of chimpanzees in West and Central Africa, including the ways they fish for ants with a probe, pound food with a stone, dance in the rain, and aim and throw stones.


John Alan Cohan

ARE THERE CORE HUMAN VALUES? Despite variations in behavior patterns among cultures, anthropologists have found there are certain basic moral concepts recognized by all peoples. These are broad core values-e.g., “justice is a virtue,” or “murder is wrong,” or “empathy is good.” The prevalence of these categories suggests that “behind the seemingly endless diversity of cultural patterns there is a fundamental uniformity” (Linton, 1952, p. 646). Boas (1962) observed that all cultures seem to hold that it is the duty of every person [in one’s own society] to respect life, well-being and property of his fellows, and to refrain from any action that may harm the group as a whole. All breaches of this code are threatened with social or supernatural punishment (p. 225). All cultures have some form of religious belief, and these beliefs invariably include rituals for worshipping of specific deities, animals or natural phenomena, a system of prayers of petition for desired objectives, beliefs in the immortality of the soul, of an afterlife, of offerings of praise and sacrifice, and of exoneration for sins. Perhaps the biological fact that everyone must die drives cultures to devise explanations for life and death. Every culture has its individual complexion, feel, and attitude, just like individual cities have their particular “feel,” and companies and hierarchical organizations have their particular cultural feel. The “feel” in being part of IBM is entirely different than being part of a Farming-Coop. But that does not mean that the separate entities subscribe to a separate set of moral principals. It could be that they have divergent moral principles, but that is not entailed merely because they have different ways of conducting business. Cultural relativism recognizes that even though all cultures seem to share many core values, people of different cultures will interpret and pursue these values in different ways. For example, all cultures regard justice to be a virtue, and that just deserts are to be meted out in proportion to one’s offense, but there are different methods of apportioning and meting out justice. Some cultures regard revenge to be an appropriate instance of justice. The American Navahoes and cultures of the Middle East have endorsed an “eye for eye” system of justice, so that exacting retribution by way of a precise form of “justice” means visiting upon a wrongdoer the same act for which culpability was found. In former times murder and accidental killing were regarded with equal gravity so that, either way, the wrongdoer was killed in retribution. Even within the same culture-take the United States for instance-certain agreed upon human values may have no precise, authoritative interpretation. The Supreme Court is often divided on the interpretation of some very important core values-such as whether the facts of a case show unlawful discrimination, cruel or unusual punishment, the violation of due process or the violation of other constitutional rights. Equally intelligent and reasonable people can agree that freedom and democracy are core values, but there is never-ending political debate as to what these ideas actually mean in practice. The ways of dealing with society’s outcasts, the criminally accused, varies considerably across cultures and has varied throughout civilized history. In Saudi Arabia the protocol for dealing with convicted thieves is to cut off their right hand. In the West we impose a relatively small prison term, or probation, for first-time offenders. In the past, criminal offenders were dealt with by torture, drawing and quartering, crucifixion, burning at the stake, and other brutal measures. Today these practices are universally condemned. Still, in Somalia and other Muslim nations blood revenge will be tolerated or even encouraged. For instance, it is not uncommon for people to have a public killing, by stoning to death, of women-even girls-accused of adultery. Other cultures, such as the European Union, have questioned whether the death penalty itself is ever morally permissible, however humanely it might be administered, and have therefore abolished it. Even the mode of execution varies considerably across cultures that have the death penalty, with hanging or stoning to death being practiced in Middle Eastern cultures, and lethal injection employed in the United States. The Isneg farmers of the Philippines regard people as cowards unless they exact full satisfaction for misdeeds committed against themselves or their kin. Even if one’s own family member is a malefactor, people are expected to

Cultural Relativism


make sure there is full satisfaction paid for the misdeed. There are no police: The one who has been damaged takes revenge on his own. The taking of the life of another without just provocation is considered wrong by all peoples. However, there are variations in what constitutes “just provocation.” To some, an act of sorcery could be “just provocation” to justify a revenge killing. Anthropological accounts show that no human group approves of indiscriminate lying, cheating or stealing, although cultures differ in their reasons for disapproval and their definition of the terms, and the conditions under which lying or stealing is tolerable or even socially approved. Lying in Latin America about extramarital activity is condoned, but is generally not regarded with approval in the United States. In some cultures the so-called polite lie is accepted, when socially convenient. In the Lovedu of the Transvaal in Africa, one can tell a lie to get out of difficulties, and children are told to lie to strangers if asked about village affairs. But all these cultures regard lying to be morally wrong. Empathy seems to be a universal psychological trait of human nature, and acts of charity are regarded as a universal good, but coming to the aid of the needy and distressed or to strangers beyond one’s clan or country might be thought of as bad in some cultures, and good in others. VARIATIONS IN AESTHETICS NORMS It is easier to accept norms that are different from our own in nonmoral contexts, even if we don’t understand them. We may readily accept differences in tastes and aesthetics as simply a form of cultural diversity. In aesthetics-what people regard as beautiful-we often respect and even learn to enjoy the tastes of other cultures. A culture might regard bands in women’s noses as beautiful. In some cultures modesty is not a virtue. Mild to moderate obesity is considered to be a sign of beauty and health in many cultures. And, according to Berry (2007), ... a few cultures admire teeth sharpened to points as a sign of beauty.... Some cultures elongate the neck by encircling it with brass rings, insert lip plates, and paint their teeth as signs of beauty. Other cultures seek out women for features that we in the West would dislike, such as droopy breasts. In other words, the dominant culture in any society determines what good looks are and are not (p. 3). What is regarded as good food varies significantly. For instance, we in the West are not inclined to eat monkeys, and we would probably decline to eat them out of disgust, but the Kababish and others in Africa, and natives of Malaysia, enjoy eating monkeys. Many other variations in food preference can be cited: India and Thailand favor very spicy foods; the Naim-Naim people between the White Nile and Congo Basin eat dogs and rats; and in many parts of the world, locusts, snakes, lizards, or caterpillars are “normal” food choices. The Pygmies of the Congo region eat gazelle, monkey and baboons, warm melted butter is considered a special drink by the Yakuts of Siberia, the Canton of China love to eat ducks’ tongues and a glutinous substance found in birds’ nests, Arabs eat locusts boiled in salt and water then dried in the sun, (St. John the Baptist is mentioned as nourishing himself upon locusts and wild honey (Matt. 3:4)), the Nambikuara in upper Madeira River, western Matto Gorsso, Brazil eat crickets, rats, snakes, lizards, beetle larvae (Australian aboriginals, people in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea and others also eat beetle larvae), the Batek of Malaysia eat porcupines, scaly anteaters, the bamboo rat, bats and hornbills, Tasmanians eat snakes, lizards, grubs and worms, and the list goes on (Davenport, 1945). The cultural style of art and music radically varies. In the West, we know music by the half-tone scale, which we learn to find pleasing from an early age. In India and China people learn the quarter-tone scale, which many in the West might at first find “unnatural” or unpleasant. Appreciation is at the level of learning. The diverse aesthetic preferences are each valid. They are constructs of a particular culture. Someone brought up in one culture will come to appreciate the dynamics of that culture’s aesthetics, and may find it difficult to appreciate aesthetics that deviate from the norm. Quite often it takes a certain amount of repeated exposure and understanding in order to appreciate radically different aesthetic preferences in other cultures, because we are so habituated to entirely different customs. In any case, no one has any moral qualms with another culture’s sense of aesthetics even though they are an entirely different sort of aesthetics from what one has learned.


John Alan Cohan

But in moral contexts we have a different reaction. We might not fight a war over it, but people would get extremely upset if people India re-implemented the ancient custom of suttee-in which widows are forced to sacrifice themselves on funeral pyre of their husbands. PRINCIPLE OF NON-INTERFERENCE In an era of global relations and commerce, we want to enhance peace among nations, and this requires a toleration and respect for the ways different cultures carry on their lives. As mentioned, moral relativism suggests that there are culture-bound notions of what is good and bad, right and wrong. A controversy concerning moral relativism is the principle of non-interference-which holds that we must not interfere with the customs and morals of other cultures. Non-interference means that if a culture believes that cannibalism, infanticide, or slavery are good institutions, we cannot say that they are wrong or try and interfere with their practices, even though we are outraged at their barbarism. It would be improper to interfere with the Samurai’s practice of testing his sword by using a live human subject, and so on. Infanticide was once an acceptable and necessary practice in some cultures, for example those who lived in small groups such as the Northern Algonkians of Canada. It was justified if a mother died in childbirth and there was no other woman able to suckle the infant. In other cultures certain tribal beliefs held that if an infant has not nursed for the first time, it is not yet part of the group-not really a human being-and can be disposed of if unwanted. In West Africa there was a supernatural fear of twins, and one or both were killed at birth lest they become sorcerers if allowed to live. In Iran anyone convicted of homicide (including manslaughter or murder) will be executed at the option of the victim’s family-and this applies even to juvenile offenders. The vast majority of nations simply do not allow revenge sentences imposed by the victim’s family, but rely on the judges to impose the sentence. We barely tolerate these and other practices (e.g., female genital mutilation, child labor, etc) in other cultures. Diplomats, nongovernmental organizations and local activists (to the extent they are permitted to express dissent) seek to change such practices. But from the Iranian standpoint, all legal authority is derived from the Koran, so a fundamental shift away from Koranic law would be needed for such a change to take place, and this cannot come easily in a culture that has been so imbued in Islam for so many centuries. It seems hard to accept the idea, suggested by moral relativism, that in all situations it would be wrong to criticize, condemn or intervene in the practices of other cultures. In an age of globalization with increasingly porous borders and with instant communication and widespread international commerce, the activities within one culture can affect people in other cultures-most notably in the arena of environmental pollution. Domestic corruption affects international commerce. Diseases can spread from one culture to another. And so on. The fact of the matter is that nations have a limit as to what sort of things they will tolerate in other cultures, particularly when fundamental human rights are at issue. Today we have a substantial body of international treaties and accords declaring certain human rights as universal, so that they must not violated under any circumstances. These are rights that make up a core of morality founded on considerations of humanity-norms from which no derogation is permitted. Based on these principles, all nations condemn genocide, slave trade, torture, the use of human subjects for experimentation, and summary execution, among other things. Membership in the United Nations and in other international organizations “means that the participating state accepts the right of its fellow members to intervene in domestic affairs if it has failed in its most fundamental obligations to protect its own citizens-a kind of conditional social contract” (Slaughter, 2004, p. 286). Today in international relations, by passing resolutions in the United Nations, states can and do interfere with the sovereignty of other states by imposing standards of good governance and human rights norms. Today It is not at all clear why the membership in one culture precludes people from assessing the moral worth of what goes on in another culture, or that one culture should in effect be morally isolated from the next. We might not want to start a war over practices of other cultures that we find abhorrent, but at the same time, the principle of non-

Cultural Relativism


interference, in this day and age, does not preclude “public persuasion, coercion, shaming, economic sanctions, isolation, and in more egregious cases, by humanitarian intervention” (Cohan, 2006, p. 941). MORAL PROGRESS Another problem with moral relativism is that for the sake of consistency, the principle of non-interference would need to be applied within one’s own culture. Thus, we could not say that slavery of the past was morally repugnant in our own culture, or that it was bad to deny women the right to vote. The logical conclusion of relativism is that our own culture’s morality is perfect. That is, we could not say that the practices of a past era in our own culture were wrong. But as a society we believe that we have made moral progress, and we want to continue to make moral progress. For that to be true, we must be able to criticize or call into question the propriety of past practices of our own culture. We must also be able to debate and evaluate present practices. Moral growth occurs only if people go behind established norms, identities and commitments, and criticize the assumptions behind them. In order for moral progress to take place we must allow that changed circumstances in the human condition can lead to the transformation or erosion of certain values. Often there may be no rhyme or reason to explain certain long-standing traditions beyond the myths, legends, folklore, superstition or ignorance that the people embrace. Quite often the explanation for certain customs practiced in primitive cultures is elusive. These customs are of ancient origin, which manifestly had a meaning back in time, and now are carried on based on tradition, without a clear idea of their meaning. Original motives often disappear from the consciousness of the group, and habit becomes the primary force for the ongoing pattern. If we could go back in time and interview the ancestors who started certain practices, we might not get satisfactory information as to their purpose, for strong impulses might be imbued with unconscious processes that defy logical explanation. But it is extremely difficult to persuade natives to make “moral progress” by discarding some of their such strongly entrenched traditions. As mentioned in the earlier part of this chapter, in all cultures the people come to have a kind of consensus among themselves about their moral practices. There is a certain coercive power to the standards of behavior that are approved by a community. From childhood onwards, we all tend to build habits of behavior in conformity to the customs in our culture. Because habits can become firmly ingrained patterns in a culture, deviation from these norms can usually be met with outright hostility. Because of the compelling force behind the customs in a given culture, we often see that there is an aversion to moral progress. If a society practices cannibalism, for instance, or sacrificial slaughter of first-born or of suttee of widows, it may take a period of time for people in a culture to adopt and become accustomed to new norms. When slavery was abolished in the United States, it took over a century until old patterns of discrimination in the South became uprooted, and still today there are remnants of racial hatred. Sometimes certain customs of a culture might, objectively speaking, be harmful to its people. Even though for the most part we might want to adopt a live-and-let-live attitude about the practices of other cultures, we also might want to intervene to help people change practices that are clearly harmful to their well being. This is what missionaries had in mind in trying to convince natives that illness is caused by invasive germs and such-not by sorcery or some other supernatural agency-and that the people would be better off to come to the health clinics, where they could be treated with modern medicines, and thereby get well-instead of relying solely on their traditional healing practices. If we can call into question the customs of a past era, if we can enact laws in the present to eradicate certain practices so as to advance human rights, and if the notion of moral progress is to have any validity, then it is hard to fully embrace moral relativism. We want to live and let live, but also to influence the ways people approach moral issues in their own culture. It may not be any of our concern, and we might be mistaken in seeking to “impose” our standards on another culture’s-as missionaries and colonialists did so often with mixed results-but the dilemma is that to some extent, it is necessary to assess the morality of the practices of not only our own, but of other cultures. We simply live in too small a world for it to be otherwise. But it is a decidedly delicate matter. We might try to intervene to correct a culture’s misunderstanding of facts. If a culture believes that an infant is not a human being until it is breast fed, we might try to vividly inform the people


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about the relevant scientific facts about human life. Once a culture is informed of all the relevant facts on a given subject, new information and new knowledge may shift peoples’ belief on that issue. But there are more difficult cases. For instance, a great many cultures believe witchcraft is responsible for misfortune of all kinds, including illness. To them, it is perfectly logical to seek out a medicine-man who will perform countermeasures to cure the patient. We might vehemently disagree with the entire philosophy behind illness in their culture, and we might want to help them save children from contracting diseases that can be prevented through modern medicine. It may seem irrational to us that people would ascribe witchcraft as the cause of illness, but in many cultures this philosophy makes perfect sense, and the people do not think there is anything superstitious or ignorant about their beliefs. There is no talking them out of it. Of course, we easily forget that for centuries witchcraft was thought to be a real phenomenon in the West, so much so that it was a common law crime, punishable by death. But again, we see that values can and do change with the times. As a result of political and scientific debate, and exposure to norms of other cultures, people in a culture will from time to time come to agree that certain practices, such as suttee or infanticide or cannibalism are thoroughly objectionable despite long-standing traditions. Then there will be a paradigm shift of sorts in how the people regard the particular custom. The culture will come to regard its past practices as superstitious or self-defeating, from the manner of growing crops to the manner of curing the sick, to the manner of raising children. New attitudes yield new norms. There invariably is some resistance to change, and sometimes it can take decades for certain practices to be replaced by new norms. In studying diverse cultures we should keep an open mind in taking in the practices that we might find offensive or repugnant or even barbaric. We can obtain valuable information about human diversity, the human creative possibility, and human nature itself by resisting the temptation to debase or vulgarize the cultural practices of others. Other cultures might have strange ideas and practices, but is of intrinsic interest to learn how diverse cultures carry on, how they solve basic human problems, how they deal with illness and misfortune, how they resolve conflicts, how they interpret and carry out justice, and so forth. It is not possible to resolve the issue of cultural relativism. One must accept that there is a dilemma in the matter: On the one hand we want to respect the moral practices of other cultures even though we might not agree with them, and on the other hand we would be lacking in humanity, compassion and fundamental respect for human rights if we stood by and did nothing to at least educate others and encourage them to consider discarding harmful practices. It is, of course, inevitable that change will continue to occur-as occurred over time with the practice of cannibalism-but change is particularly difficult when cultures sincerely believe, as they do, that their moral practices are sound, wellfounded and of fundamental importance to their very identity as a people.


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CHAPTER 3 Apollonian and Dionysian Cultures Abstract. Ruth Benedict (1934) opened up a whole line of thinking regarding two types of culture: Apollinian and Dionysian. Dionysian cultures exhibit certain extremes in behavior, and there is importance ascribed to dreams and visions, also to self-fulfillment, self-expression, rights, liberties and individual accomplishment. Moreover, the idea of escape from the five senses through altered states of consciousness, intoxication, torture, self-mutilation, deprivation, etc. Dionysian cultures are imbued with magical thinking, i.e., the belief that thoughts, words or actions have causal power. Dreams and visions are very important because they are thought to contain messages from the spirit realm or direct visitations from ancestors. The contradiction in Dionysian cultures is that they tend to be tenaciously tradition-bound-yet at the same time they seek to escape from limitations through supernatural experiences, ecstatic trances, orgiastic ceremonies, and other excessive behavior that, at least under everyday circumstances, would be frowned upon. Paradoxically Dionysian cultures celebrate harmony and cooperation, and yet individuality, which at times can be a threat to unity. Apollinian cultures, in contrast, embrace moderation, steadfastness, conservatism, conformity, measured attitudes, precedent and tradition. There is distrust of individualism and emotionalism. Power comes from cult membership, verbatim ritual, conformity, sobriety, suffering, self-denial, introvertism, and moderation.

INTRODUCTION In her best selling book, Patterns of Culture (1934) Ruth Benedict introduced an idea that has had a profound impact in the study of cultures. She opened up a whole line of analysis that, for the most part, divides cultures into two camps: Dionysian and Apollonian. DIONYSIAN EXTREMES The majority of cultures, including much of the industrialized West, seem to be Dionysian. Personal, subjective experiences, unlimited personal freedom, self-reliance, individualism, initiative, power and the tossing aside of tradition are hallmarks of Dionysian cultures. A Dionysian seeks both an uninhibited, extravagant, passionate pursuit of pleasure, even to excess, and at the same time, paradoxically, a transcendence of sensate experience into a higher order of experience. Self-fulfillment, self-expression, rights, liberties and individual accomplishment are the hallmark of a Dionysian culture. As we will see, there are paradoxes and contradictions among Dionysian people: for instance, many primitive cultures are tenaciously tradition-bound, and the people do not deviate from norms that have been around since time immemorial-yet at the same time they will engage in ceremonies in an effort to transcend the here and now and behave in extravagant ways that, at least under everyday circumstances, would be frowned upon. America itself seems to be a Dionysian culture, with the emphasis on rugged individualism. According to Kirmayer (2007), To be a person is to be a unique individual. Each individual is autonomous and uniquely deserving of the free pursuit of his or her own private goals. People are valued for how richly developed and articulated their inner sense of self is and how strong and coherent their self-direction (p. 240). In her discussion of Dionysian culture, Ruth Benedict (1934) borrows Nietzsche’s description, “the annihilation of the ordinary bounds and limits of existence” (pp. 78-79). The Dionysian seeks to escape from the limitations imposed upon by our five senses, to break through into a different order of experience, perhaps to attain supernatural experiences such as ecstatic trances or union with god. Or the goal might be simply to gain a certain psychological state of excess. The philosophy is, as William Blake described, that “the path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom” (as quoted in Benedict, 1934, p. 79). This breaking into supernatural experiences might be accomplished by excessive behavior such as drunkenness, drug induced euphoria, frenzy in dance, or through the opposite of excess-self-denial, fasting, self-mutilation, John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


John Alan Cohan

torture, or other extreme forms of deprivation. With either mode, we can break out of our ordinary sense experience into a higher state of awareness. Paradoxically, while individualism is a Dionysian trait, so is universal harmony. Nietzsche (1872/1967) points out: ... Nature which has become alienated, hostile, or subjugated, celebrates once more her reconciliation with her lost son, man. Freely, earth proffers her gifts, and peacefully the beasts of prey of the rocks and desert approach.... Now, with the gospel of universal harmony, each one feels himself not only united, reconciled, and fused with his neighbor, but as one with him, as if the veil of maya had been torn aside and were now merely fluttering in tatters before the mysterious primordial unity (§1). DIONYSIAN DREAMS AND VISIONS Dionysian cultures are imbued with magical thinking, i.e., the belief that thoughts, words or actions have causal power. For the Dionysian, dreams and visions are very important because they are thought to contain messages from the spirit realm or direct visitations from ancestors. In Dionysean cultures the dreamer interacts with an ancestor who makes a vivid appearance as if in the flesh. In the West, many of us, like primitives and like children, have a great deal of magical thinking going on in our daily affairs. As we will see in chapter 12 (“Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft”), magical thinking is a common and widespread technique we use to cope with uncertainty, anxiety and the unknown. It is a way of exerting some sort of power in situations where we feel powerless. In the West, as in primitive cultures, many of us take dreams to be serious matters that invite our attention and analysis. Freud and Jung, among other psychoanalysts, have laid great importance on dreams and how they intersect our conscious lives. People in many Dionysian cultures do not discriminate between dreams and reality as we do in the West. They do not draw distinctions between the validity of knowledge gained from ordinary sense experience and that obtained from dreams, visions, from animals, from supernatural forces, and intuition. To the aboriginal people of Australia, a dream is a real objective experience equivalent to the waking state, except that time and space are no longer obstacles. The dreamer takes the information gained from dreams as having great importance. In these cultures that regard dreams to be part of objective experience, if a man injures you in a dream, when you awake you are justified in avenging yourself against him. Similarly, in Inuit culture if you dream that you have committed an act of ill-will towards someone, you are obliged to apologize for the dreamed offense-because the dream itself is thought to carry a certain power. If a dead man visits you in a dream this is taken to be proof of his continued existence, and that he has come to you or that you have gone to visit him. According to Levy-Bruhl (1926), among the Cherokees, when a man dreams that he has been bitten by a snake, he must follow the same treatment as if he had really been bitten, for it is a witch-snake that has done the injury, and if he did not, swelling and ulceration would ensue, possibly even many years later (p. 57). Among the Tanala of Madagascar and the Mohave Indians of the Southwest United States, people tend to not make much distinction between dreams and “normal waking experiences” (Silverman, 1967). It is not uncommon for people to have intense self-absorbed states that are similar to the initiation phase that many shamans go through, in which the individual’s awareness is now that of a twilight state between waking and dreaming: his facial expression is that of absorption in ecstatic inner experiences, and his behavior is peculiar to the degree that he no longer eats or sleeps, or tends to any of the routines of life (Sullivan, 1953, p. 133). Carl Jung suggested that waking and dreaming states are part of a seamless continuum, with no clear boundary. He suggested that primitives do not distinguish between inner and outer experiences. To the primitive, “the world is a more or less fluid phenomenon within the stream of his own fantasy, where subject and object are undifferentiated and in a state of mutual interpenetration.” According to Jung (1953), the “outside”

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has an a priori structure of its own that antedates all conscious experience. It is quite impossible to conceive how “experience” in the widest sense, or, for that matter, anything psychic, could originate exclusively in the outside world. The psyche is part of the inmost mystery of life, and it has its own peculiar structure and form like every other organism. Whether this psychic structure and its elements, the archetypes, ever “originated” at all is a metaphysical question and therefore unanswerable (p. 39). We know very little about the phenomenon of dreams, despite over a century of psychoanalytic and neurological research into the subject. Have you ever had a dream that seemed like, or turned out to be, a premonition? Have you ever had a dream that helped solve a problem that you were unable to solve the day before? Have you had dreams in which you vividly felt you were being visited by dead ancestors? To primitives, these sort of dream experiences are normal and expected parts of their lives. DIONYSIAN SELF-MUTILATION OR TORTURE One of the main traits of the Dionysian, according to Benedict (1934), is to “escape from the boundaries imposed on him by his five senses, to break through into another order of experience” (p. 79). One way of inducing an altered state of consciousness is to seek out various types of deprivation, torture and other ordeals. These can be a means towards breaking through the boundaries of ordinary experience to attain altered states of consciousness (Another way, intoxication, is discussed below). Many of the American Indian tribes practiced self-mutilation and various forms of self-torture as a mode of gaining visions and hence getting in touch with their guardian spirits. There might be cutting off of finger joints, cutting of strips of skin from arms and legs and other means in obtaining the vision. In village tribes it was not possible to discover a single man advanced in years who had his full number of fingers. The torture is sometimes part of the Sun Dance or other sun rituals. One might feed the sun with coin-shaped bits cut from one’s flesh. The central point of all this was a vision quest. The Dionysian mode of mortification of the flesh and other austerities helps one turn away from deriving any pleasure from the gross body, to attain a union with God and the graces that go with that. For some in the East that might mean release from the necessity of rebirth. Or, the individual might simply gain energy from some universal store and thereby be strengthened. An example of self-torture to induce an altered state of consciousness is seen among the Plains tribes of North America. According to Jilek (1982), Younger braves would propitiate supernatural agencies by the sacrifice of their pain and at the same time obtain individual spirit powers as well as the recognition of their fellow tribesmen. The devotee’s skin was pierced with sharp skewers at breast, shoulders, or back, and fastened by strong thongs to the center pole or to buffalo skulls. For many hours he would then dance while leaning back, his weight hanging at the pole, or, if attached to buffalo skulls, he would drag them around the entire camp circle. Among the Oglala Sioux, the prestige of a man depended on his having undergone the tortures of the Sun Dance and possessing the scars to prove it (p. 333). In Greek mythology, Dionysus was torn to pieces as a boy by the Titans and then was worshiped in this state as Zagreus. Nietzsche (1872/1967) says: “In this existence as a dismembered god, Dionysus possesses the dual nature of a cruel, barbarized demon and a mild, gentle ruler.” (§ 10) In India for ages there have been many full-time ascetics, imposing on themselves penance in the form of intense suffering, self-torture to a degree seen nowhere else, as a way of honoring the gods, or in return for some favor, or to acquire merit. All over India one sees men establishing themselves under trees and, by some act of severe penanceattracting many onlookers. Penitents will bury themselves in a standing position until only the head remains above ground; or walk on iron spikes; or dance and carry a kavadi on the shoulder (a heavy decorated frame of wood); or roll in the dust and rocks in the intense heat of the day. Other extreme modes observed in India include holding an arm upright for years until the tissues wither and it becomes impossible ever again to bring the arm into a normal position; walking for long distances on sharp spikes;


John Alan Cohan

sleeping or “relaxing” on a bed of thorns (actually nail-like spikes); rolling hundreds of miles in sun and storm, through dust and mud; hanging for half an hour by the feet, head down, over a smoldering fire; or swinging on poles at religious festivals by a flesh-hook fastened into the muscles at the back (though the British made this practice illegal). Others will spend 90% of their time balanced on a slack wire in the forest, like laying in a hammock consisting only of a slim wire. Men who engage in severe mortification of the flesh become themselves an object of veneration and fame; miracles are attributed to them; money and food flow in. St. Simon Stylites was a Syrian saint who spent 37 years sitting for the most part on top of a high pillar. He endured the scorching heat by day and the biting frost by night, so that he might overcome evil passions and be nearer heaven. Some turn to self-denial because they are world-weary, sorrowful, miserable, discomforted in the world of strife or unhappy in domestic life. These people are called Sadhu and the practices called Sadhuism-detached from human interests, a philosophical outlook that life is an evil. They have a preference for the spiritual over the material, and believe that all phenomena is illusion, that true knowledge is gained only by contemplation and austerities. But a principal motivation for self-deprivation and self-torture, as seen across cultures, is to transcend ordinary consciousness, attain a higher state of consciousness, and come into a fuller union with the gods or the spirits that be. DIONYSIAN INTOXICATION As an alternative to self-denial, Dionysian intoxication is another way of pushing oneself into a higher state of consciousness. Benedict (1934) asserts: The desire of the Dionysian, in personal experience or in ritual, is to press through it toward a certain psychological state, to achieve excess. The closest analogy to the emotions he seeks is drunkenness, and he values the illumination of frenzy. With Blake, he believes “the path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” The Apollonian distrusts all this, and has often little idea of the nature of such experiences. He finds means to outlaw them from his conscious life. He “knows but one law, measure in the Hellenic sense.” He keeps the middle of the road, stays within the known map, does not meddle with disruptive psychological states (p. 79). Nietzsche (1872/1967) says that the Dionysian impulse is something like intoxication: Either under the influence of the narcotic draught, of which the songs of all primitive men and peoples speak, or with the potent coming of spring that penetrates all nature with joy, these Dionysian emotions awake, and as they grow in intensity everything subjective vanishes into complete self-forgetfulness (§ 1). Nietzsche (1872/1967) also says: In song and dance man expresses himself as a member of a higher community; he has forgotten how to walk and speak and is on the way toward flying into the air, dancing. His very gestures express enchantment. Just as the animals now talk, and the earth yields milk and honey, supernatural sounds emanate from him, too: he feels himself a god, he himself now walks about enchanted, in ecstasy, like the gods he saw walking in his dreams. He is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art: in these paroxysms of intoxication the artistic power of all nature reveals itself to the highest gratification of the primordial unity (§ 1). In Dionyian cultures we have “extravagant sexual licentiousness,” “barbarian” festivals-in which “the most savage natural instincts were unleashed, including even that horrible mixture of sensuality and cruelty which has always seemed to me to be the real ‘witches brew’” (Nietzsche, 1872/1967, § 2). Ruth Benedict notes that among the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, particularly the Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, their religious ceremonies aimed for ecstasy. The chief dancer would lose normal control of



himself, froth at the mouth, tremble violently and do things that would be bizarre in a normal state. They celebrated this madness as a supernatural infusion-as a gift of the spirit, a real, supernatural friend that comes to annihilate reason. The Kwakiutl had a cult called the Cannibal Dancers. The people regarded cannibalism with repugnance, but the dance glorified the horrible and the forbidden. The dance expressed the eating of human flesh, which Benedict (1934) says was a “fitting expression of the Dionysian virtue that lies in the terrible and the forbidden” (p. 179). In the Sun Dance of today in Native American ceremonies, the rhythmic sensory stimulation, with singing and drumming, has been demonstrated to induce trance behavior among the participants. This same effect is seen in ceremonies among indigenous people in Siberia, Africa, Indonesia and elsewhere (Jilek, 1982). The Sun Dance, according to Jilek (1982), focuses on the acquisition of supernatural power which may be sought by a devotee for his own health and success, to propitiate spiritual forces, to comfort suffering and bereaved kinspeople, or to counteract evil influences. In essence, this is shamanic power, and on the basis of comparative analysis we can say that the Sun Dance has the characteristics of a shamanic initiation. It includes calling and instruction by dream visions, guidance and tutoring by a shaman, and enduring an ordeal with fasting, thirsting, and painful self-torture in the quest for a personal power-vision (p. 333). Jung (1971) has this commentary on Nietsche’s conception of Dionysian culture: The Dionysian impulse... means the liberation of unbounded instinct, the breaking loose of the unbridled dynamism of animal and divine nature; hence in the Dionysian rout man appears as a satyr, god above and goat below. The Dionysian is the horror of the annihilation of the principium individuationis [principal of individuation] and at the same time “rapturous delight” in its destruction. It is therefore comparable to intoxication, which dissolves the individual into his collective instincts and components-an explosion of the isolated ego through the world. Hence, in the Dionysian orgy, man finds man: “alienated Nature, hostile or enslaved, celebrates once more her feast of reconciliation with her prodigal son - Man.” Each feels himself “not only united, reconciled, merged with his neighbour, but one with him.” His individuality is entirely obliterated. “Man is no longer the artist, he has become the work of art.” “All the artistry of Nature is revealed in the ecstasies of intoxication.” Which means that the creative dynamism, libido in instinctive form, takes possession of the individual as though he were an object and uses him as a tool or as an expression of itself. It is permissible to conceive the natural creature as a “work of art,” then of course man in the Dionysian state has become a natural work of art too; but in so far as the natural creature is decidedly not a work of art in the ordinary sense of the word, he is nothing but sheer Nature, unbridled, a raging torrent, not even an animal that is restricted to itself and the laws of its being (pp. 138139). As mentioned above, we have a paradox: on the one hand, the Dionysian is a rugged individualist, yet, through intoxication or through ascetic practices the individual is destroyed and becomes merged with the collective. The Dionysian side makes one “forget both himself and his humanity” and turns one “into a mere creature of instinct” (Jung, 1971, p. 140). Jung (1971) goes on to describe the Dionysian’s psychological qualities: “a streaming outwards and upwards, a diastole, as Goethe called it; a motion embracing the whole world, as Schiller also describes it in his ‘Ode to Joy’” (p. 143): Approach, ye millions, and embrace! To the whole world my kiss shall swell! ... All the world may draughts of joy


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From the breasts of Nature take; Good and ill alike employ Pains to trace joy’s rosy wake. Kisses gave she and the grape, And the faithful, lifelong friend; Even the worm its joy can shape, Heavenwards the cherubs wend. (as quoted in Jung, 1971, p. 143) Jung goes on to say: This is Dionysian expansion. It is a flood of overpowering universal feeling which bursts forth irresistibly, intoxicating the senses like the strongest wine. It is intoxication in the highest sense of the word.... What breaks out in this state has more the character of pure affect, something instinctive and blindly compelling, that finds specific expression in an affection of the bodily sphere (p. 144). APOLLONIAN CULTURES In contrast, we have Apollonian cultures. These embrace moderation, measured attitudes, not rocking the boat, sticking to the middle of the road, the known map, and avoiding messing with psychological states. People are committed to precedent, to tradition. There is distrust of individualism. Individualism is disruptive and uncongenial to the society’s institutions, even if it refines upon and enlarges the tradition itself. We mentioned in Chapter 1, many cultures are tradition-bound, and this is an Apollonian trait. In these cultures people are conformity-directed, and group norms are expected to be observed by everyone. There is no “struggle” for a separate personal identity. To diverge from the values of the community would be considered disloyal. In these cultures power comes from cult membership, verbatim ritual, conformity, sobriety, and moderation. At the same time, many of these cultures are predominately, paradoxically, Dionysian, although “acting out” in intoxicating ways and the breaking of rules is only allowed during Dionysian rituals. The self-denial in Apollonian cultures does not have the transcendental goal that it has in Dionysian cultures. Rather, it is an end in itself. Nietzsche (1872/1967) says that Apollo “shows us how necessary is the entire world of suffering, that by means of it the individual may be impelled to realize the redeeming vision, and then, sunk in contemplation of it, sit quietly in his tossing bark, amid the waves.” (§ 4) In Apollonian cultures there is a “measured restraint, that freedom from the wilder emotions, that calm of the sculptor god” (Nietzshe, 1872/1967, § 1). Schopenhauer says: “Just as in a stormy sea that, unbounded in all directions, raises and drops mountainous waves, howling, a sailor sits in a boat and trusts in his frail bark: so in the midst of a world of torments the individual human being sits quietly, supported by and trusting in the principium individuationis [principle of individuation].” (as quoted in Nietzsche, 1872/1967, § 1) Jung (1971) has this comment to Nietzsche’s conception: The Apollonian impulse produces the state comparable to dreaming, the Dionysian the state comparable to intoxication. By “dreaming” Nietzsche means, as he himself says, essentially an “inward vision,” the “lovely semblance of dream-worlds.” Apollo “rules over the beautiful illusion of the inner world of



fantasy,” he is “the god of all shape-shifting powers.” He signifies measure, number, limitation, and subjugation of everything wild and untamed. “One might even describe Apollo himself as the glorious divine image of the principium individuationis.” (p. 138) Jung adds: ...[T]he Apollonian is a perception of inner images of beauty, of measure, of controlled and proportioned feelings. The comparison with dreaming clearly indicates the character of the Apollonian state: it is a state of introspection, of contemplation turned inwards to the dream world of eternal ideas, and hence a state of introversion (p. 144). The dreamlike introspection of Apollonian culture is an illusion, has a plastic cookie-cutter quality; whereas the dreams in the Dionysian world are full-blown, bigger than life, expansive, breaking through limitations, and taken to be real. COMPARISON OF DIONYSIAN AND APOLLONIAN PATTERNS As we have seen, there are contradictory and paradoxical aspects between Dionysian and Apollonian cultures. Perhaps the best key words for Dionysian are “individualism” and “intoxication,” while the best key words for Apollonian are “group conformity” and “introvertism.” Yet this is inadequate, for in both instances there are contradictions. The Dionysian will seek a collective unity, a wholeness, in going into an altered state of consciousness-which seems the opposite of individualism. The Dionysian in fact might seek this through asceticism, suffering, self-torture or this might be sought through intoxication, ecstatic orgies, dancing, wild excesses. The Dionysian, if practicing asceticism as a means of transcendence of sensate experiences, must be controlled and measured in order to do so-Apollonian traits. As Nietzsche (1872/1967) points out, perhaps Dionysian transcendence is due to a narcotic influence, of which the songs of all primitive men and peoples speak, or with the potent coming of spring that penetrates all nature with joy, these Dionysian emotions awake, and as they grow in intensity everything subjective vanishes into complete self-forgetfulness.” (§ 1) Nietzsche (1872/1967) further points out: In song and in dance man expresses himself as a member of a higher community; he has forgotten how to walk and speak and is on the way towards flying into the air, dancing. His very gestures express enchantment. Just as the animals now talk, and the earth yields milk and honey, supernatural sounds emanate from him, too: he feels himself a god, he himself now walks about enchanted, in ecstasy, like the gods he saw walking in his dreams. He is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art: in these paroxysms of intoxication the artistic power of all nature reveals itself to the highest gratification of the primordial unity. The noblest clay, the most costly marble, man, is here kneaded and cut, and to the sound of the chisel strokes of the Dionysian world-artist rings out the cry of the Eleusian mysteries: ‘Do you prostrate yourselves, millions? Do you sense your Maker, world?’ (§ 1) The Apollonian is tradition bound, controlled, introspective, and does not rock the boat-seeking ideas from the dream world. Too, the Dionysian relies on the dream world, but not so much as part of introverted thinking; rather, as a means of enlightenment, of communication with the spirit world. The Dionysian, by identifying with nature, by closely interpreting dreams-does not do so to be introspective, but to break through to a higher consciousness and to experience a collective unity. The Apollonian influence is the stoic, emotionless, balanced, measured, purely intellectual influence in culture. It is represented in rationality, mathematical precision and the intellect. Seeking of scientific truth is Apollonian. In contrast, the Dionysian revels in the truths reaped through experiencing the passions to their fullest rather than denying or controlling them. Thus there is a duality, “just as procreation depends on the duality of the sexes, involving perpetual strife with only periodically intervening reconciliations” (Nietzsche, 1872/1967, § 1).


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The calm repose of Apollo is a sublime expression-and Apollo himself might be called “the glorious divine image of the principium individuationis [principle of individuation], through whose gestures and eyes all the joy and wisdom of “illusion,” together with its beauty, speak to us” (Nietzsche, 1872/1967, § 1).

PART II. PRIMITIVE BELIEFS, PRACTICES AND RITUALS


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CHAPTER 4 Mana Abstract. The idea of mana permeates the customs of many cultures, including modern cultures. Mana provides the theoretical basis for such beliefs as animism, totemism, witchcraft, and sorcery. Mana is the means by which power is transmitted from one being to another. It means, roughly speaking, power, but a force altogether distinct from physical power-a power associated with a spirit, a totemic ancestor, or other supernatural agency. All things are thought to possess a “vital essence” that can be transferred by contact. Mana is thought to be expressed most notably through thoughts and words, and this is evident in shamanic healing, folk medicine, or simply prayer intended for healing. The conviction of a person uttering an incantation is thought to be an element relating to the efficacy of a prayer, curse or ritual. There is widespread belief that mana subsists in names, as well as in artifacts, tools and weapons. A club or spear of a great warrior, for example, is the abode of powerful mana. Objects such as amulets and charms are thought to be imbued with mana, either intrinsically, or after being consecrated for certain purposes, usually for the purpose of averting evil or to secure good fortune.

WHAT IS MANA? The mystical orientation of primitive cultures attributes the success or failure of things to unseen powers. In order to understand primitive ways of thinking, a good starting point is the concept of mana. The idea of mana permeates the customs and practices of many cultures, in many ways, and as we will see it is is evident in modern cultures as well. Mana provides the theoretical basis for such beliefs as animism, totemism, witchcraft, and sorcery. Mana is the means by which power is transmitted from one being to another, from one soul to another, from a sacred space to the people around it, and so forth. Mana is the means in which magic has causal efficacy. Mana means melesian psysis or phyo, “to bring forth.” It is also thought to be derived from a Maori term. It is difficult to find English equivalents. It means, roughly speaking, power. It is equivalent to the New Testament pneuma, or Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. The term “manna” in the Bible is a different word, but some like to link the two terms. “Manna” was the miraculous food that God gave the Israelites. Psalm 78:24 begins, “And he rained down on them manna to eat” (English Standard Version). The anthropologist R. H. Codrington (1891) has this description of mana: There is a belief in a force altogether distinct from physical power, which acts in all kinds of ways for good and evil, and which it is of the greatest advantage to possess or control. This is mana... It is a power or influence, not physical, and in a way supernatural; but it shows itself in physical force, or in any kind of power or excellence which a man possesses (pp. 118-120). Further, mana is not fixed in anything, and can be conveyed in almost anything. It works to affect everything which is beyond the ordinary power of men, outside the common processes of nature, it is present in the atmosphere of life, attaches itself to persons and to things, and is manifested by results which can only be ascribed to its operation (Codrington, 1891, p. 119). Codrington (1891) also describes mana as that invisible power which is believed by the natives to cause all such effects as transcend the regular course of nature, and to reside in spiritual beings, whether in the spiritual part of living men or in the ghosts of the dead, being imparted by them to their names and to various things that belong to them (p. 191). John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


John Alan Cohan

Codrington (1891) adds: If a man has been successful in fighting, it has not been his natural strength of aim, quickness of eye, or readiness of resource that has won success; he has certainly got the mana of a spirit or of some deceased warrior to empower him, conveyed in an amulet of stone around his neck, or a tuft of leaves in his belt, in a tooth hung from a finger of his bow hand, or in a form of words with which he brings supernatural assistance to his side. If a man’s pigs multiply, and his gardens are productive, it is not because he is industrious and looks after his property, but because of the stones full of mana for pigs and yams that he possesses. Of course a yam naturally grows when planted, that is well known, but it will not be very large unless mana comes into play; a canoe will not be swift unless mana be brought to bear upon it, a net will not catch many fish, nor an arrow inflict a mortal wound (p. 120). Thus, mana is a supernatural power associated with a spirit, a totemic ancestor, a personality, or anything that is strong, powerful or dangerous in a ritual sense. Mana is thought of as “both a force and a material substance that can be localized; it is also spiritual-a sort of conglomerate power of force, soul, and substance in one. It is the essential nature, the influence, the potency of things in purest form” (Nemeroff & Rozin, 1994, pp. 159-160). It is a force field, a field of energy. Schwimmer (1963) found that to the indigenous Maori people, mana was “A powerful thing in the olden days-you could do nothing without it” (p. 398). He further states that mana is regarded as “[a] sort of will-power,” and that the “people who have it think no one can question them or discuss any matter concerning their lives or background” (p. 398). Things of all kinds are thought to contain and emanate mana. The mana in an object is what will provide optimal utility. According to Mauss (1902/1971), mana is “what causes the net to bring in a good catch... and keeps the canoe sailing smoothly. In the farms it is fertility; on an arrow it is the substance which kills” (p. 111). Mageo (1991) argues that mana, exerting a kind of magical power, is said to be similar to electricity in its effects: When a person with little mana comes in contact with one who has great mana, some of the charge is drained from the more highly charged member of the interaction and transferred to the lesser member. The lesser member becomes overcharged and, therefore, sick, even unto death (p. 361). Mana implies that people “transfer” some of their “vital essence” to anything they hold or come into contact with, whether clothing they wear, gardens they work in, or children they raise (Nemeroff & Rozin, 1994, p. 159). A stark example of how strong the belief in mana is is seen among the Hindus in India, where the lowest cast, the “untouchables,” are literally thought to be so inferior to other classes that contact between them and anyone of a higher cast will defile the latter. Another example is seen in families where a close kin has committed a heinous crime, such as serial murder. The family members and their offspring are thought to be polluted, shunned by others because they somehow “carry” the same “essence” of their infamous kin. Some people have especially strong force fields, others not. Shamans, witch-doctors, charismatic leaders, and ghosts are, among other entities, strong bearers of mana. Sometimes mana is used to describe a person’s power or charisma. Schwimmer (1963) offers this example: The fisherman who catches fish has mana, because success in fishing is essentially uncertain. The soldier who wins a victory, the witchdoctor who cures a patient are all, in their own spheres, prevailing over a fateful hazard (p. 398). All things, all creatures, are imbued with mana, in varying degrees. It is hard to generalize, but some people, such as shamans, have more mana than other people. Sacred objects or places have more mana than ordinary objects or places. Intuitively, in modern society we tend to place a “premium” or special value on goods and artifacts that are made in exotic places, as if “marked by the inalienable qualities associated with their unusual places or sources of origin” (Helms, 1993, p. 99).

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In primitive cultures it is thought that people’s mana can be retained or increased, and also lost if they transgress certain norms. “...[I]t is hard to be a man with mana. Maintaining it in all circumstances is a constant strain” (Helms, 1993, p. 99). Many primitives are fearful of photography because the picture could capture the individual’s soul-force. The idea of mana seems intuitive. Anyone-and that is most of us-who can sense an “energy field” or “force field” that other people give off is sensing mana. Our energy field or “aura” seems to extend quite a distance. In public places there is a lot of energy intersecting, and that helps explain why one feels exhausted after visiting crowded public places. If you believe in prayer or ESP-you must also believe in mana. ESP or thought transference takes into account the idea that thoughts are mana that have an effect at a distance. Even Freud (1933) thought that psychic phenomena such as telepathy was a real perception: Naturally not all cases have equal evidential value, nor in all cases is it equally possible to rule out more rational explanations; but taking all the evidence together there remains a heavy weight of probability in favour of the reality of thought-transference (p. 63). Mana helps explain how thoughts made in prayer are conveyed from the supplicant’s mind to the intended god or gods. If you believe that certain objects-such as heirlooms in your family or objects owned by a deceased person you loved, or objects owned by famous people-have a special feel or a special value, you must believe in mana. When we touch objects we impart some of our own mana into the objects, thus making them a kind of extension or embodiment of ourselves. If one loses something there often is a deep sense of grief above and beyond the material value involved. Some people are “packrats” or compulsive hoarders and can’t part with anything in their home, not even letters, receipts, bills or old medication, due to some strange inexplicable sentimental attachment. Sometimes people hoard things for fear that something bad will happen if possessions are discarded. Perhaps this can be explained because their own mana, their essence, and those of loved ones, impregnates these objects. The objects take on a life, a vitality, from the mana that has been absorbed in them. One is thus reluctant to throw them away, for they contain the life force of oneself or others. One identifies with these objects. Even the most neglected object has an intrinsic dignity of its own, so that it would be “murder” to throw it in the trash. In modern society, when a loved one dies we tend to want to cherish things that belonged to that person. The personal effects of the deceased become treasured items because they are imbued with the mana of the deceased. Thus, mana helps to explain why we attach great sentimental value to family heirlooms that, in and of themselves, might have have little intrinsic worth. The fact that an heirloom was worn by one’s grandmother, even if it is an ordinary ring of little value, makes it special in terms of the energy it contains. Perhaps a touching example of the special value associated with objects owned by the deceased involves a slain marine’s parents, who adopted a military dog wounded in Iraq in the same rocket attack that killed their son. The family adopted the bomb-sniffing German shepherd named Lex who was granted early retirement. The soldier’s mother said she believed that her son’s spirit would live on through the dog because of their close bond and because they were together during the final moments of her son’s life. “It was blood on blood. We can’t get Dustin back, but we have Lex” (Associated Press, 2007). Another example of mana in modern society is that people everywhere think that something bearing the autograph of a famous person somehow has unique intrinsic value. The same can be said of clothing, furnishings and other objects owned by famous people. Such objects command premium prices at auctions, particularly if the person has died. By the way, this is true whether the individual is famous or infamous-whether a Hitler or a Michael Jackson-in either case the property becomes more valuable after the person dies. Perhaps mana helps explain why some people get homesick when they are away. Everyone has at one time or another experienced being homesick. It is a situation where one is away from home and feels listless, unhappy,


John Alan Cohan

anxious-and there is a strong longing to return home. Why should this be? Mana supplies an explanation: One’s home is imbued with the mana of one’s family and of oneself. To be cut off from this energy field is like being deprived of a certain vital force that nourishes you, so that there is a feeling of longing to be back at home. Mana could be the explanation of a recent study published in the British Medical Journal (Fowler & Christakis, 2008) showing that happiness can spread from person to person within social networks. That is, the happiness of others can cause happiness for oneself. The study showed that “happy people tend to be connected to one another,” that there is an “emotional contagion” that can be transferred from one person to another. The reverse is true. Having a depressed roommate, for instance, can over a relatively short time result in emotional contagion of the depression. As between strangers happiness is said to be contagious even in fleeting contact, such as when a waiter or clerk provides service with a happy demeanor. And within the framework of a social network consisting of friends and friends of friends, there is significant evidence that happiness of a remote person in the network-a friend of a friend, for example-is contagious even when there is some social distance between people. If a co-worker wins the lottery and is elated about it, others in the workplace who are not close to the individual will share a happy feeling, more then enough to override the ordinary feelings of envy that often erupt in such cases. The bottom line of the report is that one’s personal happiness depends in large part on whether others in one’s social network are happy. “Happiness, in other words, is not merely a function of individual experience or individual choice but is also a property of groups of people.” (Fowler & Christakis, 2008). The scientists who conducted this study were unable to explain their findings. However, mana provides a simple and persuasive explanation. Since good or bad mana can be absorbed by objects, sometimes we see a fetishism that deeply influences people. For instance, even in modern urban settings, we see a pattern of demolishing structures where bad situations have taken place-such as school shootings, the office building of the Oklahoma City bombing, and so on. In Israel the government has had a long-standing policy of demolishing or sealing houses that belong to the families of Palestinians who had gone on deadly rampages or committed a security offense (Kershner, 2009). Many believe that if a crime is committed in a particular space, such as a particular room, or in a yard, or in a church, that the space thereby becomes polluted, and a special act of reconciliation or consecration is necessary before it can be used again. The idea is that the place is imbued with the misfortune that occurred there, and if not destroyed or purified ritually, other occupants will suffer from the vibes or experience the same fate. Realtors are often required by law to inform prospective buyers if a murder has taken place in a house being offered for sale. Another example consists of “killing fields” where massacres have occurred against innocent people. Permission to build a hotel on a site used by Nazis in Kiev, where more than 33,700 Jews were shot to death over a two-day period in 1941, and where, in a ravine an estimated 100,000 bodies were deposited in the ensuing months-was rejected by authorities due to public outcry (Associated Press, 2009). Often such sites are dedicated to the public as memorial parks or given protection as historic sites. And in English common law there was the doctrine of deodand, meaning “given to God.” Under this law any personal property found by a jury of twelve to have immediately caused the death of a person or animal would be forfeit to the king, and the proceeds given to alms. Thus, if a horse and cart run over and kill someone, the objects would be forfeit; or if someone is accidentally killed with a sword, or falls from a ladder and is killed, the sword or the ladder would be forfeit; and so on. Objects that have been touched by saints or other holy people are thought to be especially powerful vehicles for conveying graces and blessings. All over the world, the relics of saints are revered, kissed, put on display, and prayed to. Holy relics continue to be thought of as fetishes that have the power to cure illness and to protect against danger. Mere images, pictures, statutes of saints are similarly credited with miraculous efficacy. And certain objects in nature are thought to be particularly rich in mana. Stones or objects of striking or unusual shape or appearance are thought to have the power of increasing their possessor’s soul-stuff and protecting against evil spirits, and are carried about on one’s person as amulets (We will discuss amulets and other protective fetishes in chapter 9, “Envy and the Evil Eye”).

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There is a great deal of mana emitted in music. Music is important in all cultures, and is very important in the rituals of medicine men and shamans. Music and its concomitants-singing, playing of instruments, dancing-are potent vehicles for healing, for attaining altered states of consciousness and for producing other results in rituals. Howard (2002), found: To Aristotle, flute music aroused the emotions and offered cathartic release. To Cassiodorus, music in the aeolian mode could treat mental ailments, while the lydian mode was suitable for soothing children. AlKindik, the 9th century Islamic philosopher, described “celestial harmonics” created by a universal chorus built from the vibrating rays emitted by all entities. Boethius, in the 6th century, described the healing properties of music; this evolved as the four humours of Renaissance musicology and the harmony of the spheres in the French Age of Enlightenment. Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) took from Plotinus to describe the “magic of music”. Plato, in The Republic, discussed the use of modes to create a reign of moderation, and in Elements of Harmony organised his zodiacal calendar according to musical scales. To Baroque composers, keys described moods and emotions. Isaac Newton, taking from Descartes, saw musical pitch as an organising force in the universe.... Alfred Nieman argued that composed music provides the stimulus on which “the unconscious mind receiving [it] acts as a catalyst and returns the music back to its original symbolic nature.” (pp. 66-67) The evil eye is a belief in many cultures that people (and even animals) can cause harm simply by looking enviously at another person or admiring someone’s possessions. This is explained by mana, a power that emanates from the eyes. If someone, particularly a stranger, admires something belonging to a neighbor-whether an animal, a child or anything else-this look from the eyes, in and of itself, has power to produce harm (see Chapter 9, “Envy and the Evil Eye”). Related to this is the idea that distinct types of mana reside in various parts of the body such as the eyes, the organs, hair, nails, saliva, etc., and might be called “soul-stuff” According to Chapman (1921): The soul pervades the whole body, all the members of which are sharers in the soul-stuff, and therefore have a life of their own, a feeling of their own, and a will of their own. It is not the man who sees and hears and walks and breathes, but the eye sees, the ear hears, the foot walks and the mouth breathes. It is not the man who feels pain, but the part of the body where the pain is located.... In man and beast this soul-stuff is found specially abundant in the head.... Head hunting has its root in this idea. The vital power and courage of the dead man is appropriated by him who possesses his skull.... There is much soul-stuff in the blood, for life ebbs away with the blood.... Strength is imparted by drinking the blood of the slain foe.... There is a mysterious connection between the placenta and the child.... The decayed piece of umbilical cord is carefully preserved. The hair also contains much soul power, and is therefore not cut by the heathen.... Saliva is medicinal, because it contains soul power.... The sweat also, as a secretion of the body, contains soul-stuff.... The souls of men, animals, plants and even those of lifeless things invigorate one another. One can augment or invigorate one’s own soul-stuff through that of others (pp. 299-300). This idea is reflected in cultures that believe the spit of a sick person must not be burned for it will take away some of the person’s vitality; the hair must not be burned for the same reason. Old people sometimes put their spit into the mouths of children to bring them good luck; if someone is fortunate or lucky, one will ask him to spit into one’s mouth; sick people are breathed upon by the healthy in order to bring them healthy soul-stuff. If the sick person is too far gone, they won’t do it lest their souls should be entangled with the departing soul and leave them. The above quotation suggests that the organs of the human body have a certain mana, a certain personality or an autonomous identity. Today, transplants of organs from one person to another is a fairly common surgical procedure. The question arises-to what extent, if any does the spirit of the donor or personality of the donor, say, in a heart transplant, transfer itself to the recipient of the organ? Is it possible that the donee might have a new outlook on things in virtue of the soul-stuff in the donated organ? There is much anecdotal and scientific evidence in support of the idea of “cellular memory,” in which the donor’s spirit has not yet “moved on” (Sylvia, 1997; Pearsall, 1998; Pearsall, Schwartz, & Russek, 2000). Linton (2003), for example, asserts:


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...[B]ecause of the suddenness of many donor’s deaths, the donor’s spirit may not have yet realized that its body is dead. Thus, the transplanted heart continues to function as if it were in its original body, not realizing that its original owner is no longer there. A typical example of how seriously people take the idea of mana is seen in Nepal, where a 10-day festival called Chhechu consists of sportive plays and rituals. This culminates in the distribution by Buddhist lamas of “power balls” (wang ro ro) to the principal headman, allies, their wives, and villagers who participate. These balls are made of dough, are placed on the altar, and are thought to get infused with power during the festival. People then make the dough into images of various gods, and take them home to place in grain storage rooms to ensure plentiful grain, abundance, and good health (Holmberg, 2000). MANA IN THOUGHTS AND WORDS The primitive mind attributes extraordinary power to thoughts and words, particularly by the magician or shaman. We have all heard the expression, “Thoughts are things.” And thoughts, of course, consist of words. Many books have been written about the power of thoughts, the “science of mind”-how to become rich through mastering one’s power of the mind. Many people practice auto-suggestion in meditation or self-hypnosis, repeating words such as “I am whole,” “I am free of pain,” or “I am becoming prosperous.” The affirmation of the words is believed to help produce the reality. The primitive mind totally embraces this point of view. This is perhaps an ancient truth: that words themselves have a special power or mana, above and beyond the literal meaning of the words. Whether for good or for evil, words are thought to have real power to produce the condition they evoke. This is particularly true in cultures that believe in shamanic healing, folk medicine, or simply prayer intended for healing. The underlying theme is that healing power can be transmitted through ritual language and objects that are imbued with healing energy. Tembiah (1968) has offered this: Since words exist and are in a sense agents in themselves which establish connexions and relations between both man and man, and man and the world, and are capable of “acting” upon them, they are one of the most realistic representations we have of the concept of force which is either not directly observable or is a metaphysical notion which we find necessary to use (p. 184). The idea that words, in and of themselves, have power to produce effects in their own right is expressed in this passage of Isaiah (55.11): “... So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” And the beginning of the Gospel According to St. John famously tells of that the Word (Greek notion of logos) was in the beginning with God, that the Word was made flesh in Jesus Christ, and that those who followed Christ became the sons of God, and so on. A great example of the mana as word-power is found in the words, Hoc est corpus meum-the words of consecration in the Mass. According to Catholic tradition, simply by uttering these words during the Mass the bread and wine thereby turn into the body and blood of Christ, even if the priest is thinking about something else or is not in a state of grace. In healing ceremonies of various religions, the ritual use of words is thought to have a healing effect, particularly glossolalic prayer (prayer in “tongues”). (For a discussion of charismatic healing practices, See chapter 11, “Trance and Possession States”). In Eastern meditation, the recitation of mantras is a form of ritual language believed to have a power for the individual for whom it is personally chosen, or for certain situations, certain parts of the body, or for certain social or emotional needs. Mantras are supposed to harness the power of the gods themselves. These are believed to vibrate on the ether and not on latent forces which are here. Magicians use mana to obtain control over over invisible beings and the occult powers of nature, and to exert power over persons and their belongings, either to help them or harm them. In magic, ritual words are at least as important as other actions performed by the practitioner. There is power in the words themselves, or more correctly, in the

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words when uttered in a ritual context, with appropriate intention (For a full discussion, see chapter 12, “Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft”). Thoughts alone can be powerful enough to work harm on another-and presto, the mischief is wrought. According to primitive belief, anyone has the power to affect fate by merely wishing that something should come true. Anyone can cast a spell and bewitch another merely by wishing it. Sometimes we all have made a wish in a moment of anger or impatience, wishing someone were dead-and the other person according to primitive thinking indeed could die of the wish. Desire alone has the power to kill. Voodoo death is but just one example of wishing the death of another, coupled with a special intense act of the will through the use of an effigy of the victim. The enemy is “doomed” simply by impregnating the fetish with one’s “mana” of violent intent, exercised upon the symbol (See chapter 13, “Death by Suggestion: Voodoo Death, Taboo Death, and Bone-Pointing”). THE ROLE OF THE HUMAN AGENT AND THE MEDIUM OF CONVEYANCE OF THE WORDS As mentioned, in casting a spell and in other rituals it is believed that the words alone are causally potent. But not all utterances have the same degree of power. The extent of mana emitted in the utterance of a spell, or in a shaman’s healing power or in the words of vocalization in song-depend on the intention behind the human agent. The conviction or faith of the individual reciting the words-whether in a curse or of a prayer-may be critical. Thus, some healers are more effective than others, not so much because of the words they use, but because of the energy or force of will they bring to the ritual. The more forcefully the shaman sings the chant, the more strongly the witch wishes something to happen-the greater the efficacy of the energy being generated. And the words of a magician can have especial potency if uttered not just into space, but into a substance associated with the the victim. Westermarck (1906), argues: The efficacy of a wish or curse depends not only on the potency which it possesses from the beginning, owing to certain qualities in the person from whom it originates, but also on the vehicle by which it is conducted-just as the strength of an electric shock depends both on the original intensity of the current and on the condition of the conductor (p. 586). The magician can utter the words of a curse-silently or out loud-directing this into the ether, or directing it into an object which becomes “contaminated” with the energy. Therefore, magicians will seek to obtain drops of the person’s blood, nail or hair clippings, food leavings, saliva, sweat, a portrait, a piece of clothing that has the victim’s smell on it, or even a footprint. All alike become vehicles of the ritual forces conveyed by the magician’s words or actions. In Fiji a medicine-man who wishes to do harm will stab at foot prints of the victim, in turn causing him to get foot trouble. One always splits open the coconut after drinking from it, before throwing it away, or else a medicine-man could find it and work a spell on the drinker; opening it up causes the emanation of oneself which entered at drinking to escape. In voodoo an effigy of the individual to be cursed is “filled” with the words of the voodoo priest. The magician might silently transmit evil intent directly in the presence of the victim-by touching him, or uttering a spell over the subject’s footprint, or through some other medium such as blood, saliva, food leavings, or a drink in which the curse is transmitted. Thus, in many cultures people will secretly bury the remains of their food so that no residue of the meal might be utilized by someone to cast a magic spell. It may also be important for the person seeking healing to have a reverential, hopeful attitude in the ceremony, particularly in in shamanic healing, where the patient is a central participant. As we will see in chapter 14 (“The Placebo Effect”), often the patient’s attitude-whether of optimism or despair-can dramatically affect the efficacy of the healing regimen. On the other hand, in ordinary prayer people usually do not think that the cooperation or even knowledge of the person prayed for is relevant in order for the healing energy to do its work. THE NATURE OF A CURSE Cursing occurs when someone seeks to inflict harm upon another by the mere enunciation of hostile words, backed by a powerful intention. The belief in curses is as old as mankind. Anyone can do it, either silently or out loud.


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The power of God to bestow curses is seen throughout the Old Testament (e.g., the plagues of Egypt). The power of the Church to declare someone excommunicated is in effect a curse. In Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Niebelungen the dwarf, Alberich, gets the whole drama going by uttering a curse on the ring he has made from the Rhinemaidens’ gold, when it was taken from him by the god, Wotan-and during the remainder of the story anyone who possessed the ring met a violent death. The motivation for issuing a curse is vengeance. The poor and injured who are too weak to avenge themselves use this power as a means of retaliation; it is a method of the weak against the strong. A curse might take the form of a fervent prayer that a heavy vengeance befall someone for some transgression such as unjust treatment. One of the first things that people ponder if they think they have come under a curse is who in the community might have a grudge against them-and that person will be the prime suspect of witchcraft. In primitive cultures, the mere knowledge that a curse has been uttered against someone has dramatic, even fatal consequences-so deep is the belief in its efficacy (See Chapter 13, “Death by Suggestion: Voodoo Death, Taboo Death, and Bone-Pointing”). Arabs, when being cursed, will lie on the ground so that the curse may fly over them. The opposite of a curse is a blessing. A blessing, too, usually takes the form of words and contains mana-a power of an entirely different order than a curse, and is usually accompanied with a full heart. MANA IN NAMES The belief in the power behind names lies at the root of fetishism, idolatry, witchcraft, and shamanism. Each of our names has mana. Our name is an entity, an integral part of ourselves. To know someone’s name is to have power over that person. In primitive cultures the people prize a person’s real name beyond all other names associated with the individual. Life for the primitives is often a struggle, and people are ever on the watch against maliciousworking agencies. Thus, primitive people do not disclose their names to strangers. There are various precautions to conceal their names, especially from enemies. Sometimes they will adopt a pseudonym, concealing their true name from all but their closest kin. In many cultures women will not even utter their husband’s name. In many cultures parents will give an unpleasant or hateful name to children to make the envious spirits believe that the child is inferior. There is a Chinese custom of giving a girl’s name to boys to deceive the gods, or calling the child such derogatory things as “little pig,” or “little dog” (Clodd, 1920, p. 99). Numerous mystical names and titles are attached to Jesus Christ-such as the Good Shepherd, King of the Patriarchs, Joy of Angels, and Master of the Apostles. In the Lord’s Prayer we find the following reference to God: “Hallowed by thy Name.” In the Jewish tradition it is blasphemy to utter God’s name, and in the Ten Commandments we are warned: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain...” In 1913 a monk named Ilarion at the monastery of St. Pantelemon, on Mt. Athos put forward the theory that the Name of God is an integral part of God, and, therefore, itself divine. This idea was denounced by the Archbishop (and referred to as the “Heresy of God’s Name”) The names of places also have mana that express the power or energy of the place. For example, the natives of Greenland had the custom of not speaking the name of a glacier as they rowed past it, for fear that it would be offended and cast off an iceberg (Clodd, 1920, p. 99). For the Nivkh people of Southeast Siberia each dwelling has a spirit or patron saint. Each structural feature of the home is given a name of symbolic significance and is used in rituals. Each of the seven windows has a name indicating both its location and symbolic association. Posts, beams, sleeping benches and above all, fire places, have a name (Black, 1973). MANA AND HEAD-HUNTING Head-hunting was a prized activity in many parts of the world, as a means of showing bravery or of acquiring the “soul substance” of the victim in order to prolong one’s own life, or simply to wreak vengeance against enemies. In Papua New Guinea the main motivation in head-hunting, was to acquire a “head-name”-the name of the victim whose head has been acquired (van der Kroef, 1952).

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In killing someone, the head-hunter is entitled to transfer the name of the victim to his child or a friend. In Papua New Guinea there was great social pressure, and indeed it was a moral duty, for fathers to acquire a head-name for each of his children. The head-name becomes a badge of honor, indeed a prized status symbol, with whom the bearer becomes completely identified. The name of the victim of course has to be ascertained. Usually killing was done by ruse-pretending to be friendly to individuals casually met on the beach or in the forest, eat a meal with them, talk about their places of origin, find out their names-and the hunter will suddenly attack his victim and take his head. Or, spies would be sent to the outskirts of a village to observe its life and to learn the names of some of the villagers. Sometimes in a dawn raid of a village, people who are captured alive were secured and placed in a group in order to determine their names before killing them. Or, survivors of the village, especially children, would be forced to tell the names of the victims who had been killed. Elaborate preparations were made for raids. A formal proposal to go on a head-hunt was placed before the village council, the elders are consulted, a targeted village is decided upon, and the time of the raid is decided upon. In raids, head-hunters would spare children, who would then be adopted by the wives of the hunters. But women and men alike were killed, and when feasible, this was done by beheading. In any event, the heads were always severed and taken home. Cannibalism, however, was not very common to the people of Papua New Guinea. Before bringing the heads home, they were prepared for preservation on the spot. They were dried, filled with clay and grass, the eye sockets filled with shells or beads, and the brain cavities emptied. This required much skill. At home there was always a great celebration. The heads were hung in the men’s house and viewed by the elders. People tell their stories. Preparations for an elaborate feast ensue-sometimes taking months of preparation. Among the Ilongots, a horticultural and hunting people in Northern Luzon, Philippines, headhunters justified their practices as follows, according to Rosaldo (1983): In severing and tossing human heads, Ilongot men recount, they could relieve hearts burdened with the “weight” of insult, envy, pain, and grief; and in discarding “heavy” thoughts, they could achieve an “anger” that yields “energy,” makes shy and burdened youths “the same” or equal to their peers, and “lightens” both their footsteps and the feelings in their hearts (p. 137). MANA AND WEAPONS, TOOLS, AND ARTIFACTS In many cultures there is a certain kind of power associated with weapons, tools and many types of artifacts. It is thought that mana resides in some of these objects. A club or spear of a great warrior, for example, is the abode of powerful mana. Some claim that a chief’s weapon will continually vibrate with convulsive movements when sitting at rest. In addition, the clothing, utensils and other possessions of a good hunter convey virtue. The potent mana from a weapon can be conveyed to another person: In Tonga, for example, the owner of a weapon endowed with supernatural force will lay it across the open palm of someone, then rub and squeeze the stem of a banana tree in his hands to express the juice, then rub that over the weapon and the hand of the other person. This conveys the power from the weapon to the other person. In Richard Wagner’s opera, Siegfried, the sword that Siegfried fashions from broken fragments left by his father-possesses unsurpassed strength. Often the object is thought of as having a symbiotic relationship with the human body, particularly the person who has made or uses the object. According to Telban (1998): The ‘life’ of things such as small canoes, stools, paddles, spears, adzes for pulverizing sago, axes, bush knives, hand drums, mats, baskets, body decorations, and so on is derivative in that it depends on the life of humans. Most of this equipment is handled only by those who own them, and the identities of these things are determined by the people who use them. A thing becomes ‘something’ only when a person uses it.... A typical round stool, for example, becomes a part of the person who sits on it, absorbs his ‘dirt’, and is not supposed to be used by anyone else. While being used, a thing ‘gives something’ to its user.... A


John Alan Cohan

paddle, for instance, gives its user the ability to move a canoe on the river, its usefulness gives existence, identity, and value to the paddle (p. 162). Often people will have a blessing ceremony performed “whenever an important object such as a canoe or a men’s house is completed, or when an outboard motor or gun is acquired. In this way the thing receives a name and becomes a being itself” (Telban, 1998, p. 105). The custom of patting and rubbing a gun or other implement that has fallen to the ground is to restore the soul that has suffered a shock, just as a man’s soul is restored under the same circumstances. During his voyage to search for the Northwest Passage, Captain Cook encountered a king on the Tonga Islands who took particular liking to the ship’s pewter plates. The king wanted to replace his old wooden bowl with a pewter plate from Captain Cook’s kitchen. The king’s bowl was considered a sacred vessel to which the natives paid homage during the king’s absence, as if directly to the king. The bowl was also used as a mode of trial by ordeal: people accused of a crime would be summoned, one by one, and asked to touch the bowl. If the guilty man touched the vessel he would fall dead on the spot; and if he refused to touch the bowl he would be adjudged guilty (Hildebrand, 1927, p. 127). The Huichol Indians of the rugged Sierra Madre mountains in northwest Mexico have for generations made beautiful yarn paintings that are intended to function as prayers. They believe the paintings have the power to bring about whatever is painted on them-often personal dreams or visions of the artist. Their art has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world and is now sold all around the world (Maclean, 2005). MANA AND MASKS Masks are in widespread use in cultures throughout the world in spectacular ceremonies to appease the forces of nature, often during which there is the intense release of emotions, that, if successful, will allay their fears. In these cultures people are often preoccupied with primordial fears to do with forces that cause catastrophies, misfortune and illness. These ceremonies of appeasement dominate the lives of primitive peoples throughout Melanesia, in many parts of Africa, and in quite a few other regions of the world. The mask of a dead man is said to contain his spirit; mourners will bring the mask into the men’s house so that his spirit can be installed there (Gewertz & Errington, 1991, p. 136). In other cultures, such as the Ammassalik Inuits of Western Greenland, masks are not employed to appease the forces of nature, but are part of folk dances. The people are fond of dancing with masks, or using masks to scare children. Masks are works of art, often in bold coloring, embodying different legends and ideals of the people. The artist will usually have an outpouring of emotion in crafting the mask. Often the masks will have distorted, highly stylized superhuman features, sometimes with animal features, with bizarre, weird, elated or frightening expressions intended to be part of a dramatic ritual that relates to supernatural forces. These ceremonies are of all kinds: to accompany the initiation of young men into the secret societies, to placate or worship the gods, to honor ancestral spirits, to insure a successful harvest, to ward off sickness, hunger or calamity. Those who wear the masks in the ceremonies are thought to become channels between the people and the spirits, as they do their terrifying dances, accompanied by singing and drumming by the crowd. Often the masks will be in the custody of leaders of the society, and the masks themselves are thought to embody the accumulated wisdom of the people (Kaeppler, 1963). People in Malaysia use expressionistic masks with exaggerated features, with maximum use of color contrast (e.g., black, white and red), faces with terrorizing grimaces, a nervous intense look well calculated to inspire fear and awe. In the Solomon Islands and part of Papua New Guinea the masks are more formal rather than expressionistic in style (i.e., without the terrifying, bizarre style). According to Kaeppler (1963):

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The style suggests a submission to the supernatural forces of the universe, the acceptance of the unknown. Influenced by excesses all about him, the artist reflects these excesses in over-exaggeration and through exaggeration comes the emotional quality of expressionism. It is an emotional feeling that is culturally induced by ceremonies and manifested in an art style (p. 122). Masks can have an unusual effect on the wearer, “particularly in promoting unconventional and uninhibited conduct” (Honigmann, 1977, p. 274). Perhaps it is the anonymity provided by the disguise that encourages such conduct. Obviously, a criminal is likely to behave more boldly by using a mask, for this helps the culprit elude being recognized. However, in the masking ceremonies such as those mentioned above, the mask wearers are generally known since they live in a tight-knit community. Perhaps it is that “hiding behind a false face somehow gives the wearer an illusion that he himself is covered and, therefore, that his ego is not responsible for the antics of the new character” (Pollaczek & Homefield, 1954, p. 299). The wearer’s identity is separated from the behavior being enacted. Moreover, as can be seen in Carnival celebrations and in dance rituals alike, this shielding of one’s normal identity helps the individual overcome the need to conform to everyday roles and break into uninhibited behavior patterns. MANA AND PROTECTIVE FETISHES: AMULETS AND CHARMS Objects such as amulets and charms are clearly regarded as to be imbued with certain powers, either intrinsically, or after being consecrated for certain purposes, or for their symbolic significance. Their use is extremely prominent everywhere, not only among primitive cultures, but also in the developed world. They are worn on the person, displayed in cars, or set up in some convenient place, for the purpose of guarding against some evil, or to secure good fortune. They are hung over the doorway of the house to ward off evil, hung from the bow of the canoe to insure a successful journey, worn by the new-born infant to ward off illness, or worn on the arm in hunting to assure a successful hunt (For a more complete discussion of amulets and charms, see chapter 9, “Envy and the Evil Eye”). Amulets and charms are fetishes. Some objects must be “animated,” i.e., blessed by consecrating hands of a priest, medicine-man or shaman who “localizes” the power into the object. Otherwise, the object does not possess supernatural powers. The American Indian warrior went into battle naked above the waist. His only protection was “some sacred powder, the claw of an animal, the head of a bird, or some other small object.... Its virtue depended entirely on the ceremony of the consecration and not on size or texture” (Mooney, 1991, p. 790 ). War paint also had to be properly consecrated in order to insure its magic power of protection. But certain objects are thought to innately possess extraordinary powers, and thus do not require consecration: a rabbit’s foot in itself is thought to be a good luck charm; in West Africa, the bones from the legs of the tortoise are thought to insure endurance to the wearers. Practically anything can serve as an amulet or charm in warding off evil or securing good fortune-depending on the skill of the person who has consecrated it: a rock, a piece of cloth, a string, a bead, shells, teeth of animals, you name it. But often there is a logical connection between the object chosen and its function: e.g., for bravery or strength, one might choose some part of a leopard or an elephant. If an amulet or charm fails to do the job-if the hunter comes back empty handed, for instance, the person who has concocted it will be blamed. And perhaps the response will be that an enemy possesses an amulet or charm containing a more powerful spirit, which made the hunter miss his mark. The medicine-man will then offer to make a new and more powerful charm, for a price. In modern society amulets are ubiquitous. Certain objects-keys, knots and lucky pennies, for instance-are used as amulets for their symbolic significance. According to Gonzalaz-Wippler (2007): Their shape is a clear indication of the influence they are to manifest. For example, a key is worn as an amulet so that it will open all the doors of opportunity to its wearer. Knots are worn to invite unions, usually between lovers. Lucky pennies are carried around for money and good luck. Sometimes bracelets made entirely of coins are worn for the same purpose. Bells and tassels are worn so that the sound and the movement they make will frighten away evil spirits. Anchors are associated with the sea and are said to


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bring stability to their owners. Arrowheads are worn as protections against enemies. Axes are used for the same purpose (p. 145). As we have seen, mana is a concept that people in modern cultures believe, whether consciously or unconsciously, as evident in the patterns of behavior associated with “good luck” charms, thoughts and words, tools, clothing, heirlooms and other cherished possessions, and so on. As we will see in chapter 5 (“Animism”), the energy that is known as mana is such that animals, plants and natural things of nature such as mountains and streams, are thought to be “animated,” with a life force that must be respected or else there will be undesirable consequences.


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CHAPTER 5 Animism Abstract. The idea behind animism takes mana one step further and proposes that all of nature is animated, that is, imbued with consciousness, or with life, that all phenomena of nature, including rocks, caves, mountains rain, thunder, lightning, stars, etc., are imbued with a life essence or soul. Animism is a kind of environmental philosophy-that not only are people to be respected, but all of creation must be respected. A good deal of the ceremonies as well as practical guidance in primitive cultures pertain to communication with the spirits of animals, of plants, and of objects of nature. Many modern day superstitions are animistic in orientation (e.g., if a black cat crosses your path, this means bad luck). Soothsayers, medicine men, and fortune-tellers use animistic means to forecast the future (e.g., interpreting signs from the clouds or the cries of animals). Animism accounts for the reverence accorded animals in many cultures (e.g., tuna reverence, bear reverence, totemic protection of certain animal species). People of all cultures will talk to their plants to influence their growth. Indigenous populations have great attachment and reverence to their land, which they believe have sacred properties and healing energies. Even idols and figureheads on ships are thought to possess protective and communicative powers (e.g., touching or kissing the statute will impart a certain blessing). Sacred ceremonial objects, such as the shaman’s drum, are thought to be potent vehicles for connecting between the human and spirit worlds. Children of all cultures are particularly prone towards animistic beliefs and practices (e.g., endowing personality to dolls, attributing consciousness to other inanimate objects). The idea of artificial intelligence borrows animistic ideas.

INTRODUCTION Primitive cultures all over the world have one main thing in common: They believe that there is a mutual involvement of God and nature. “Sky and god, rain and deity are somehow together, aspects of the same thing” (Redfield, 1953, p. 102). The idea behind animism is that a “vital force” or mana permeates all nature, a topic we discussed in chapter 4. Animism is associated with mana but goes one step further. It holds that everything is animated, that is, imbued with consciousness, or with life. The concept of mana, standing alone, simply pertains to the idea that everything emits energy. Animism takes the view that all things are conscious-living beings in their own right-whether human, animal, plant or mineral-they are all qualitatively equivalent. All phenomena of nature, including rocks, caves, mountains rain, thunder, lightning, stars, etc. are imbued with a life essence or soul. The word “animism” is used because of the idea that all reality is animate, or alive. In animistic cultures human traits are attributed to all types of phenomena. These traits include self-consciousness, language, imagination, thinking, symbolic thought, feelings, and other features that in the West we think are unique to human beings. Animism is a kind of environmental philosophy-that not only are people to be respected, but all of creation must be respected because all things are connected or engaged with one another, and there is a shared content, or commonality, of experience among all things. Animism holds that people are informed or communicated to by animals, plants, objects and places by spirits that are capable of separate existence. This is referred to as hyperphysical animism (Read, 1915, p. 7). A good deal of the ceremonies in primitive cultures pertain to communication with the spirits of animals, of plants, and of objects of nature. According to Telban (1991): Almost any unusual event may be attributed to spirits, such as the creaking of a house floor, the sound of unknown voices or unfamiliar noises, the shaking of a canoe, or a glimmer of light in the bush at night. If men are fishing at night and a torch bulb burns out they will say it is because a spirit looked at the torch (p. 172). Even comets, lightning and other occurrences are thought to bear messages to the people-some sort of divine communication or prophesy. In modern society we, too, often regard comets and other unusual occurrences in nature John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


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as bearing prophetic messages or warnings to us, and it is quite common for us to talk to their dogs or cats or other animals. Lott and Hart (1977) assert: Man is one of the few species to enter into an extended and complex social relationship with other species. In some instances, such as the shepherd with his dog and the cowboy with his horse, this may involve staking his well-being, and even his life, on the success of a close social relationship with members of another species (p. 174). People in primitive cultures have a remarkable and thoroughgoing practical knowledge of the life, origin, habits, behavior, capacities, and structure of animals in their environment. They can point out individual plants or trees or birds and ascribe certain traits to them. Animals are thought to have the same sort of vitality, consciousness and will to survive as do human beings. They are thought to have a language of their own and can understand what human beings are saying and doing. They live a life that is parallel in many respects to that of human societies. The modern environmental movement is in large part animistic, with concerns that we have lost touch with how connected we are to the Earth: For a long time now, we have been unable to remember our former closeness with the Earth. Due to this amnesia, the ecological problems now thrust upon us have come as a shock.... We notice the emergence of an amnesia that is really a double forgetting, wherein a culture forgets, and then forgets it has forgotten how to live in harmony with the planet (Devereux, Steele & Kubrin, 1989, pp. 2-3). Animism goes hand in hand with totemism, which we will discuss in the next chapter. Many cultures associate their own identity with certain animals or plants-their totems. PHILOSOPHICAL, RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC GROUNDING OF ANIMISM Animism takes into account the reality that life is difficult to define, the criteria of what constitutes life is far from certain, and the difference between living and nonliving entities is hard to make out. As a matter of fact, scientists cannot define life, so that there “may not be an absolutely rigorous distinction between inanimate matter and matter in a living state” (Sebeck, 1988, p. 72). Aristotle said: “Nature proceeds little by little from inanimate things to living creatures, in such a way that we are unable, in the continuous sequence, to determine the boundary line...” (as quoted in Lloyd, 1966, p. 258). Quantum physicist David Bohm says: Dividing the universe up into living and non-living things has no meaning. Animate and inanimate matter are inseparably interwoven and life, too, is enfolded throughout the totality of the universe. Even a rock is in some way alive,... for life and intelligence are present not only in all of matter, but in “energy,” “space,” “time,” the fabric of the entire universe (as quoted in Talbot, 1991, p. 50). A central feature of animism is the idea that the soul is not unique to humans. What constitutes the soul and why in principle souls should be the exclusive province of human beings are deep philosophical questions. The idea of a soul is that we possess, at the same time of having a material body, an intangible and insensible spark of life-a unique identity-perhaps capable of a separate existence from the body. The soul might be thought of as an ethereal aspect or counterpart of our bodies, but more permanent than bodies, perhaps eternal. Warneck comments that the soul is “an elixir of life, a life-stuff, which is found everywhere in nature” (as quoted in Chapman, 1921, p. 298). Usually primitives believe in the preexistence of souls, the future existence of souls, the existence of souls in the lower animals and in inanimate objects, in the power of one soul to affect another, and particularly the power of the spirit of one who has recently died to attract to itself the spirits of the living. The ancient Greek philosopher, Thales, held that “all things are full of gods,” and that magnets and amber have souls (as quoted in Lloyd, 1966, pp. 233-234). Heraclitus thought that fire was alive, that it made human souls (Lloyd, 1966, p. 237). Plato thought that the world, the sun, stars and planets are living creatures with souls (Lloyd, 1966, pp. 254, 257).

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It is not entirely clear how we can be sure that other species do not have parallel workings of their brains with features we think are unique to us, such as self-consciousness, that is, an indubitable sense that we exist, an awareness of ourselves, of what we perceive and think. Adler (1967) observes: ... I would say that if man differs only in degree from other animals, then a sharp line cannot be drawn to separate the world of persons from the world of things; in fact, the distinction between person and thing becomes meaningless or at best arbitrary if there are only differences in degree, since that distinction is either a distinction in kind or no distinction at all (p. 257). We are, after all, animals along with other animal species. We share some of the same traits with the animal nature of other creatures such as states of fear, aggression and sociability, to name only a few. Harvey (2005) asserts: ...[T]here is plenty of scientifically acceptable evidence of consciousness in animals. For example, some primates and some birds (New Caledonian crows at least) use tools; bees think, buffaloes play, and dolphins get depressed; birds not only sing to define territories and alert potential mates or opponents of their presence, they enjoy singing. In short, ethologists recognise the cognitive competence of a wide range of other-than-human persons (p. 188). We can learn more about what features are unique or special to ourselves by understanding the characteristics and capacities that we share with other animals. This approach was called conciliance by the l9th century philosopher of science William Whewell, and it means the melding of inferences drawn from separate subjects or discipline (Wilson, 1971). We know, according to the theory of evolution, that we are linked to all other animals because we have emerged from other species in the course of evolution. We share common characteristics of animal nature with other species in virtue of common evolutionary origins-particularly with the other primates. Indeed, we share traits common to all life forms, both plant and animal, even microbes. Each life form is a system or entity with parts that have a function towards supporting the system in its persistence in life, taking in energy, secreting waste products, reproducing, passing on DNA, growth, and decay. Among other things, we share the following traits with many of the higher order animals: (1) instinct or intuitioninnate tendencies, desires, pushings, motivations; (2) desire for persisting in one’s own state, i.e., self-preservationthe conatus principle; (3) looking for sex and other kinds of excitement; (4) fearing and fighting against the unknown that threatens to upset or destroy ourselves. Powell (2004) relegates animism to a kind of “indeterminate energy” (p. 85). Powell takes the view that there is a process flowing throughout nature that he calls “natural intelligence” (Powell, 2004, p. 49). He claims natural intelligence is “the deliberate and purposeful movement of matter into energy and then back into matter,” a process that underlies all of life (Powell, 2004, p. 49). The connectedness of things in nature is reflected in the phenomenon that physicists call “quantum entanglement born of a singular wave function” or “nonlocality.” In this phenomenon, two photons are created together and travel away from each other at the speed of light, but despite their separation, anything that happens to one of them affects the other. In other words, two quanta of light, given off from a single source and traveling at the speed of light in opposite directions, can maintain their connection to one another. These photons are affected by what happens to their “twins” at a distance. Thus, the idea of separation in space and time is an illusion, so that spatially separate events are not independent, but connected. Scientists have concluded that “The essential features of the implicate order are that the whole universe is in some way enfolded in everything, and that each thing is enfolded in the whole” (Bohm & Hiley, 1993, p. 382). This is precisely what Leibniz (1686/1902) postulated in his theory of Monads and Pre-established Harmony, in which each Monad contains information about every other point in space-time. What happens to one substance in a sense may be viewed as the cause of what happens in another. God, in creating things to perform particular actions at given times, creates all other things in such a way as to reflect that action at that time. All things are related in some way to every other. Each created Monad represents the whole universe. Leibniz (1686/1902) said: “The action of one finite substance on another consists only in the increase of the degree of expression together with the diminution of the expression of the other, insofar as God requires them to accommodate themselves to one another.”


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(§ 15) From Leibniz as well as from quantum physics we get the idea that since everything is made of the same stuff and is connected to everything else, permeated with a life force-it makes sense to treat all creatures and things with care, compassion and respect. The astronomer Johannes Kepler and the physicist Gustav Fechner thought that planets and stars are animate (Heim, 1953). Teilhard de Chardin (1959) asserted that consciousness extends throughout the cosmos. Hegel regarded the entire cosmos as one living system (Eckman, 1986). Astrology is a kind of animism in which planets and zodiacs are assigned certain attributes. Sir Walter Raleigh noted this in saying: If we cannot deny but that God hath given virtue to springs and fountains, to cold earth, to plants and stones, minerals and to the excremental parts of the basest creatures, why should we rob the beautiful stars of their working powers? For, seeing they are many in number and of eminent beauty and magnitude, we may not think that in the treasure of his wisdom who is infinite there can be wanting, even for every star, a peculiar virtue and operation; as every herb, plant, fruit, flower, adorning the face of the earth hath the like (as quoted in Harrison, 2001, p. 51). In the Bible God treats the stars as living beings. The stars received commandments from God: “I have given a commandment to all the stars” (Isaiah 45:12). What are these commandments? Namely, that each star, in its order and course, should bestow upon the world the amount of splendor which has been entrusted to it. Planets move in one type of orbit, and stars in a different pattern. The movements of these bodies occur, it is thought, with a soul. The very orderliness and progression of heavenly bodies seems to suggest a rational nature. In Jeremiah the moon is called the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 7:18). In Job it was said “The stars also are not clean in Thy sight” (Job 25:5), suggesting that they are “animated” in that they have the capacity to be good or evil through their own diligent efforts, either to acquire for themselves a body of greater brightness, or through their sloth to make the one they have less pure. Elsewhere in the Bible animism seems to be eerily suggested. In Genesis 1:24: “Let the earth bring forth living soul,” referring to the spirit (ruah) of the First Adam, which accordingly is not a pneuma blown into him, but an earth-spirit, a vital potency dwelling in the earth. The idea that both man and animals have souls is seen in the general similarity by which God made both man and beast: “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast” (Genesis 2:19). God breathed the breath of life into man: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). But also, God breathed the breath of life into animals: “Pairs of creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark” (Genesis 7:15), and “Everything on dry land that had the breath of the spirit of life died” (Genesis 7:22). Thus, in the biblical account, both man and beast were composed of earth and animated by the breath of God. The encyclopedist Denis Diderot said that “the world, like a huge animal, has a soul [which] may be an infinite system of perceptions,” and that “From the elephant to the flea, from the flea to the living, sensitive molecule there is not a point in all nature which does not suffer and rejoice” (as quoted in Guthrie, 1993, p. 58). Many modern authors believe in the idea of Gaia, that is, the Earth as a living organism (Lovelock, 1987, p. 4). During the Renaissance, a tide of animism swept through Europe: Instead of being regarded as an inanimate mass, the Earth itself was deemed to be alive. The universe was peopled by a hierarchy of spirits, and thought to manifest all kinds of occult influences and sympathies. The cosmos was an organic unity in which every part bore a sympathetic relationship to the rest. Even colours, letters and numbers were endowed with magical properties (Thomas, 1971, p. 265). Zoologist Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944) held that all living organisms inhabit their own subjective worlds-the Umwelt- defined by their sensory capacities. Organisms live by the exchange and interpretation of signs. Ecosystems

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are not merely flows of energy and matter, but are more fundamentally flows of signs, communicative flows between myriads of living subjects. Nature is in other words just as much founded on communication as in the human social realm. Human communication is but a subset of communication that goes on within the total community of living things. Nietzsche (1951) had this to say about animism: The most amazing thing within my experience is the unconscious way men and women take it for granted that they are the natural superiors of the flora and fauna about them. What, for instance, do we know about animals, plants and birds that can possibly justify such a conclusion? As a matter of sober fact, we don’t even look better, and sometimes we look many fathoms worse. I once saw in a zoo an animal with a face so beautiful and benign that I had to think of St. Francis of Assisi to match it in grandeur. What an extraordinary piece of arrogance, I thought, looking at the face of that beast, it would be for me to calmly take it for granted that what transpired behind that furry brow was of less importance than what goes on behind my thin-skinned one (ch. 3, § 73). Freud (1918) in his famous monograph, Totem and Taboo, theorized that people impute personhood and agency to animals and things. Jung (1968) alluded to animism as a normal human instinct when he described theriomorphism as “a visualization of the unconscious self manifesting itself through ‘animal’ impulses.” (p. 145) Animism is seen in Buddhist doctrine suggesting that merit making, which includes charity to the poor and to Buddhist monks-extends to all living creatures, so that merit can be made by giving gifts to animals. From the theory of evolution we would have to conclude that if we are descended from animals, our bodies and our souls have an animal origin. If we have souls, then it follows that animals have some kind of soul. “Perhaps some would say that judging from his courage in danger, his devotion to his master, his spirit of self-sacrifice, a dog’s soul cannot be so very far behind the human variety in point of excellence” (Archer, 1931, p. 42). For centuries up into the 1800’s, animism was reflected in the laws of many cultures. In Europe, criminal “intent” was attributed to animals of all kinds, and hundreds of trials, if not thousands, were held against animals. Animals were thought to be rational beings, capable of acting as responsible agents. Thus, animals were held liable in criminal law for injuring or “murdering” humans. A guilty verdict in court resulted in execution of the animal (Cohen, 1986). In 1522, some rats were put on trial in Autun, France, charged with a felony of having wantonly destroyed some barley crops. Eventually a default judgment was entered (Evans, 1906). In 1545 in St. Julien, some wine growers sued a species of beetles that infested their vineyards: After consultations with counsel for both sides, the court issued a proclamation, dated 8 May 1546, which observed that God had ordained that the earth should bring forth herbs and fruits, not only for the sustenance of rational human beings, but also for the preservation and support of his lesser creatures, the insects; it would be more fitting for the humans to implore the mercy of heaven, and to seek pardon for their sins, than to proceed rashly against the beetles. The proclamation prescribed prayer, contrition, and the saying of High Mass three times in the vineyards. The insects are reported to have thereupon disappeared from the village (Ewald, 1995, p. 1902). Forty-one years later another beetle infestation occurred. This time a compromise was reach in court: A distant piece of ground would be supplied with plants and herbs, reserved for use by the beetles in perpetuity. Everyone agreed that the insects had the legal right to life, and were entitled to sustenance from the earth’s bounty (Ewald, 1995, p. 1902). This is quite in contrast to today’s practice of wholesale extermination of farm pests! In 1621 a cow in Leipzig, Germany was condemned to death for killing a pregnant woman (Ewald, 1995, p. 1904). Even today trials against animals are not unheard of: A court in Bitola, Macedonia convicted a bear of “stealing honey from a beekeeper and damaging his hives. Because the bear had no owner and is classified as a protected


John Alan Cohan

species, the court ordered the state to pay the beekeeper $3,500 for the damage to the hives” (Reuters, 14th March 2008). And the custom exists throughout the modern world that if a wild animal such as a bear attacks a human, the authorities will hunt down and kill the animal. Often if a domestic pet, such as a pit bull, mauls or kills someone, the authorities will impound the animal and usually it will be euthanized. Note that animism is different from anthropomorphism-the attribution of human traits, such as language and symbolism, to non-human entities and events, such as God, other animals, or mountains. Guthrie (1993) argues: We often animate and anthropomporphize at the same time. We animate but do not anthropomorphize, for example, if we say an automobile purrs like a kitten, and anthropomorphize but do not animate if we speak to our pet turtle. If we speak to our automobile, however, we both animate and anthropomorphize (p. 39). The “worship of nature” is a primitive form of religion. Thus, for primitives it is important to feel veneration for the Earth, the Sun, the mountains, rivers and animals-and many of us in modern society, particularly in the environmental movement, feel a similar veneration for nature. Victor Sanchez (1996) in his book, Toltecs of the New Millennium, speaks of the importance of the natural flow of Spirit-the expression of spirit in nature. That is why men of knowledge seek “teachers” in a ravine, mountain, a tree, or in animals such as a wolf or deer. According to Sanchez, mountains have spirit owners with whom one must engage in a respectful manner. It is the idea that “everything has its own voice,” and that all natural objects and phenomena have souls. The extent to which nonhuman entities are endowed with their own “voice” depends on the type of object, with mountains having a more abstract voice than, say wild animals such as the bear. THE COMMUNICATION FEATURE OF ANIMISM As mentioned above, animism takes into account the environment as a whole, with the belief that all things are alive or “animated.” In animistic cultures there is an environmental reverence, a respect for the dignity of the environment. Animistic cultures believe there is an interconnectedness and interdependence between human species and the whole of the planet. The universe is not an impersonal objective reality, but distinctly personalistic. Animism harkens to the time when dawning human consciousness was still wholly bound to nature. So many cultures have supernatural associations with animals that this seems to be a universal pattern that probably goes back to ancient times. In ancient Egypt animals were often gods, manifestations of gods, or associated with gods, and animals were often associated with magical or religious rites. In all cultures, animals figure prominently in myths, stories, dance, ritual, art, design and other areas. With animism, the focus of attention is not only on animals and plants, but also to non-living objects of nature that move spontaneously, such as the winds, streams, echoes, the sun, the moon, planets, shooting stars, the waves, fire, volcanoes, and even slow-moving glaciers. But as we will see, animism even extends to things in nature that are more or less immobile-such as mountains, and artifacts that cannot move on their own-such as a drum or ceremonial mask. Animism is the sense that one’s soul is bound up with natural forces. One interprets the cries or movements of certain creatures as a way of guiding one’s destiny for good or ill. Some animals are thought to be guardians for a particular group of people. The Inuit people go so far as to say that animals, objects and places have an inua, its “person” or “owner,” that has to be respected. There is a close relationship between owner and the owned, a kind of identity between the inua and the subject (Laugrand, Gosten, & Trudel, 2002). According to the Penobscot mind, the order of birds, like themselves, constitutes tribes and bands, separated by their different structure, manners and utterances, as each tribe, though subdivided into smaller groups, retains its form in customs and language particular to that nation or genus from which it seems to have descended (Hallowell, 1926, p. 7).

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Just like birds, the Indian tribes have their head chiefs, minor chiefs, and local groups. In Hawaiian tradition, there are many animistic customs and superstitions regarding communications from animals. If a number of cocks crowed at night, a large number of guests were expected to visit the village. The appearance of other animals-dogs, flies, spiders-indicate one may expect a visitor. If a spider drops to the floor at night, kill it or one will hear of a friend’s death. If a lizard drops in front of you, you will have a present; if it falls upon a woman, she will have a lover (Green & Beckwith, 1928). Many modern day superstitions are animistic in orientation. If a black cat crosses your path, this means bad luck; keep cats away from babies because they “suck the breath” from the child; carrying and rubbing a rabbit’s foot brings good luck; a howling dow means that death is near; if a bird flies into your house this foretells and important message; if the first butterfly you see in the year is white, you will have good luck all year; throw back the first fish you catch, and then you will be luck the whole day fishing; if you dream of fish, that means someone you know is pregnant; a horseshoe hung above the doorway will bring good luck-and so on. In Hawaii there once was a lore of the clouds. That is, certain soothsayers called Poe-kilo-ouli, interpreted signs from the clouds. The cloud signs are usually those which lie low along the horizon. The diviners distinguished spirits of the dead in the clouds and made connections between them and events to come. Ordinary people also took notice of cloud formations to determine how things will go for them. Rain at night after a supplication by day is a sign assuring the petitioner of a gracious answer to his prayer. A particularly loud clap of thunder means that someone has broken a taboo. The fact that natural phenomena, such as rain, is animated gives the people some measure of control over them. That is, since the rain, for instance, has a kind of consciousness, people can appeal to its guardian spirits to bring forth rain if there is a drought, or to make the rain go away if there is too much of it. In animistic cultures, omens can take the form of the cries of animals, the flight of birds, the direction they come from or in which they are going, and so on. In starting a journey or a hunt, the appearance of a bad omen-e.g., the appearance of certain animals that are taboo-will immediately cause the plans to be postponed until there is a favorable omen. The more dangerous an enterprise, the more important the need for favorable omens. A favorable omen is indispensable because it does not merely announce success, but guarantees success (Levy-Bruhl, 1923, p. 128). Omens can also take the form of natural disasters, discussed later in this chapter. In numerous Native American tribes, particularly the Choctaw, the fire and the sun are supposed to have constant intercourse with each other, and the fire acts as an informant to the sun. If one did anything wrong in the presence of the fire, the fire would tell the sun of it. Many phenomena of nature can be extremely dangerous, such as thunder and lightning, tsunamis, hurricanes and volcanoes. Lightening that has killed a man, therefore, has a spirit. The natives of the West Pacific used to climb to the top of volcanoes and bring sacrifices to appease it, throwing coconuts and yams into the crater. ANIMISM IN RELATION TO ANIMALS In primitive cultures animals have a very important, symbolic relationship with humans. Animistic cultures first of all regard animals to be species that, like humans, have consciousness and a soul. There is almost never an indifferent attitude towards animals. Animals are thought to be related to humans. This is expressed in various modes of interaction-principally a caring, if not affectionate approach in the exploitation of the animals. The affinity between man and animals is easily understood: like man, animals move, make vocal sounds, express emotions, have bodies, experience pain and pleasure, and have faces that express a variety of feelings. Animals inspire feelings of admiration and fear. Often, the power of animals are superior to those of humans: the bird flies, fish survive under water, reptiles can camouflage themselves, and snakes shed their skin.


John Alan Cohan

Throughout animistic cultures we see a reverence expressed towards animals, especially in connection with hunting, killing and consuming animals. To respect the bear, for instance, in ceremonies of reverence for the animal, insures a continued flow of animal gifts to hunters. And when hunters respect animals in certain practical ways, such as strategic self-restraint in hunting, there is a sustainability of the animal, and the people remain in good stead with the spirits of the animals. Some animals are taboo and cannot be killed or eaten because the people regard them as totems-i.e., the animals are part of their lineage (See chapter 6, “Totemism”). Other animals are revered and, at the same time, employed in ritual sacrifices to appease the gods for sins committed by the people, or as a way of achieving communion with the gods. An example of reverence for animals can be seen in the traditional Nivkh culture. These people, who have never exceeded 6,000 in population, live in the extreme southeast of Siberia (“Russian Far East”)-the Lower Amur River valley, including the delta, a coastal strip to the north and south of the river’s mouth known as the Liman estuary, adjacent areas on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, and the northern part of the island of Sakhalin. There is archaeological evidence of settlements in that region, quite plausibly their ancestors, as far back as 5,000 B.C., but clearly they flourished in this region as far back as 1200 A.D., when they were trading partners with the Chinese. In the 19th and 20th centuries there was continual conflict between the Nivkh and the Russian and Japanese governments vying for strategic control of the area. There was economic exploitation of Nivkh lands by Russians, particularly overfishing that resulted in recurring famines. There was a large Russian prison colony whose escaped convicts often robbed, killed or raped the Nivkh, and Stalin imposed mass arrests and forced resettlements of the Nivkh for purported espionage for Japan. Also, Nivkh shamans were imprisoned and executed during Stalin’s antireligious campaigns. In more recent years the Nivkh lands have been seriously eroded by forestry, mining, and oildrilling (Black, 1973). A deeply animistic culture, the Nivkh people believe that animals play a role, as part of the universe themselves, in perpetuating the universe. They believe, in common with many other cultures, that animals literally consent to be killed in a process of giving themselves to humans. The people give gifts to hunted animals in the form of food, as a show of respect for the animals’ souls as they journey into the afterlife. Bones of slain animals are reverentially returned to the elements. Slain animals, especially seals, dolphins and white whales, are “fed” with special grasses gathered by fishermen for this purpose. Other forms of respect are shown: Dolphin heads are preserved by the sea on poles; bones of sea mammals, including smashed skulls, eyes, etc., are reverently returned to the sea as materials for future regeneration and recreation of the species. One of the most prevalent animals that animistic cultures regard with reverence are birds of all kinds, so we will discuss that in the next section. ANIMISM AND BIRDS In many cultures people have a special relationship with various species of birds. As Chapman (1913) observed, birds “exhibit human traits of character that create within us a feeling of kinship with them...”, and: Man exhibits hardly a trait which he will not find reflected in the life of a bird. Love, hate; courage, fear; anger, pleasure; vanity, modesty; virtue, vice; constancy, fickleness; generosity, selfishness; wit, curiosity, memory, reason-we may find them all exhibited in the lives of birds (p. 699). In many cultures, such as the Ovimbundu of Angola (a Portuguese territory in West Africa), the cries of birds are regarded as human conversation, and people will seek to interpret it. The people will give a “verbatim” translation of the cries of birds. For instance, the people will interpret a female hornbill to say to her mate, “I’m going; I’m going; I’m going to our village;” to which the male replies, “Don’t go. The rain has come; let us plant.” Another bird says, “Where will the guests stay? where? where? where?” This is an

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intimation that strangers will visit the village. All animals play a part in folk stories; human beings when introduced are usually of secondary importance (Hambly, 1934, p. 158). In Borneo, the Dayaks and most other native tribes take great interest in the behavior of certain “omen birds,” which they regard as sacred beings that are the “mouthpiece” of invisible spirits. Omen birds are intermediaries to the gods. They are the focus of certain festivals at which prayers and invocations are made to them. They are adored because the people believe they have mystical powers that help secure good crops, victory in combat, success in trade, and protect the people from misfortune, violence and disease. These birds are the harbinger of good tidings as well as bearers of warnings from the gods. They announce or predict events, and are also instrumental in bringing about these events. That is, the birds in their own right have causal efficacy in influencing events. Bird omens carry a certain power: they represent both a sign that something will happen, and its cause. This blurring of distinction is seen again and again in the way primitive minds interpret natural events-as omens that are not merely signs, but also causes. In many cultures, before beginning to sow a crop, it is necessary to hear a particular bird on the spot or hear another in the vicinity. Sowing cannot begin until the necessary bird omens are seen and heard, for only in that way can a good crop be expected. In visiting a sick person it is desirable to encounter certain birds on the road. Then, the visitor will pause and chew some betel-nut, tobacco or some other refreshment, and wrap some of it in a leaf to take to the sick person. This will help the cure because it has absorbed the voice of the bird, and hence has healing power (Levy-Bruhl, 1923, p. 129). To the Nivkh people, some birds are associated with death. Relatives might place a wooden dish of water at the grave site of any deceased individual, next to the carved image of a cookoo (for a female) or dove (for a male), for these birds will accompany the dead on their journey to the afterlife. The water will help the bird replenish its strength on the journey. The souls of those killed by violence are represented in certain birds. The wings of whitetailed eagles are placed on the grave of murder victims or suicides. Since ancient times people have believed that certain birds are guardians or familiar spirits. Among the Maori of New Zealand the owl has been venerated for many generations. However, “The approach of an owl was regarded with awe as an omen of an event to follow. This was usually death. Children were told that the spirit of an ancestor came to them in the form of an owl” (Phillips, 1963, p. 411). Many families have a specific owl in their neighborhood whom they regard as their guardian. The bird is heard but seldom seen, and if it makes an appearance it is always thought to be an omen predicting the death of someone. But in some parts the Maori regard the appearance of an owl as good, that the owl is trying to communicate instructions on future behavior. Other birds such as the shag are said to be guardians over canoes. The Maori also believe that the spirits of the dead enter into the bodies of various kinds of birds. ANIMISM AND SNAKES In southern and eastern Africa there is a widespread belief that illness is caused by an invisible, internal snake, called nyoka, that one is born with and which remains present until death. This nyoka is intimately connected with fecundity and childbirth, and is a life-giving force, and has a personality of its own (Green, 1997). The snake can move throughout the upper body and cause numerous illnesses ranging from stomach conditions, sexually transmitted disease, epilepsy, mental retardation, infertility, and growth abnormalities. Someone who has indigestion will say “The snake is biting.” Semen is thought to come from a man’s snake, so if his snake is “no good,” his sperm cannot fertilize an ovum. If a child’s fontanelle is depressed, its nyoka is said to be thirsty. The snake is thought of as an invisible force that somehow demands purity of the body it inhabits. If contaminants enter the body, the nyoka reacts with displeasure, causing pain and discomfort. It is referred to as if it has a personality somewhat independent of the body it inhabits; for example, it may be angry or calm. A useful English


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articulation of the concept might be Guardian of Bodily Purity. Nyoka may be thought of as a symbolic expression of the need to respect the human body... (Green, 1997, p. 87). The nyoka of a child must be “developed” and “nurtured” so that it will impart good health. If a child has diarrhea this is an indication that its nyoka must be “calmed,” and an animal will be sacrificed to appease it. The nyoka is supposed to reincarnate after a person dies, but in a transitional period (of 20-30 years) functions as a helpful ancestor spirit. People in this region also have a pollution-based belief that contaminating one’s body with impurities-e.g., eating spoiled food, or going about unbathed-erodes one’s resistance to disease and creates bad luck, misfortune, “disagreeableness” and “repulsiveness”. Pollution of one’s body can also occur by engaging in illicit sexual acts (adultery or sex with a menstruating woman) or by being in physical contact with a new environment, touching a dead body, and other situations. An individual’s pollution is considered highly contagious, and a parent’s pollution can be transferred to a child, who in turn will get ill. Purification rituals of various sorts are used to remove pollution from people. Snakes are commonly revered or feared in animistic cultures. To the American Indians they are creatures to be revered, and occasionally their holiness makes them dangerous, as anything else that is sacred. The Native American Hopi have a traditional Snake Dance that is primarily a rain ceremony, since they regard snakes as their kin and rely on them to carry their prayers for rain to the gods and spirits. Whip-snakes, long bullsnakes and rattlesnakes are caught by the Snake clan, washed with water and herbs, and placed on a clean bed of sand. Young boys guard the snakes so they won’t escape. When preparations are ready for the Snake Dance, the snakes are gathered up in a bag and carried to the snake shrine. Snake priests then grab a snake and dance around the plaza with the snakes in their hands, often curling up around their arms and necks. A snake attendant uses a snake whip to keep the snakes from coiling. Another attendant insures that when the dance is over and the snakes are dropped to the ground, they won’t go into the crowd. The snakes are then caught behind the head, and the priests carry them to special shrines where they are released and presumably carry the prayers for rain to the underworld. The priests drink an emetic that makes them vomit, so as to purge them of any dangerous snake-charms. The feeling in the Snake Dance is not that of unholy dread or repulsion, but that of cult members toward their animal patron (They remove the poison sacs from the snakes prior to the dance-the sacs grow back after the snake is released into its habitat). ANIMISM IN RELATION TO TREES AND PLANTS Animistic cultures have a special relationship with trees and other plants. It is common for people to interact with trees, talk to trees, take cues from the subtle movements of trees and their branches and leaves, and be guided into action by trees. In modern society many of us are known to talk to our plants, and many believe this is a way of enhancing good growth. In the book, The Secret Life of Plants (1973), Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird point to experiments that show plants linked to a polygraph instrument react to human threats, or even to stressful situations, such as the sudden appearance of a dog in the room. Plants seem to have a kind of ESP, a “cellular consciousness,” that responds to the human energy field (Tompkins & Bird, 1973, p. 11). Thus, it is believed that trees can suffer fear, trauma, and stress. The Nivkh people believe that humans are descended from trees. According to their myths, people were created from the sap of certain trees. When the Nivkh people cut down a tree they reverently place a small wooden stick, cut into strips of shavings, on the stump. This is believed to preserve the soul of the tree, and serves as a symbol of lifegiving. The Nivkh consider trees to be mediators between the world above and that below, and this is reflected in rituals conducted at the base of trees. They will sacrifice a red dog and decorate the tree with two carved figures, male and female. These offerings travel throughout the tree and serve to propitiate the soul of the tree.

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The Nivkh believe that the ash tree is the most supernatural of trees, and is to be feared because of the Ash-child-a small, naked child, born of the sap of the ash. The Ash-child looks just like a human child except that half of its finger and toe nails are black. The child wanders in the woods and cries. This cry, once heard, causes madness. The ash tree is seen as a woman. People in Papua New Guinea will be exceedingly careful before they do anything to interfere with a tree. Telban (1998) reports this of a man who went out to gather some betel nut: It was already dark and the betel palm was asleep. The old man was near the top when the palm woke up, shaking. The man fell down and died. People say that if they want to climb a palm at night they kick it first and tell it that they are going to climb it to get some nuts. People say: ‘A tree has Heart. When you cut a tree, it shakes, because it worries, it wants to stand up....’ (p. 59) In West Africa, sacrifices are made to trees as a way of appeasing the trees for cutting them down and making use of their timber. Parrinder (1951) claims: Like animals, some trees are more powerful spiritually than others. Lesser trees have souls, but they are of little importance for they are not powerful for evil. The trees which have the most vindictive souls are those which are used for carving stools and drums. Hence before the woodcutter plies his axe, he places offerings before the tree in an endeavour to propitiate its soul. And after the stool and drums have been carved, the wandering soul of the tree, whose dwelling was destroyed when the tree was cut down, is enticed back into the stool and drums by rites of consecration. The drums become the home of the soul of the tree, and of the elephant whose ears have been used to form its membrane. During the national festivals (adae), the souls of the trees, the fibre, and the elephant, which have shared in the making of the drums, share in the lament which is made for dead kings (pp. 148-149). In many African villages the people venerate a particular tree or group of trees whose soul is the town’s guardian. The tree might be the resting place of ancestral spirits, gods or demons. It is forbidden to cut wood from these trees, and if a branch falls to the ground the chief will lay a white cloth on it and sacrifice a sheep. Also in West Africa, people will plant a tree at the entrance to the village as protection for themselves and to repel enemies. The trees are called “trees which can stop folk,” and they sway and moan if enemies approach. A human sacrifice used to be made if one of these protective trees died. In raids, enemies would destroy the protective trees, and later when the village recovered, the people would plant new ones in the same spot (Parrinder, 1951, p. 149). The custom of hanging rags on sacred trees is observed in many cultures. In Israel people revere oak trees that often grow beside the tombs or shrines of saints, and decorate them with bits of rags or cloth, as reminders to the spirits that inhabit the trees of the prayers of the people. Also, hanging a strip of one’s clothing is a way of transferring an illness from the person to be cured by the sacred tree. As we will see in more detail in Chapter 21 (“Folk Medicine”), many folk healers utilize herbs that are obtained from trees and other plants. When Mexican healers (curanderos) cut herbs from branches they might inform the tree or other plant of why the branches are needed. This establishes a spiritual bond between the healer, the plant and the patient, and helps the healing process. Failure to do this is thought to diminish the efficacy of the healer’s work. The Apaches used the pollen of the cat-tail rush for sacrificial purposes in many rites, and personified and prayed to this powder. Tree planting is a way of honoring the dead by naming the tree in the memory of the dead person. In modern society planting a tree and dedicating it to someone who has died is an extremely popular way of honoring the deceased. Sometimes trees are planted on behalf of the living as well. In Vokeo Island of Papua New Guinea, many trees are named after those who planted them, and since coconut trees last for about 75 years, islanders know them by the names of the grandfathers of the present generation. Almond and breadfruit trees have a much longer life, so that these trees might receive a second name after the first couple of generations of planting (Hogbin, 1939, p. 314).


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Also in Papua, people take great pride in their gardens-decorating them with clumps of flowers, and frequently visiting the gardens even though there is nothing for them to do-just to look at them with pride. Many dying men wish to see their gardens for the last time, and are carried there on a stretcher in a solemn profession for their last visit, or even buried in their gardens (Hogbin, 1939, p. 301). The Dayaks of the coasts of Borneo worship the spirits of the soil. The people do not expect anything to grow without informing these spirits and asking their permission to utilize the soil. Prior to sowing, the entire village holds a feast at which a priest utters incantations to ward off disease and to beckon the spirits of the soil. A small sacrificial house might be placed in the center of the field, with pork and rice to propitiate the spirits of the soul. The Dobu people of Papua New Guinea will talk to their taro plants to influence them to migrate underground from one garden to another. These and other people of Papua believe that animals, vegetables, and humans can descend from one another. For the Bimin-Kuskusmin people of Papua, the part-human androgynous ancestors were the offspring of a lizard, and had both human and marsupial offspring. They believe the sweet potato to be the descendant of the cassowary and echidna. These are but a few examples of widespread cultural beliefs in which the boundaries of such concepts as animal and vegetable are extremely loose, and even the category of “human” has a nebulous quality to it (Lidz, 1989, p. 46). The rice-growing people of Indonesia consider rice as having a soul similar to that of humans. The rice soul is a distinct power that lives in the rice. The people use the same term to refer to the rice soul and the soul of human beings. Why the people would ascribe this soul status to rice rather than to the coconut, which is of great importance to the people of this region, is a mystery. Rice souls are thought to be particularly powerful among the first plantings as well as those that grow the tallest (Allard, 1945, p. 95). There are elaborate ceremonies associated with planting of rice: to protect the rice, to keep mice and insects away, to persuade the rice to grow quickly, and to insure the right amount of rain. Further ceremonies occur at the time of harvest, with ceremonial cutting, dancing, singing, eating and drinking. Once harvested, rice is held in great veneration, and it is a sacrilege to spill rice (Allard, 1945, pp. 338, 341) ANIMISM IN RELATION TO INANIMATE OBJECTS In this section we will explore the facet of animism that is widely manifested in “non-living” things, including sacred sites, ceremonial objects, idols, shells, figureheads, fire, and other things both manmade and occurring in nature. ANIMISM AND SACRED SITES The people of many cultures regard their lands as sacred. Sacred sites or sacred spaces are thought to possess special energy. The sacredness of the site has a certain power that animates, i.e., gives life force or mana, to the people. And, of course, some places are “not good,” because they harbor evil spirits. To the primitive man, The spirits of the departed inhabit such or such a wood. That cave harbours devils which strangle any man who enters. In yonder mountain lives the great serpent; that hill is the grave of the legendary king; near this spring or rock or tree every woman becomes pregnant; that ford is guarded by snake-demons... (Jung, 1933, p. 161). Associated with the lands that are held in reverence are such immobile wonders of nature as mountains, forests, streams, lakes, or rock formations, which are sometimes designated as sacred places of particular cultures. In many parts of the world mere sticks and stones have been worshipped and regarded as the dwelling place of spirits. Levy-Bruhl (1926) describes the relationship of primitives to their land as follows: The place occupied by a person, an object, an image is of paramount importance... to the mystic properties of such a person, object, or image. There is a corresponding participation between a definite

Animism


place, as a place, and the objects and entities which are found there, and it thus possesses certain mystic properties peculiar to it. To the primitive mind space does not appear as a homogeneous unity, irrespective of that which occupies it, destitute of properties and alike everywhere. On the contrary, each social group among the tribes of Central Australia, for instance, feels itself mystically bound up with the portion of ground it occupies or travels over; it has no conception that it might occupy another, or that some other group might inhabit the region it fills (pp. 102-103). We have seen again and again the resistance that indigenous people have to the ambitions of developers who seek to trespass on sacred sites, raze forests, excavate for minerals, build dams that spoil fishing rights, and so forth. Indigenous people feel that there is a mystical quality to the very space they occupy or that belongs to them, and this cannot be transferred or taken away by conquest. The people are in a symbiotic relationship with the place and the rocks, trees, springs and animals that are present there. As oil exploration, gold mining, deforestation and other commercial incursions desecrate these sites, the native people, in most cases, cannot perform various traditional rites that are associated with these areas and that are of fundamental importance to them. The consequence is breaking of the native’s links and turning the natives adrift spiritually. They can no longer feel at home in their environment if they can’t adhere to the mystical interpretation of the world of man and nature. The Tibetans regard Mount Everest as a sacred mountain, and its Tibetan name is Chomolungma, or “the abode of the goddess.” The Sikkim people regard Mount Kangchenjunga in their territory as sacred to their gods so that mountaineers are asked to avoid trodding at the spot of the actual summit. Native Americans regard many mountains as sacred, as well as canyons, rivers, lakes, rock formations, shrines and other sites. The Navajo and the Hualapai consider the entire Colorado River to be sacred. The Papuan worldview still holds that the forests belong to the tribes (there are presently 132 tribes), which use them for rituals. When deforestation takes place it is usually against the wishes of the local tribes (Singh, 2008, p. 48). Many other groups regard their mountains to be sacred sites. In Japan, Mount Fuji is “certainly more than a simple feature of the natural landscape. It is the gateway to another world, if not even that world itself” (Knecht, 2002, p. 145). In Japan village shrines are erected at various mountain sites: The shrine on the mountain is believed to be the place where the deity descends, and from where it then arrives at the village shrine at the bottom of the mountain at the time of a festival.... [T]he famous Miwa Shrine in Yamato... the cone-shaped Mount Miwa itself is the sacred representation of the deity (Knecht, 2002, p. 146). The mountain itself is regarded as the deity, so that the shrine does not need a special structure to house the deity. At numerous other mountains in Japan-Mount Taihei of Akita, Mount Kuju, and Fudo of Narita-“the deities and the mountains that are their abodes become one and the same. In other words,... a mountain may not only be the abode of a deity, it may in fact be the physical representation of that deity” (Knecht, 2002, p. 147). One might say that there is an epidemic of sorts concerning mining, oil drilling and logging in heretofore pristine and idyllic areas occupied by indigenous peoples around the world-from the rain forests of Borneo to the hamlets of Papua New Guinea to villages in Columbia. The main problem is environmental damage and seizure of lands that the indigenous people regard as sacred in their tradition. In the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, for instance, citizens are divided about copper mining operations of the Ok Tedi Mine, because revenue from the mining provides benefits such as improved infrastructure and transportation, employment opportunities, and enhanced revenues to the government, which in turn has resulted in new health and education facilities in larger villages. Many young men have 2-year contracts with the consortium, and live in modern dormitories, with modern plumbing, a canteen, well-prepared meals, and other amenities. But there are unfortunate environmental problems-garden and forest damage, pollution in river and streams that adversely affects wildlife, including birds, fish and turtles. In villages and hamlets located along the Ok Tedi River


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and the adjacent Fly River, many of the people show signs of relative prosperity, with houses built with iron roofs and glass windows. Another sign of the times is that in many villages where men can earn good wages from the mining consortium, bridewealth payments have increased as much as tenfold. The people are able to more readily sell their garden and forest produce by traveling regularly to larger villages via canoes with outboard motors. Also, by easier access to larger villages they have access to health care, markets, schools and cash income from employment with the mine. However, the dumping of mine tailings and waste rock into the Ok Tedi River has destroyed aquatic life to the extent that there has been a substantial decline in the number of fish and turtles, and the people are no longer to sell fish or turtles at the markets because they are of poor quality and people are afraid to eat them. Thus, they do not have the cash they used to get by selling fish in the markets. And because the authorities have warned them of the pollution the people do not even drink from the river or swim in it. No one eats fish from the river because the copper pollution stunts the growth of fish, makes them taste odd, there are fewer fish, and people get ill from eating them. It is no longer possible to maintain gardens or sago palms (a staple food source) adjacent to the river because the water is too polluted. There has been varying degrees of environmental damage, with downstream villages from the mine bearing the greater impact. It is not uncommon to see dead turtles or crocodiles washed ashore (Kirsch, 1995). After much disputing and negotiating, the mining consortium offered a compensation package to affected villages. One group, the Younggom, rejected the package, and with the aid of an Australian law firm, sued in the Australian courts. There was an out-of-court settlement with an agreement to mitigate the environmental damage. A dredging program proceeded, but there is continuing controversy over the state of the river. Environmental groups exerted pressure on the consortium, and a series of agreements calls for the end of the mining operations in approximately 2010. With the closing there will be associated problems of how villages will deal with the end of mining. With many men returning to their village lifestyle, this may not be invariably smooth or happy (Jorgensen, 2006, p. 239). The U’wa people of the remote cloud forests of Columbia sought through the courts, unsuccessfully, to prevent oil drilling adjacent to their ancestral lands. These people regard it as their collective duty “to care for the Earth and, to them, oil is the blood of the Mother Earth so that extraction of oil is equivalent to killing her-a fate from which there is no escape because all life depends on her survival” (Cohan, 2001/2002, p. 141). There are many other examples of legal wrangles between indigenous peoples and the dominant culture, particularly in environmental matters such as encroaching on fishing rights, or exploiting oil and minerals on sacred lands. In a recent case, Native Americans asked the courts to prohibit the use of artificial snow for skiing on a portion of a public mountain-the San Francisco Peaks in Northern Arizona-which is sacred to them. They believe the Peaks are a living entity, and they conduct religious ceremonies up there and collect plants and water to make medicinal bundles for healing ceremonies. They protested that the snow was made from recycled wastewater, which contains a trace amount (0.0001%) of human waste, and even this minute portion would desecrate the entire mountain, deprecate their religious ceremonies and desecrate the spirituality of the Peaks and offend their religious sensibilities. However, their legal claims were denied by the courts (Navajo Nation et al. v. United States Forest Service, 2008). There are numerous other instances of indigenous peoples throughout the world objecting to various types of projects that they view with trepidation. For instance, the government of Thailand has approved a $500 million gas pipeline project that villagers claim bypassed an expert panel review that local law requires (Arnold, 2002). Thailand’s 1997 constitution guarantees local communities a voice in industrial projects that affect them (Arnold, 2002). Environmentalists claim that Thailand’s environmental review process is an empty ritual, that the government fails to balance development and conservation, and that current projects have already ravaged Thailand’s waters and formerly vast tropical forests (Arnold, 2002). Villagers in the Songkhia province, where the pipeline would reach land, claim that the project would destroy their traditional way of life. One of the problems here is the failure of developers to attempt to gain the confidence of the villagers by interviewing them to gauge the project’s social impact (Arnold, 2002).

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In California, for 7,000 years the Quechan tribe have lived on tribal lands that is now federal property administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The tribe objects to a 1,600-acre, open-pit gold mine proposed by Glamis Gold Ltd., a company with mining operations in Nevada, California, Mexico and Honduras (Madigan, 2002). In this case, the company responded to the concerns of the tribe and has listened to their demands, and offered to move some of the waste stockpiles to accommodate heritage trails of the indigenous peoples (Madigan, 2002). From the mining company’s perspective, the tribe keeps changing its demands (Madigan, 2002). In central India, controversy surrounds the Supreme Court’s approval of the nation’s largest hydroelectric project, the Narmada River dam (Associated Press, 2002). Residents of the Narmada Valley object to the project because their homes will be engulfed when the dam is built, and they claim the project will harm small farmers and displace tens of thousands of villagers (Associated Press, 2002). India’s Supreme Court issued a criminal contempt order against a prize-winning Indian novelist, Arundati Roy, for criticizing the court’s approval of the project (Associated Press, 2002). In aboriginal Australia natives believe that ancestral beings transformed themselves into waterholes, rock outcrops, gorges, hills and other landmarks at places where they performed creative acts or had certain adventures. The spiritbeings remain alive within these landmarks and continue to influence the present. Different groups have custodianship for each sacred site, and members of the groups give special veneration to the particular site or cluster of sites. The sacred sites are considered an essential part of their own social fabric. Through these sites people are linked directly by ancestral descent to the land (Gould, 1969, p. 269). The people perform rites to “increase” the natural species that live in the area, and they guard the grounds from sacrilege. They control who may visit the sites, and perform rites to avenge any desecration of the site by unauthorized visitors. A visitor who approaches any sacred site, even accidentally, without an escort or guide from the appropriate group, may be exposing himself to severe reprisals because they are violating a taboo. The famed Witch’s Well of Tuhala, Estonia, and other natural wells of the region, periodically shoot up water from the ground, as pilgrims gather in the hopes of absorbing healing energies. The culture is deeply imbued in animism, expressed in the peoples’ folklore, that “the sins of humans reverberate in nature-lakes fly away to punish greedy villagers, or forests wander off in the night, never to return. Trees demand the respect of a tipped hat, and holes in the ground must be fed with coins” (Barry, 2008). Another aspect of sacred sites that is the worldwide phenomenon of making pilgrimages to these sites, to make gifts to the spirits of the place or make a small altar of stones, to deposit charms, flowers, or other food to propitiate the gods. Miracles such as supernatural cures are attributed to visits to holy shrines. Many of these sacred sites have an entire cottage industry built up around them, with the sale of holy relics, holy water, cards, and other memorabilia. The popularity of the shrine at Knock, Ireland induced the city to build its own airport to facilitate tourism. Sacred sites such as the springs of Lourdes are said to have miraculous healing powers. There are well documented cases of severe illnesses that have been cured there (Cranston, 1957). The many wells that from pagan times have dotted the British landscape are now devoted to specific saints, such as St. Bridgit’s well in Ireland. The site itself, and its waters, are thought to have miraculous powers. Throughout modern Indonesia, animism is alive and well, and there are many sacred sites. Animism permeates everyday life and affairs of state. When a religious war was waged at the beginning of the decade in the Moluccas, a group of islands in eastern Indonesia, both Christians and Muslims performed animistic rituals before fighting each other (Mydans, 2008). The presidents of Indonesia routinely visit sites said to have mystical power, including mountains, caves, tombs and ruins, to perform ritual acts. People often take ritual baths in waters what are believed to hold special powers. People collect stone artifacts, such as a red stone called a mirah delima, to protect them from illness and other troubles. Sukarno, the founding president of Indonesia, was reputed to have surrounded himself with magic charms and with dwarfs, albinos and others who are revered for their spiritual qualities (Mydans, 2008). In Miyako Island and other Japanese islands in the Okinawa archipelago in the East China Sea, female elders are responsible for guarding about 1,000 sacred sites, including forests, wells, springs and oracles. Certain roads are


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thought to be used by gods for getting around. The people still participate in numerous rituals to ward off evil spirits and to protect these sacred sites. Priestesses visiting the sites wear leaves of sugar palms around their heads and waists, and shake camphor tree twigs. Boys will wear carved masks with fearsome expressions, representing evil spirits, and will walk in procession (Onishi, 2008). ANIMISM IN RELATION TO STONES AND SHELLS Supplication to stones is an ancient practice, evidenced in the Bible, where God commanded Moses to speak to the rock “so that you may bring forth water and give drink to the congregation and the animals” (Numbers 20:8). We will explore a few examples of “stone worship” below. The Chillihuani people of the Peruvian Andes, who are herders living on the mountain slopes, practice a kind of animistic idolatry: During certain times of the year the people will conduct rituals involving small shiny stones formed into effigies resembling llamas, alpacas or sheep. They bring out and restore vital energy to these stones, and venerate and worship them in the hope of obtaining an abundant crop and good health. These rituals are considered vital to the well-being of the people. They treat these objects with awe and respect, and hand them down through the generations. They regard these objects as living intercessors between the people and the gods, and when they are brought out they are honored and fed, in the hopes that the people will secure fertility of their herds, prosperity and well-being. Certain vital energy is thought to reside in these objects. This same energy permeates the entire cosmos, connecting all things. The stones are intercessory in that they establish communication between the people and the mountain gods, who are asked to increase the herds. If the rituals are not properly performed, if the stones are neglected or not treated lovingly, they will become dangerous objects to the family that owns them, causing the loss of animals to disease. By the way, these people also use coca leaves for divining-to to predict the outcome of horse races among other things (Bolin, 2006). Clearly, these people believe that stones are alive and infused with spiritual power. The idea that stones contain concentrated life force and can communicate with the gods is widespread, particularly among people in the Andes. “Belief in the magical properties of stone has a long history in Peru; in fact, the cult of stones was the most prevalent religious practice of the ancient Peruvians” (Sharon, 1978, p. 59). The theme of people turning into stone is common in Inca mythology; guardians of high mountain lakes are said to be people turned to stone. In Papua New Guinea it is common for people to find a stone that is “put into service” as a protector of one’s house. One will find a stone on a neighbouring hill and carry it to his house. The bush-spirit from that land followed its stone and, on finding it in a house, began to inhabit the stone. The man would talk to the stone, call the spirit by name, and present it with food. The spirit would thus become the protector of the house and warn people of the lineage through their dreams whenever something was wrong. Men hid these spirit-stones from women and children in decorated baskets, taking them with them only when they went on dangerous missions (such as killing someone) or when they intended to stay in the bush for a long period (Telban, 1998, p. 171). In addition to stones, both natural and fashioned into images, many animistic cultures use shells, not only for currency, but for ritual and other practical purposes, based on the idea that shells contain special powers. In the Lake Kutubu region in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the natives have a spiral shaped fossil shell that is used in a kind of trial by ordeal. They believe that if someone takes an oath on the shell, e.g., denying a charge of theft-if the oath is false the individual will be afflicted with ailments of the jaws or throat-such as a stiff neck, mumps or facial paralysis. It is thought that the outraged spirits of the dead exercise their disciplinary powers through this shell (Williams, 1941, p. 390). In India the conch shell has for ages been used in religious rites, and has come to be revered as an object of adoration. Shell currency is still at least partly in use in many Oceania cultures, such as in New Britain and New Ireland, the mainland of Papua New Guinea, and Irian Jaya. The practice is tied in with animistic beliefs.

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Early missionaries and explorers all brought shell currency with them and found it immensely popular with the people of Papua. Labor and food could be paid for with pearl shells and other shell currency. The use of shell currency is still widespread in this region. In some situations where shell currency is not accepted, such as buying a plane ticket or getting things at a trading store, people will exchange shells for government currency so as to pay for the transaction. The people take very small bivalve shells of different kinds, file them to make them perfectly round, put a hole in the center, and string them onto pandanus fiber cords in lengths of about six feet. The labor and skill involved are considerable. These shells are called vula in New Britain. The shells are highly valued as women’s ornaments. A single necklace is considered equivalent to a small pig. They are also used as bride wealth, or to express kin or affinal relationships at initiation or mortuary ceremonies, or as payment for injury, particularly if bloodshed was involved. Several tribes of Irian Jaya use the kipe, more commonly known as cowry shells, for currency in numerous ritual and economic transactions, including bride payments, compensation for homicide or sorcery, the purchase of pigs, and the purchase of goods and services (Breton, 2000). In many clans, Indonesian paper money still has not made much inroads, so that shell money is used exclusively. In fact, when people come into paper money they often use it to buy shells. For the Wodani tribe in the Western Highlands, the shells tie into their animistic belief system. They regard each piece of shell to be an individual, unique in its own right-a “person.” They say the shells have a human anatomy: a “mouth” (the tooth-edged opening), a “nose” (the top of the shell), an “anus” (its bottom), “thighs” (its interior) and “skin” (the enamel surface). The people believe the shells are “alive,” that they have souls of their own. It is taboo to recut the mouth of a shell to make it look better; this is as wrong as to gash another person’s mouth with a knife. The people take great care of their shells, carefully dusting and polishing them. The Wodani divide the cowries into 20 classes, defined by subtle aspects in their appearance, each with a different value. The better quality of the enamel’s hue and other aesthetic features, will enhance the value of a given shell. Shells that have been in circulation for a long time are of greater value than new shells because of all the transactions in which they have been a part. The most valuable shells are actually given names, often referring to the mystical origin of the objects, or after a fruit or stone, some foliage, or a water hole. The Wodani frown upon hoarding of shells. They believe they should be circulated as much as possible, or else the shell’s soul will devour the soul of its owner or bring down the wrath of a supernatural entity. The people of Malaita in the Solomon Islands rely on money consisting of strings of pearls as well as shells (Cooper, 1971). Smaller discs are more highly valued than larger ones. Different types of shell are gathered and broken into small bits, shaped into discs, smoothed and reduced to uniform size, and holes drilled through the centers, then strung together. Unlike ordinary currency, each shell has its distinct merits and deficiencies relative to other shells. The value of shells may depend on such things as overall appearance, size, weight, thickness, how carefully polished and cleaned they appear, and other factors. Larger shells have greater value than smaller ones. Newer shells are usually more valuable than older ones. In transactions people will usually seek to gain higher value shells for their collection than what they had before. It is often the case that one will not accept shells that he or she has previously parted with in a transaction. This is because people simply do not wish to “renegotiate” the value of shells they have previously owned. ANIMISM AND DIVINATION In all cultures of the world there are people in the community such as clairvoyants, psychics, mediums, shamans and others with gifts of access to the spirit realm-whom one might consult to read one’s fortune, to interpret oracles, and to help solve life problems. Various modes of divination almost always involve obtaining knowledge about the objective world by means different from ordinary sense perception.


John Alan Cohan

Aids used in divination are animistic. An individual will use one of many possible aids in seeking messages from mysterious sources above and beyond ordinary sense perception, from the Tarot, oracle reading, the I Ching, to spinning the coconut (in Tonga). Where the coconut points when again at rest provides an answer to the question. Some cultures use such methods such as water-gazing, geomancy, gazing at the entrails of a sacrificed animal, tea leaves, a crystal ball and so forth. The message comes through the vehicle or natural process used. Shamans and folk healers, to one degree or another, as we will see in later chapters, often rely on some tangible object as a method of divination to understand what has gone wrong with the patient, and to learn what is needed to propitiate angry spirits and restore cosmic order, or other appropriate action. One of the more interesting modes of divination is seen in the use of preserved heads. We noted in our discussion of mana in chapter 4 that, particularly in Papua New Guinea, until recent times it was a common practice to capture the heads of outsiders and bestow the name of the deceased on one’s children. An entirely different practice concerning preserved heads existed among the Ovimbundu of Angola. Prior to starting a trade expedition it was customary to consult the preserved head of a deceased king. Even in recent times, the corpse of a king is suspended by the neck and twisted until the head is severed. The head is sewn in oxhide and preserved in a box. The ancient caravan custom consisted of taking the box containing the head and attaching it to a pole by which it was supported on the shoulders of two bearers. Then followed a series of questions from the village chief (sekulu), and answers were supposed to be given through forward or backward swinging of the pole. A forward swing was affirmative, and a backward swing was negative (Hambly, 1934, pp. 160-161). Among the Ambonwari people of the East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea, the “being” of a canoe gives omens: It communicates with people by rocking or shaking. When in the past the Ambonwari went to fight with their neighbours, the rocking of a canoe would induce the men to return to the village. It was interpreted as a form of advice from the spirit. It often happened that the men asked a canoe about their chances before they paddled off towards their enemy. A man thinking about his sick wife may turn his canoe homeward if it is shaking and perhaps telling him that she may be dying (Telban, 1998, p. 174). The subject of divination is a vast topic, but the brief account here is intended simply to provide its linkage to animism. The object used in divination of course depends on an experienced mediator who had the ability to interpret the signs that are present. Often enough the interpretation of signs are somewhat subjective. One Tarot card reader, for instance, will give an entirely different interpretation of a set of cards drawn than another individual, just as one individual will interpret a dream in an entirely different way from the next person. Divination is an ancient practice that is very much alive today in both primitive and modern cultures, in which people seek to find solutions to various life problems and concerns from supernatural signs that are presented for interpretation. ANIMISM AND FIGUREHEADS ON SHIPS An interesting form of animism pertains to figureheads. A figurehead is a carved wooden or bronze decoration of a mermaid or other female, a deity, or an animal (such as a bird or serpent) placed at the prow of vessels of all types, from canoes to ships. The figurehead is the guardian of the vessel and is supposed to frighten enemies. It also is supposed to help the ship find her way. In canoe-building cultures, canoes usually have a figurehead. The Vikings had intimidating dragons and serpents as figureheads on their vessels. Especially from the 16th to the 19th centuries, sailors believed that their figureheads were endowed with magical powers of protection, and if any damage occurred to the figurehead this was viewed as an omen of impending disaster. By the way, as is well known, ships-whether nautical, aircraft or space ships-are always referred to in the feminine, thus ascribing an animistic feature to these vehicles of transportation. Ships are referred to in the feminine probably because seafarers thought of their ships in terms of the close dependence they had for ships for sustenance and life,

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and ships were usually dedicated to some goddess. Also, in romance languages the word, “ship” is always in the feminine. In canoe-building cultures, the shaman or chief will sing magical incantations to insure buoyancy of the canoe. A magical spell will be sung in carving the figurehead of the canoe to insure its “eyes” will be clear and bright so that the canoe will sail directly to the point aimed at, rather than drift (Hogbin, 1935b, p. 384). Another spell may be sung to make the canoe swift, and so on. Also, workers will recite a sort of apology to the canoe for the treatment it has received from the cutting and shaping of the timber from which it is built. One such song goes as follows: O mother, mother, your child is dead; it lies stretched out and still. They have burnt it with fire; it is dead. Soothe its aching face; soothe its aching head. Soothe its aching breasts; soothe its aching flanks (Hogbin, 1935b, p. 383) And during a canoe voyage, be it short or long, there are spells to be said to help avert squalls or bad weather. Also, no one would dream of going on a voyage without bringing the bone of one of his dead ancestors, for protection, or some other protective amulet. And of course, the figurehead itself is a protective icon. ANIMISM AND IDOLS Clearly, animism extends to the use of idols in religious invocations. We discussed some of this above in the ritual use of stones carved into effigies by the Chillihuani people. In many cultures certain man-made objects used for religious invocation-idols of various figures and icons-are considered to be animated by the spirits, saints or gods depicted by the idol. In the Greek Orthodox Church the faithful believe that icons-painted wooden representations of God, Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints-are objects containing supernatural power and grace. Certain miracle-working icons are said to possess supernatural powers, such as the ability to heal illness. Virtually all houses in rural Greece have family icons that are often valuable heirlooms, reverently displayed. The faithful believe that an icon has a will of its own and can demand to be moved or repainted. In order to make its wishes known an icon can cause someone to suffer, often the person responsible for the icon’s care. When the will of the icon is done, the person’s suffering comes to an end (Danforth, 1989, p. 73). Hinduism is perhaps the foremost religion in the world that utilizes idols. There is a fine line between idol worship and the use of images (such as statutes or icons of saints) as an aid to prayer. There are differences of opinions as to just what the status is of idols used by Hindus when worshipping and praying to these objects. One view is that idols are mere representations of gods so that venerating a statute of a saint is not worshipping the object, but goes beyond the image to the saint in Heaven. At the same time, the people and priests treat the objects as revered things in themselves. And this is true in Catholicism, where statutes of saints and other icons are treated with great ceremony and reverence. In fact, there is a great deal of of touching, of kissing, and other signs of veneration before statutes in Catholic churches. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the people believe that touching or kissing the statute will impart a certain blessing upon them. It would be interesting to do a study of how the faithful might explain their reverence of statutes and icons, and in what ways they think blessings are imparted from or through these objects. An intermediate view is that Hindu idols are a means or vehicle through which the power or presence of the gods connects to human beings. In this respect the idols are not gods in the literal sense, but are imbued with the grace and power of the gods, so that they are a medium through which one might pray. They are vehicles for communing with the gods. In this way, idols are a means of invoking the gods and obtaining direct responses from them. Moreover, statutes and idols are simply objects of inspiration and education. Another view is that idols are literal embodiments of a deity or force. This view seems to be supported by the fact that rituals include the offering of food and treats to the idols, and these offerings are thought to be consumed by the gods.


John Alan Cohan

From an animistic standpoint, idol worship acknowledges the omnipresence of God in that everything, including idols, are filled with God’s presence. Everything in the universe becomes a sacred object worthy of reverence. In many other cultures it is not uncommon to use idols or statutes in rituals so as to make contact with the gods. Hunters in Siberia used to appeal to a special idol prior to the hunt, feeding the idol by throwing pieces of fat into the fir. They would amuse the idol by dancing in front of it, and make other supplications in order to have a successful hunt. And people in Papua New Guinea maintain spirit houses in which large wooden figures are kept to represent their dead ancestors. These figures are regarded as sacred, and certain rituals must be performed before going inside (Macintosh, 1965). ANIMISM AND CEREMONIAL OBJECTS: THE SHAMAN’S DRUM We will go into some detail about shamans and the shaman’s drum in chapter 8. For now, it is observed that in many cultures the shaman’s drum is considered not merely to have mana, but to have “live” properties, equivalent to ritual actors, almost equivalent to persons. According to Hoskins (1988), “The drum acquires the power to heal, and becomes a symbolic double of the patient” (p. 820). In shamanic practices in Indonesia, particularly in Sumba, the shaman’s drum is carefully crafted from driftwood, filled with magical objects (candlenut, chicken feathers, and other objects), covered with the hide of a young calf or colt, and is then consecrated in a singing ceremony before it can be used for healing. The drum is curvaceous and hallow inside, representing its feminine character, responsive to the voice of male orators, who pierce it with their words. The curved form of the drum also helps connect it to dead ancestors, between the human and spirit worlds. The healing power of the drum comes in part from its being fashioned from driftwood, thus having the “experience” of drifting in the disorder of the waters, a parallel of the shaman’s previous history of illness and suffering. Like the drum, out of disorder the patient will be reordered into a healthy person. In addition, the rhythmic drumming of the shaman is thought to have the power to reorder the instability within the patient. And as we will discuss later, the shaman’s drum is thought to help carry the shaman into ecstatic states and to help communicate with the spirit world. ANIMISM AND FIRE The use of fire in rituals to ward off evil spirits is a form of animism. In aboriginal Australia natives would burn a fire in the grave before the body was interred, to frighten evil spirits out it. Fire was thought to be a powerful means of averting evil spirits, but also a life-giving and comforting element that could provide peace and solace to the deceased. After the corpse was laid into the grave, another fire would be started to singe the hair off the body as a means of comforting the dead individual. After burial a fire is kept by the grave for some weeks. Thus, the use of fire in gravesite rituals has the dual purpose of averting evil spirits and comforting the dead. Fire can also be helpful in chasing away evil spirits that cause nightmares. One simply jumps out of bed, seizes a stick and lights it, twirls it around muttering a number of imprecations, then throws the stick outdoors (Hallam, 1979, pp. 80-81). ANIMISM AND NATURAL DISASTERS: WARNINGS, NATURE’S REVENGE, GOD’S WRATH In many cultures people are to some extent preoccupied with primordial fears to do with forces that cause catastrophes, misfortune and illness. In modern and primitive cultures alike, many people believe that there is a link between their moral behavior and their fortune in this world, whether in bodily health or professional success. So much of illness is inexplicable-why one and not another becomes ill or gets into an accident, or why one and not others respond to medical treatment. Today many people, perhaps unconsciously, think that sin is the reason that they become ill (See chapter 14, “The Placebo Effect.”). Not only in illness, but in the face of accidents, bad weather or some calamity or disaster-whether personal or affecting an entire community-people will search themselves to determine what they did to provoke the spirits, or Nature, or dead ancestors, or God, to punish them. To the primitive mind, nothing happens without a reason. What

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caused the earthquake? What is its significance? Why were some homes destroyed and not others? Why did some people die and not others? People in all cultures invariably ponder these questions. For instance, if you have ever suffered the loss of your home in a hurricane or other disaster, while the home next door survived, you may have wondered why God was punishing you and not the neighbor. Animism includes the idea that unusual natural phenomena communicate something to the people. Unusual weather, landslides, volcano eruptions and earthquakes or other unusual natural phenomena are believed to be punishment from nature or the gods, or might be viewed as a omen to the people of an epidemic to come, or as a warning for them to mend their ways. A tsumani means the gods are angry. A drought means the community must atone from some wrong. A volcano eruption means the people have failed to make proper ritual offerings to the spirits of the mountain, or that dead ancestors are not properly remembered, and this is God’s response to the vices of the community. And from time immemorial people have always taken total eclipses to be bad omens. Mother Nature is as it were an ally of ancestral or other spirits, expressing disfavor and restoring balance in nature and human affairs. And on the other side of the equation, the return of good weather or a rainbow means that the gods are pleased. The belief that natural disasters are nature’s revenge for indiscretions committed by the people is expressed as follows: Is it any wonder that we face droughts, earthquakes and other natural disasters? Nature has a will of her own, and once man oversteps what she is willing to allow then she can retaliate, just as the kindly mother will slap the erring child. Not in anger but because he must learn that there are things that are wrong, and overstep the mark (Green, 1971, p. 40). There are many references in the Bible to God’s wrath expressed through disastrous weather, plague, earthquakes as punishment for some notorious sin. The Bible relates the punishment of the Deluge, the fate of those who are described as perishing in it, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by a shower of fire and brimstone, the falling of all the people in the wilderness on account of their sins, so that none of those who had left Egypt were found to have entered the promised land, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. And the Pharaoh received several warnings in the form of locusts and water that turned into blood. In medieval times thunder and lightning were thought to be caused by demons, so that church bells were consecrated to make them efficacious against evil spirits, and would be rung in an effort to ward off storms (Thomas, 1971, p. 34). Exorcisms were conducted to make fields fertile; holy candles employed to protect farm animals, and formal curses uttered to drive away caterpillars and rats and to kill weeds (Thomas, 1971, p. 35). It is not uncommon for preachers to say that God is chastening and afflicting the people for some reason-as punishments for sin, for their lack of prayer, their unthankfulness, or some other complacency. The good and the bad are not mere instances of chance or fortune, but are part of God’s will. New Age people always have the saying that “There are no coincidences,” and “There is no such thing as chance.” Life is not a lottery; God’s hand is at work. The animistic belief that the environment responds to man’s moral behavior goes hand in hand with the idea that there are no chance occurrences, and that natural signs and occurrences are linked in a meaningful and ordered context. The expression “act of God” is a legal term used in insurance policies and contracts, to exclude liability for catastrophic losses such as occur in earthquakes or severe floods. In these situations, an “act of God” is the basis for excluding coverage. In a study following a large earthquake in Medang, people gave widely differing explanations on the subject: that the earthquake was punishment for disharmony among the people, for their neglect of religious practices, disregard of tradition, sinful behavior such as gossip, sorcery, neglect of family, and anger-or that the earthquake was a warning. Some said it was not clear which particular people God was punishing. Christian life was by some


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accounts deteriorating, young people seemed more inclined towards valuing money and clothes and only practiced certain parts of the Christian way of life that their fathers and grandfathers had accepted more wholeheartedly. Others felt that the earthquake was sent to punish the cargo cultists, particularly if they suffered greater losses (We will discuss cargo cults in chapter 24). Still others thought that the earthquake was a demonstration of God’s power to encourage people to believe in him (Hogg & Robertson, 1971). Volcanoes are one of nature’s greatest forces. In Indonesia, where animism is well and alive in the hearts and minds of the people, it is believed that human folly can trigger natural disasters. The people throughout Indonesia have a profound reverence toward volcanoes, which they regard as sacred places. They interpret eruptions as signs of political change and social upheaval. On Java alone, about 120 million people live in close proximity to more than 30 volcanoes. The people perform rituals to appease a demon believed to inhabit the smoldering peak of Mount Merapi-an active volcano off the island of Java. Politicians and ordinary citizens often worship high on Merapi’s slopes, often in rituals involving sacrifice of goats and wild dancing (Marshall, 2008). In Bali, people perform a purification ceremony called Melasti in order to restore the harmony between the spirits of the volcanoes and the oceans (Mydans, 2008). In 2004 an earthquake and tsunami struck Banda Aceh Province in Sumatra, killing 170,000 people. Muslim priests and mullahs interpreted this as a sign of God’s wrath for the peoples’ sins, ranging from drinking to premarital sex. The mullahs gave a similar explanation following the 1883 eruption of Mount Krakatau off Java’s coast. The eruption of Mount Krakatau triggered a tsunami that killed more than 36,000 people. Following the Banda Aceh disaster, in order to allay national fears, President Yudhoyono and his cabinet participated in a mass prayer at Jakarta’s grand mosque to appease the gods. Following the devastating earthquakes in China’s Sichuan Province in 2008, there was a response from popular culture. Actress Sharon Stone lost her advertising promotion with Dior in China because of remarks the government found offensive. She was quoted as saying that the earthquakes were karmic retribution for Beijing’s treatment of Tibet: “I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And then the earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?” (Jolly, 2008). There are many other examples in which communities will explain natural catastrophies in terms of God’s wrath. Mount Nyiragongo, in Goma, Congo, most recently erupted in 2002, killing 50 people and destroying neighborhoods and crops. Many said that the volcano erupted to punish the people for their sins, including what is described as virgin sacrifices of previous generations. In these practices a chief would betroth his eldest daughter to the spirits of the volcano. She was allowed to have lovers, but never allowed to leave her father’s home or to marry (Polgreem, 2008). ANIMISM AND MODERN CULTURES In the preceding section we briefly noted some animistic practices in contemporary cultures of Indonesia and elsewhere. Animism is not only the philosophy and religion of primitive peoples, but persists today in many modern practices, both conscious and unconscious. An analysis of the modern Western world might first suggest a complete cultural denial of animistic traditions that go back thousands of years. All that exists, in the final analysis, can be reduced to physical chemistry. The world is impersonal, inanimate and comprised of clashing mechanical forces. Things of nature-whether trees, fish from the sea, sulfur from the mines, gold from the streams-have material properties, are subject to property rights, and are objects of commerce, of consumption, and of survival in many instances. But in recent years, particularly with the emergence of the environmental movement, modern society has gotten back in touch with the reverence for nature embraced by animistic cultures. We do in fact animate the objects in our environment. The environmental movement is predicated on treating the planet as an object of relatedness. We want to relate to things around us. We prefer engagement and relatedness. Ecological systems are seen as moral systems. There is a veritable renaissance in which modern cultures impute personhood and agency to animals, trees, houses, cars, teddy bears and myriads of other things, both natural and manmade.

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Many urban dwellers approach many aspects of their non-human environments in a “relational” manner (Hornborg, 2006, pp. 21-22). Urban dwellers have strong beliefs that they are related to, attuned to, in communication with things in their environment, on a deep level. Guthrie (1993) claims: We often see nonliving things and events as alive, especially if they move, make noise, or otherwise stand out from the landscape. We credit our environment with more organization and more organisms than it has. Humans see boulders as bears, flying pieces of paper as birds, and stuck drawers as willful. Other animals also animate the world; cats see fluttering leaves as prey, horses see blowing bags as threats, and dogs hear sirens as howls. Our shared inclination to animate, moreover, is a strategy rather than an accident. To call this inclination a strategy, however, is not to say it is conscious. In fact, it never is (p. 39). Modern animal welfare laws reflect a sense of relatedness to animals. Animal welfare laws recognize that animals can experience pain, hence we have enacted humane slaughter and anti-cruelty laws. People are greatly incensed to hear of cases of animal cruelty or of inhumane treatment of animals at slaughter houses, and there are thousands of organizations devoted to protecting animals from cruelty at the hands of human beings. “Ecopsychology” is a new field that examines personal interactions and family systems, and encourages individuals to establish a relationship with nature (Glaser, 2008). The word “ecopsychology” is a term credited to Theodore Roszak in his 1992 book, The Voice of the Earth, in which he explores the link between mental health and ecological health. His main thesis is that by embracing nature, the human mind can be shaped and inspired, that human beings have a deep affinity with other species, and that there is a correlation between sanity and a good relationship with nature. A kind of animism permeates civic affairs in the granting of protected status for historic buildings, monuments and sites. Every town has its own historical landmarks that are granted protected status much akin to laws protecting endangered species. The United Nations has established the World Heritage designation to provide special protection to 878 cultural, natural and mixed sites all over the world. Even some entire cities are designated as World Heritage sites, such as the historic city centers of Vienna, Graz and Salzburg, Austria, Brugge, Belgium, Prague, Czech Republic, Avignon, France, Bamburg, Germany, Rome, Florence, Naples, Vatican City, Salamanca, Spain, several towns in Brazil, and a host of other cities. Numerous manmade structures are thought to be so imbued with special significance as to merit special protection: The Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capital in Washington, D.C.-are but a few famous examples. And the World Trade Center had great symbolic significance. In the United States numerous sacred places are designated as National Monuments. Gettysburg Field, for instance, something of an ordinary field in Pennsylvania, is protected because of the famous battle that was fought there in the Civil War. Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, also is a National Monument, together with the house across the street where Lincoln was treated for his gunshot wound and died. The volcanic mountain, Moana Kea in Hawaii, considered to be a sacred mountain by the indigenous population, is a national park with protected status as well. The point is that in modern society we have many legal protections that echo the animistic principle that places, monuments, historic buildings, in addition to animals and plants, have a special relationship to the Earth and to humanity as a whole. These places have a special mana that literally imbues the location. These places are uniquely important, and are preserved for humanity and posterity, and people pay special reverence to these places when visiting. The sites are connected to the memory and history of particular events, and often evoke strong emotional feelings. In popular culture there are many examples of animism. In modern society we see evidence of animism in the way people speak about phenomena-attributing life to the nonliving, animating the inanimate, at least metaphorically. For


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instance, firefighters are known to attribute metabolism and intention to fires. In a group of interviews, firefighters working on a forest fire said the fires were “devious,” “cunning,” or “lying in wait.” They said that when winds died down at night, the fire was “resting up.” One firefighter said, “I swear these fires lay down at night or in a rain and they plan what to do” (Guthrie, 1993, p. 53). NASA’s news service manager posted “animated” messages to the public on behalf of the Phoenix Mars Lander, after it successfully landed on Mars in 2008. The blogs said such things as “Here’s a great picture of my deployed arm with the scoop on the end,” and “I can’t wait to dig in the dirt next week” (Chang, 2008). In off-the-cuff ways, society tends to use animal descriptions for human activities. We often use the word “animal” to mean a bestial person, a brute, such as when we refer to rapist as an “animal,” or we use the term for people who behave in a rude, socially repugnant way. Or we will use such terms as “pig” or “weasel” or “jackass” to insult someone. Cars often will be named after animals. The use of animal symbolism in the naming of cars evokes imagery of animals in their natural habitats, and taps into the desire of people for the freedom that animals have, unencumbered by the constraints of modern culture. We have the Ford “Mustang,” the “Pinto,” the “Thunderbird,” the Buick “Skylark,” the “Cougar,” and the VW used to be known as the “Bug” or “Beetle.” The naming of these brands establishes a psychological linkage between the vehicle and the owners who may wish to be identified with the beauty and grace of the “pinto” or “skylark,” etc. Sometimes the name of a car will be a particular place in the world or a fantasy location, such as “El Dorado.” Throughout the Peruvian Andes people will often name their trucks, emblazened in large letters on the front or on the bumpers, the hood, or on the doors. Truck drivers will also display a “motto” of their truck (Bolton, 1979, p. 317). Professional sportsmen “pray” to have their golf club or bat or mitten “activated” in relation to their will. A team’s mascot will be an animal figure depicted as victorious or as venomous towards the opponent. On Wall Street we use the term “bull market” to signify optimism, hope, aspiration and greed, while the term “bear market” gives concrete referents to fear, the risks of failure and the frustrations of human efforts. If we are in the beginning of a bull market, it is a good time to invest; or in a bear market you can get bargains as the prices go down. Merrill Lynch has used the slogan “Bullish on America” in advertising, delivering a message of optimism and suggesting the prospects for a better, more prosperous life if you invest with them. By giving animistic qualities to impersonal economic forces, the stock market is animated, i.e., it has “a life of its own,” which operates independently of the decisions made by individual investors. ANIMISM AND CHILDREN We all know from having been children and from observing children that animism is a natural part of human development. This was a topic of study resulting in the famous book by the eminent psychologist, Jean Piaget, The Child’s Conception of the World (1929). Like the primitives, the child regards many objects as living and endowed with will or a “soul.” Children exhibit animism in play-e.g., endowing personalities to dolls. They “talk about things in terms used for human beings, thus endowing them with will, desire, and conscious activity” (Piaget, 1929, p. 210). “Since the child does not distinguish the psychical from the physical world,... he will regard as living and conscious a large number of objects which are for us inert” (Piaget, 1929, p. 169). There are different gradations of animistic beliefs in children, depending mainly on their age. A child of 5 or 6 will have a much more “universal” approach to animism, attributing consciousness to rocks as well as to animals, while a teenage child will tend to limit animistic beliefs to living creatures, particularly animals.

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A CHILD’S ANIMISM IN RELATION TO INANIMATE OBJECTS Children attribute consciousness, to one degree or other, to nonliving things, especially when there is some sort of activity or movement connected with it. To a child it seems that any sort of activity is purposive and conscious. For young children a stone will be something that has feelings, but perhaps only if it is moved or dropped onto the ground, not when at rest. If you prick a stone it won’t feel it because it is hard; but if you put it in the fire, it will feel that because it will get burned; and a stone can feel cold as well. A bench “knows” it is here but might not feel anything unless it is moved or damaged. A table at rest doesn’t feel anything but does if it is broken. A wall does not feel anything unless it is knocked down, because that would break it. If you pull off a button it will feel it because the thread will break. A bicycle “knows” when it is made to go and when it is made to stop. If a string is twisted, it “feels” it and wants to unwind itself. A boat can “feel” it is on the water because it feels the weight of people who are on board. Water does not feel it if you prick a pin into it because it is not solid, but it feels heat if boiled, and it feels the wind if it causes ripples or waves. Grass feels it if you pull it. The wind feels it if it blows against the house because it can’t go any further (Piaget, 1929, pp. 175-176). The moon “knows” that it moves. The sun can “see” us. The sun can feel it if you prick a pin at it, because it is big. As children get older, i.e., from around ages 9 to 12, they tend to restrict their animistic beliefs to objects that can move on their own accord. Thus, a bicycle doesn’t feel anything, but the wind does because it blows of its own accord. Flowers know when you tread on them because they grow, and the clouds are alive because they move (Some children may disagree as to what it means for an object to move on its own accord. Some children think fire acts on its own accord because it burns once it is lit; others think it does not act on its own accord, for it has to be lit in order to get started). ANIMISM IN CHILDREN’S STORIES Children, as is well known, form strong emotional attachments to their dolls and toys. There are countless examples of animated dolls and toy animals in children’s stories, fairy tales, children’s movies and cartoons. A typical theme is that an object will be the “hero” of the story after becoming endowed with “life.” There are “coming to life” themes in Collodi’s Pinocchio, A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, and Enys Tregarthen’s The Doll Who Came Alive, to name only a few. Walt Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a famous cartoon feature in which a broom and bucket become animated. Hans Christian Andersen perceived life in everything, as expressed in his enormously popular fairy tales. Andersen developed many stories around animals that have human traits, such as in The Nightingale. But he also developed stories focused on animated man-made objects. In The Old Street Lamp, a street lamp becomes more and more human as the story progresses. In The Tea-Pot, a tea pot gains insight into her own existence and takes pride in herself. In these stories machines are easily compared to human beings: They consume fuel, they are conscious of their existence, they contemplate their experiences, they are very sensitive, their characters evolve, and they develop wisdom. The Wizard of Oz portrays two man-made creatures: one, the Scarecrow, feels like a new man when Dorothy sets him on the ground. As the story develops he expresses emotions. The other figure is the Tin Woodman. He was once a human being but because of his stubborn love of a girl, and the opposition of a wicked woman, his limbs were replaced with tin and he has no heart. He says he doesn’t care, but knows that something is missing. There is a certain psychological utility when children are exposed to animistic themes in these stories. The child enters into a meaningful fantasy relation with the animal or object, identifies with these characters, and learns moral lessons from them. Schwarcz (1967) claims:


John Alan Cohan

Children’s literature is one of the means by which children are socialized and are acquainted with important aspects and features of their civilizations. It is, therefore, only natural that gadgets and machines should loom prominently in children’s books in an era and a society that is, in fact, based on technological development (p. 82). Many stories about androidal robots also express animism, both in children’s books and adult science fiction. In these stories robots or machines have rich personalities. Emotion, reason and volition are attributed to them, human beings relate to them, have feelings for them, are rescued by them, etc. In children’s literature machines can be benevolent heroes, friendly, loyal, and humanized companions. However, in adult genres machines are often represented as monstrous evil-doers or in apocalyptic themes. ANIMISM AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Another example of animism in modern culture is in the science fiction genre. Science fiction stories focus on animating things, whether a puppet or a corpse, or other themes such as animals with supernatural powers, or humans with animal-like traits. The genre of science fiction calls to mind the philosophical debate on “artificial intelligence,” the idea that robots or computers not only can outmatch human intelligence (e.g., IBM’s chess computer, called Deep Blue), but can take on a life of their own. That is, certain man-made objects can become “naturally” active, autonomous in their actions, develop a personality, coexist with human beings, and even, on occasion, become superior to human beings. In the play by Capek, R.U.R., robots learn to act independently and have emotions. They garner a movement to guarantee their civil rights, and millions of robots revolt and exterminate mankind. They breed a new race that inherits the earth, and a new world begins. The movie, 2001 Space Odyssey focused on computer named Hal who took on destructive traits, having transformed himself into a superior, self-preserving, human-like entity. The widespread philosophical debate as to whether a man-made robot or computer can have “consciousness,” a personality or a sense of self, has reached a feverish pitch. The worry that machines could have some sort of personhood seems to reflect mounting unrest and anxiety as to the human role in in a machine age. There can easily be human conflicts over the machine, a sense of inferiority vis-a-vis the machine, and a sense of dehumanization in that when machines can outperform people, this makes people expendable. The very identity of humanness is thrown into disarray when philosophers are hardpressed to say how human beings differ from other entities in the world. As we discussed earlier in this chapter, it is difficult to distinguish between living and nonliving entities. Adler (1967) describes this concern as a kind of anxiety: If... it can be decisively established that man does not differ radically from other animals and machines, what difference will this make to traditional religious beliefs about man’s special dignity and destiny, and to the juridical, political, and moral principles that rest on the distinction between man and thing? (p. 257) An unusual form of magic consists of creating a human being out of inanimate matter. In the Bible, God created Adam from pure primal matter of the earth. There are widespread legends of early Christian apocrypha that as a child, Jesus made birds of clay and, uttering the name of God over them, they became alive and flew off. The idea that it is possible to create a figure in the form of a human being goes back to an ancient mystical text, Sofer Yezirah, or Book of Creation, dealing with numbers and the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It was believed that by use of this book one could create a Golem, which in all respects resembles a human being but which cannot speak. The idea is that the letters themselves are the structural elements that God combined and transformed, and through which he created all of creation. It is well worth noting that the Greek word stoicheia, means both letters and elements. There is the idea that letters and words have an intrinsic power. Mayrink (1914) points out that there are many tales told of famous rabbis who created a Golem. In analyzing the Golem as a man created by magic, one must go back to certain Jewish ideas concerning Adam, the first man. One who creates a Golem is obviously in some way “competing” with God’s creation of Adam, either in emulation of or in competition with God.

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Today, there is a surge of popularity of the Golem in the Czech Republic. In Prague the legend is that a rabbi made a Golem from clay and, using his knowledge of the kabbalah, brought it to life to protect the city’s 16th Century Jews from persecution. The Golem was named Yossele and patrolled the ghetto. Today, in times of swine flu and economic stress, the Golem is experiencing a revival. Some think this is because the Czechs are attracted to a character with supernatural powers that will help transform their problems. Some hotels in Prague have a Golem theme; there are Golem door-making companies; Golem clay figurines are sold in shops; a restaurant is called the Golem; a play is being produced about the Golem; and a Czech entertainer calls himself the Golem and bends iron bars with his teeth (Bilefsky, 2009). The chief point of this chapter has been to suggest that animism adds a whole new way of thinking, not just about animals, but about our entire relationship with the non-human world. Animism seems to have been a universal, ancient way of viewing the world as a whole, and today animism is a way of life for a substantial portion of the world’s people. To some extent animists, whether children or indigenous people, may project human-like traits, particularly consciousness and language, on to objects of nature, animals and plants. This projection may be conscious or unconscious, and may well be a universal tendency among all people. Animism holds that we humans share personhood with the world of nature. As we noted, the line between living and non-living is murky, at best, and quantum physics suggests that all things are animated. Animism is a way of making sense of the world, with life and events that are not fully understood by the rational mind. Animism helps shape our human attitude and behavior in relation to the environment. According to Harvey (2005), animism draws attention to other-than-human communities, needs, desires and rights. It invites the preservation of ecosystems because they are diverse, viable, important and valuable in their own right-not as ‘resources’ but in themselves and for themselves (p. 180). Animism’s unique contribution today is that the world is not “our environment” in the sense that it is there primarily for human exploitation. Rather, we are stewards of the world with a responsibility to respect the community of life and the entire panoply of nature.

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CHAPTER 6 Totemism Abstract. In this chapter we discuss the concept of totemism. Totems are animals, plants or natural phenomena (a mountain, stream, volcano, etc.) which which a group will identify. Tribes often believe they are literally descended from their totems. The totem might be regarded as a guardian, helpmate, or a source of strength to the people. Often a people’s mythology will attribute special qualities to totemic animals-e.g., that they possessed remarkable powers which transformed chaos of the universe into order. Some totems reflect the economic and social importance of the objects concerned-e.g., the sea might be the totem. Totems are objects of reverence and fear-the totem is subject to rituals and taboos, violation of which has dire and immediate consequences. Usually the totemic species cannot be killed or eaten, except for communion-type ceremonies. For instance, for many aborigines in Australia, the kangaroo or iguana is their totem. Totemic beliefs reveal a peoples’ philosophy of life, their morals, their spirituality. In modern cultures totems are seen in flags and mascots. Modern society embraces totemism in many ways-e.g., national flags, mascots for sports teams, and the tendency of people to think of their homeland in endearing, reverential terms.

TOTEMS AND ANIMISTIC CULTURES Totems are prevalent in animistic cultures, and are a particular expression of the people’s kinship with the environment. A totem is usually an important animal, plant, natural phenomenon (such as lightning or fire), a natural resource (such as a lake or a mountain) or even some artifact (such as a canoe) that people in a given culture believe has a special effect on the people’s economic dependency and spiritual wellbeing. For instance, for many aborigines in Australia, the kangaroo or iguana is their totem. For others, the digging stick, the spear, or fire constitutes their totem. For others, antithetical forces of nature, such as lightning, evil spirits, or even mosquitoes constitute totems. Totemism provides a means of preserving continuity with the past and providing confidence for the future. Understanding the totem of a culture is important because it is thoroughly intertwined with the people’s lives. A totemic institution reveals the people’s philosophy of life, their nature and morals, and what spiritually controls their outlook and action. The totem might be regarded as a guardian, helpmate, or a source of strength to the people. It could be a cultural hero of the people, or might be associated with a definite area of tribal territory (such as a stream that marks the boundary of the tribe). A totem could get established when people, united by blood or by a community of traditions, start to identify themselves with some animal, plant or thing. This develops over time as a culture hands down mythological stories about its origins. Individuals in the village might come to be identified with certain animals in the neighborhood. Here is how Jung (1933) illustrates the role totems play in various cultures: A white man shoots a crocodile. At once a crowd of people come running from the nearest village and excitedly demand compensation. They explain that the crocodile was a certain old woman in their village who had died at the moment when the shot was fired. The crocodile was obviously her bush-soul. Another man shot a leopard that was lying in wait for his cattle. Just then a woman died in a neighbouring village. She and the leopard were one and the same (p. 162). Of course, in our culture we might refer to someone as an “ass” or some other animal, but we mean this as metaphor. But in primitive cultures this is not a figure of speech, but really means that the person is in every respect the animal in question. Often a people’s mythology will attribute special qualities to totemic animals-that they possessed remarkable powers which transformed chaos of the universe into order; or that they performed other superhuman feats. For instance, John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

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some Australian aborigines believe that the river courses were carved out by the rainbow snake, which they hold as their totem. The people will identity with the totem symbolically, if not literally. If literally, the people will believe that they are related to or descended from the totemic animal, and the group might even be named after the totemic species. The Bororo of Brazil have the parrot for their totem. T. S. Eliot (1916) offered that these people do not regard their relationship to the parrot as a merely mythological kinship or participation in qualities; nor is the savage deluded into thinking that he is a parrot. In practical life, the Bororo never confuses himself with a parrot, nor is he so sophisticated as to think that black is white. But he is capable of a state of mind into which we cannot put ourselves, in which he is a parrot, while being at the same time a man. In other word, the mystical mentality, though at a low level, plays a much greater part in the daily life of the savage than in that of the civilized man (p. 116). The people will adopt a ritual attitude towards the totem. They will hold the totem in reverential awe. There will be a set of taboos and rituals related to the totem. Primitive cultures usually have a wide range of taboos, such as the men avoiding menstruating women, or fasting and abstaining from sex before going on an important hunt, or in some cultures men avoiding any contact with their mother-in-laws or even avoidance of their own sisters-apparently in order to avert occasions of incest. But there are always special taboos associated with totems because of their sacredness. In most instances, since powerful spirits may be represented, the totemic species cannot be killed, eaten or touchedexcept in communion type rituals in which the totem, if an animal, is sacrificed and partaken of by the entire community. The animal that is eaten produces an effect on the people corresponding to the qualities of the particular animal. Sometimes there isn’t a food taboo: For instance, the Tikopia people have yam, taro, coconut and breadfruit as totems representing their leading clan gods. But in everyday life the people eat these foods with little restrictions. The totemic animal or plant may be one that the people wish to control as a staple of their diet, in which case the totem is revered but not taboo, for it is an important part of the tribal food supply, The people do not violate taboos for fear of automatic repercussions from the animal that is taboo or the situation itself. Alternatively, violation of a taboo could be punished indirectly by angry ancestors, spirits or the forces of the sacred. In addition to punishment for violation of a taboo, there is the custom, discussed by Freud in Totem and Taboo, that the person who violates a taboo himself becomes taboo. Many cultures impose various isolation protocols until the contamination is removed by purification rites or other oblations. Freud also noted that one who violates a taboo might be thought of as a “tempter”-i.e., other people might be tempted to violate the taboo if the culprit is not dealt with severely. The same psychology is apparent today whenever someone violates the law, for instance, the idea of copycat crimes, in which an initial incident that gets highly publicized may precipitate others to do the same thing. Sometimes totems are dangerous or disagreeable animals that the people admire or fear, or that the people think of as having a special power that they wish to emulate-e.g., crocodiles. Some cultures have as totems flies or mosquitoes, which are associated with heavy rainfall, which the people desire to see at certain times of the year. Flies and mosquitoes are taken as signs of the desired weather (Levi-Strauss, 1963, p. 64). Totems might be certain stars in the sky that remind the people of their ancestral heroes in “heavenly” forms, and the history, sanctions and ideals of the tribe. Some totems reflect the economic and social importance of the objects concerned rather than some sort of mythical story about the origin of the people. The sea might be the totem, for instance, reflecting that the people derive much


John Alan Cohan

of their food from the sea. Or fire itself might be the totem, signifying the importance of fire for cooking and providing warmth, and as being almost the center of social life for people who seldom sit down in a group to talk, rest or sing without a fire in their midst. Or, the totem might be “increase sites” at which the people perform rites for the increase of certain species. The site might be an unusual rock, a creek, or a curious hole in the ground, sanctified by their mythology. These are sacred sites, home to certain spirits of natural species or phenomena. When the people visit these sites they are deeply affected, reacting with reverence, awe and faith. They perform prescribed rites so that the spirits of the place will go out, causing the relevant species to increase. Or, the site might be the official place where the “weather-doctor” brings increase to the rain, or the site might be a place where certain life-power is thought to dwell that brings good health to the people. The tribe might have numerous such totems, each site representing a specific animal species that the people value and at which they perform rites to insure abundance of supply of those species. And in performing these rites the people have the firm conviction that the rites will produce results, so that even in times of famine, good times will come again. Sometimes a specific, individual animal will be totemic guardian-a real living animal that the people of a clan regard as an ancestor who, transformed into an animal, helps them. For example, Schwimmer (1963) points out that some of the Maori people of New Zealand revered a shark that, in the 1960s, was still seen in one of the northern harbors. The shark was said to have come about when a still-born child was thrown into the water; the child then turned into the shark. The shark, named Tautahi, was guardian of the fish and shellfish in the harbor, and would punish people who violate taboos. The shark was said to be responsible for the disappearance of a child who was playing along the water and who had violated some taboo. The Maori have other guardian animals-for instance, many families believe that a specific bird, particularly an owl, is their guardian animal. If the owl screeches or flies ahead on the road, that is to give a sign of danger. A stingray is guardian of a cemetery at one of the beaches. And there are other examples (Schwimmer, 1963, pp. 402-403). Totems are usually animals, but as mentioned can also be plants or natural objects such as the sea, fire, a mountain, etc. A totem might be conceived as both human and animal. In various cultures of Oceania, the people believe that in order to produce yams one must observe various taboos, including abstinence from sex and certain foods. Yams will not grow if anyone in the village fails to observe the taboos. Thus, yams can be ruined if a stranger who has failed to keep the taboos enters the garden, or if the grower eats foods prepared by his wife who has been engaging in an adulterous affair. A crop failure can lead to a “witch hunt” to discover who was responsible for the failure. Animals, by their larger affinity with human beings, rank first as totems, for, as pointed out by Malinowski (1925): ...[T]hey move, utter sounds, manifest emotions, have bodies and faces like him-and by their superior powers-the birds fly in the open, the fishes can swim under water, reptiles renew their skins and their life and can disappear in the earth-by all this the animal, the intermediate link between man and nature, often his superior in strength, agility, and cunning, usually his indispensable quarry, assumes an exceptional place in the savage’s view of the world (p. 44). The totemic animal is cherished, and thought of as a member of the clan just as much as its human members. As alluded to above, usually, but not always, it is prohibited to kill or eat the totemic animal. In such communities, if perchance a totemic animal should be killed or found dead, its remains are carefully gathered up and buried with all the ceremony attached to the burial of a human member of the community. But even where eating the animal is taboo, the people will usually have periodic rites in which the animal is sacrificed, cooked and eaten, as a means of attaining communion with the spirits of the totem. In totemic systems where there is no taboo on eating the totemic animal or plant, the people will have certain rituals to increase the abundance of the species. Each group is charged with the responsibility of ensuring the fecundity and plentifulness of their totemic species. In Australia some aboriginals, “kangaroo men” of the Aranda people, come together at a secret stone and spill their blood on it so that the spirits of the kangaroos can be released from the rock and there will be plenty to hunt.

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If one sees the totemic animal cross one’s path, this is invariably an omen, usually a bad omen, and the native might intuitively interpret it on the spot. It might be a warning that trouble lies ahead, or that a relative has taken ill, and the native will turn back or change course. As discussed by Jessep (1980), the Barok people of central New Ireland in Papua New Guinea have a totemic system consisting of spirits called tadak. These spirits at times become visible as a snake, a shark, a woman, or a fish. They have distinct names and personalities; they can move about but are more or less anchored at a particular place such as a rocky outcrop, a cave, a pool of water, a section of the reef, etc., and some of them have two places they occupy and move from one to the other. The Barok believe their ancestors live in and around the tadak places. Each clan is obliged to treat its tadak place with respect and not use it as ordinary land. Outsiders may not approach the place or else suffer unpleasant consequences. The tadak are guardians of their sacred sites as well as the land that members of the clan occupy. They will punish trespass by members of other groups. The tadak provide strength, ensure a good catch, and will push forward wild pigs where they can be seen by the hunters. They may teach things in dreams, assist in raids or battles with other groups, or assist in achieving vengeance or retribution against an enemy (a form of sorcery initiated by throwing into the tadak place some food or possession of the intended victim, who will then fall sick or have an accident). Or, a tadak might save someone in danger-e.g., a man whose canoe has capsized might be carried back to shore on a shark’s back-being the tadak of his clan. The tadak are the givers of land rights, and the people say that “the tadak is the boss of the land,” or “the tadak began the group to use the land.” The people believe that long ago the first comers to the area made compacts with the tadak, in which the sacred places were set from land intended for ordinary use (The idea of spirit beings marking land tenure is common in various Papua New Guinean communities, including New Ireland). A clan can sell or transfer its ordinary land to others, but the tadak place must never be transferred and remains with the former lineage as a sacred place. Quite often people will have emblems, statutes or signs that display the totem. It is taboo for someone of another clan to so much as gaze upon the totemic image of a different clan, even if this is merely an accident. Doing so insults the members of the clan to whom the emblem belongs, and endangers their spiritual prowess. As discussed by Warner (1931), traditionally, the trespass would be remedied by ambushing and killing the individual who committed the offense, often with the cooperation of members of the other clan. We can see many counterparts of totemism in modern society in our attitudes and the ways we behave towards totemic objects, whether conscious or unconscious. Perhaps the most striking example of modern totemism is the tendency citizens have of thinking of their homeland in endearing, reverential terms. We closely identify with the country of our origin. We might be deeply affected by the associations of that locality with our birth, our heritage, even if we move and settle in another country, so that the bond is not merely geographical, but takes on a spiritual dimension. Our homeland is the home of our spirit, and is the symbol of, and gateway to, our ancestors and our heroes. Each nation has a National Anthem that is reverently sung at community events. People learn from an early age to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to their nation’s flag. There are laws that prescribe obligatory ways of treating the flag itself (see discussion in following section). Modern day patriotism is a special kind of love for one’s country, and is a kind of totemism. Feelings of patriotism are often thought to be a special duty owed out of gratitude for the benefits and protections that are provided by one’s government. Patriotism seems to have the idea that the citizens and government are bound to one another by some form of trust. The idea is that the government has responsibilities to the people, rooted in fiduciary principles, and that this trust embraces ideas like democracy, sovereign responsibility, and the preservation of elements of a nation’s indigenous culture. Patriotism carries with it the idea of civic pride, public spiritedness or affection towards one’s local community and one’s state or province as well as one’s nation. Another feature of patriotism is that you


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understand your own history, your life, as embedded in the history of your own country. There are shared narratives, as it were, within a country, just as there are with members of a primitive tribe who take their totemic origins seriously. Patriotism, somewhat like totemism, has to do with loyalty to a particular society by those who possess citizenship. We are all familiar with a kind of patriotism not only to a country, but to a neighborhood, a school, a friend or family, or to a club-based on a historical relationship one has with it. Loyalty, in the context of patriotism, is characterized by esteem, concern and a special commitment for the common good of one’s nation or community. Being loyal to something means that you regard it as yours. It is something you value because it belongs to you. People generally feel pride when an object of their loyalty prospers, shame when it endures failure, and anger when it is harmed. These are very similar elements as we see in tribal cultures that have totemic systems. Appeal to a country’s abstract ideas helps to fuel the collective will to go to war. Neumann (1954) argues this point as follows: To take an example: the transformation of a petty office clerk into the responsible leader of a death-dealing bomber squadron is probably one of the most radical psychic transformations that can be demanded of modern man. This metamorphosis of the normal peace-loving citizen into a fighter is, even today, only possible with the help of symbols. Such a transformation of personality is achieved by invoking the symbols of God, King, Fatherland, Freedom the “most sacred good of the nation,” and by dedicatory acts steeped in symbolism, with the added assistance of all the elements in religion and art best calculated to stir the individual. Only in this way is it psychologically possible to divert psychic energy from the “natural channel” of peaceable private life into the “unaccustomed activity” of slaughter (p. 364). Many companies have a kind of institutional loyalty that is taught to employees. For example, as Rohlen (1973) points out, in Japan new employees are taught pride and respect for the company’s symbols. Employees are trained to honor the company’s symbols through such daily actions as singing the company’s song, reciting its motto, learning of its history, saluting the company’s flag, being trained in the “company spirit,” and listening to frequent inspirational messages from corporate management. In Japan it is not uncommon for employees to be taught that service to their company is tantamount to service to the entire world and to world peace. This sort of company training program is what the Japanese call seishin kyooiku, or “spiritual education.” TOTEMS AS FLAGS, STANDARDS AND MASCOTS As alluded to above, totems are part of every country in the world-in the form of the nation’s flag. There are even flags of departments of governments, flags of armies and fleets, and personal flags or banners-particularly of royalty (Each member of the British royal family has his or her personal flag). A nation’s flag is treated just the same as totemic emblems of primitive cultures: One treats the flag with respect, salutes it, uses it in ceremonies, destroys it according to special protocol, and desecration of the flag (i.e., treating it with disrespect, burning it in political protest, stomping on it, disposing of it or displaying it improperly, etc.) is a criminal offense in many countries. To insult a flag is to insult the nation whose ensign it is. We see references to standards and banners in the Old Testament. They are repeatedly referred to by David and Solomon. The lifting up of ensigns is frequently mentioned in the Psalms and by the Prophets, while the expression, “Terrible as an army with banners,” shows the importance and the awe with which they were regarded. We see representations of standards on the oldest bas-reliefs of Egypt. According to Diodorus, the Egyptian standards consisted generally of the figures of their sacred animals borne on the end of a staff or spear, and in the paintings at Thebes we find on them such objects as a king’s name and a sacred boat. Other ancient Egyptian standards included reptiles such as lizards, and beetles, with birds crowned with the fan-like ornament just mentioned. It may well be that the Hebrews carried standards after the exodus, a practice plausibly

Totemism


which they derived from the Egyptians from whose bondage they had just escaped, for they bore as devices figures of birds and animals, and also human figures, just as the Egyptians did. One of the earliest of the divine commandments given to Moses was that “every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard with the ensign of their father’s house” (Numbers 2:2). As the standard was among all nations regarded with reverence, so the standard-bearer was selected for his strength and courage. So important was this considered that Isaiah, in describing the ruin and discomfiture that was about to fall on the King of Assyria, could find no stronger expression than to say that his overthrow would be “as when a standard-bearer fainteth” (Jeremiah 10:l8). The origin of standards is not at all clear. MacGeorge (1881) suggests that people would seize something at hand in an emergency, and lift it up as a rallying point for the people, and afterwards adopt this device as an object identified with patriotic deeds (p. 20). The Romans had various forms of standards, some composed entirely of animals. The eagle, according to Pliny, was the first and chief military ensign. In the second consulship of Caius Marius (l04 B.C.) the eagle alone was used, but at a subsequent period some of the older emblems were resumed. These were the minotaur, the horse, and the wild boar. At what time the form of standard that we call a flag was first used is not known. It was certainly not the earliest but the ultimate form which the standard assumed. The waving flag is said to have been first used by the Saracens. Another account is that the flag first acquired its present form in the sixth century, in Spain (MacGeorge, 1881, p. 20). From an early period the practice has prevailed of blessing standards, there being a special form of service at the consecration when new colors are presented to regiment, for instance. The banner of William the Conqueror was one blessed and sent to him by the pope. Indeed, it has been the practice of popes in every age to give consecrated banners where they wished success to an enterprise. Every nation today has not only a flag, but a coat of arms that symbolizes the myths and glories of the nation’s history, and this is a modern-day counterpart of totems, e.g., the Great Seal of the United States, with rich symbolism. A mascot-adopted by sports teams, colleges, youth organizations, and military units-is a totem that enables the participants to draw upon and to use the symbol as a namesake and as a source of identity. The participants identify with the mascot, their team or organization might be named after the mascot, and there is a feeling of connection between the namesake and the organization. Collegiate athletic teams use various animal symbols such as eagles, falcons, seahawks, tigers, cougars, lions, broncos, bears, etc. The qualities of the animal in question function as a unifying symbol, a source of inspiration and a means of distinguishing the team. The totemic symbol is regarded as a magical device, a guardian, that inspires courage and insulates the team against failure. Some colleges actually utilize live animals as their mascot. Louisiana State University’s football players have a tiger, housed in a 15,000 square foot campus habitat equipped with a waterfall, scratching posts, a wading pool, and an air-conditioned den, with around-the-clock veterinary care. The tiger is placed in the stadium and allowed to circle the field prior to kickoff. Baylor University keeps a pair of black bear mascots, housed in a $1 million habitat (Longman, 2007). Military units usually have a mascot. A division of personnel will adopt a distinctive name derived from some animal, object or natural phenomenon. Personnel will use this name to identify their division in conversation with outsiders. The mascot will be used for a decoration of group property and for personal adornment, with a taboo against its use by outsiders. A reverential attitude toward the group namesake is evident. The mascot is also regarded as a group guardian capable of giving omens. A famous example was the “Rainbow Division” named for the 42nd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during World War I. The rainbow was used to decorate the military unit’s property including the command post, trucks and jeeps, as well as shoulder patches worn on the soldiers’ uniforms. The soldiers felt that the appearance of a rainbow


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was a good omen for the division: They regarded it as especially auspicious if a rainbow appeared over the enemy’s lines. After a victory men would often insist that they had seen one in this position even when the weather conditions made it impossible. Anyone who expressed doubts was considered a heretic and overwhelmed with arguments. These totemic complexes differ from the totemism of primitive cultures in that tribes regard themselves to be literally or at least symbolically descended from, or in blood relationship with, the totem, there are marriage regulations associated with the totem, and special rites or observances are used to propitiate the totemic species. It seems that totemism is a special phenomenon which is universal in modern and primitive cultures alike. Totemism explains the place assigned to symbols such as flags, religious symbols, banners, emblems, mascots, and for certain positions such as monarch or head of state, and certain institutions. The very object is a sacred thing to be respected, revered, treated with greatest care, never desecrated. In the final analysis totemism and animism go hand in hand, underscoring the idea that people and nature share in one life and are mutually interdependent. The entire system depends on the capacity of the people to identify with, have compassion for, and have a relationship with other entities.


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CHAPTER 7 Hunting and Cultivation Rituals Abstract. Primitive cultures have a striking relationship with animals, and remarkable rituals associated with hunting. Animals not only provide meat, but also hides and fur, and bones for fashioning into artifacts and ceremonial objects. Two broad areas of hunting rituals are one pertaining to “bribing” or coaxing animals to present themselves to the hunters; and the other involves appeasing the spirits of the animals once they have been slain. When animals are hunted, they are usually treated in a distinctive, reverent manner, partly to propitiate the ghosts of the animals, so as not to be harmed by them. Many cultures also show great respect to plants grown for food: In Papua New Guinea, for example, yams, a major food staple, are carefully attended to, and people talk to a yam as if it were human. The practice of reciting magical spells on traps, in order to attract game, is practiced in many cultures. In numerous cultures, ceremonies take place in preparation for the whaling season, including ceremonial launching of the boats, singing of whaling songs, donning of new clothes, and performing a ritual of “spearing” the woman whom they designated to represent a whale. Bears seem to be more venerated than any other hunted animal in the world. Elaborate ceremonies surround bear hunting. Bears have high intelligence, they walk in a human-like manner, they sit down against a tree with their paws, like arms, at their sides and perhaps one leg drawn up under their body. They exhibit a wide range of emotions that are very humanlike. The Nivkh people celebrate the Bear Festival, which involves a ritual sacrifice of a bear to was to commemorate deceased ancestors, or on special occasions. In the disposal of the bear’s remains, there is great respect accorded the bones, which are ceremoniously and carefully buried intact in proper position. The Motu in Papua New Guinea treat tuna with great reverence, and have elaborate preparations for the fishing season, including fasting, ritual bathing, singing, and dancing. They bless the fish before killing them. If a tuna is accidentally knocked against the side of the canoe, the fisherman must go down on his knees and kiss the fish; otherwise no more will enter the nets that day. Cattle and other livestock are treated with reverence in India, Northeast Africa, and other regions. Native Americans in the North Pacific have revitalized the First Salmon Ceremony, an aboriginal “first fruits” ritual, involving elaborate preparation and ceremonies to welcome the salmon. Protocols carefully prescribe the manner of fishing, cooking, eating, and disposal of fish bones. Reindeer breeders in Siberia practice a communal reindeer sacrifice in order to insure food, happiness, health and prosperity.

INTRODUCTION In primitive cultures, as we have seen, there is an intricate relationship between the human and natural worlds, and this is most strikingly seen in how they relate to animals in their environment. For untold millions of people, wild animals are the chief or sole source of protein in their diets, so that hunting and fishing are fundamental activities in their lives. The people hunt animals and eat them. Animals not only provide meat, but also hides and fur, and bones for fashioning into artifacts and ceremonial objects. Many cultures also raise domesticated animals such as cattle or pigs, which are prized as food items, or traded or gifted. Ownership of livestock in pastoral cultures is a matter of prestige, and livestock usually make up a good part of payments to the bride’s family. If livestock are raised, the animals relate to the material and productive basis of the people. Along with this economic dependency and exploitation there is an animistic relationship-a reverence for the animals, a belief that human and animal life are intricately connected, and a need to maintain balance in nature. This takes into account the idea that “human beings are an integral part of a greater system, and that the health of this system requires sustainable and mutually nurturing relationships, not only among its parts, but also between the parts and the whole” (Krippner, 2002, p. 973). Many of us in modern cultures are not used to seeing wild animals at all, although we have an abundance of dogs and cats in our homes, and we experience a special bond with our domesticated animals. Domestic pets are quite common in primitive cultures too. In addition to dogs and cats, a wide array of exotic animals are sometimes kept as pets. Fuentes (2006) claims that Guaja foragers of the Amazon have an intense attachment to primates and include them in their social fabric. Orphaned monkeys, for instance, are “adopted” by the people, and women will bathe, breastfeed and carry them about. Little girls will be allowed to join as primary caretakers of these infant monkeys. In John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


John Alan Cohan

aboriginal Australia people adopt dingos as pets. The animals will be captured as pups and suckled by a woman. Later, they will be used to hunt kangaroos and, as well, as a food supply. There are two broad areas of hunting rituals: one pertains to “bribing” or coaxing animals to present themselves to the hunters; and the other involves appeasing the spirits of the animals once they have been slain. Also, as we will see, there are rituals pertaining to gathering of flora. Among many idiosyncratic prohibitions concerning hunting, Telban (1998) argues that in some regions hunters will usually not eat the meat they have killed with a spear, because this would make a man’s spirit lazy. This would result in unsuccessful hunts in the future. Hunting with a spear brings the hunter and his victim close together. The hunter “gives his strength to the pig....” To eat such a pig would mean to eat his own strength, i.e. himself (p. 26). On the other hand, Telban (1998) points out that it’s okay for the hunter to eat an animal he has shot with a gun rather than speared, because “when using guns there is no direct contact between man and game” (p. 26), and hence the hunter’s strength is not “transferred” to the prey. Another practice, which is seen in many variations throughout the world is this: “When a man catches and kills a pig in a trap, he will tie knots in a length of vine in his hand, thereby tying up its spirit. He will throw it far away, ensuring in this way that the pig’s spirit will not inform other pigs where the trap lies” (Telban, 1998, p. 57). The recurring philosophy behind hunting and gathering rituals is that plant and animal species have spirit “owners,” so that if more are taken than are needed to sustain life, the offended species might be withdrawn from the environment by its spirit owner, or the angered spirit might visit sickness on the one who neglected or abused it. Moreover, animals that are important prey to a hunting tribe are often thought to be guardians of sorts of the community, and any disruption of a balanced ecology would result in vengeance inflicted on the people by ghosts of the animals or spirits of their habitat. Even killing a single animal is thought to require ceremonial appeasement, so that when animals are hunted, they are usually treated in a distinctive, reverent manner. Thus, hunting in animistic cultures is always a problem because precautions must be made to propitiate the ghosts of the animals that are killed, so as not to be harmed by them. Read (1915) claims as follows: The ghosts, for example, of seals and bears are bribed by the Eskimo to entice other seals and bears to come and be killed. A seal desires above everything, they say, a drink of fresh water; so as soon as one is brought ashore a dipperful is poured into his mouth; else the other seals will not allow themselves to be caught (p. 12). If things do not go well, the hunters will find all sort of excuses to explain their meagre results: “With the sympathetic agreement of family and friends, they blame crocodiles for chasing fish away, spirits for making them blind, thieves for stealing fish, husbands for not observing taboos, and wives for promiscuity” (Telban, 1998, p. 23). The primitive hunter finds himself in a radically different frame of mind concerning the relationship of man and beast in the hunt compared to modern man’s pattern of thought-or absence of thought-on the subject. To the primitive, hunting is never a “sport,” but is a necessary pursuit imbued with folkloristic elements. Hallowell (1926) found: “To him the animal world often represents creatures with magical or superhuman potencies, and the problem of securing them for their hide, meat or fur involves the satisfaction of powers or beings of a supernatural order” (p. 10). Still, there are parallels between modern hunting laws and hunting customs and rituals of primitive cultures. For example, modern hunting laws limit the time, manner, place of the kill and the quantity of animals allotted per hunter, with a view towards sustainable renewal of the animals. In most hunter-gatherer cultures it is inconceivable to go out and hunt or fish without first performing magical rites. These rites are a community affair, and success of the hunt or fishing expedition is assured by the fact that the people have performed the pre-hunt ritual in a traditional and prescribed way. As we will see, these rites and accompanying songs focus on particular animals and animal characteristics in an effort to enhance good results in a hunt. Bogoraz (1909) found that the Hukaghir hunters in Northeastern Siberia believe that the masters of the forest are fond of drinking brandy and playing cards. Hunters will “bribe” the master of the forest with brandy and packs of

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cards so as to insure a successful hunt. They say that the masters always play cards with each other, and they bet on game, which they turn over to the winner (pp. 287-288). In Papua New Guinea people take great pride in their gardens, and yams, a major food staple, are carefully attended to. People will at times talk to a yam as if it were human, not only out of respect, but to help assure abundance of yams. Yams are thought to be endowed with spirits that have affinity with whoever has planted them. Tuzin (1972) points out: As the tubers grow their spirits also develop, so that by harvest time their supernatural maturity is attained and they behave as independent beings.... Under the earth the yam spirits are moving about, visiting friends and kinsmen in their own and other gardens, leading active lives which are in most respects human (p. 234). Whiteman (1965) found that when yams are harvested some are painted and decorated as male and female, and put on public display in the plaza. One yam in particular might be hung on a tree and designated as the mother of all the other yams on display. People from adjacent villages will come and look at the yams. The practice of reciting magical spells on traps, in order to attract game, is practiced in many cultures, most notably in the Papua New Guinea highlands. The spells serve double duty in that they are also designed to ward off trespassers and thus prevent theft of game from the trap. Instead of magical formulas, some people will seek to lure animals with songs. The Tinneh of the lower Yukon believe that animals are really human souls which come in animal appearance, and that they can be charmed with songs. Thus, they sing special songs to attract bears or other game. People of many cultures, including the Tinneh, believe that you are what you eat-that you acquire traits of the animals you consume. So, eating the heart of the bear will bring courage. The porcupine’s heart is even more efficacious for this purpose, for he runs from nothing; the heart of rabbits cannot be eaten by children, for it will make them timid. Chapman (1921) found that the Tinneh hold an annual Feast of Animals’ Souls-in which hundreds of animal images carved on sticks are put on display in the council house, along with images of bags of flour, guns and other things useful for maintaining life. Native Americans, too, regard eating as something more than consuming mere “food.” Plants, animals, fish and other bounties of the Earth are looked upon as gifts voluntarily given with the good will, compassion and consent of the spirits of the animals or plants. Plants or animals can be used only upon the fulfillment of certain conditions. These conditions include respect and reverent care of the dead animal; and proper treatment of the parts for which the people have no use (though usually the entire animal, intestines, hoofs, etc., are consumed or otherwise utilized). Different tribes have specific protocols for the proper treatment of the blood, bones, or other parts of the animal. Care is taken to dispose of the animal’s remains in a way that means renewal of its life. Frazer (1927) says that primitive man is motivated to appease the spirits of animals he has killed, because, like human beings, animals are “endowed with souls and intelligence like his own, and hence he naturally treats them with similar respect” (Part II, p. 190). One must appease the deceased animal or else one will offend the gods. He adds: While the savage respects, more or less, the souls of all animals, he treats with particular deference the spirits of such as are either especially useful to him or formidable on account of their size, strength, or ferocity. Accordingly, the hunting and killing of these valuable or dangerous beasts are subject to more elaborate rules and ceremonies than the slaughter of comparatively useless and insignificant creatures (Part II, p. 191). Many animals become deities or at least heroes of a particular group. The group may have a totemic belief that their very life sprang from the particular animal-hero, so that their origin is literally from the totemic animal. The raven and the coyote, for instance, have been regarded as heroes by numerous North American Indians. The animal is sacred and may not be killed, except on certain festivals where the animal is sacrificed in a communion-with-god type of ceremony.


John Alan Cohan

Let us now examine rituals surrounding specific types of animals. WHALE HUNTING Lantis (1938) found that the Inuits and Indians of the North Pacific, the Bering Sea area and the American Arctic have longstanding and complex rituals surrounding whale hunting. Ceremonies are conducted not only before and during the hunt, but afterwards there is a special celebration and reverent disposal of the animal’s remains. Traditionally, whalers had a high social status, and sometimes only chiefs or their brothers could captain an expedition. Esoteric knowledge and whaling amulets were carefully transmitted from father to son. Amulets consisted of wolf skulls, a dried raven, vertebra of a seal, numerous feathers, the skin of a golden eagle, the tip of a red fox’s tail, and other keepsakes. The flesh of brave men was thought to be a potent poison. The people would take pieces of human flesh, dry them and wear them as amulets or talismans. During a period of training, newly inducted whalers had to abstain from sex, undergo fasting, and bath in the ocean or river. By fasting and bathing one could obtain a “whaling spirit.” Numerous ceremonies took place in preparation for the whaling season, including ceremonial launching of the boats, singing of whaling songs, donning of new clothes, and performing a ritual of “spearing” the woman whom they designated to represent a whale. The people would also mold reindeer fat into the shape of a whale, and distribute this as “whale meat.” They sprinkled ashes on the ice to drive away evil spirits. During the hunt, whaling crews had to wear clean clothes or else the whale would be driven away by uncleanliness. Whaler’s wives put on special face painting, they fasted, slept continually and abstained from liquids until the men returned. It was thought that women were an allure to the whales so that they must be kept pure during the hunt. Numerous rituals followed a successful hunt to placate and please the dead whale. It was important to mollify the supernatural powers and to facilitate the release of the whale’s spirit. Much ritual surrounded the returning of the whale’s spirit to the sea. Food would be offered to the dead whale. There would be divination to see whether the offerings to the whale were accepted and whether his spirit would go home. Before carving up the whale, they would slit its eyes or cover its head with a hood so it wouldn’t see what was happening. There would be incantations, the wearing of masks, and the people would leave the whale’s head together with food on a roof to help the whale’s homeward journey. A mourning period for dead whales would take place, ending with feasting and frenzied dancing. As mentioned, men who were successful at whaling enjoyed high prestige. They would add a tattooed dot above their upper lip or across their face for every whale killed. When a successful whaler died, the people would cut up his body and boil it in order to extract juices and fat from it, to be used to dip harpoon points into and use its magic to help kill the whales. This was called “human oil poison.” Also, shamans would use this human oil poison as a magic poison. The people would also use human ashes of successful whalers to make poison which was applied to hunting arrows. The bones of deceased whalers were placed in caves where the people fed and cared for them. Often the people would take out these skeletons and parade them about during the time of ritual bathing before going hunting. The people also had the practice of preserving the skulls of ancestors wrapped in cedar bark. It might be added that the Inuits have always been fond of whale meat, eaten both raw and cooked. The whale “bum” was considered a great delicacy and was a sacred food to be eaten by the hunter who struck the whale. Among Inuits, birds-sea gulls, cormorants, puffin and Pacific eiders-are a significant part of their diet. Birds are caught and cooked. Newly hatched birds-extracted from crevices in the rocks by long sticks with sharp hooks attached-are roasted as a special delicacy. Birds’ feet are dried and eaten if other food becomes scarce. They also eat



reindeer meat, and of course various species of fish. Seaweed and kelp are used to cook meat in a thick stew. The only vegetables, aside from seaweed, available to Inuits in remote areas, are plant leaves and roots. Today Inuits in all regions, as a result of sustained contact with the outside world, are somewhat acculturated to modern ways. They still hunt and trap animals for food, but they also eat store-bought “convenience” foods and junk foods-a change not for the better, with an upsurge in tooth decay and diet-related medical problems. They use modern technology, wear Western-style clothing. Today it is common for the Inuits, along with people of many other indigenous cultures, to use boats with inboard or outboard motors. Many Inuits still use dogsleds for traveling on land or on frozen sea, usually made of wood or of dried salmon, and drawn by from 2 to 14 huskies; but for many of them, in recent years the snowmobile has become the main mode of transportation. Children often ski to and from school. Inuits still wear traditional animal garments and hooded parkas when out in the sub-zero elements. Otherwise, the younger people wear jeans, tennis shoes and brightly colored sportswear-a trend seen in many indigenous cultures of the world. The Inuits have adopted modern housing styles (often prefabricated wooden structures). Their population is about 100,000, living primarily in the northern coasts of Russia, Canada and Greenland. About 46,000 live in Greenland, and 30,000 on the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, about 25,000 in Canada, and 1,500 in Siberia. They hold onto traditional animistic beliefs alongside various forms of Christianity. Japanese whaler also engage in certain rituals during hunting season. Whale meat has been a staple of the Japanese diet for a long time. Today it is no longer a common food, though it is still sold in supermarkets and served in restaurants. Their centuries-old whaling tradition is still part of their culture. They will sprinkle rice wine over the first whale to be caught to pray for a safe hunting season. They will peel off the whale’s thick skin with a saw, chop its head off to drain its blood, then cut the carcass into thousands of brick-size pieces for the market. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is an international organization established by a treaty to “provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry” (International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, 1946). The Commission recognizes the importance of subsistence whaling for Inuit, but at the same time regulates whaling, mainly by imposing a quota system. The IWC has focused its attention on regulating commercial whaling carried out by Japan, Norway and Iceland, as well as the exploitation of the humpback whale by Greenland Inuit, the Beaufort Sea bowhead whale by Alaskan Inupiat and Yup’ik Eskimos, and the Eastern Pacific grey whale hunted by Siberian Inuit. It often appears to be true that the Inuit and others who regard whaling as part of subsistence hunting are pitted against animal rights campaigns that take an anti-whaling stance. THE INUITS AND SEALS With the collapse of the whaling industry in recent decades, seal and walrus now take first place in the diets of the Inuits. The Inuits throughout the Arctic region believe in an ecological codependence between seals and humans. When seals are captured for sustenance of the people, both hunters and seals benefit. The seal, through its sacrifice, becomes part of the body of the Inuit, and this allows the surviving seal population to reproduce. Nowadays the “bribing” of seals, as alluded to above, with a drink of fresh water, is not so common anymore. But seals are a dietary staple. Seals have provided a significant nutritional component of their diet for over 2000 years, and nowadays seal meat appears in gourmet restaurants throughout Canada. The Inuits believe that a regular diet of seal meat is essential for good health and strength: “Seal is believed to warm the body by transference of the warm, rich, life-giving qualities of seal blood to human blood” (Borre, 1994, p. 6). Seal products, particularly fresh (raw) seal meat, seal blood or kaiyuq (soup broth), and liver, play a significant role in the prevention and treatment of numerous disturbances including ear infection, gastrointestinal distress, diarrhea, constipation, fractures, headache, nausea and weakness, hypothermia, lice, skin rashes, acne, weakness and depression. Drinking of seal blood is said to be a vasodilator which produces a warm sensation, and thus is especially effective for curing hypothermia. Seal oil (i.e., blubber) is used for cooking (e.g., they make bread fried in seal oil). Warmed seal oil is used for ear infections.


John Alan Cohan

Walrus meat is sometimes hung in strips to dry and eaten as jerkey both raw and cooked. The intestines of walruses and seals are used to make waterproof clothing. Traditionally, all Inuit clothing was from various animal skins and hides. Walrus hide is used to make a covering for the wood frames of umiaks-large open boats. BEAR CEREMONIALISM As discussed by Hallowell (1926), of all the animals hunted in the northern regions around the world the bear is the most constant recipient of special attention, and seems to be venerated more than any other animal in the world. To the Indians of North America, for instance, bears are held in special esteem above and beyond most other animals. They respect, revere, and even worship the bear, and engage in elaborate ceremonies surrounding bear hunting. In Indian tradition, the bear is a powerful and supernatural being, the reincarnation of dead clansmen’s spirits that have been received by the “owners of the mountain.” Thus, bear veneration is a worship of the supernatural agency that people perceive to be inherent in bears. In some instances there is a separate deity that is worshiped in connection with veneration of the bear. The fact that bears hibernate during the winter months without eating anything is a phenomenon that is particularly curious and mystifying to the primitive mind. As one indigenous hunter put it, “A bear is wiser than a man because a man does not know how to live all winter without eating anything” (Hallowell, 1926, p. 27). The reverence for bears probably goes back as far as Neanderthal times. The bear, to the Neanderthals, may have been of religious or at least totemic significance. In the caves in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland, bear skulls have been found carefully lined up at the entrance to the cave or placed in niches along the walls. In the Drachenloch cave in Switzerland, a stone chest was found bearing several bear skulls, all placed in the same direction (Carroll, 1986). Another reason why bears are so highly venerated is that they have human-like proportions in their body. Bears have high intelligence, they walk in a human-like manner, they sit down against a tree with their paws, like arms, at their sides and perhaps one leg drawn up under their body. They exhibit a wide range of emotions that are very humanlike, as well as facial and bodily expressions. When attacked bears often whine in a pleading way and tears may even appear in their eyes. They have tendencies to masturbation. The Nivkh people whom we discussed in chapters 4 and 5, have been known for their bear ceremonies as well as ceremonies associated with the killer whale. In particular, they are well known for the Bear Festival, usually held by each clan in January or February. The Bear Festival involves a ritual sacrifice of a bear. It usually was to commemorate deceased ancestors, but also to commemorate an important occasion: a kinsman’s death, someone’s adoption into the lineage, restoration of good relations between families of a betrothed couple if a serious breach had occurred, restoration of order and establishment of a new alignment of people following the disruption caused by the death of a kinsman. The festival might take years to prepare after a kinsman’s death, as it involves raising a captured cub with kinsmen contributing to its care. Once the bear grows to a good size, the festival can take place. A sacrificial site is prepared between a pair of sacred trees, with elaborately carved ritual designs. During a three-day period the bear is led around to different homes, brought inside, and honored and fed from a ritual spoon by all men. Women will drum on logs. The men will tease the bear to make it rise on its hind legs, and put it into a bad mood. The owner of the bear will come close to the bear’s face as if to give him a goodbye kiss, and if the bear attacks him the wound is a mark of honor. Part of the festival involves dog races and group games and dancing. Ritual foods are fed to a spirit entity known as the “Master of the Locality.” At the day of sacrifice the bear is tied to the two trees, while men eat festive dishes at the site. The bear is fed one final time in ritual manner. The bear is teased again to make it stand upright, then killed by bows and arrows, and men will rush up to hasten the death by stangling; unnecessary suffering is avoided. Once the bear is killed, certain customs are observed in preparing the bear for cooking and in distributing the bear meat for eating. These customs are to appease the bear’s spirit.



The bear carcass is quartered in ritual manner. The skin and head are placed on a special wooden frame in the house of the owner in a place of honor on a mat of evergreens. Ritual foods, consisting of the choicest of dishes, are placed before its head to “feed” it. The bear meat is cooked in a solemn process taking several days, with accompanying ritual observances. The meat is eaten on dishes only used for the bear feast. The people drink the bear’s blood boiled with fat so as to acquire its strength. No member of the offering lineage, however can kill or partake of the bear meat. The entire carcass is divided among the guests who take the “leftovers” home with them in birchbark and fir boxes. Bones are picked absolutely clean. Guests give the host dogs, and axes and kettles are given to the guests. Then at the bear ritual site, the host sacrifices dogs of his own, sacrificed in pairs, expressing the male and female principle, by strangling. The dogs are fed choice foods and a ritual farewell formula is said to each. The dog meat is cooked and eaten by the host lineage, including women. After the festival the soul of the departed kinsman is considered totally benevolent and completely at peace with the living and the dead, incorporated into the domain of the Master of the Forest. In this ceremony the bear is not worshiped as a deity, but as a stand-in for the deceased kinsman. Sometimes a joint bear festival might be conducted to unite lineages that had grown apart, each side providing at least one bear. Regarding disposal of the bear’s remains, there is great respect accorded the bones, which are ceremoniously and carefully buried intact in proper position. Some bones are preserved as ritual relics and divided. Great emphasis is taken on preserving the bear’s skull, which is usually placed upon the branch of a tree in the woods, on a pole, or placed in a sacred place in the forest, sometimes along with the skulls of other animals. Dogs are not allowed to defile the bones of the bear. During the Soviet period observance of the Bear Festival was curtailed by anti-religious persecution. However, after the Soviet regime broke up, the Nivkh resumed, and continue to celebrate the Bear Festival. Following an ordinary hunt the same reverence towards the bear and its remains are followed, albeit in a less elaborate ceremony than what was described above. Traditionally, an ordinary hunt will go as follows: The people locate a bear in its den, and speak to the bear, calling to the bear in a concilatory speech. They ask the bear to take pity on the hunters, and to give itself up, to die of its own choice. They thank the bear for allowing itself to be killed and for not hurting them. They believe the bear thoroughly understands their discourse. Today most of the Nivkh speak Russian, though about 10 percent still speak their indigenous language. TUNA REVERENCE As found by Pulsford (1975), another deeply animistic culture is the Motu of Pari in the lowlands of Papua New Guinea (six miles east of Port Moresby). These people treat tuna with great reverence. They have elaborate preparations for the fishing season, including fasting, ritual bathing, singing, and dancing. Once the fishing season proceeds, their method is to “corral” tuna and catch them in nets. They bless the fish and then kill them. If a tuna is accidentally knocked against the side of the canoe, the fisherman must go down on his knees and kiss the fish; otherwise no more will enter the nets that day. If they do not have a good catch this is blamed on their private behavior. The people believe the fish have knowledge of everything that goes on in the village. Broken household taboos, anger, stealing, adultery or failure to meet obligations can cause the fish to keep away from the nets. On the other hand, when there is outstanding social harmony and the people are happy, they will have good luck fishing for tuna. If there is a bad season, this is thought to be due to a breakdown in their relationship to the tuna in the sea. Men will proceed to openly confess their sins or previously undisclosed guilty acts. This helps restore a good relationship between fish and men, and the fish will fill the nets again.


John Alan Cohan

HAWAIIAN FISHING FOLKLORE As discussed by Green and Beckwith, (1928), Hawaiian fishermen have a rich folklore, filled with superstitions, and laced with animistic themes. Local fish gods were commonly thought to take the form of an underwater rock that that attracts fish to that location. Many old stone fish gods are seen about the coast of Hawaii where offerings are still laid by fishermen, e.g., on the beach at Waialua, also below Hiilea in Kau district. When men are out fishing all inquiries as to their whereabouts receive noncommital answers. This is to ward off unfriendly spirits who might otherwise follow the fisherman and give them trouble. The people at home must refrain from dancing and singing the hula for fear their merriment might be turned to grief. The fishermen can tell from the actions of certain fish whether his family at home is behaving properly. If the fish wag their tails and sport about, this indicates that the family is enjoying itself, and is a sign of bad luck at fishing: The man should go home and beat his wife in order to insure better luck the next time. If he sees certain fish touching noses he knows that his wife is unfaithful. A bird-catcher comes to the same conclusion if he sees birds billing while he is away from home hunting. There are many other Hawaiian fishing customs having an animistic overtone: Fish are not eaten until an offering is placed on an altar dedicated to the many gods of the sea. A bright dazzling light moving over the ocean at night means the fisherman must go home at once, as this is a sign of evil spirits. If he hears a sound in the sea as if one had thrown a stone into it, an evil spirit has designs against him. The same is true if a crab or a small fish with only one tooth bites at his toe. This omen means that an enemy has called upon his shark to destroy the fisherman. If certain fish strike against his leg with their tail or if a turtle rises quickly and stays on the surface for some time, a shark is nearby. If a fly falls into a dish of fish, the owner may expect to receive fresh fish before sundown. In Hawaiian tradition there is much reverence in the treatment of pigs. Great care must be taken in partaking of roasted pig: no part can be given to dogs, and at the end of the feast the bones must be carefully collected and buried. This same protocol is evident in other cultures-such as the Nivkh mentioned above with regards to their treatment of the remains of the bear. It is also evident in the way Inuits treated whales that were hunted. TREATMENT OF CATTLE AND OTHER LIVESTOCK. In Hinduism the cow is a sacred animal that cannot be harmed. The slaughter of cows is banned throughout most of India. Mahatma Gandi, India’s famous nonviolence leader, once said: “If someone were to ask me what the most important outward manifestation of Hinduism was, I would suggest that it was the idea of cow protection” (PBS Nature, 2008). Many Hindu gods have incarnated in cow forms. Cows are a familiar site in the cities of India, roaming freely on the streets. As reported by Kahn (2008), in Delhi alone, about 12,000 cows roam the streets, grazing garbage and snarling traffic. However, the number used to be much higher. About 20,000 cows have been removed by hired cow catchers, who carefully round up strays, and take them to special sanctuaries run by Hindu charities, where they are cared for. There has been a trend to identify privately owned cows with ear-tags or microchips which remain permanently in their stomachs. People consider it good luck to feed a bit of food to cows they encounter in the street. It is a criminal offense to kill or injure a cow. For millennia, in Northeast Africa humans have taken special care of their livestock, particularly cattle, but also sheep, goats and camels. As discussed by Abbink (2003), the Suri people, who are cattle herders in southwest Ethiopia, use cattle only as a last-resort food source and, in time of need, to trade or sell. They regard cattle as lifesustaining and meaningful companions. “Emotional, cognitive and also moral aspects can be recognized in the role that cattle play in their society” (Abbink, 2003, p. 342). They have an intense affection, shown in the care they take of their animals. They comb and stroke them, decorate their horns and bodies to enhance their beauty, and cover them with ash to protect them from insect bites. They care for sick cattle until the moment of death. When cattle die the Suri mourn them, particularly their favorites, in song. The people have many songs in praise of cattle. They are vigilant in defending their herds against raids, and guarding them from predators such as panthers, hyenas and lions. Young boys are given a favorite young bull as their special companion. One who owns a herd of, say 60 head, enjoys a high measure of prestige.



Personal names of the Suri are derived from cattle coat colors or patterns. A cow’s skin is used for special occasions-as a mat when negotiating marriages or homicide compensations, as a canopy when newlyweds enter their house, and to wrap the corpse of the deceased. Paradoxically, in contrast to the loving care given them, the Suri use cattle and sheep in ritual sacrifices-for homicide “cleansing,” reconciliation, initiation, marriage, burial, rain ceremonies, and to recognize a new chief. Cattle are killed on these occasions by strangling, bludgeoning or stabbing; sheep are killed by cutting open the living animal. The meat is eaten in these contexts, but not otherwise in Suri society (except, perhaps, during famine.) To the Suri, any killing puts one in a dangerous, unclean state that has to be ended ritually. Compensation for killing a fellow Suri, whether accidental or intentional, will usually be several head of cattle plus an unmarried girl of the killer, given to the family of the slain person. In addition, a female sheep will be killed by slitting open the stomach; the stomach will be taken out and thrown on the killer and on some close relatives of his victim, and must remain until it dries. This sacrifice is a purification ceremony. The blood sacrificed for a homicide is to repay blood, so that the animal is a scapegoat in place of the killer, whose polluted state is thereby absolved, enabling him to re-enter society. For killing a non-Suri, the sacrifice involves slitting the throat of one head of cattle and washing in the blood of a sacrificed ox or bull. The sacrifice of animals “displaces guilt or defuses tension between groups within the community,” and provides a “reconciling, cleansing effect on human conflicts,” but “can never be done with wild animals, only with the most cherished and ‘valuable’ domestic ones” (Abbink, 2003, p. 342). This echoes what James Frazer (1927) said in The Golden Bough: The notion that we can transfer our guilt and pains and griefs to some other being who will bear them in our stead is familiar to the savage mind. It arises from a very obvious confusion between the physical and the mental. Because it is possible to transfer a load of wood, stones, or what not, from our own back to the back of another, the savage fancies that it is equally possible to transfer the burden of his pains and sins and sorrows to another, who will suffer them in his stead (vol. III, ch. III, § 13). The Fulani are nomadic, cattle-herding people of subsaharan Africa. They have aggressive, assertive personalities, as is common among pastoral people. Fulani men are known for their easily provoked and unrestrained aggression. Their nomadic lifestyle requires a certain robustness, assertiveness and agility in responding to predators or sudden changes in the weather. Lott and Hart (1977) observed that “herding large animals has an effect on the psychological orientation of a culture by quickening a kind of ‘masculinity’ that is reinforced by the demands made upon the men in herding” (p. 177). A herdsman needs to display sufficient aggression to maintain his own dominance over the herd, for cattle are known to have a dominance relationship among themselves, with bulls on the top of the hierarchy. If nomadic people don’t get along with their neighbors, they are free to move away. Thus, they have less need to inhibit hostile or aggressive impulses than do pastoral people, who must share land and permanent living spaces with others. The dominance exerted by the Fulani over their cattle is illustrated by their remarkable control over herd movements- without halters, ropes or restraint devices. If a bull threatens another animal, the Fulani respond by “threatening in turn with an upraised or flourished herding stick and a yell, often in combination with a brisk charge toward the bull. If the bull did not signal submission or retreat he was hit with the stick” (Lott & Hart, 1977, p. 180). Young Fulani boys learn early on how to display aggressive behavior towards calves that are put in their charge. The boys have the duty of tying up and releasing the calves twice daily during their nursing. Usually the calves and the boys are of equal weight and strength, and the calves vigorously struggle against being handled. Older boys are trained in daily herding and learn to display aggressive dominance towards the bulls in order to control these


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animals. They are taught to charge the bulls, or hit them with herding sticks, which to the youngsters can be quite frightening. Courage is a strong cultural expectation among the Fulani, and gaining control over bulls certainly requires courage, particularly for young boys. The boys have a beating contest called sharo, held once or twice a year. Each boy will hold a sharo stick, about 3/4 inch thick and 3 feet long, and literally beat, with all his strenth, the torso of his opponent, who must accept the blows without any sign of pain or other display of emotion. The Fulani are very proud of the prominent scars they have acquired in these “contests.” Failure to participate in these contests results in the utmost social disgrace. Thus, for the Fulani people aggressive dominance is a social virtue, and is “vital in the husbandry of their cattle. A high level of aggressive, assertive behavior, both verbal and physical, is not only accepted but demanded in social relations in general” (Lott & Hart, 1977, p. 184). SALMON CEREMONY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST As discussed by Amoss (1987), in recent years Native Americans on the North Pacific Coast have revived the First Salmon Ceremony, an aboriginal “first fruits” ritual that had been abandoned for over a century. When the salmon begin to appear, a tribal chairman blesses the fishermen by dipping an eagle feather in water and sprinkling it on them. No one is allowed to fish until the first catch is ceremonially welcomed. After the first fish are caught, drummers and singers welcome the salmon, being ceremoniously carried by a procession of fishermen. Children are bathed and then painted with red ocher, and sprinkled with bird down, then assemble on the beach to receive the catch from the fishermen. The fish are presented in outstretched arms, laid on a bed of ferns and spotted with red ocher. Women cut up the fish, carefully removing the flesh, and roast it over coals. The people pray that the fish will look kindly on the people and return next season in abundance. After eating, the bones and entrails are carefully collected in a basket or mat, taken out on in a canoe, and reverently placed in the sea, so that the salmon will come to life again and guide the people to the fishing sites. REINDEER SACRIFICE IN SIBERIAN CULTURES Together with the Nivkh people discussed above, there are about 45 indigenous groups dispersed in Siberia, and they have occupied the region for over 3000 years. Wiget & Balalaeva (2001) observed that the Khanty people live on traditional family hunting grounds, protected by family gods. Their main subsistence comes from fishing. The people believe that their land and their lineage is vested with sacred power from their lineage’s founding gods. The Khanty people are reindeer breeders, and reindeer are a symbol of their own cultural identity in the face of the dominant Russian society. They maintain large, attractive herds of reindeer. Today local government officials have adopted a benign attitude towards the herds, despite the fact that the people regularly complain that oil development in the region poisons their animals. The Khanty and other indigenous people still practice a communal reindeer sacrifice in order to insure food, happiness, health and prosperity, despite efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church to curtail the practice. The practice was also suppressed under Stalin in the 1940s, but persisted despite Soviet atheism campaigns and other propaganda pressures that prosecuted shamans and created fear and distrust in these communities. The reindeer sacrifices probably go back many hundreds of years, and were first recorded by an explorer in 1578. They are conducted on occasions such as birth or death, during a time of crisis when someone is seriously ill, or upon the return of a family member after a long absence. Sacrifices are also conducted at the start and completion of the fishing and hunting seasons. The people believe that the sacrifice assures prosperity by enacting the regeneration of reindeer. The night before a sacrifice, people will gather for dinner and then sing spirit songs accompanied by drumming. The location will be at a sacred site, chosen for its mythological significance. A shaman will lead the ceremony, and it is customary for him to ingest fly agaric mushrooms to help induce an altered state of consciousness.



The next day the site of the sacrifice will be elaborately prepared, with an altar table. There are altar offerings, kindling of a fire, prayers and numerous other protocols. A number of reindeer are ushered forward and sacrificed quickly and humanely (the deer are first stunned on the head with the butt of an axe head, then fall to the ground, and are quickly stabbed in the heart with a long knife). Each animal is sacrificed to a specific deity, spirit or to the sun and moon. The animals are skinned and butchered, and a feast prepared on the spot. Some of the cooked hearts and liver are placed on the altar. The feasting is accompanied by prayers and thanksgiving. The skins of the animals are hung on birch trees to make their souls go up to the gods (Birch trees are considered sacred to the people because they believe humans were created from them). TREATMENT OF DOGS BY THE PYGMIES OF ZAIRE The Pygmies of the Ituri Forest, Zaire, keep domesticated dogs as pets. However they are rather harsh in the way they treat their dogs, with “assaults, beatings, and neglect, with survival resting on the ability to scavenge for offal” (Singer, 1978, p. 270). A dog’s life in this society consists of being “kicked around mercilessly from the day they are born to the day they die.” (Turnbull, 1961, p. 101). The people even seem to go out of their way to beat their dogs. This seems paradoxical, for the people rely on their dogs to track down game, and they are somewhat compassionate to dogs that have been mauled in the hunt. According to Schebesta (1936), dogs “are considered to be the most valuable asset to Pygmy communities and they are gladly accepted as payment in the matrimonial markets” (p. 153). Is their animosity towards dogs an effort to inculcate submissive behavior in the animals? Perhaps a better explanation is that this behavior is a culturally approved displacement of aggressive drives that must normally be kept in check. The people are transferring aggression that they normally must suppress into harsh treatment of their dogs. It’s a way of releasing tension in a “socially nondisruptive fashion” (Singer, 1978, p. 274). This culture, like many other hunter-gatherers, relies on sharing of resources and close cooperation. In hunting, men cooperate in spreading out the nets to capture game, while women make noise to drive the game towards the nets. Everyone is assured of getting a share of the day’s catch, due to the importance they place on reciprocal obligations. The Pygmies assiduously avoid getting angry at each other, and seek harmony at all costs. But living in close proximity and intimacy, latent resentments occasionally erupt into open disputes. These are “generally settled with little reference to the alleged rights and wrongs of the case, but chiefly with the intention of restoring peace to the community” (Turnbull, 1961, p. 118). Thus, they highly value their dogs, but at the same time the dogs are objects on which they channel their pent up hostilities. Unfortunately, even in modern urban society we see instances of cruelty in the treatment of domestic pets-perhaps in part explained in the same way: that these individuals have pent-up frustrations that they take out on their dogs. It is sad but true. ANIMAL SACRIFICE AND THE SANTERIA RELIGION Animal sacrifices, as practiced in various cultures such as the Khanty people of Siberia, discussed above, are rituals designed to insure abundance of the sacrificed animal. Animal sacrifices are also seen throughout the Bible. It is also part of modern Islam with the annual sacrifice commemorating Abraham’s sacrifice of a ram in place of his son. Today, to most people’s surprise, animal sacrifice also occurs in urban centers in the U.S., most notably with the Santeria religion. This religion originated in Africa and has absorbed elements of Roman Catholicism. Santeria means “the way of the saints.” The Santeria religion is devoted to spirits, called orishas, which help people attain their destiny. To nurture a personal relation with these spirits animal sacrifice is employed. The Santeria religion holds that the survival of orishas depends on animal sacrifice. Animal sacrifices occur at birth, marriage and death rites, in healing the sick and other celebrations. Chickens, pigeons, doves, ducks, guinea pigs, goats, sheep, turtles, are used.


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The animals are killed by cutting the carotid arteries in the neck, and are cooked and eaten following all Santeria rituals except healing and death rites. In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case in which it upheld the right of the people to engage in the Santeria ritual sacrifice (Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 1993). The case involved a Santeria congregation in Hialeah, Florida. The city enacted a law making it a crime to slaughter or sacrifice animals in a public or private ritual not for the main purpose of food consumption, based on its adverse impact on public morals, and also made it illegal to slaughter animals outside of areas zoned for slaughterhouse use. The church sued, claiming its right of free exercise of religion was violated. The Supreme Court said that the law was unconstitutional, and allowed the Santeria practices to prevail. Certain customs which are baffling from the standpoint of modern life, become reasonable and understandable when examined in the light of the institutions and ideas that are embraced by the cultures in question. We might not like the customs, we might even viscerally disagree with them and hope they will change their practices, but often the approach of “non-interference,” as discussed in chapter 2 (Cultural Relativism), or live-and-let-live, is the only satisfactory approach in a pluralistic world.


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CHAPTER 8 Shamanism: The “Wounded Healer” Abstract. Shamanism is a widespread healing discipline, grounded in animism. Healing, divination, rain-making and settling disputes are among the shaman’s duties. Many people rely on shamans for primary health care and spiritual guidance. The mind, body and spirit are treated as a unit by shamans. The shaman will seek to determine the supernatural cause of an illness. This can be anything from the violation of a taboo or some other transgression against the supernatural world, possession by an evil spirit, sorcery practiced by an enemy, or the actions of an offended ancestral ghost.

INTRODUCTION Shamanic calling is usually hereditary or by initiatory dreams; there may also be illness, suffering and temporary derangement during which souls of dead shamans are said to come and teach the candidates. Shamans may derive their powers from animal spirit helpers, and sometimes in rituals the shaman will employ shapeshifting and change into an animal. Often healing sessions involve a “shamanic performance” in which the shaman will act in dramatic ways, e.g., sucking “evil darts” or other foreign objects out of the patient’s body. Shamans are often revered, but some regard them as charlatans, or even psychopathic individuals who trick their clients with sleight-of-hand and other gimmicks. Shamans are said to go into an altered state of consciousness at will (“soul flight”) during rituals, usually to communicate with spirits and learn the cause of the patient’s ailment, to obtain visions, or to fight hostile spirits and recover the patient’s soul in order to effect a cure. Music, including singing, dancing and drumming, is important, for music “activates” clothing, ornaments, amulets, drums, staff and other ritual equipment, and music mediates the inner and outer worlds of the shaman. The percussive sounds of the shaman’s drum, bells and rattles are said to provide a “sound bridge” for the transmission of information from spirits. In addition to drums, shamans may use hallucinogenic mushrooms to help push them into trance states. The shaman’s supernatural powers can be dangerous: They have power to harm just as they have power to help, and some shamans practice sorcery against enemies. A significant portion of the world’s population relies on shamans for primary health care, rather than doctors. This is not only because in certain regions modern medical personnel are scarce, but has to do with long-standing beliefs the people have in the efficacy of shamanic healing, the topic of this chapter. The shaman is a privileged individual to whom people turn mainly for illness, but also for spiritual advice or communication with spirits. Shamans are first and foremost healers in their community, but they are also spiritual leaders, guides of the souls, reciters of songs, sacrificers, and dramatic actors. Shamans today often occupy a central role in upholding indigenous traditions, ethnic identity and cultural survival. Shamans are found all over the world in both modern and primitive cultures. The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, which is a kind of college for training shamans, has a program for psychotherapists, physicians and psychiatrists in which techniques are taught for treating clinically defined psychosis and other syndromes that involve extreme behaviors (Foundation for Shamanic Studies, 2006). In urban communities where seminars on various New Age topics flourish, one easily can sign up for shamanic training, although purists will claim that many of these purported shamans are charlatans. In modern times perhaps the most well-known book about shamanism is by the Romanian anthropologist, Mircea Eliade (1972) entitled Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. The shaman is probably the oldest profession in the history of humanity. Shamanism seems to have its earliest appearance in Paleolithic hunting and gathering groups that migrated from Asia to the Americas 10,000 to 50,000 years ago (Winkelman, 1990, p. 320). Krippner (2002) claimed: Shamans appear to have been humankind’s first psychotherapists, first physicians, first magicians, first performing artists, first storytellers, and even the first timekeepers and weather forecasters (p. 970). John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


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In ancient times, shamanism may have been a precursor of religion. As noted by Marett (1919), shamanism usually coexists alongside other forms of religious practices and beliefs, sometimes overlapping or supplementing them. Shamans function side-by-side with tribal chiefs, professional priests and magicians. Sometimes the chief of a tribe is also the shaman. The term “shaman,” according to Krippner (2002), describes a particular type of practitioner who attends to the psychological and spiritual needs of a community that has granted that practitioner privileged status. Shamans claim to engage in specialized activities that enable them to access valuable information that is not ordinarily available to other members of their community. Hence, shamanism can be described as a body of techniques and activities that supposedly enable its practitioners to access information that is not ordinarily attainable by members of the social group that gave them privileged status. These practitioners use this information in attempts to meet the needs of this group and its members (p. 963). Shamans have flourished in many cultures despite periods of European expansion, colonization, pacification, assimilationist policies, infringement of traditional lands by outsiders, decimation by disease and massacre, and environmental contamination of industry. Today shamans assume the role of spokespersons of indigenous populations, as they struggle to maintain their identity and also to redefine themselves amid world changes and pressures from the dominant culture. The shamanic world view is that there is no human superiority over the rest of nature. People, like other forms of life, exist within and depend upon nature and the goodwill of the spirits that animate and rule over the environment. Thus, shamanism goes hand-in-hand with animism. Shamans are found in practically all animistic cultures, from Native Americans, South Americans, Indonesians, Siberians, Inuits, Polynesians, Melanesians and Micronesians. Shamans are sometimes known by other titles, such as medicine-man-although the two practices have certain differences, discussed below. Shamans are not quite the same as faith-healers, “rainmakers,” spirit mediums, magicians or diviners, although these all have in common the feature of being wonder-workers vested with supernormal powers. The main thing that distinguishes a shaman is his or her direct access to, and influence in, the spirit world, which is usually manifested during a trance or possession state (See discussion below). The word “shaman” comes from the Tungus language of Siberia. Comparisons with similar words in Mongolian and Manchurian indicate that all these words designate a certain excited, restless state. Early on, anthropologists reported that shamans are often individuals of unstable constitution and restless, distracted, eccentric and withdrawn. Often a call to shamanism begins with seizures, either convulsive or hysterical (i.e.. cataleptic or rigid states), which we will discuss shortly. ANIMISTIC GROUNDING OF SHAMANISM. In animistic cultures forces of nature can be found in all things, not only animals, but rocks, trees, birds, clouds, snakes, in the fire, in the water, places where dead ancestors dwell, etc. The world is that which is “seen and unseen,” a belief that is common, it seems, to all world religions. Lake (1983) observed that in shamanic cultures, good health is associated with living in balance with nature, and being in good standing with the spirit world and with one’s deceased ancestors. Shamans also recognize that ailments can be caused by sorcery. In animistic cultures, all things are subject to the same principles, function, purposes, laws and forces. So, if one interferes with or violates the laws of nature, nature reacts by inflicting sickness, accident, insanity, injury or death on the individual. To have good health one must have a proper balance of both the physical and spiritual world. One’s body, mind and soul are interconnected, dependent on one another for their proper functioning, so that if something is out in one area it affects the whole.

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This is much the same in modern medicine, which embraces the view that unconscious conflicts or repression can cause physical illnesses, a process known as somatization. Tension, anxiety or suppressed emotions can and do manifest in bodily symptoms of one sort or another-such as back pains, blurred vision, lethargy, loss of weight, etc., or more serious symptoms. Some think that shamans are successful for the most part because they treat somaticized illnesses, not more serious things like cancer. But that is not necessarily true. In many cultures shamans attend to all manner of illnesses. Freud commented on a strategy that came to be known as “secondary gain from illness” (Peters, 1978, p. 76). Freud (1966) says: Consider the commonest example of this sort. A woman who is roughly treated and ruthlessly exploited by her husband will fairly regularly find a way out in neurosis.... Her illness now becomes a weapon in her battle with her dominating husband-a weapon which she can use for her defense and misuse for her revenge (p. 475). Shamanism involves living in ritual relationship with the natural forces and energies around us. Shamanic healing involves putting back harmony in one’s relationship with nature and with the natural flow of healing energies. SHAMAN’S MAIN FUNCTION: HEALING People will seek out the services of a shaman primarily to heal illnesses, both physical and mental. Nowadays, in many cultures people will go to shamans (or other traditional healers) in addition to, rather than instead of, medical doctors. The shaman will first seek to determine the cause of the illness. In these cultures, illness is always attributed to some supernatural source. The idea is that illness or other misfortune indicates some conflict or lack of harmony with the community or the spirit world. This can be anything from the violation of a taboo or some other transgression against the supernatural world, possession by an evil spirit, sorcery practiced by an enemy, or the actions of an offended ancestral ghost. The cause might be related to some upset in the family equilibrium such as an argument or conflict, causing “soul loss.” (See discussion of susto, meaning loss of soul, in chapter 19, “Culture-Bound Syndromes.”) Even accidental maladies, such as a broken leg, are viewed as having a supernatural source, as are financial problems, interpersonal conflicts, and everyday problems. In cultures where shamans are common, people of all walks of life will consult them for healing rituals or for help with personal troubles. Shamans treat the mind, body and spirit holistically, in contrast to modern medicine. In shamanic healing the focus is on spirit curing, with the premise that events outside the body are the cause of illness or misfortune, such as a disturbance in one’s relationship with dead ancestors. In contrast, modern medicine for the most part explains illness in nonpersonal terms-e.g., germs are the cause rather than the spirits of angry ancestors. People who seek healing from shamans have certain cultural expectations and beliefs in the efficacy of the rituals. As argued by Peters (1978), once the shaman identifies the cause of the patient’s illness there is immediate reduction in the patient’s anxiety because once the illness is put into a cultural frame, definite expectations are aroused in the patient and his family. They immediately identify with others who have been cured of similar things by the shaman. In other words, once the disease entity is known, whether it be a spirit, a complex, or a germ, there are definite prescriptions for dealing with it (pp. 82-83). This in turn “marks a favorable direction in the treatment process” (Peters, 1978, p. 83). The view that illness can be caused and healed by the intervention of supernatural spirits is found in modern and primitive cultures alike. People who almost never pray will pray if faced with a serious illness; they do so with the hope that the prayer will be effective in healing them. As we will discuss in chapter 14 (“The Placebo Effect”), in any society the expectations of a cure can be reinforced by the attitudes of one’s group as well as one’s personal faith.


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Shamans heal others, reduce their pain and suffering, and help the dying and the dead. They sometimes work to heal the dead who are “stuck.” Sometimes people engage shamans not for healing but to conduct shamanic rituals for good fortune, job advancement, financial rewards, or wealth, or for spiritual enlightenment. As mentioned, people who see shamans invariably believe that their illness or other difficulty is attributable to supernatural causes. Often part of the shaman’s healing rite involves confession, atonement and forgiveness-because often there is a close link between the illness and some transgression for which the patient is responsible. SHAMANIC CALLING AND INITIATION: HEREDITARY VS. INITIATORY DREAMS Shamans do not ordinarily wake up one day and decide to become a shaman. It is usually an involuntary process. In many instances the shaman is a hereditary vocation. Hereditary shamans spend their youth mastering the doctrines and techniques of the profession. With hereditary shamans, if the youngster does not have an early ecstasy experience or show some other signs of shamanic aptitude, the clan will renounce its candidate. In other cases the shaman, after experiencing some unusual accident or event-lightning, an apparition, a dream, or other epiphany-may be “appointed” by the clan. An individual, for instance, might report that the spirit of a dead shaman has appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to succeed him. A shamanic calling in the form of dreams may involve a deep sleep that lasts for days. The dreams not only make it clear that the candidate is to become a shaman, but the dreams in themselves confer psychic potency upon the candidate. Among Native Americans, the shaman comes into power through dreams in which an animal spirit calls upon the novice to become a shaman. The animal is usually one of the totems with which the tribe has an ancestral relationship, and with whom the individual therefore closely identifies. The animal might take a human form in calling upon the novice, e.g., an eagle or coyote in human shape. Among the Paviotso Indians of Nevada, a shaman comes into power when animals such as an eagle, owl, deer, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, or snake come to him a number of times in dreams. He must obey the instructions given him in the dreams or serious illness will result, or death. Shamans in this tribe were invulnerable to bullet wounds; if someone shot them with a gun, they were not hurt; the same if shot with arrows. SHAMANIC CALLING AND INITIATION: SHAMANIC ILLNESS, SUFFERING, AND DERANGEMENT While many shamans are hereditary, or appointed by the clan as a result of initiatory dreams reported by the candidate-in most instances, shamanic calling will be indicated by a spontaneous, unexplicable, prolonged and serious illness. “Shamanic illness” is a torturing and testing by the spirits. During this ordeal, souls of dead shamans come and teach the candidates. The candidate will cure himself and then go on to practice shamanism for the rest of his life. Only by agreeing to “shamanize” can the individual free himself from the affliction. The initiation may also be accompanied by falling into a strange madness, perhaps a purely psychic experience of death and resurrection. Frequently this will involve the experience of one’s body being cut into pieces and “boiled” and eaten by generations of spirits that cause illness, before being put together again and brought back to life. Somehow the evil spirits must receive this ransom, each his share, a part of the shaman’s flesh, in order to receive his healing power. It is an ancient teaching that true wisdom is only to be found through suffering. Privations and sufferings are the only things that can open one’s mind to mysteries that are hidden. Hence we see that shamans usually go through a genesis of suffering on the way to attaining mystical power. Often shamanic calling is accompanied by a considerable degree of mental derangement. According to Eliade (1972), the candidate might go through a process in which he becomes frenzied, suddenly loses consciousness, withdraws to the forests, feeds on tree bark, flings himself into water and fire, wounds himself with knives. The family then appeals to an old shaman, who undertakes to teach the distraught young man the various kinds of spirits and how to summon and control them (p. 16).

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Shamanic calling may be is accompanied by an hysterical or hysteroid crisis-e.g., immobility, blindness, deafness, or dumbness. Each case has its own blend of illness, dream states, and derangement. The individual may be seized and oppressed by spirits and has absolutely no wish to become a shaman, but sees no other way out. In many cases shamanic calling is indicated if the candidate starts to get epileptic seizures. In many cultures epileptic seizures are thought to signal prophetic visions, a rapture of unconsciousness, with one’s soul being carried off by the spirits. During the seizures, it is thought that the neophyte is received in the palace of the gods, where his soul is instructed by the ancestral shamans in the secrets of the profession. Then the soul returns to the body. Candidates may become meditative, seek solitude, sleep a lot, seem absent-minded, and have prophetic dreams. Apart from undergoing a serious illness and/or derangement, candidates will often have ecstatic experiences in dreams or visions, which are thought to constitute initiation by spirits. From these experiences the candidate learns traditional shamanic techniques, including the use of secret language or words. The initiation can occur in the shaman’s dream or in his ecstatic experience. The soul is supposed to leave the body in such trances-a cataleptic trance (“real” trance). Some shamans contemplate their own skeleton as an exercise in meditation, as part of their initiation. The shaman will contemplate his own skeleton and name the bones in a sacred language to induce a mystical experience of death and resurrection. By thus seeing himself naked, altogether freed from the perishable and transient flesh and blood, he consecrates himself, in the sacred tongue of the shamans, to his great task, through that part of his body which will longest withstand the action of the sun, wind and weather, after he is dead. He does this meditation by thought alone, divesting his body of its flesh and blood, so that nothing else remains but his bones. To reduce oneself to the skeleton condition is equivalent to reentering the womb of this primordial life, that is, to a complete renewal, a mystical rebirth (Grey, 1990, p. 34). The calling period of a shaman, being marked by confusion and (usually) panic, is similar to the early stages of schizophrenia. The ordeals are always followed by a period in which the candidate finds a teacher, derives meaning from his experience, and undergoes a supportive training period. One cannot usually become a shaman without working with a mentor for several years. During this period, the shaman acquires extensive knowledge concerning rituals, healing procedures, herbs, and the spirit world. According to Krippner (1997), “[D]issociative experience may occur during their ‘call’ to shamanize, but the subsequent apprenticeships emphasize discipline, control, and the maintenance of conscious awareness” (p. 28). In Siberia during Stalin’s reign, shamanic illness was often construed to be mental illness, and deemed a social and political threat, prompting incarceration of shamans in psychiatric prisons. Communist propaganda outlawed shamans in Siberia as parasites, and this intentionally created fear and distrust in these communities. Shamans’ drums were burned and their paraphernalia confiscated for museums. Some shamans were incarcerated and killed in Soviet concentrations camps. Even today, some Siberians will not mention the word “shaman” out of respect for their remembered power and also in recognition of the success of Soviet propaganda in undermining the traditional belief system. Today very few practicing shamans remain in Siberia (Wiget & Balalaeva, 2001). SHAMANIC SPIRIT HELPERS Shamans usually derive their powers from animal spirit helpers, which allow them to restore the necessary balance and reciprocity between the patient and the natural world. These spirits take the form of actual birds or other animals-ravens, eagles, the loon, hawk, crane, woodgrouse, swan, or bears, wolves, foxes, bulls or dogs. Shamans usually have several such helpers. These are like “egos” or “doubles” of the shaman. Shamans are thought to be capable of transforming themselves into their spirit-helping animals and back again-a practice called shapeshifting. Witches are also thought to do this e.g., change into a wild hog and then ravage an enemy’s farm, or change into a crocodile and seize someone who goes down to the river to wash. Many believe that


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long ago animals and people were indistinguishable and were able to change their outer form at will-a talent that eventually came to be that of shamans and witches alone. In shamanic rituals, the shaman who employs shapeshifting will change into an animal, and this animal might be seen by the people in attendance. Shamans claim that they really become the animal in question and thereby gain a spiritual source of power, that they engage in soul travel in the form of the animal, and that they see into the spirit world so as to troubleshoot on a spirit level. If this is a psychological trick, it usually does not matter, for the technique is a means of communication that has a powerful effect on the audience. SHAMANIC “PERFORMANCES” To “shamanize” means to render the spirits subservient to oneself. The kind of spirits involved will vary from culture to culture-depending on personal or collective ideas that the people believe. The spirits might be figures from the mythology of the people, or derived from traditional ideas that the people hold to be true (The animal spirit helpers, discussed above, may aid the shaman in interacting with these other spirits). The shaman feels them, uses them as real forces, and interprets them in the healing ritual. Shamans claim that these spirits are really real and not simply inner images. Quite often shamans will perform compelling ceremonies in which they stimulate wondrous perceptions among the patient and the audience-usually involving the patient’s extended family. The shaman might take on chaotic behavior that seems like a theatrical performance. This state is sometimes referred to as “magical flight” or “soul journey,” in which the shaman has a primordial encounter with the spirit realm, surrenders to the spirits that takes over his body and has visions or ecstatic experiences. Shamans also use numerous prayers and petitions. A powerful, contagious faith usually imbues the patient and the audience. People often refer to healing sessions as “shamanic performances.” According to Frank (1961), Healing ceremonies tend to be highly charged emotionally. The shaman may act out a life-and-death struggle between his spirit and the evil spirit that has possessed the patient. The patient may vividly reenact past experiences or act out the struggles of spirit forces within himself. The emotional excitement may be intensified by rhythmic music, chanting, and dancing. It frequently mounts to the point of exhausting the patient and not infrequently is enhanced by some strong physical shock (p. 52). The performance might involve the shaman engaging in battle with an evil spirit in an effort to effect healing, and the shaman will then emerge from the altercation bloodied and with torn clothes. The performance might include an exhibition of the shaman’s clairvoyance and mediumship. Shamans will at times seek to expel evil spirits, or conduct an exorcism, by causing the patient’s body to become such a disagreeable habitation that the evil spirit will leave. Some tribes fumigated sick people, made them swallow nauseating substances, drenched their bodies with foul concoctions, and so forth. Some shamans use physical force to expel an evil demon-e.g., punching the patient’s stomach with clenched fists, perhaps with great force, to get rid of an abdominal ailment. Eliade reports that in Sumatra shamans placed some insane people into a building that was then set on fire, leaving the people to escape if he could-with the expectation that the evil spirits will be scared out of their bodies. Much has been said of the shamanic practice of sucking “evil darts” or other foreign objects out of the patient’s body. In some traditions, in diagnosing the patient’s illness the shaman will use what is called a shamanic gaze, in which he identifies where the illness is (i.e., where the “spirit-darts” are in the body), and if it is due to sorcery, who the sorcerer is who sent it. Among the Aguaruna of Peru, shamans will go into a trance and gaze into the patient’s body to search for darts that were secretly introduced by a sorcerer, and which fester and produce illness-and then remove them by fanning and sucking (Medical science has also employed a “sucking” concept by using cupping instruments to draw blood to the surface of the body where a boil is located, for example). Sometimes a shaman will summon the spirit of an ancestor of the patient to assist in the removal of a curse. In other trance sessions, the shaman might engage in combat with the community’s hidden adversaries. In Kalimantan, Indonesia, shamans will cure illness by sucking out “splinters” consisting of a sliver of bamboo, wood, stone, or bone that becomes lodged inside the patient’s body and is visible only to the shaman during his

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curing ceremony. The shaman will make the patient’s body permeable, i.e., open up the patient’s boundary protections in order to suck out the splinter or to allow a healing breath to dissolve it. The shamans in Kalimantan think that these “splinters” develop within the body of an isolated and alienated individual; that an isolated body becomes vulnerable to the intrusion, that is, the development of these splinters in the body. Anthropologists sometimes refer to trickery or sleight of hand, and usually dismiss these practices in various condescending ways. Warner (1976) claimed that a shaman might, for example, hide objects in his mouth and then pretend to suck the object out of the patient’s body, and present it as evidence that the “pathogen” causing the illness has been removed. Or, a shaman might go outside to battle certain witches, and come back with his hands bound, claiming that the witches did it; whereas in fact an accomplice tied him up. Krippner (2002) observed that shamans can be both cultural heroes and hoaxsters, alternating between gallant support of those in distress and crass manipulation. Like other tricksters, however, they are capable of reconciling opposites; they justify their adroit maneuvering and use of legerdemain in the cause of promoting individual and community health and well-being (p. 965). According to McClenon (1993), Wilasinee Wisejsumnom, a Thai shaman known as the “Miracle Lady,” goes into a trance and inserts needles through her cheeks without any evidence of pain. As is common practice among shamans, she diagnoses medical problems in a trance state. Once she detects the cause, she heals by touching her bare foot to a red hot iron grill and then places it on the ailing part of the patient’s body. Her foot remains unharmed. These powerful demonstrations have an undeniable effect on the participants. Not all shamanic performances involve trance states. In Malaysia, for instance, as observed by Laderman (1997), shamans, called bomoh, will question each invisible entity as it appears, channel their messages, and perform ritual dramas, complete with music, song and dance, often with obscene or coarse language and humor, without going into a trance. According to Van Blerkom (1995), shamanistic performances are similar to that of circus clowns, mediating “between order and chaos, sacred and profane, real and supernatural, culture and anticulture, or nature” (p. 463). Some think that shamans, along with other traditional healers, rely somewhat on the patient’s imagination in effecting a cure. This ties in with the idea of the placebo effect, (see chapter 14, “The Placebo Effect”), which would explain the powers of the shaman in terms of the culture’s unquestioningly accepting the genuineness of his healing powers. Often shamans will also use supplemental therapeutic treatments, usually in the form of plant medicines as well as massage or sweatbaths. SHAMANIC TRANCE-ECSTASY According to Eliade (1972), “The shaman specializes in a trance during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld” (p. 5). Heinze (1991) argues: “Only those individuals can be called shamans who can access alternative states of consciousness at will” (p. 13). In shamanic practice the initial goal is to find out just what the cause of the illness might be-why the gods or dead ancestors are offended, or whether the problem is one of sorcery, or some other factor. Altered states of consciousness are always the hallmark of shamanic techniques. These involve ecstatic journeying, i.e., soul flight or out-of-body experiences. In this trance state shamans will take an astral voyage to the land of the spirits to divine the cause of the patient’s illness. These trance ecstasies are not unlike what has been observed in a variety of religious experiences. Mystics such as St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross have been known to spontaneously fall into trance states and experience an ecstatic union with supreme forces. As we will discuss in chapter 11 (“Trance and Possession States”), there are varying degrees of altered states of consciousness. For shamans, attaining an altered state of consciousness usually takes the form of a trance state. This


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is a healing state, where the shaman is liberated from the machinery of thought, where his consciousness is purified, where external stimuli are banished, and complex thinking and emotions are put aside. In a trance there is heightened perception, colors are more vivid, and the shaman may go into an ecstasy over the wonderment of existence. The purpose of the shaman’s trance state is to communicate with spirits to learn the cause of the patient’s ailment, to obtain visions, or to fight hostile spirits and recover the patient’s soul in order to effect a cure. The spirits might bring to light a supernatural diagnoses, pronouncements about daily life or prophetic messages. It is not entirely clear whether shamans go to the domain of the spirits, or that the spirits come to them, and this will depend on the individual’s “style.” Shamans will voluntarily induce a trance state as part of their healing rituals. This can be done by auto-suggestion, rhythmic dancing or drumming, intense concentration on a symbol meaningful to him, by concentrating on the shaman’s own internal fantasy, or by hyperventilation. The shaman might go into a trance by ingesting hallucinogenic drugs, which also produce powerful visions. Shamanistic trance states often appear to produce chaotic or bizarre behavior. Some shamans go into a light trance in which they seem to be operating in an ordinary manner, while others go into a deeper state, which we might refer to as possession or trance-possession. Eliade (1972) observes: Among the Ugrians shamanic ecstasy is less a trance than a “state of inspiration”; the shaman sees and hears spirits; he is “carried out of himself” because he is journeying in ecstasy through distant regions, but he is not unconscious. He is a visionary and inspired. However, the basic experience is ecstatic, and the principal means of obtaining it is, as in other regions, magico-religious music (pp. 222-223). Hultkrantz (1973) notes: A shaman may seem to act in a lucid state when, in actual fact, his mind is occupied with interior visions. I have myself witnessed a North American medicine-man operate during curing in a twilight context not easily discovered by an outsider, and his testimony to me afterwards of what he saw during his curing stressed the fact that he had been in a light trance (p. 28). During the trance, the shaman’s soul is believed to leave the body and, in “magical flight,” ascend to the sky. to a supernatural realm, or descend into the underworld. There are different viewpoints as to what is meant by a “supernatural realm,” either that it is a physical reality or it is simply an inner journey. Ridington and Ridington (1975) argued: The real meaning of the supernatural must be symbolic and the shamanic flight an inner journey into a realm of experience for which the symbols stand. The three worlds of a shamanic cosmology are not geographical places but internal states of being represented by a geometric analogy. The shaman does not really fly up or down, but inside to the meaning of things. Shamanism is a magical flight into a hidden, internal, experiential dimension in which time, space, and distance as we know them, as well as the distinction between subject and object, merge into a unity. In fact, shamanism so defined is a universal human experience even though it tends to be institutionalized only in small-scale “savage” societies (p. 192). As a rule, some degree of altered consciousness, however slight, is needed in shamanic practice. But shamans in Malaysia, as noted above, do not use out-of-body soul flights or altered states of consciousness. Navaho shamans recount cultural myths and use sand paintings, drums and dances in their rituals, but “they need no special trance or ecstatic vision... only the desire and the patience to learn the vast amount of symbolic material” (Sandner, 1979, p. 242). But it seems that all shamans at least have an acute perception or heightened awareness of the natural world in which “things often seem to blaze” (Berman, 2000, p. 30).

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One explanation of shamanic healing is that the shaman taps into the unconscious mind of the patient and helps open a more lucid connection between the patient’s conscious and unconscious or dream minds. The shaman communicates with the patient’s dream mind in language it understands-the symbolic language of dreams. The shaman directs himself into altered states of consciousness in order for this ritual communication to occur. As a rule, the shaman’s ritual will use symbols that relate to the collective values of the culture to effect important changes in the patient. In shamanic healing there may be a release of repressed psychic energy, a balancing out of energy, a recovery of part of the patient’s soul, and changing of confused or inefficient patterns. In situations where the patient has pent-up anxieties or conflicts that have caused the symptoms, the ritual might bring about an intense emotional discharge of anger (cathartic release or “abreaction”) on the part of the patient, in which she ventilates her aggression and frustration against her husband or other relative-behavior that would normally be unacceptable. It has been observed that the venting of aggression or frustration has a beneficial psychological function by providing “a sense of renewal and an improved capacity for dealing with reality” (Kiev, 1972, p. 43). In shamanic healing, these emotional experiences are not accompanied by “insight” or “introspection” as often is the case with Western psychotherapy. SHAMANIC MUSIC Music, including singing, dancing and drumming, is important to shamans for several reasons. Music “activates” clothing, ornaments, amulets, drums, staff and other ritual equipment given to a new shaman by the community. Music is a means for the audience to participate in the ritual by helping create psychic energy for the shaman’s journey. Music mediates the inner and outer worlds of the shaman. It helps mediate this world and the spirit world, and connects the shaman with his audience. Music activates the shaman’s helping spirits and conveys his request for help. Music helps to induce the shaman’s altered state of consciousness in which the work can take place. Music bridges the rational and the intuitive, the individual and collective experience, and the physical and the metaphysical realms of our existence. By allowing the music (or spirits) to enter and do its work, the patient becomes receptive to gift of healing. Shamans usually have their own song or melody which belongs to them alone; no one else is allowed to imitate it. Even the shaman’s helping spirits might have their own distinctive melodies, which the shaman sings during rituals. Often, the shaman receives messages from the other world in the form of songs and rhythms. According to Walker (2003), the percussive sounds of the shaman’s drum, bells and rattlesall these combine with the movement of the shaman’s body and the tassels and fringe on the shaman’s dress to produce a rhythmic sound bridge that facilitates travel to the other world in search of knowledge that will benefit people in this world. This sound bridge is a conduit for the transmission of knowledge, power, inspiration, awareness, or intent between worlds or consciousnesses (p. 44). Sometimes shamans will use music to evoke special types of visions. Among the Peruvians of the Amazons, along with the use of ayahuasca, shamans have reported that the particular traditional melody they chose to sing at a given moment in the drug ritual could evoke visions they specifically desired their clients to have, to permit them to see the agency responsible for bewitchment, to resolve anxiety created in the wake of drug use, and so on (de Rios & Katz, 1975, p. 69). Berndt (1947) found that shamans among Aboriginals in New South Wales have used special songs to the accompaniment of certain actions, to effect healing. The curative quality is thought to be intrinsic to the song itself, when sung or hummed by the shaman who alone possesses the “power” to activate the words and rhythm of the song. A wound might be “sung” to so as to magically close or heal it without even leaving a scar, or the shaman


John Alan Cohan

might use singing at a difficult childbirth to facilitate the delivery. Or a magical song will enable the shaman to withdraw dozens of leaves and some beetles from the afflicted part of a patient’s body. THE SHAMAN’S DRUM: THE USE OF NOISE TO COMMUNICATE WITH SPIRITS Drumming is an integral part of shamanic ceremonies. Shamans use drums to attract or to repel spirits, to invoke ancestral spirits, and to build an intensity that sets the stage for trance or possession of the shaman. Eliade (1972) observed: “There is always some instrument that, in one way or another, is able to establish contact with the ‘world of the spirits’” (p. 179). Huxley (1961) commented that the intoxicating power of drumming and other rhythmic patterns cannot be denied: No man, however highly civilized, can listen for very long to African drumming, or Indian chanting, or Welsh hymn-singing, and retain intact his critical and self-conscious personality.... If exposed long enough to the tom-toms and the singing, every one of our philosophers would end by capering and howling with the savages (p. 369). In addition, as discussed by Mischel and Mischel (1958), drumming helps promote wild jumping about, muttering, and other “performances” of the particular shaman. In combination with the crowd excitement, singing, darkness, candles, circular rhythmic dancing, and other ceremonial aspects, drumming engenders an atmosphere in which possession has become the expected, desired, and usual behavior (p. 251). The question may arise: Why are drums used so extensively by shamans as a means of communicating with spirits? The shaman’s drum is said to be for “the alignment of the self with nature and elemental currents... to produce balance, healing, personal power and greater knowledge” (Howard, 2002, p. 68). The drum seems to have a unique ability to induce trance or possession states. It may be that the rhythmic percussion of drum beats that are part of shaman ritual induces theta wave EEG frequency (Krippner, 2002, p. 966). Its effect on the inner ear apparently helps the shaman enter a trance state. The percussive sounds of the drum produces disturbances of the inner ear, which controls postural balance, breathing rhythms, heartbeat, blood pressure, feelings of nausea, and certain eye reflexes. Harner is quoted as saying: Simply by using the technique of drumming (sonic driving, a monotonous percussion sound), people from time immemorial have been able to pass into these realms which are normally reserved for those approaching death, or for saints (as quoted in Howard, 2002, p. 69). And as mentioned, the shaman’s drum is a vehicle for accessing the spirit realm. Among the Transbaikalian Tungus, the frame drum is a canoe for crossing the sea. Among the Mongols it represents a horse. Among the Siberian Evenki and Oroquen, it is the receptacle through which different spirits come to the shaman. By singing directly into the skin, the shaman pleads with the spirit world, in effect marking the skin as the entrance to the other realm (Howard, 2002, p. 67). A study by Harner and Tyron (1996) of the psychological and immunological responses to drumming of 40 people concluded: Shamanic journeying with drumming... was associated with increased affective, cognitive, physical and total well-being. State anxiety, anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, tension-anxiety, and stress were significantly lower after journeying with drumming... [Drumming] appears to have a positive psychological effect on well-being, anxiety, stress, and mood disturbances for these participants (p. 95). In Peru, however, shamans use hallucinogenic mushrooms to help push them into trance states. And in addition to the use of drums, shamans of North and South America smoke tobacco in one form or another (usually Nicotina rustica), as a means of inducing shamanic visions, trances and encounters with the gods.

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Drum beating is used not only at shamanic rituals to make contact with the spirit world, but in many cultures is used in a wide range of other practices. Drums are used at funerals, in hunting, and in warfare. According to Needham (1967), various cultures use drums to mark situations such as birth, initiation, marriage, accession to office, sacrifice, lunar rites, calendrical feasts, declaration of war, the return of head-hunters, the reception of strangers, the inauguration of a house or a communal building, market days, sowing, harvest, fishing expeditions, epidemics, eclipses, and so on (p. 611). In China and other Asian cultures, celebrations are also marked by the letting off of firecrackers. And as is well known in Middle East cultures, shooting firearms into the sky is commonly done to mark celebrations. In the West, the twenty-one gun salute is given to welcome heads of state, and rifle volleys are commonly given at military funerals. Also in the West there is the quaint custom of tying tin cans behind the wedding car to make banging clashes when the couple takes off. The drum as well as other instruments seems to have a social connection to the dead. The noise in all these cases symbolizes a transition from one state to another. All of these events are more or less rites of passage, so that what the drum has in common is that it helps mark the passage from one social or mystical state to another. Other ceremonial aspects, in addition to drumming, may well contribute to induction into trance or possession states, such as crowd excitement, singing, darkness, candles, rhythmic dancing, and so on. The shaman uses other instruments, including the gong, bell, cymbal, tambourine, xylophone, metallophone, rattle, rasp, stamping tube, sticks struck against each other, rocks, and clashing anklets. All of these instruments are percussive. Clapping, striking the palm against various parts of the body, and stamping of feet are also employed. These percussive reverberations seem to evoke a wide range of human emotions. Percussive sounds have not only aesthetic but impact the body with a profound effect. Thunder is another type of percussive sound, and we all know the internal impact that this sound generates. According to Huxley (1967), in voodoo rituals in Haiti, “It is the drummers who largely provoke dissociation; they are skillful in reading the signs, and by quickening, altering, or breaking their rhythm they can usually force the crisis on those [dancers] who are ready for it” (p. 286). Frazer (1919) remarked that demons and ghosts can be put to flight by the sound of metal, whether it be the musical jingle of little bells, the deep-mouthed clangour of great bells, the shrill clash of cymbals, the booming of gongs, or the simple clink and clank of plates of bronze or iron knocked together or struck with hammers or sticks. Hence in rites of exorcism it has often been customary for the celebrant either to ring a bell which he holds in his hand, or to wear attached to some part of his person a whole nest of bells, which jingle at every movement he makes (p. 447). PSYCHOPATHIC TENDENCIES OF SHAMANS? For many years quite a few anthropologists and missionaries regarded shamans as psychopathic individuals and charlatans who tricked their clients with sleight-of-hand and other gimmicks. As noted above, during the initiatory phase a new shaman might exhibit bizarre behavior, but this may well be understandable in light of the anxieties and struggles with cosmic forces that the candidate undergoes. There may be periods of loss of consciousness, hysteria, seizures, withdrawal, and other signs of distress. These patterns are observed during the initiatory phase, but do not necessarily persist once the candidate finds and works with an experienced shaman. Shamans are certainly highly imaginative, and they claim to have visions, dreams and fantasies that represent activities in the spirit world. For the most part they are mentally functional, and often have cure rates that favorably compare to those of Western doctors (Krippner, 2002, p. 966).


John Alan Cohan

Still, many shamans are eccentric in their behavior, or are extremely nervous and erratic, or worse. Some display a mental unbalance suggestive of schizophrenia or psychopathy, particularly shamans who communicate directly with spirits. According to Silverman (1967), symptoms include “grossly non-reality-oriented ideation, abnormal perceptual experiences, profound emotional upheavals, and bizarre mannerisms” (p. 22). Silverman also said that shamanism and schizophrenia have in common “grossly non-reality-oriented ideation, abnormal perceptual experiences, profound emotional upheavals, and bizarre mannerisms” (as quoted in Krippner, 2002, p. 965). At the same time, Silverman (1967) says that “shamans exhibiting such behaviors are often accorded great prestige, and the belief in their powers is total” (p. 22). He goes on to say: When during a “performance” a shaman becomes hysterical in his spirit possession, the members of the group anticipate that they will soon be visited by powerful spirits able to divine their vital problems. When he transports himself to the spirit world to divine or cure, his “returning” pronouncements are received respectfully and obediently (p. 22). Some might argue that shamanic behavior patterns resemble a disorder known as Schizotypal Personality Disorder, with features of “cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior.” (American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), 2000, p. 697). People with this disorder perceive “incorrect interpretations of causal incidents and external events as having a particular and unusual meaning specifically for the person” (DSM-IV-TR, p. 697). The DSM-IV-TR description of this disorder goes on to say that people with this disorder may feel that they have special powers to sense events before they happen or to read others’ thoughts. They may believe that they have magical control over others, which can be implemented directly... or indirectly through compliance with magical rituals.... Perceptual alterations may be present (e.g., sensing that another person is present or hearing a voice murmuring his or her name). Their speech may include unusual or idiosyncratic phrasing and construction.... These individuals are often considered to be odd or eccentric because of unusual mannerisms, an often unkempt manner of dress that does not quite “fit together,” and inattention to the usual social conventions (e.g., the person may avoid eye contact, wear clothes that are ink stained and ill-fitting, and be unable to join in the give-and-take banter of co-workers) (p. 698). Western psychiatry recognizes, to some extent, that certain symptoms, while on their face are regarded as a disorder, may be normative in other cultures. This concession is evident in this added comment under the discussion of Schizotypal Personality Disorder in the DSM-IV-TR: The individuals must be “superstitious or preoccupied with paranormal phenomenon that are outside the norms of their subculture” (p. 697, emphasis added). For shamans, the “preoccupation” with “paranormal phenomenon” is within the norms of their culture. However, the other symptoms listed in this syndrome do not take into account the fact that the elements are somewhat accepted and even encouraged in shamanic cultures. The problem with categorizing certain bizarre behaviors as mental disorders is that in shamanic cultures bizarre behavior is supported, indeed “highly valued and rewarded” (Silverman, 1967, p. 28). The “bizarre” behavior of shamans does not markedly differ from the expectations of their culture. Eccentricities of behavior and cognitive distortions, preoccupation with paranormal phenomena, magical thinking and so on, are within the norms of these cultures. The above criteria might operate to place a diagnosis of Schozotypal Personality Disorder in the West, but not in cultures where shamanism is normative. Thus, we have a dichotomy: In the West we might regard such behavior as a serious mental illness. We tend to push such individuals into psychiatric treatment, medicate them, and sometimes put them in locked psychiatric units. But in shamanic cultures these behaviors are accorded emotional support and cultural acceptance, rather than labeled as sick. As with any purported mental disorder, the diagnostic criteria must be evaluated in the context of an individual’s cultural milieu. We will discuss more on this point in chapter 19 (“Culture-Bound Syndromes”).

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Again, the diagnostic profile of schizophrenia in the West consists of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and hearing of voices when the individual is alone (DSM-IV-TR, p. 312). Shamans, whose healing practices involve listening to messages and signs from the spirit realm, would seem to match these traits. And as the DSM-IV-TR states: “Ideas that may appear to be delusional in one culture (e.g., sorcery and witchcraft) may be commonly held in another. In some cultures, visual or auditory hallucinations with a religious content may be a normal part of religious experience (e.g., seeing the Virgin Mary or hearing God’s voice)” (DSM-IV-TR, p. 306). Shamans, mediums or channelers in Western societies often disguise or hide their activities for fear they will be misunderstood or thought of as psychotic. This fear is due to the lack of familiarity in the West with shamanic practices. Joshi, Frierson and Gunter (2006) claim: “A culturally held belief may be misidentified by a clinician as a delusion due to the strangeness of the belief and the lack of the clinician’s exposure to that particular culture or subculture” (p. 514). It seems apparent that with renewed interest in the practices of alternative healing arts, and with the greater familiarity in popular culture with the workings of shamans, their behavior, if bizarre, might be better understood as resting on firm cultural traditions. SHAMANS AS POTENTIAL SORCERERS The power of a shaman is considerable. In time of adversity or disaster, the people will prevail upon him for answers: “Who induced the spirits to spoil the crops or slay the cattle?” “Who caused the unclean spirit to enter the patient, and bring about his sickness or death? While shamans are revered by the community for their healing powers, their skills are also cited as evidence of their homicidal abilities. The shaman’s supernatural powers can be dangerous: They have power to harm just as they have power to help. They possess the ability to kill if they so desire. If a patient dies after treatment by a shaman, suspicion might come to rest on him, and shamans are prime suspects when there is a death suggestive of sorcery. If a shaman declines to treat people, or if too many patients die, people will start to wonder if he is really pursuing sorcery or evil magic under the guise of healing. Indeed, people may tend to blame the shaman for anything that goes wrong in their village or household. This is true of the medicine-man, magician and witch-doctor as well. The people feel that shamans and and these other mysterious healers are both death-bringers and saviors from disease. Some shamans practice sorcery against people whom they don’t like: just wishing sickness, touching the other, or giving the other food can cause the person to get sick. It is not unknown for a shaman or medicine-man to come to an enemy who has gotten sick and say, “Don’t you know it is I who am killing you?”-i.e., a supernatural killing. The people will kill any shaman whom they suspect of supernatural killing of patients. In diagnosing the source of an illness, an unscrupulous shaman may want to claim that it is sorcery and point the finger on someone who is a persona non grata to the shaman-and thus direct the ill-will of the people on this personal enemy. People usually strive to stay on good terms with shamans because they can throw the blame of evil fortune upon anyone in the village. Sometimes rival shamans will try to poison each other; the people think that’s why so many shamans have died, that the weaker ones are killed by shamans with stronger power. In casting an evil spell, shamans work differently than magicians: They do not need some intermediate object to work the spell, such as cast-off clothing, nail clippings, hair or leftover food of the victim to carry on sorcery-just their thoughts are sufficient. Because of his power to do good or ill, the people tend to fear the shaman, and regard him as an object of veiled hatred and suspicion. In many cultures, at least in the past, it was believed that anyone whom a shaman, medicine-man, witch-doctor or magician killed would be in his power in the after life. These dead victims constituted his “band.” ACCOUNTS OF SHAMANIC PERFORMANCES Shamanic practices have a certain uniformity. Shamans the world over rely on animal spirit helpers, go into ecstatic trance or possession states in their rituals, use drums and music, and they usually have some profound initiation in


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the form of illness, derangement, unusual dreams, and the like. Yet there are regional distinctions that add to the color and richness of shamanic practices. The shamans among the Tibetan peoples are called the bombo. Leavitt (1994), in studying trance practices among the Himalayas, found that in diagnosing the nature and causes of a patient’s problem, the bombo will build an altar of little cakes, and invoke the gods into these cakes by prayers referring to the surrounding landscape. He will then become possessed by several gods, and will be told what the patient’s problem is. Often in this culture the cause of illness or other difficulty will be attributed the presence of evil spirits in the patient’s body. The bombo will therefore perform a second ritual to exorcize evil spirits: A chicken will be sacrificed, the entrails examined for divinatory messages, and the bombo will then engage in acts, similar to shamanic practice in Siberia and the Americas, of sucking the evil out from the patient’s body, then spitting it out in the form of blood, foul-smelling insects and worms. He will then call back the patient’s lost soul by singing songs describing the return of the patient’s life, using the metaphor of the waxing moon to suggest the patient’s return to health and wholeness. The bombo might take a journey on the back of a spiritual eagle to seek the patient’s lost soul. During this flight the bombo sits quietly and shakes. When he captures the lost soul he sings a song of his return. White flowers, representing the soul, fall onto his drum, the patient eats them, and the patient’s soul is thereby restored. The bombo concludes the session with a prayer of departure of the gods. Park (1934) found that among the Paviotso Indians of Nevada there are accounts of shamans bringing babies and others back from the dead, curing of rattlesnake bites, and curing wounds from poison arrows. To bring back someone who has recently died the shaman goes into a trance and retrieve the patient’s soul. Shamans in this region are also known for their power of rainmaking. The shaman might create rain more or less instantly after taking a magpie-tail feather and waving it in front of his face, or by working so as to release the cold in his own body out into the atmosphere. Or, this power might be used to ward off a harmful storm. The shamans among the Paviotso also are also helpful in preparing for hunts to insure that everything will go well. The shaman does a ritual to charm antelopes in preparation for an antelope drive. The shaman might “treat” hunting weapons before the men set out so as to pass power into them and help their weapons fly straight to their mark. Among the many tribes of Papua New Guinea the shaman or medicine doctor might ascribe illness to the workings of ghosts-for the violation or trespass of ghostly grounds, or for some immoral conduct such as adultery, for walking irresponsibly with children in the rain, or for letting pigs roam around in ghost areas. For women patients, the wrong that upset the ghosts might have been traveling alone at night, thus making oneself vulnerable to sexual encounters with strange men in the bush. Men are said to be attacked by ghosts for violating property rights of ghosts or other men. The ghosts attack with arrows, ropes, stones and other objects, and they are especially dangerous around burial grounds, in heavy forest zones, and where animals, plants, water, and bamboo should not be disturbed or collected. They eat a preparation of salt, ginger root, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and a special wild tree bark called pinto (The shamans or medicine-men are called pinto men). In some villages they also smoke tobacco in conjunction with curing and are known as “smoke men.” The pinto bark has alkaloids which may cause fluctuating moods and possibly hallucinations. Shamans in many cultures often prescribe a set of appropriate food avoidances as part of the cure. For instance, shamans of the Aguaruna people in Peru might tell people suffering from skin lesions to avoid eating armadillo “because the lesions will then dig into the flesh as the armadillo claws into the ground” (Brown, 1988, p. 113). Or in healing chants for an infant the shaman might say that the child is like the offspring of vultures, “which can eat rotten things without harm” (p. 113), thus transferring the resistance of the vulture’s chicks to the sick child. (Laugrand, Gosten, and Trudel (2002) found that among the Inuits of the Canadian eastern Arctic, the term tuurngait refers to helping spirits of the shamans. In this culture there are hundreds of types of spirits. The names of the helping spirits vary, depending on its type or what it resembles, its appearance (shape, color, clothing), sounds, movements, etc. The shamans (known as angakkuit) heal the sick, help procure game, protect the people from evil spirits, kill evil spirits of the dead, and correct or improve the weather. The most frequent invocation of the spirits is

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to provide game. The spirits render powerless the soul of the animal, so that it can be easily caught, because the soul is the life of the body. Some think these spirits are inherently malevolent and dangerous, but that the shaman transforms them into good helpers by his powers. Others say they are free roaming spirits of unpredictable good and evil. Or, they are known, named and greatly feared spirits which inhabit certain areas. They are also thought to be “invisible rulers of every object” (Laugrand, Gosten, & Trudel, 2002, p. 39). Usually the tuurngait resemble human beings, albeit with odd features such as a very fat or very thin body, very large heads, or other oddities. Usually they are gender specific, but often enough gender ambiguous or of foreign ethnic appearance. Some appear naked, or live in water at the bottom of the sea. Some have stones or spears, bows, arrows, harpoons or other weapons, usually of the evil type or of ambiguous moral character. They may appear as animals-a bear, raven, dog, fox (“the little walker”), polar bear (“the one furnished with fangs”), wolf, or caribou of an odd color, with only one wing, or consisting mainly of bones, or a hybrid-like walrus-caribou. Some have the head of an animal and body of a human being. Bird-types usually bring food or are healers; they are always good spirits. A helping spirit might even take the form of some object such as a weapon, or it might be a stone (“the joined one”). One helping spirit was the soul of a deceased sailor who sleeps in a ship. The location of the spirits are in heaven, on earch, on ice, in the sea or under the earth. A spirit might appear in white, or diffused light which shines from their bodies: light being a sign of joy, health, prosperity. Some are quick in movement, implying knowledge and discernment. The evil ones are dark or of a dreadful form. Many of the spirits are “owners” of places, objects and game. Often this ownership seems to be an essential part of their function. Often the spirits will be able to share the human ability to keep, own or herd animals. A variety of places may be inhabited by tuurngait-a hole, a precipice, a dwelling, a land with many birds, a lake, or they might inhabit stones and represent the owners of these stones. They might own a house as well as certain lands surrounding it, or live in an underground cave, or in a house at the bottom of a lake, with fish for companions, and kills the fish by destroying their souls. Those that help supply game usually are owners or at least guardians of the specific species. Illness might be caused by displeasing a certain spirit; or some spirits make a person sick because they have the desire to kill. For shamans in the region, healing often requires the killing of an evil spirit. The shaman would fight the unseen spirit and his hands might become bloody, for even though they are just spirits, they have lots of blood. Shamans are also found among the Bedouin-a pastoral tribal society (raising mainly sheep) that have lived in the Negev of southern Israel since pre-Christian times. Many centuries ago the Bedouin adopted Islam. Today their population is about 10,000. For centuries the people relied upon desert plants, camel’s milk and honey for healing purposes. Al-Krenawi, Graham, and Maoz (1996) conducted field studies in this region of highly respected healers called the Dervish. The Dervish are for all intents and purposes shamans. They are holy people who comprise a highly secretive fraternal order. They practice “prophetic medicine,” passed from previous generations down to them. The Dervish believe that evil spirits attack people in punishment for their sins and cause illness and suffering, that every illness has a remedy, and that the Koran is the ultimate source of cure for illness. Dervish candidates have a calling similar to that of shamans-involving a period of mental suffering, lack of concentration, and social isolation. They will consult a Dervish mentor and if found to be a suitable candidate, become an apprentice. In contrast to shamans, if a Dervish uses his or her power for evil, the power to heal will be forfeited, because the healing is bestowed as a gift from God, and will cease if they betray God. The Dervish art said to communicate with angels and spirits in their healing rituals. Dervish often have a charismatic presence and tend to convey to their patients their high confidence in the probable success of the treatment. The Dervish might ask for an item of clothing or something else of the patient to hold while entering into a trance, or


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enter a trance while touching the patient’s head. Usually family members are present and are asked to invoke God’s grace. After the trance the Dervish will provide a diagnosis of the patient’s case and prescribe a treatment plan. The cause of illness, whether mental or physical, is always attributed to evil spirits acting to punish sins. It is not uncommon for Dervish to treat cases where the patient has spirits that inhabit his body, a kind of demonic possession, with symptoms of confusion, violence and supernormal strength. Such patients are sometimes tied down during the treatment, as they may become dangerous to themselves or to others (We will have a further discussion about possession by evil spirits in chapter 11, “Trance and Possession States). The treatment protocol is generally an effort to overcome and expel the evil spirits. In a kind of dialogue with the spirits, the Dervish will read verses from the Koran, invoke the power of saints, of the Prophet Muhammad, and of God, and communicate with the spirits. The Dervish will then expel the evil spirits by overpowering them, or simply communicate with the spirits and persuade them to leave the patient. Like shamans, they will use drums in the course of treatment, not to induce a trance, but to convince unwilling spirits to communicate with them, or to help overpower the spirits. The Dervish might beat the spirits out of the patient’s body if all else fails, by hitting the soles of the patient’s bare feet with a stick, for that is the departure point for them. If the spirits still refuse to leave the patient’s body and fail to communicate with the Dervish, the patient will stay over at the Dervish’s home for further treatment. There will be more rituals to exorcise the spirits, with the aid of Dervish apprentices, by invoking God’s name and by inviting a blessing from God, accompanied by drums. Members of the group will often reach states of religious ecstasy in focusing on the power of God. The ritual will close with a group prayer asking for God’s forgiveness. Dervish shamanic healing also employs dancing as a central component. Here is the observation made by Sachs (1937/1963): These old men with outspread arms spun like tops for a full half-hour-an astonishing, inconceivable performance. Here the dance severs the natural bonds of human posture and motion. In dizziness the dancer loses the feeling of body and of self; released from his body he conquers dizziness... There is no doubt that it is something primitive, preserved from a period thousands of years before Islam, inherited from the shamanism of Central Asia (pp. 41-42). Once a cure is effected, the patient will be encouraged to maintain a heightened religiosity in the practice of Islam, and to visit a saint’s tomb as part of aftercare therapy. Saints, in Muslim as well as Christian culture, are highly revered as special friends of God, and whose special closeness to God makes them especially amenable to intercessory prayer. In all religions the tombs of saints are sacred places where prayers to the soul of the dead saint are thought to be especially effective. In South Korea, shamans can be found everywhere. Often they are sought after by clients who are “profit driven,” that is, who wish to have good luck in business or financial abundance. Clients will “promptly sever their relationship with a shaman if the ceremony they have sponsored does not bear fruit in immediate financial gain” (Kendall, 1996, p. 512). Shamans might also be called upon to perform rituals to honor the spirits of a newly purchased family car. In South Korea, with the flourishing of private car ownership, shamans are routinely called upon for this purpose (Kendall, 1996). In Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia and home to about a million people, many shamans have turned the country’s ancient spiritual tradition into a thriving business. Shamanism was banned under Communist rule for 70 years, but got embraced as religious freedom under the state’s 1992 Constitution. Shamans in the city are quite visible, with professionally made street signs offering exorcisms and fortune-telling. “They are in high demand. Thousands of bureaucrats, laid-off factory workers and nomads who lost their herds in the country’s stumble toward a market economy now crowded faded Soviet-style apartment blocks and tent districts looking for work, love and healing” (Levin, 2009). In Europe, particularly Germany and Austria, in recent years there has been a renaissance of sorts with NeoShamanic trends. For instance, there are workshops to teach how to go on shamanic journeys-with a view towards self-exploration and self-healing.

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“Neo-Shamanic authors use archaeological findings (e.g., cave paintings in southern France and northern Spain) and an understanding of shamanism as a ‘religion of the stone age’ to confirm the hypothesis that shamanic practices constitute a universal cultural feature” (Walter & Fridman, 2004, p. 497). A QUESTION OF TERMS: SHAMANS, MEDICINE-MEN, WITCH-DOCTORS, PRIESTS, MAGICIANS Anthropologists use various terms to refer to spiritual leaders of the community: shamans, medicine-men, witchdoctors, wizards, priests, magicians, and sorcerers. Sometimes the title of a healer in a particular community will be “witch-doctor,” and other times a healer in a different community with precisely the same functions will have the title of “medicine-man.” This is understandably confusing. There are many similarities in the powers and practices of these healers, and one is hardpressed to make a clear distinction between the shaman, on the one hand, and the other practitioners. All of these practitioners are people who usually occupy a privileged status in their culture, and are both admired and feared. As we will see in chapter 12 (“Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft”), witches and sorcerers are often thought to be evildoers rather than healers, but again in many contexts they are the primary healers of the community. Shamans as well as the other healers usually have multiple duties. Shamans and the other healers have a command of magic. They seek to effect a cure by first diagnosing the source of the problem and then restoring an equilibrium to the patient. All these practitioners will function as spiritual guides or even “psychologists.” Shamans and other healers alike may be skilled in being a communication link with the spirit realm, communicating with and obtaining information or advice from the patient’s spirit guides or the practitioner’s own guides; obtaining spirit guidance concerning everyday troubles of the patient; locating lost items; helping clients contact the souls of recently departed relatives or identifying the reincarnating ancestor in a newborn baby; and providing protective amulets, mantras and rituals to help the patient deal with the evil eye or spells cast by witchcraft. All of these healers, to varying degrees, engage in the control of spirits, and use herbal remedies, massage, power discharges, exorcism, sacrifices, and so on. All these healers, for the most part, engage in magico-religious activities including divination, propitiation, agricultural rites, protection, climate control, and hunting and agricultural rites. Shamans do not normally engage in malevolent acts, as do some of the other practitioners-e.g., casting of spells, causing of illness, destroying crops or livestock. Winkelman (1990), in studying shamans and other healers, found that many of these healers have the ability to perform simple conjuring tricks, sleight-of-hand, and have the gift for suggestion and hypnosis. While shamans are known to rely on animal spirit helpers, have telepathic abilities, clairvoyance, and undergo ecstatic soul flight journeys, mysterious disappearance and reappearance-other practitioners display these abilities as well. To some extent witches and sorcerers have been known to have spontaneous experiences of flight and animal transformation, perhaps under the influence of mind-altering substances. Also, as pointed out by Winkelman, witches and sorcerers are generally thought to engage in malevolent magic. Perhaps one distinction between shamans the other practitioners is that shamans usually have a different “form” of calling than the other disciplines. Someone is a shaman if the calling is due to an involuntary compulsion, accompanied by the initiation ordeals (severe illness, mental derangement, etc., discussed above), or induction by inheritance. The other practitioners usually have a purposeful, intentional desire to go into the field. The shaman’s power is usually conferred in some mystical fashion during the individual’s initiation, or through inheritance (although shamans, like other practitioners, still need to undergo a period of training under a mentor), while the other healers usually do not obtain their powers in some mystical fashion but rather through training and practice. Another distinction between shamans and other practitioners is the power relationships that shamans have. Shamans act through their spirit helpers, whereas the other healers, for the most part, employ some other manner of divination. Each shaman has a unique panoply of spirit helpers that are exclusive to him or her.


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Shamans usually enter an altered state of consciousness and act in a trance or possession state into which they put themselves, whereas the other healers usually do not. In this state, shamans often display certain magical skills lacking in the others, such as mastery over fire, the experience of ecstatic soul flight, the use of animal spirit helpers, and shapeshifting into animals and back into human form. Unlike the other healers, shamans experience all psychological phenomena with great intensity in themselves. The shaman experiences the sacred with greater intensity than the rest of the community; they incarnate the sacred, because they live the sacred. Another point is that if a shaman casts an evil spell, this will be done differently than magicians: As previously mentioned, they do not need some intermediate object to work the spell, such as cast-off clothing, nail clippings, hair or leftover food of the victim-to carry on sorcery-just their thoughts are sufficient. Much said here is of necessity in generalities. Sometimes a magician or a witch, like the shaman, might cast an evil spell simply by thoughts and intention alone, without the use of any effigy or other substance. Finally, shamans invariably operate openly and use their supernormal powers to achieve ends that are socially approved (such as healing). As we will see in chapter 12 (“Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft”), there are practitioners who can be hired to cast a spell to do harm to others, or prepare a love potion, and these are not done out in the open, but in secret. In the final analysis, these various titles for healers overlap, and often enough healers that are called “medicine-men” or “witch-doctors,” or “wizards,” seem to have much the same modus operandus as shamans. Priests are a different type of practitioner in that they act to propitiate supernatural beings, generally without trances or the help of spirit guides. They usually meet the practical needs of their people, and often are moral leaders who also exercise political, judicial and economic power as well. They often are associated with public festivals, harvest rituals, propitiation of the gods, rites for the well-being and protection of the people, and communal worship of spirits and gods (Winkelman, 1990, p. 344). Rabbis, for instance, have done spiritual battle to combat the H1N1 swine flu virus by sounding ceremonial trumpets up in an airplane over Israel in summer, 2009. About 50 Jewish holy men said prayers and blew ritual rams’ horns (shofars) while circling over the country in the hope of stopping the spread of the virus (Reuters, 2009). In this chapter we have examined the various elements that go into shamanic practices, not only in curing illness but in helping the community in other ways such as intervening to cause favorable weather, or to extend blessings to insure a successful hunt, and other functions. Shamans are certainly highly imaginative, and they claim to have visions, dreams and fantasies that represent activities in the spirit world. For the most part they are mentally functional, are both revered and feared, and occupy a position of considerable prestige in their communities. People in these cultures will often have a certain distrust for conventional medicine, while shamans honor and respect the animistic grounding of the peoples’ beliefs. In the modern world, despite advances in medical technology, we are in a very primitive state in terms of our understanding of the causes and cures of illness. [T]ranslating all of our ills into clinical terms has reached a point of absurdity. In many cases science itself acknowledges its inability to deal with the complexity of the soul-body connection because the soul half cannot be studied in the laboratory (Paris, 1990, pp. 101-102). Shamans operate in an entirely different way than conventional doctors, yet often have cure rates that favorably compare to those of Western doctors (Krippner, 2002, p. 966). The relationship between the shaman and patient might be the sort of encounter that Foucault (1982) calls an “agonism,” that is, “a relationship which is at the same time reciprocal incitation and struggle; less of a face-to-face confrontation which paralyzes both sides than a permanent provocation” (p. 790). Modern day shamanism can be found in numerous urban centers. People can sign up for special training in shamanism-for instance, at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies in Mill Valley, California-or seek shamanic services from certified shamanic counselors.

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Sometimes psychotherapists will use certain shamanic techniques in their sessions, such as guided imagery or drumming to achieve a relaxed, receptive state. New Age practitioners are offering workshops in trance dancing and ecstatic movement. There is much wisdom we can garner from the spirit-based grounding of shamanic healing. Practitioners in holistic health may find some of the shamanic practices particularly illuminating, for shamans tend to consider the “whole” person, and evaluate what is going on in the person’s outer and inner life-in an effort to diagnose and cure illness.

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CHAPTER 9 Envy and the Evil Eye Abstract. The evil eye is a widespread belief in the world, and is thought to be associated with a human propensity towards envy. The objects of envy in primitive cultures are mainly crops, food, livestock, children, and good health. In evil eye cultures people tend to keep a watchful eye on one another. The evil eye takes into account the ability of an onlooker to project psychic energy through the eyes. The evil eye causes the victim to be helpless-dominated, gripped by an overpowering occult power. Often infliction of the evil eye is unintentional and unconscious; it occurs during a moment of coveting something belonging to another. Evil eye cultures are those in which people regard goods to be limited, so that if one person possesses more than others, it is thought to have been obtained at everyone else’s expense. People in these cultures are wary of compliments, as these can be disguised expressions of envy, and hence occasions for infliction of the evil eye. In many cultures where there is scarcity of food, people will conceal food or try and conceal a prosperous harvest from the gaze of others so as to avoid the problem of envy. Envy is widespread in modern society, but is almost a taboo topic, and one will rarely admit to it. Throughout the world people use talismans, charms, religious symbols and other devices to ward off the evil eye-wearing them, putting them on doorposts, on automobile rearview mirrors. In some cultures there is a high incidence of paranoia-with people fearing that others might poison them, for instance, or that malice is the source of every ailment or misfortune; in Western cultures paranoia takes expression in conspiracy theories and the belief that semi-secret groups control the economy of the world.

INTRODUCTION Can you feel it if someone stares at you? Do you get uncomfortable at unpleasant looks people might send your way? Do you feel more secure wearing sun glasses when out in public so as to deflect the glances of others? Perhaps you are sensitive to the evil eye-a strongly held belief in a great many cultures of the world. As we will see, the evil eye is thought to be associated with a human propensity towards envy. Envy, abundantly present in all cultures, is universally thought to be an unseemly and hostile emotion. Foster et al. (1972) claim that it is “a particularly dangerous and destructive emotion, since it implies hostility, which leads to aggression and violence capable of destroying societies” (p. 165). The authors go on to say that man fears the consequences of his own envy, and he fears the consequences of the envy of others. As a result, in every society people use symbolic and nonsymbolic cultural forms whose function is to neutralize, or reduce, or otherwise control the dangers they see stemming from envy, and especially their fear of envy (p. 165). The objects of envy in primitive cultures are mainly crops, food, livestock, children, and good health. In our culture the objects of envy are more complex: wealth, power, fame, good looks, fine homes, clothing, cars, and travel. In primitive cultures, fear of the evil eye and of witchcraft in general have a certain social utility by promoting harmony. The successful person fears the evil eye, or worse, an act of witchcraft, because envious others will hold grudges. To avert ostracism or misfortune, people will distribute part of their goods to others, or avoid the accumulation of goods altogether. Those who value their membership in the group follow its norms and capitulate to this leveling mechanism. In evil eye cultures people tend to keep a watchful eye on one another. News spreads rapidly. Secrets are impossible to keep. People have a well-developed attunement to the feelings and demeanor of other people. There tends to be a good deal of gossip in order to tear down others who gain. Of course, gossiping and backbiting are not the exclusive domain of these cultures. We see a significant dose of this in American society where, for example, popular culture fuels an unsatiable appetite for sensational news about the wrongdoings of rich and famous people. And for many people, gossip is the chief content of conversation with friends and co-workers alike. Evil eye cultures are imbued with animism. The people believe that the environment harbors unknowable and dangerous spirits, beings and guardians of natural phenomena that constantly threaten people. These dark forces of nature make for a hostile world, in which people live an anxious life enfolded with a tenuous security. John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

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There is a kind of paranoid world view: The whole village is full of envious people who could, from envy, employ witchcraft or the evil eye and seriously harm a new mother and child, newlyweds, or someone with a prosperous harvest. Thus, people will avoid impressing others about their beautiful children, their health, or other good fortune. WHAT IS THE EVIL EYE? The belief in the evil eye has been present for millennia, and is especially prevalent today in the Near East, Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, India, Japan, South Asia, Melanesia and Micronesia, and Central America, both in primitive and developed cultures (Maloney, 1976). There are references to the evil eye in the Bible: “Eat not thou the bread of him that hath an evil eye” (Proverbs 23:6), and “He that hath an evil eye hasteneth after riches” (Proverbs 28:22). The evil eye is a species of witchcraft. The evil eye takes into account the ability of an onlooker to project psychic energy through the eyes. That is, the eye is capable of inflicting harm, as well as projecting healing energy, love and compassion. Science does not yet know very much about this, but it is a universally accepted folk concept that people can cast a glance that projects evil forces. A force is emitted from the eyes, just as the voice or the breath are, to quote Plutarch, “emanations thrown off from our bodies, which may easily affect those who are susceptible to them, and this is particularly seen in the effects produced by the eyes, which throw out, as it were, fiery rays...” (as quoted in Greenacre, 1926, p. 576). The idea is that a glance or stare of someone can damage other living things or even nonliving objects, e.g., cause a machine to malfunction and thereby cause an accident that injures someone. The evil eye causes the victim to be helpless-dominated, gripped by an overpowering occult power. The idea is intuitive: If someone casts a hostile glance at you, you get an uncomfortable, uneasy feeling. The more sensitive you are, the more a glance of hostility seems to penetrate into your body, throwing you off center, creating a dissonant feeling in your being. Usually the infliction of the evil eye is unintentional and involuntary-a subconscious witching power as it were. The person may be unaware that he or she possesses this power, or is unable to control this power. It simply accompanies a person’s covetous glance. However, often enough the wielder of the evil eye might cast it with deliberate malice, for instance where the motivation is to avenge a wrong-a kind of spontaneous, intentional and forceful glance accompanied by a malicious intent. One might think of the evil eye as a lesser version of witchcraft, without props, potions or rituals. No particular skill, formula or ritual is required, and as mentioned, casting an evil eye can be an unconscious or involuntary process. As with witchcraft, the evil eye cannot only cause illness but also miscarriages, mental disorders, loss of crops and disease to animals. Unlike witchcraft, there is no public accusation against the evildoer. But countermeasures are available to ward off the effects of the evil eye, including exorcism, countermagic, or other rituals discussed below. The object of the countermeasure is to neutralize the evil power and reestablish a balance in the victim. There are also preventive measures, such as wearing certain talismans or amulets (See discussion later in this chapter). According to Webb (1933), in some cultures animals are thought to be able to inflict the evil eye-donkeys, for instance, among the aborigines of East Arnhem Land. And in some African cultures such as the Bambara, children wear charms around their necks to protect against the evil eye of birds. Birds are believed to possess the power to cause convulsions in children and make their hands and feet curl up like birds’ feet. In evil eye cultures firstborn males and bridegrooms are thought to be especially susceptible to the evil eye, as objects of envy. Pregnant women are susceptible, particularly by the envious looks of barren women. Children are especially susceptible not only because of envy by others, but because they do not have the force of personality to deflect the influence of the evil eye. As discussed by Maloney (1976), in India even statues of gods are susceptible to harm by the evil eye, so potters will cover the idols while they dry in the air awaiting firing, so that no evil eye can penetrate them. And during the


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puja ceremony, the daily or periodic service to the deity, a torch or lamp will be waived around the idol in order to protect it from invidious eyes. During the height of the ceremony bells are rung with the greatest of noise so as to distract the attention of any potentially malevolent gazers (p. 106). In Italy the evil eye is referred to as affascino, or “fascination,” referring to an unknown, antagonistic power. Pope Pius IX was thought to have had an evil eye, and during his papacy people believed that numerous disasters occurred because of the power of his eyes (Swiderski (1976), p. 29). The evil eye is listed in the Glossary of Culture-Bound Syndromes of the DSM-IV-TR, as a syndrome known as “mal de ojo,” or simply “ojo.” Mal de ojo is a Spanish phrase that means “evil eye.” The Glossary says it is a concept widely found in Mediterranean cultures and elsewhere in the world. Children are especially at risk. Symptoms include fitful sleep, unusual fretfulness, crying without apparent cause, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever in a child or infant. Sometimes adults (especially females) have the condition (p. 901). THE DOCTRINE OF LIMITED GOODS In many cultures we see a world view, a sort of leveling mechanism, that binds people together in such a way as to minimize occasions of envy. The hallmarks are cohesion, cooperation, reciprocity and even distribution of wealth. The people in these cultures regard worldly goods as limited. If one person possesses more than others, it is thought to have been obtained at everyone else’s expense. Since there are scarce resources, one person’s gain causes another person’s loss. Any relative enrichment or improvement creates a tension in the group and is thus perceived as operating against the group’s stability. There is bound to be envy if anyone acquires more land than others, or produces a superior harvest. A wide range of cultures fall into this category, ranging from the truly primitive to rural folk cultures. Anthropologists sometimes use the term “deprivation societies” in describing cultures that think in terms of limited or finite resources. In these cultures the idea of limited goods permeates the peoples’ entire world view and is implicit in many of their folk beliefs. For example, Ingham (1970) found that in Mexican villages people think that long hair causes the body to be skinny-that is, the abundance of hair must be compensated for-it must cause a deficiency in some other part of the person’s body. Or, a good corn crop indicates the owner will die-that is, good luck in one area implies bad luck in another. Or, dreaming of excrement is a sign someone will become rich, while dreaming of money means you will incur poverty, or having pretty flowers in the home will make you poor. Being ugly and unassuming are virtues. These beliefs are premised on the idea that the good and bad add up to zero, that is, a person must give and take in equal proportion or he will upset the order of things. People in these cultures will usually avoid any public appearance of superiority about anything. For instance, the Zuni Indians of the Southwest avoided self-aggrandizement, boasting, or excelling others in community activities. Anyone who “got ahead” would be suspected of practicing witchcraft and dealt with severely (Brickner, 1943, p. 128). Among the !Kung hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, Katz (1982) found that No one is supposed to stand out from the rest of the group. If someone were to come back from a successful hunt and show excessive pride, he would be put back firmly into his place, even if the kill were a large animal. With the freshly killed meat still over his shoulder, such an improperly proud hunter would hear the pointed teasing of his village: “What is it you have there? What a scrawny little thing! You didn’t kill that. It looks so sick and scrawny that it must have fallen dead in your arms.” (p. 347) Italian peasants will not predict a successful harvest, and an individual will usually say, if inquired about his health, that it is no better than meno male-“luckily, not bad.” In some cultures it is almost impossible for people to hold onto a disproportionate amount of gain. Throughout Papua New Guinea, for instance, anyone who comes into a superior economic position will inevitably get besieged



with requests for redistribution. There can be a torrent of requests for money, some with the dark insinuation that otherwise people will be angry, implying that sorcery will be the cost of refusal (Errington & Gewertz 1991, pp. 111-112). There is a dilemma of sorts, particularly in parts of Melanesia where it has long been the practice to have a great ritual display of yams, and other ceremonials related to the harvesting of crops. One runs the risk of offending others if one’s display is more or better than that of others. Among the Dobu people of the d’Entrecasteaux group off eastern Papua New Guinea, Benedict (1934) found that “A good crop is a confession of theft”-obtained by dangerous sorcery” (p. 148) The people would conceal an unusually good crop of yams for fear of being accused of sorcery, by “charming” the yams away from neighbors’ gardens, in effect stealing from them. They would transfer the harvest bit by bit to the storehouse so no one will know. Benedict further found: If their harvest is good they have reason to fear the spying of others, for in case of disease or death the diviner commonly attributes the calamity to a good harvest. Someone is thought to have resented the successful crop so much that he put sorcery upon the successful gardener (p. 148). In fact, the Dobu seemed to have taken the idea of limited goods to an extreme. The people did not accumulate goods or display anything, because this was met with treachery and suspicion. In this culture dourness was seen as a virtue, and laughter was avoided. Benedict further observed: The bad man, on the other hand, is the one who has been injured in fortune or in limb by the conflicts in which others have gained their supremacy. The deformed man is always a bad man. He carries his defeat in his body for all to see (p. 169). To a significant degree today, the idea of sharing of one’s bounty and reciprocal gift-giving is practiced in many villages throughout the world, including those of Papua New Guinea. To some, however, there is a pull towards a market economy. As French (2002) observed: “For decades, throughout Papua New Guinea people have felt everincreasing tension between the possibilities they see in the money economy and the pull of familiar forms of social and economic relations based on kinship and noncommercial exchange” (p. 48). Instead of sharing betel nut and tobacco with neighbors, one might want to sell it, or at least expect something in return. French further found that to some extent, indigenous gift-giving customs are fueled by self-interest and fear. Generosity brought respect and could enhance prestige, but failure eventually to return the generosity of others could be downright dangerous.... [F]ailure to fulfill others’ expectations of generosity-for example, not distributing the fish one caught to those who felt they deserved a share, or not contributing to a feast given by someone who had contributed to your feast-was a good way to anger people (p. 49). In some respects, in modern society we have an attitude of the limited good. Only one person can be the the President, only one person can win the Oscar for best actor, only one person can win the Nobel Peace Prize, so that the success of one contender is at the expense of those who must lose. Although we do not consciously subscribe to the doctrine of limited goods, it seems that this nonetheless underlies, at least unconsciously, much of the envy that occurs. And as well, envy is related to competition, to the desire to excel, to prove oneself, to be successful, to attain status and recognition. Not all evil eye cultures embrace the doctrine of limited goods. This is the case with the Hutterites-one of the oldest communal societies known. These people developed as a radical Christian sect during the Reformation of the 16th century, and in the 1860s they emigrated to the United States, and later to Canada. They live in settlements of 50 to 150 people in longhouses, they conduct communal farming, and all wealth is communally held. When children turn three they are raised communally. Personal austerity, “giving-up-ness,” abnegation of self-will and self-denial are practiced. Envy is simply not part of their emotional complex. Still, they believe in the evil eye. In studying this culture, Stephenson (1979) found that the people believe, along with so many other cultures, that evil spirits are in constant struggle with human beings. It is due to the influence of


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evil spirits that anyone can be possessed of the evil eye. They believe that the evil eye effects infants and young livestock. Any type of praise is thought to be dangerous because it can inflict the evil eye. The people themselves refrain from praise because they think that to admire anything is a form of idolatry, but sometimes visitors will cautiously compliment a pretty child or animal. Stephenson further observed that to avert the evil eye they tie red ribbons on the wrists of babies. They recognize symptoms of the evil eye in babies as thirst, weakness and rolling eyes that can lead to loss of consciousness and even death. The cure is to wipe the face of the child with a red cloth-red representing the blood shed by Christ. ENVY AND ITS CONNECTION TO THE EVIL EYE As mentioned, the evil eye is usually associated with envy. The basic meaning of envy is the desire to have something possessed by another person. Envy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is derived from the Latin invidere, to look maliciously upon. The first definition is “To feel displeasure and ill-will at the superiority of (another person) in happiness, success, reputation, or the possession of anything desirable; to regard with discontent another’s possession of (some superior advantage which one would like to have for oneself),” and the second definition is “To feel a grudge against (a person); to regard (a person or an action) with dislike or disapproval” (Murray et al., 1989, vol. V, pp. 316-317). Thus, envy is a hostile, malignant feeling of ill-will, to look maliciously upon, to cast an evil eye upon. Other definitions are: “The feeling of mortification and ill-will occasioned by the contemplation of superior advantages possessed by another,” or “A longing for the advantages enjoyed by another person.” Jealousy is a word often used in place of envy, but has a different connotation. Jealousy has to do with the fear of losing something or someone already possesses, or the belief that something which one desires for oneself has been or might be diverted to another, such as losing a lover to a rival. Envy, like the evil eye itself, is as old as the Bible. In Genesis 4:1-8, Cain murdered his brother Abel because he was envious that God preferred Abel’s offering of livestock to his own. Indeed, Yahweh himself throughout the Old Testament is presented as a jealous God (e.g., Deuteronomy 5:9, “...for I the Lord they God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”) Envy is much the same as coveting. Exodus 20:17 states: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” And the Greek gods were envious for the daring, the arrogance, and the pride of successful or daring mortals. With envy, the emotion is directed towards the person who has the thing that is envied. To say “I envy you” means one envies a person, not a thing, although the feeling is triggered by something that the other person has, or some good fortune the person enjoys. To quote Davidson, Envy is an emotion that is essentially both selfish and malevolent. It is aimed at persons, and implies dislike of one who possesses what the envious man himself covets or desires, and a wish to harm him. Graspingness for self and ill-will lie at the basis of it. There is in it also a consciousness of inferiority to the person envied, and a chafing under this consciousness. He who has got what I envy is felt by me to have the advantage of me, and I resent it. Consequently, I rejoice if he finds that his envied possession does not give him entire satisfaction-much more, if it actually entails on him dissatisfaction and pain: that simply reduces his superiority in my eyes, and ministers to my feeling of self-importance. As signifying in the envious man a want that is ungratified, and as pointing to a sense of impotence inasmuch as he lacks the sense of power which possession of the desired object would give him, envy is in itself a painful emotion, although it is associated with pleasure when misfortune is seen to befall the object of it (as quoted in Schoeck, (1969), p. 15). Although not all cultures believe in the evil eye, envy is present in all cultures. Usually envy is an everyday, garden variety emotion that functions as a kind of coping mechanism. With envy, we rationalize our own state of affairs,



and lament that certain forces are beyond our control. Envy is apparent in our own highly material, competitive, and status conscious culture. We are continually being bombarded with information that compares our status and personal worth with others, so that the challenge to our inner security and self-esteem is constant and recurrent. One who is envious usually longs to possess something, or some quality, belonging to another. Envy often involves a sense of something lacking, and is connected with feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, smallness, or low selfesteem. There may be a feeling of anger or resentment at the other, and this in turn easily evokes a maliciousness, hatred or wish to harm the other or seek vengeance. It may arise in connection with feelings of disappointment or humiliation. These feelings stimulate and reinforce the tendency to feel envious. And of course it is a matter of degree-one can feel mildly envious or vehemently envious. In Mexican communities the word envidioso, or envy, also means ambitious, for anyone’s ambitions to better one’s station in life are likely to elicit envy among neighbors (Romano, 1960). Holding a grudge, however slight or unconscious, can be the impetus for inflicting the evil eye. Behind a grudge there often is an intensity of ill-will out of proportion to the wrong committed or thought to have been committedand the offended person may be motivated to work witchcraft against the other. The injury, whether real or imagined, is a deeply felt wound to one’s self-esteem, a humiliation. Grudges can powerfully motivate one to “get even,” to be ruthless at all costs in seeking revenge against someone. As we saw in our discussion of witchcraft in chapter 12, in these cultures one of the first items of inquiry in cases of death, illness or other misfortune, is who might hold a grudge against the victim. In these cultures the fear of the evil eye is even more widespread than witchcraft because it can be triggered by the slightest bit of envy, and in large part is an unconscious process. Because envy is usually thought of as a shameful emotion, people will rarely admit that they harbor envy towards another. But among the Teenek community in Mexico, envy is out in the open rather than hidden, and is not thought of as reprehensible or shameful. The people understand that envy is a malevolent feeling, but they freely acknowledge that it is aroused by someone else’s good fortune, even as they believe that envy invariably has the effect of destroying the possessions or good fortune of others (de Vidas, 2007). Their word for envy means “to pull down,” “downwards,” “to come apart,” “to crumble.” Whenever someone has an economic advantage, from the sale of crafts or from an outside job-people line up and ask for a small “loan.” Everyone knows the chances of repayment are scant, but to refuse the loan would inevitably lead to malevolent acts. The people of the Teenek community all engage in crafts such as weaving. However, people do so in the darkness of their homes because the sight of others in the act of weaving only exacerbates the competition, and hence the envy. The work ethic is that one should not work too hard lest one becomes the object of envy or of a loan solicitation. One fellow wanted to improve his lot, so he took a job in the market of a village, and bought a TV set and a cow: The cow fell and broke its neck and had to be put down, and this was said to be due to a spell that the neighbors had cast. Another fellow took a job in a nearby village as a vendor, and thereupon his family suffered the silent treatment, he lost his friends, and was not called to attend assemblies. The fear of witchcraft motivated him to quit his outside job. Someone with an orange grove let most of the oranges rot and sold only a few of them in the neighboring villages; if he sold all the oranges he would have to spend the money immediately, and that would arouse envy, so he did not exploit the orange grove to the fullest. Among the Teenek, being accused of casting a spell is just as reprehensible as being envied because it implies a clear admission of a state of weakness and inferiority with respect to the other party, who is now in the superior position. EXPRESSION OF ENVY WITH COMPLIMENTS Compliments are always suspect in cultures that are vigilant about the evil eye. Anyone who pays a compliment or expresses any form or admiration is a potential perpetrator of the evil eye because envy is thought to be behind such


John Alan Cohan

expressions. In these cultures compliments and praise of others are perceived as aggressive behavior, and thus discouraged. In Greece, for instance, Campbell (1966) found: It does not please a man to be told by another that his sheep are in excellent condition. Praise and admiration, it is thought, indicate the desire of the admirer (which may be quite unconscious) to possess what is pleasing to his eye. And since that is not possible, frustration is inevitably followed by envy (p. 165). And Hamady (1960) found that in the Arab world, some compliments which, even if well intended, are considered portentous. Laudatory expressions may attract the contrary of what they propose to say, because envy may be mixed with them. That is why a mother is not simply told that her son is handsome and healthy, or a proprietor that his house is splendid. It is feared that the son might fall sick and the house might burn (p. 166). In Mexico, among other cultures, a compliment that someone looks well makes the other very uncomfortable. The other person will reply that appearances are deceiving, that in fact he is in bad health, or something like that. In Aritama, Reichel-Dolmatoff and Reichel-Dolmatoff (1961) found: To admit openly that one is healthy is to challenge the social order. The usual and more acceptable attitude is one of complaints, of exaggeration of the importance of any boil, cough, any sneeze. To live “suffering” is perhaps not a Christian virtue, but in Aritama it is the best way to demonstrate that one is a well-meaning and harmless member of the community (p. 313). In complimenting children, in order to avoid the immediate implication that you are inflicting the evil eye, the admirer will say something such as “God protect him,” or “God’s name on him,” and in Greece in complimenting someone’s apparel one will say, “Wear it in good health,” thereby assuring the owner that he means no envy (Foster et al., p. 182). Even in an industrialized cultures, while paying compliments seems to be a polite gesture, often there is a thinly veiled and disguised expression of envy. We often feel uncomfortable if given a compliment, not knowing quite what the right manner of response is, particularly if the compliment is about a new car or something of that sort, which the other person lacks. By the way, in some cultures modesty and restraint are not virtues. Among the Gahuku-Gama of the valley of the Azaro River in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea, for instance, the respected and successful are those who are most loud in their self-praise and expressions of self-importance. Pride is worn like a banner; the unassuming and retiring person is never a major influence in the life of the community, for unwillingness to wrangle and to boast is tantamount to an admission that one is a nonentity. PRACTICE OF CONCEALING FOOD In many cultures envy might pertain to food, particularly if there is a scarcity of food. To avoid envy in such cases, people will conceal food brought home from the market from prying eyes. This is practiced in Egypt, southern Italy and villages in Mexico, among other places. On the other hand, in many African villages, where housing is flimsy and it is difficult to conceal the fact that people are cooking or eating, the problem of envy concerning food is met head-on by frequently inviting neighbors over to eat-with the expectation that this will be reciprocated (Foster et al., p. 182). Among the Teenek community of Mexico, when people carry fruit from place to place it is always covered by a cloth or otherwise concealed. People do not expose their purchases or the products they harvest from their fields to the gaze of others. One takes only a few corncobs from the field at a time so as not to be forced to give away some to neighbors to dispel their envy. A neighbor who sees peppers hanging from a kitchen beam may feel entitled to demand some.



Larger objects (e.g., a newly purchased table, a turkey, a box of oranges) are carried at dawn so no one else can see them. People even pour soft drinks into bowls to conceal from neighbors the fact that they are enjoying a tasty refreshment. Each purchase sparks questions about its price; people therefore wear new clothes only on special days when the purchase price will not give rise to malevolent comments. de Vidas (2007) argues: “...[I]t is essential to keep up the appearance of a shared condition. To avert envy and the potential act of witchcraft that could follow, it is advisable to downplay one’s possessions and to enjoy them with restraint and discretion” (p. 221). Sometimes people will get work outside the village to raise money for a baptism or wedding; one must spend the money immediately and in a way that is acceptable to all; any delay in spending generates rumors, malicious gossip, envy and witchcraft. ENVY AND MODERN SOCIETY. While in many cultures people are very much afraid of the envy of their neighbors, in industrial societies we are not. We may even glorify envy, and take a certain satisfaction in making our neighbors envious by bragging about a new car, new job, a lavish vacation, or other symbols of prosperity. We can hardly imagine that neighbors would put a curse on us for our access to new and better possessions, even if they are envious. Foster et al. (1972) argue that in our culture, envy is “almost a taboo topic in daily conversation, in research, and in literature” (p. 165). These authors go on to say: [T]o admit envy is enormously difficult for the average American; unlike anger, there is no socially acceptable justification that permits us to confess to strong envy.... [A]s children we are taught by parents and teachers that few things are as reprehensible as envy of the good fortune of others (pp. 165, 166). Foster et al. further argue, “The envious man will confess to almost any other sin or emotional impulse before he will confess to his own envy” (pp. 165, 166). And: [M]an... fears he will be accused of envying others, and he wishes to allay this suspicion; and... man fears to admit to himself that he is envious, so he searches for rationales and devices to deny to himself his envy and to account for, in terms other than personal responsibility, the conditions that place him in a position inferior to another (p. 166). Furthermore, a serious case of envy “has a major impact on the mental state and personality of the envier, perhaps warping judgment and producing irrational fantasies, and which arouses in the person envied real feelings of fear, discomfort, or guilt” (p. 168). While many people in modern times do not believe in the evil eye, they nonetheless believe in evil spirits, bad luck, illness, accidents and other misfortunes. People in all walks of life are at times preoccupied with protecting themselves and their loved ones from falling victim to ill-fated occurrences, or are concerned with what they can do to bolster their chances of success, prosperity and good health. As we will see in the next section, there is no end to the range of measures people believe are effective in protecting themselves from evil forces, if not from the evil eye itself. TALISMANS, CHARMS, AND OTHER MEASURES TO WARD OFF THE EVIL EYE AND MISFORTUNE IN GENERAL Many people in modern society wear talismans and charms about their necks and arms to ward off the evil eye as well as other miseries and harms. An evil eye charm bracelet is particularly popular and readily available at jewelers in Istanbul. People all over the world put talismans on the doorposts of their houses for protection, and in numerous folk cultures people will paint the sign of the cross on their rooftops to ward off the evil eye, or just evil spirits in general. People of all cultures often hang items on their automobile rearview mirrors, such as dice, plastic chile charms, rabbit’s feet, horseshoes, or saints-as a talisman to ward off the evil eye, or for protection against misfortune in general. Many people hang chilies, especially red ones, in their houses or their shops as protection against the evil eye.


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In Italy iron is considered to have the power to deflect the evil eye, so that magnets are used to attract and absorb the energy of the evil eye. Also, horseshoes, painted symbols, the cross, or a saint’s medal worn around the neck, provide some protection, but not total protection. Italians also consider the corno, or horn of animals such as rams, bulls or oxen, to be powerful talismans. When worn or carried on one’s pocket, one can have some measure of protection against the evil eye. In India, in order to protect newborn babies from the evil eye, people might name the child offensive names such as Useless, False, Refuse, Mad, Stupid, Lame, Fool, Beggar, Dunghill Inhabitant, Dust, Thorn, Cemetery, Ghost, Rags, Fly, Rat, Cat, Dog, Pepper, Ash, or Black Monkey. These practices were particularly prevalent in the early part of the 20th century. In Hawaii children were given very offensive names (referring to stench, ugliness or worthlessness, excrement, etc.) as a protection against wandering evil spirits. The name makes the child appear disgusting to the unwanted spirits. Moss and Cappannari (1976) point out that in Jewish practices, if a mother suspects that her child has become ill from the evil eye, the name of the child may be changed (p. 7). If you compliment or praise a child, it is customary to add, “An evil eye should not befall him” (p. 7). Jewish people as a whole for many years were thought to be the source of the evil eye in Europe. The Council of Elvira in the 4th Century forbade Jews to stand in ripening crops belonging to Christians for fear they would cause the crops to rot with their evil glances. Jews were forbidden to attend the coronation of Richard the Lion-Hearted in 1189 for fear they would cast evil eyes and harm him. Moss and Cappannari point out that the German word for evil eye is Judenblick, or Jew’s glance (p. 8). The ritual in Jewish weddings of breaking a glass at the conclusion of the ceremony is thought to chase away evil that lurks. People in the West sometimes are perplexed as to why in Arabic cultures women and children are shielded from the view of others, sometimes wearing a burka covering them from head to foot, even in hot weather. It is largely to avoid being taken by the evil eye. Teitelbaum (1976) argues: Women are kept in a state of seclusion in the homes, and children allowed outside in plain view are dressed in rumpled old clothing or made to appear dirty and unattractive to prevent envious thoughts by others. Nicknames of a joking or unflattering nature are often substituted for their real names to avoid envy. Charms and amulets are tied on them and pious phrases uttered when speaking about them to protect them from the evil eye (p. 64). As alluded to above, in Mexican villages the evil eye is thought to be caused by envious and exploitive people, especially those who admire others’ children. Cute or handsome children are most vulnerable to being inflicted. Ingham (1970) found that methods of prevention include a seed called a “deer’s eye,” a coral bracelet, or a gold earring. These “absorb” the “hot vision” directed towards the victim. Other amulets for evil eye are a snake’s fang, garlic, or a cross of oil on the forehead. In Mexico if the evil eye, or “mal de ojo,” is suspected, the first thing people do is to retrace their social activities of the previous few hours to figure out who might have interacted with the victim (e.g., someone who has given a compliment to a child). One then summons the suspected offender to come over and break the charm. Usually no stigma attaches to a perpetrator of evil eye unless he or she refuses the request to break the charm. To break the charm the person will run his or her hand over the victim’s forehead and face, speaking in a soothing manner for a few minutes, and that is usually all it takes. This demonstrates that the condition was caused unwittingly and without malice. In Arabic countries an amulet known as the hamsa hand is popular for magical protection from the evil eye. This charm is sometimes called the Hand of Fatima, in reference to the daughter of Mohammed. There is also a Jewish counterpart called the hamesh hand, or Hand of Miriam, contained within a Star of David and surrounded by six apotropaic all-seeing eyes. In both Israel and Arab cultures these amulets are made in different ways, to be worn as a charm, to hang from the rearview mirror of your car or over a baby’s bed, or as ceramic wall plaques. The Christian cross-among other religious symbols, has from time immemorial been used as a talisman to ward off evil. Making the sign of the cross is, for many faithful today, a gesture used at moments when one wishes to ward



off evil spirits and other dangers, and this was particularly prevalent in earlier times. In North Wales, in 1589, people still crossed themselves when they shut their windows, when they left their cattle, and when they went out of their houses. If any misfortune befell a person or his animals, the common saying was “You have not crossed yourself well today,” on the assumption that this omission had been the cause of their mishap (Thomas, 1971, p. 34). In Iraq particularly in the 1930’s women adorned their bodies all over with blue tattoos, both for protection and for special intentions (such as to hold onto one’s spouse or for fertility), as well as for ornamentation. Of course, talismans and such are also used throughout the world for protection against all manner of misfortune, not just the evil eye. In Cairo it is common to see a velvet box containing the Koran in the back window of an automobile to protect the riders from misfortune and to indicate that the car is owned by a Muslim rather than a Christian. One also sees copies of the traveler’s prayer suspended from the rearview mirror. There are other examples of Koranic verses-on cards, posters, fired in ceramic or brass or plastic-and the people believe that the display of these verses has innate protective power as utterances of God. In June every year students preparing for college entrance examinations buy religious commodities such as pocket calendars printed with Koranic verses-to insure that God’s blessings will enable them to quickly give correct answers on examinations. All of these practices are in addition to the remedies and protections people seek from shamans, priests and medicine-men all over the world. People will go to priests and shamans to confess their sins with a view towards averting misfortune of all kinds. And priests will offer their blessings to all sorts of religious talismans, pictures, and other objects or come to bless your home to help ward off evil spirits. Shamans will offer their patients special amulets to be worn for protection, and as we will see in chapter 21 (“Folk Medicine”) many nontraditional healers in urban centers will provide their clients with certain remedies, concoctions or charms to protect them from harm. Some years ago Patterson (1927) observed that the Wa Taita, who dwell in the mountains about 30 miles from Tsavo, a region in Kenya, relied on a shaman to blow “lion-medicine” consisting of black dust, to the four points of the compass before going asleep in the open, to protect against lions (p. 129). PARANOIA AND EVIL EYE CULTURES Paranoia seems to be a pervasive pattern throughout the world-a vague fear that gnaws away at peoples’ psyche and directed at specific or nonspecific objects-but it is particularly evident in evil eye cultures. The explanation for ills of all kinds is reduced to the idea that someone else has inflicted the evil eye and caused the situation (Of course, in these cultures, as we have seen, other explanations are also advanced as the cause of illness and other misfortunessuch as revenge by ancestral ghosts, acts of sorcery, or the violation of a taboo). Paranoia is mostly characterized by what is called the “persecution complex.” A paranoid individual is intensely related to other people, even preoccupied with the rest of the world, but with the view that others are scheming against him. One of the traits of paranoia is self-reference-the suspicion that every conversation is about him, every eye that glances his way is intent on mischief, that he is watched, followed. Sadler (1953) argues: “The paranoid constitution is characterized by sensitiveness, suspicion, mistrust, and want of confidence in others, probably arising from feelings of inferiority or guilt” (p. 425). A major function of the paranoid mind set is to deflect responsibility and guilt away from oneself or one’s group, to others. To blame is to deny your own responsibility and power. The DSM-IV-TR describes Paranoid Personality Disorder as a pattern of pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others such that their motives are interpreted as malevolent.... Individuals with this disorder assume that other people will exploit, harm, or deceive them, even if no evidence exists to support this expectation.... They suspect on the basis of little or no evidence that others are plotting against them and may attack them suddenly, at any time and without reason. They often feel that they have been deeply and irreversibly injured by another person or persons even when there is no objective evidence for this. They are preoccupied with unjustified doubts about the


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loyalty or trustworthiness of their friends and associates, whose actions are minutely scrutinized for evidence of hostile intentions.... Individuals with this disorder are reluctant to confide in or become close to others because they fear that the information they share will be used against them.... Individuals with this disorder persistently bear grudges and are unwilling to forgive the insults, injuries, or slights that they think they have received. Minor slights arouse major hostility, and the hostile feelings persist for a long time (pp. 690-691). Schwartz (1973) claims: The term “paranoia” is now commonly applied to our own society in the present situation in which everyone feels under attack.... [P]aranoia constitutes the bedrock psychopathology of mankind. Even though other strata overlie this bedrock, the paranoid ethos extends temporally through most of the immense span of human history (p. 169) Cohn (1957), author of The Pursuit of the Millennium, is quoted as observing that in the Middle Ages, “paranoid fantasies were diffused throughout the whole populationin fact they make up a large part of the demonology which was accepted by all alike, including the clergy,” and that “at times of general disorientation, such fantasies became more obsessive and compelling than usual” (as quoted in Schwartz, 1973, p. 169). Another paranoid streak seen in many cultures, as we have seen, is the sense that the dead are operative in the affairs of the living, often in an antagonistic manner, causing illness, barrenness or even death on family members. The dead are both worshiped and feared. There are numerous rituals for the appeasement of the dead, to help placate their anger. Perhaps this is what philosophers call a “phenomenology of the hostile imagination.” (We will see more of this in Chapter 16, “Treatment of the Dead.”) Of course, in the many cultures that believe that ancestral ghosts are real-the paranoia model might be unfairly applied to them. Paranoia has to do with fears that are not supported by evidence and therefore unjustified, but in these cultures the people believe that they have ample evidence that the dead affect and interact with the living, so that this “paranoia” is a normal and traditional part of their lives. In some cultures people distrust one another intensely; people believe that others are out to get you-a typical sort of paranoid belief-except that in these cultures the belief is justified. We see this paranoid undercurrent in the Admiralty Islands, where people believe that a wife may be likely to cause harm to her own husband through sorcery, and that children will spy on their own people and betray them to other villages. We saw this in our discussion of the Dobu people of Papua New Guinea (Chapter 12, “Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft”). The people of this paranoid culture were noted for their dangerousness. There were magicians with diabolic power and warriors who halted at no treachery. The people had no political organization, no laws, and basically lived in a state of anarchy. They placed a premium on ill-will and treachery; in other words, these were virtues. Faithfulness was not expected between husband and wife, and adultery was a favorite pastime. The idea was that all existence is cutthroat and every advantage is gained at the expense of a defeated rival. Benedict (1934) offers this: “The good man, the successful man, is he who has cheated another of his place” (p. 142). The power comes from secret magical names that gives the power of command; one pays to know them or gets informed of the names by inheritance; they believed that no results of any endeavor were possible without magic, and that any man’s gain is another’s loss. Among the people of Melanesia, Schwartz (1973) found that a paranoid ethos has been attributed to “the uncertainty of life, from the high mortality rate and short life span, from the many births and relatively few surviving children” (pp. 155-156), and to the tendency towards social atomism, the frequency of war and raiding, the fragile nature of alliances among villages, and a general sense that people are under a pervasive threat from supernatural forces. Schwartz adds that every sick man is seen as an injured person, a victim of attack; malice is felt to be almost omnipresent beyond the narrow circles of relative trust.... [T]he individual both projects his hostility upon his environment and realistically perceives it there. Each man’s distrust and hostile defense is justified (p. 157). The fear of being poisoned is common in many cultures. Tsing (1988) found that the Banjar of the foothills in South Kalimantan, Indonesia are concerned about poisoned food and drink whenever they eat with strangers in an



unfamiliar place. They believe that poisons are transmitted through the air, released from magic oils whose potency is maintained by the neighboring Meratus Dayak people. This poison strikes people who are vulnerable because of their yielding, porous skin, or “weak body hair,” and causes wasting, weakness and fever. The Banjar also regard the Dayak as clever magicians for potions and spells to make one invulnerable to knives, fire, gun shots, and poisons. Thus, the Banjar trade with their feared neighbors, and also buy invulnerability spells and oils from the Meratus. Of course, in modern society we know that a certain dose of paranoia is justified and prudent in a variety of contexts. If you are walking through a neighborhood that is known to be a venue for gang warfare-you are justified in being extra cautious, and to look over your shoulder at the slightest sound. If you are in a region where there is an epidemic of kidnappings, or bombings, of civil unrest, it would be appropriate to be paranoid-as this will motivate you to have heightened awareness of your surroundings. XENOPHOBIA There is a tendency of humans in groups to adopt a kind of in-group/out-group behavior, in which the former seek a dominant status. Social psychologists have shown that people quickly form loyalties to the group to which they belong, whether a family, a school, a corporation, or a sports team one joins. The out-group becomes an object of derision and attack. According to Stevens (2003): Societies are closely integrated systems, each glued together by adherence to the familiar, all separated by hostility to the strange. The sinister truth is that for communities to thrive, enemies are as necessary as friends. External danger binds the group together, reduces personal animosity, enhances mutual trust, promotes altruism and self-sacrifice. A society surrounded by enemies is unified and strong, a society without enemies divided and lax. Men in groups are the same the whole world over: when there are no outsiders to fight, they turn on their compatriots. For a rush of adrenaline and a cure for boredom, for comaraderie and thrills, there is nothing like a good scrap (p. 269). Throughout the world we see instances of xenophobia, a kind of paranoia in which people view foreigners with suspicion, treat them as enemies, with hostility and with disdain. In the West, in the wake of 9/11, many people felt a sense of paranoia towards Muslims in general, so that people would get jumpy just seeing a group of Muslims aboard an aircraft. The motto of xenophobia is that what is strange is dangerous and intends harm to us. Xenophobia make take the form of simply an aversion to what is perceived as a “foreign” way of life. Xenophobia goes beyond fear of foreigners, and extends to anyone who is different, who violates the norms, rules and practices of the local culture, e.g., criminals, schizophrenics, antisocial individuals, nonconformists, eccentrics, antiwar protesters-anyone who threatens the established social order. In the communist days of the Soviet Union, rebels would be placed in mental institutions because they were “sick” and needed to be “treated.” Even today, in China, political dissidents are put away in order to silence them and prevent them from attacking the power structure and “contaminating” others. In primitive cultures the essence of tribal patriotism is to direct hatred towards particular people outside the tribe. But even in modern society, as mentioned, we see a kind of xenophobia taking the form of hatred towards otherness. There is a social solidarity that surrounds “us” versus “them.” People can be easily encouraged to rally behind a common enemy. In some areas of Indonesia such as the island of Sumba, in parts of Borneo, and in slums of urban South AmericaHoskins (2002) has reported the following xenophobic phenomenon: Local people have the fear that white tourists are really headhunters who come to raid villages and steal children or siphon off blood from their bodies after casting them into an unconscious state. They believe that tourists need the blood of children to use for electronic devices, to help make the electric current work properly! In South American slums the belief is that tourists come to steal human organs. Many in Indonesian hamlets believe that government modernization projects rely upon the


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practice of snatching babies and young children, who are needed in order to generate electricity (by placing the victims into acid). This fear of body snatching by foreigners goes back centuries. A priest in the Peruvian Andies reported in 1574 that the people believed Spanish explorers were “sent from Spain for Indian body fat, to cure a certain disease, for which no medicine could be found except body fat” (Mannheim & Van Vleet, 1998, p. 330). PARANOIA AND MODERN SOCIETY Western society seems to have a paranoid undercurrent. Max Lerner (1970) argues: We feel we live in a jungle hedged in by hostile spears. We have become a paranoid society, and until we liberate ourselves from this obsessive sense of victim and enemy we shall never feel free. We need a Declaration of Independence from paranoia. When paranoia or xenophobia dominates an entire culture, as it did in Nazi Germany, it can become dangerous. The ultimate end of paranoia, if it goes unchecked, is to kill the “enemies.” Paranoids in power, particularly if they are charismatic leaders, can produce disastrous effects on large groups. These leaders take on a megalomanic quality, with the conviction that they have a great mission that is it duty to spread. Religious and cosmic concepts will be conjured up to describe his importance. Modern conspiracy theories have features of paranoia. There are people who believe in fantastic conspiracies despite all contrary evidence, from the assassination of JFK, to a government conspiracy associated with 9/11. We have conspiracy theories about the power elite (“the vast Right Wing conspiracy”), and the idea of powerful, semisecretive groups that control the economic forces of the world (the “Trilateral Commission”). Perhaps there is an undercurrent of self-loathing when people blame others for what is wrong in the world. Paranoia can easily escalate into a shared delusional system, as in mass hysteria cases, which we will discuss in chapter 20 (“Mass Hysteria, Mass Possession”). There are different explanations of mass hysteria, and the phenomenon is known by different names. The prevailing psychoanalytic idea is that there are unconscious projections among the people, forming a hate bond of sorts, guaranteeing that they won’t need to confront their own inner conflicts. In our culture, individuals who end up becoming mass murderers often start to display the symptoms of Paranoid Personality Disorder in childhood and adolescence: “solitariness, poor peer relationships, social anxiety, underachievement in school, hypersensitivity, peculiar thoughts and language, and idiosyncratic fantasies” (DSMIV-TR, p. 692). They may also exhibit symptoms of Schizoid Personality Disorder in that they are detached from social relationships and lack a desire for intimacy, seem indifferent to opportunities to develop close relationships... prefer spending time by themselves... often appear to be socially isolated or “loners” and almost always choose solitary activities or hobbies that do not include interaction with others. They prefer mechanical or abstract tasks, such as computer or mathematical games.... They usually display a “bland” exterior without visible emotional reactivity and rarely reciprocate gestures or facial expressions, such as smiles or nods (DSM-IV-TR, pp. 694-695). In this chapter, we have explored a cluster of ideas related to the evil eye-an ancient kind of witchcraft that people in myriads of cultures believe today, and which is often fueled by envy, paranoia, or the doctrine of limited goods in which one person’s gain is another person’s loss. In these cultures people are vigilant to keep a watchful eye on their neighbors, compliments (especially towards children and babies) are highly suspect, and people will sometimes conceal a successful crop or hunt to insure that neighbors will not feel envy. In modern cultures, as we saw, people might not consciously believe in the evil eye-yet they will seek protection from evil by the use of amulets and good luck charms of all kinds. At times a collective sort of paranoia can build up in a group or society in which people will vent their collective fears against an “out-group,” as was seen on a large scale in Nazi Germany.

PART III: CONSCIOUSNESS AND MAGICAL POWERS


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CHAPTER 10 Altered States of Consciousness Abstract. Altered states of consciousness are sought after for religious and spiritual purposes in cultures throughout the world. An altered state of consciousness is a kind of disassociation from ordinary consciousness, and can take on many different forms. Attaining altered states of consciousness is a hallmark of rites in primitive cultures, as well as urban charismatic churches. Altered states of consciousness can be induced in many different ways, from drugs to shamanic drumming to fasting, to dancing in discos with strobe lights. Substances used by various cultures to induce altered states of consciousness are: ayahuasca, tobacco, peyote, kava, alcohol, mead, qat, psychedelic drugs. There is extensive literature on the ceremonial use of peyote among Indians in the United States and Mexico, where its use extends back about 2000 years. Kava, a mild narcotic that has been a stimulantrelaxant-social drink throughout Oceania for at least a thousand years. Alcohol is a culturally accepted intoxicant used worldwide. The amphetamine-like drug, qat, is commonly chewed in Yemen on social occasions. Psychedelic states, induced by LSD and other drugs, have well known effects in terms of alteration of consciousness.

INTRODUCTION As we saw in chapter 8, shamans often enter altered states of consciousness in healing rituals as a means towards accessing the spirit world. Shamans may or may not use mind-altering substances to induce a trance, depending on local cultural practices. As we will see in the next chapter, trance and possession states-which are a type of altered state of consciousness-are not the exclusive province of shamans, but extend into many other areas, including religious ceremonies, mediumship in which other entities are channeled, and is a component found in many types of community ceremonies, festivals and dances all over the world. Here our focus is the general concept of altered states of consciousness. Just what constitutes an altered state of consciousness? An altered state of consciousness is a kind of disassociation from ordinary consciousness. It can take on many different forms. Sleep, for example, is an altered state of consciousness. Being in love often carries with it a heightened sense of unity and connectedness to the world that is a kind of altered state of consciousness. Attaining altered states of consciousness is a hallmark of rites in primitive cultures, but also finds its expression in a variety of situations in modern cultures. To some, it finds its expression in religious practices, such as in Pentecostal or other charismatic churches. To science, altered states of consciousness are partly chemical and partly an energetic processes. To the shaman, attaining an altered state is usually part and parcel of the healing ritual. Endorphins are a natural opiate of the brain that produces euphoria. Euphoria overcomes psychological chaos, fear, or panic. Stress in battle or any kind of overexertion stimulates endorphin production. Exertion to a person’s limits can lead to an altered state of consciousness. We see this with high performance athletes who get into a trance that resembles what we see in tribal cultures. White and Murphy (1998) argue that attaining a “flow” in athletic performance is a peak experience state of well-being, a letting go, a sense of freedom, composure, calm-in the midst of competition. One has a sensation of floating and flying, of weightlessness, ecstasy and power, total control over oneself. There is a feeling of being totally present in the now, a sense of great awe toward the mystery of life, a feeling of union with everything; time seems to pass more slowly. There can be an effortlessness in the matter at hand. One attains extraordinary feats of strength, speed and balance. One even gets a perception of inner body structures on the cellular level. White and Murphy also found that athletes in this state even get the sense of expanding their bodies, or being able to manipulate other players psychokinetically or by suggestion (either to empower or disable them), or breaking the spell of a hostile crowd (a curse). Altered states of consciousness can be induced in many different ways. Shamans often use drumming to induce an altered state. People in India engage in chanting, which induces an altered state. Welsh hymn-singing induces trance with the strength of its rhythmic sound. Music is something we feel with our bodies as well as our ears. Perhaps modern dancing in discos is a similar inducement, enhanced with strobe lights. Fasting, self-mutilization, and self-torture, practices we noted among the Indian tribes in our discussion of Dionysean cultures, are known to induce an altered state of consciousness. One might surmise that in sadoJohn Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


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masochistic sexual encounters the infliction of pain induces an altered state of consciousness in the masochist subject, i.e., produces a euphoria or a kind of ecstasy. Quite often people in various cultures will employ some type of stimulant as an aid in producing an altered state of consciousness. Below is a discussion of some of these practices. AYAHUASCA Amazonian shamans conduct rituals with a vine known as ayahuasca (also known as yaje) to induce an altered state of consciousness for the purpose of identifying the hidden spiritual causes of illness, and to cure people through direct intervention. The vine is indigenous to northwestern Amazon, and the word means “vine of the soul.” It apparently is a magical intoxicant that frees the soul from bodily confinement, takes one into wondrous realms of reality and permits one to communicate with dead ancestors. The vine is made into a drink, then consumed. Some say the vine is a living presence with a strong and vivid personality. It imparts extraordinary multi-colored visions of merging geometrical patterns, or it may recreate experiences from one’s memories, or evoke otherworldly scenes, mythical creatures and spirit beings. Shamans in that region use the sacrament, as it is reverently referred to, to find lost objects, seek out game and fish, wage psychic warfare, influence the weather, and foresee the future. In participating in one of these rituals with a shaman, one can have the experience of being purged, cleaned, healed, so that one will never again fear death, because of having died and been reborn. TOBACCO Shamans of North and South America use tobacco in one form or another (usually Nicotina rustica), as a means of inducing shamanic visions, trances and encounters with the gods. They consider tobacco to be a sacred plant, and smoking “ceremonial cigars” establishes a medium between heaven and earth, and thus is pleasing to the gods. The Indians of North and South America believed that tobacco could strengthen the body and prevent illness, and they smoked it at the conclusion of peace treaties. The Jivaros of Ecuador smoked tobacco during a period of seclusion in a “dreaming hut” to attain an altered state of consciousness. In addition to smoking tobacco, it was drunk, licked, sniffed and chewed. There was also ritual tobacco blowing: Chiefs blew tobacco smoke repeatedly on the heads and faces of circumambulating participants in a war dance to impart to them the “spirit and fortitude” required to overcome their enemies. Many shamans drink tobacco juice, which is uncured tobacco leaves soaked in cold water. It is taken to feed one’s spirit helpers, who love tobacco. It is also used to increase alertness, so that if there is a sorcerer working against you, your spirit helpers will be alert and protect you. PEYOTE There is extensive literature on the ceremonial use of peyote among Indians in the United States and Mexico, where its use extends back about 2000 years. Native Americans regard peyote as a sacrament. It is a cactus plant (Lophophora williamsii) sometimes of odd shapes, with greying tufts of matted hairs, pink or white flowers on the top of the crown. The crowns, when cut and dried, form the so-called mescal buttons which are eaten. Peyote used to be offered for sale in drug markets in Mexico and was listed in its pharmacology publication. At one time peyote could be ordered by mail from merchants in lower Texas. Peyote is widely used as a stimulant, and was a favorite stimulant in warfare (Mexico). It provides energy and helps overcome fatigue, and helps one endure hunger and thirst. It is said to be a cure against stings of scorpions, wounds of all kinds, and skin diseases. It is said to fortify the body against future ills and purify the soul. Many Indians and Mexicans regard it as a panacea.

Altered States of Consciousness


About a dozen buttons or more are consumed; tea can be made from them; or they can be ground and made into a thick brown liquid. With peyote, there often can be hallucinations or visions that are fantastically colored. However, among shamans and medicine men the main use is not its vision-producing properties-but the therapeutic properties of the plant. Peyote is employed in healing ceremonies in the Native American Church. For many years peyote was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Drug Abuse Amendments of 1965. However, after years of lobbying efforts, the Drug Enforcement Administration promulgated a regulatory exemption for bona fide religious ceremonies of the Native American Church (Native American Church, 2004). A “diagnostic ceremony” will focus on finding out the root cause of an individual’s illness. A Navaho healer, known as a road man or road woman, will conduct the ceremony. All present will ingest peyote. As with the healing rituals of other cultures, there is a collaboration between healer and patient; this is done through questions to the patient about the images seen or insights gained from the peyote. One documented case, reported by Begay and Maryboy (2000), for example, involved a woman whose family had a history of heart problems and blood clots. During the Navaho diagnostic ceremony, her heart problem was traced back to the death of an alligator that an ancestor had speared in the heart. This incident interfered with a harmonious relationship between her ancestors and the animals in their environment, and this disharmony led to heart problems that manifested through subsequent generations. After this diagnosis, the road man conducted a healing ceremony to restore balance and harmony between the patient and the disrupted spirit of the alligator. According to Begay and Maryboy, the patient’s regular physician later reported that her blood clot had disappeared and that her condition was greatly improved. KAVA Kava is an astringent infusion made from the root of piper methysticum. Kava a mild narcotic that has been a stimulant-relaxant-social drink throughout Oceania for at least a thousand years. It is prepared and drunk in sacred, ceremonial and secular contexts. In some areas kava drinking is confined to ceremonial occasions; in many places it is a daily practice among men. Until recent years it could be readily purchased in Hawaii and other South Pacific islands. The drink is made by mashing the root into a powder, and mixing it with water. There is an immediate numbing of the mouth and then a change in consciousness. Kava makes you drousy if you have too much, but in general it promotes conviviality (not drunken hostility), openness in communication, and good will. Kava is drunk today throughout Oceania often in coconut-shell cups. It is used in traditional religious ceremonies, and on social occasions to help create emotional comraderie among groups of drinkers. Men today throughout Oceania get together usually daily to drink kava, and tourists are often invited to join in a kava ceremony. In Tanna, a Melanesian island in the New Hebrides group, the men drink their kava at cleared areas which are also used for dancing and making prestations. They believe that kava comes from women’s vaginas. Boys cut up the kava roots, clean and chew them, spit them out into a pile, then pour water over the roots through a strainer to produce the drink. The men sit quietly, eat some food perhaps, but they do not interact. They stare into space “listening to the kava.” One should not look directly into the eyes of someone who has drunk kava, nor shine a light into his face, and no one should speak. In some other islands in the area the men will talk rather than be silent-a natural inclination since the drink can act as a social lubricant. There is a strong association between kava and magical or spiritual power throughout the New Hebrides. The people believe that under the influence of kava one can perform powerful sorcery because one’s spirit becomes detached from the body in a kava stupor. People will make invocations to ancestors when taking the drink. The altered state of consciousness produced by kava is thought to enable people to communicate with their dead ancestors, or at least to feel a powerful ancestral presence.


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ALCOHOL Alcohol, a culturally accepted intoxicant used worldwide, can easily impair users of their rational faculties and motor abilities if used to excess. Intoxicated persons are considered to be inebriated, temporarily incapacitated, “drunk.” Liquor was introduced to Polynesia by Europeans in the 18th century. Initially the natives didn’t like liquor, as they were used to drinking kava, but it soon caught on. In Tahiti they learned to make “orange beer” from oranges and drank it to celebrate the orange harvest season or other feasts. On these occasions it was customary to have nude dancing as well as promiscuous sexual pairings. In Cook Islands there were “beer schools” where men would gather, perhaps after Sunday church, and sit in a circle drinking, with a beer steward in charge. Drinking was illegal, and fines imposed; one third paid to the church, onethird to the government and one third to the arresting officer, who sometimes split this with informants. Law enforcement in relation to liquor was really a taxation system in which the church had a stake. Beer is not only an extremely popular beverage throughout the world, but in many regions it is used as a form of exchange. In a section of Nigeria, the Kofyar often use beer to pay others for services and as a general method of exchange. Fines are imposed for failure to take part in communal work or for other things such as disrespect for a fellow clansman, abuse, or minor theft-of beer. To get a bunch of people to help with harvesting, erect a mud building or other needs, a beer party is promised at the end of the day. People also make money by home brewing and selling of beer. The Kofyar also use beer as offering in rites, ancestral worship, funerary ceremonies. Each culture has its own set of norms controlling drunken behavior, along with norms controlling sober behavior. In many cultures, intoxication can temporarily exempt people from compliance with moral and supernatural rules. Drunkenness can serve as an excuse for social behavior which would have been inexcusable if the person were sober (Room, 2001). Edgerton (1985) points out that among the Trukese of Micronesia, when one ingests an alcoholic beverage in whatever amount and of whatever sort, he is drunk and no longer entirely responsible for his words and deeds.... For the Truskese, being drunk was a condition that temporarily permitted otherwise prohibited behavior, especially aggressive behavior. But the kinds of aggressive behaviors that were excused were clearly defined by rules. Drunken young men who physically attacked their siblings of either sex-a behavior that was ordinarily forbidden by a moral rule-were excused. They were also permitted to scream their anger at older men, but they could not attack them physically; and some people, such as children and the elderly, “were absolutely off limits.” ( pp. 63-64) Among the Navahoes, drunken misconduct followed culturally defined rules: Fighting, shootings, knifings were not uncommon during drinking bouts, but according to Edgerton (1985), “fights between cross-cousins or biological brothers never occurred, even though such men often drank together” (p, 63). Edgerton goes on to say that when Siriono men in the Bolivian forest got drunk, they might wrestle one another, but would never fight with weapons or even with their fists (p. 64). Generally speaking, intoxication is not an excuse for criminal acts or omissions, except where it is involuntary or where it results in permanent or temporary insanity. However, it can be a factor to negate specific intent, recklessness or specific knowledge-so that in murder, for instance, the prosecution has the burden to establish that, despite evidence of intoxication, the defendant had the requisite specific intent (Wiener, 1999). Still, however, drunkenness in primitive cultures has been used to excuse charges of criminal conduct. Edgerton (1985) points out that some tribes in Africa “took advantage of the fact that courts were inclined to excuse killings that took place during drunken brawls” (p. 62). According to Edgerton, in Canada a French priest observed that in 1659 any crime committed while drunk was excused, so “those that have any quarrels pretend to be intoxicated in order to wreak vengeance with impunity” (p. 62). MEAD Mead is an alcoholic drink obtained by fermenting honey and water. In Africa, Bambara mead is regarded as the drink of wise men, since it stands for knowledge in its highest form. This is because it is made of water and honey,

Altered States of Consciousness


fermented and flavored with pepper. Water is the vital fluid which makes fertile and unites, permitting intercommunication; honey is the symbol of truth and therefore of coolness, light and sweetness. The Bambara say that truth is like honey because, like the honeycomb, it has “neither top nor bottom” and is “the sweetest thing in the world.” Pepper gives strength and stimulus to the virtues of these two ingredients and lastly fermentation activates and sublimates the virtues of the whole. QAT The amphetamine-like drug, qat, is commonly chewed in Yemen on social occasions. Sometimes excessive use of qat is blamed for serious misbehavior. Edgerton (1985) found, for example, that a Yemeni policeman who was caught stealing explained to the judge that he had chewed an enormous amount of qat and that he did not know what he was doing. The judge in turn assessed only a small fine instead of the usual penalty, which would be the loss of a hand (pp. 64-65). PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS Of course psychedelic states, induced by LSD and other drugs, have well known effects in terms of alteration of consciousness. LSD has been the subject of a great deal of scientific research, and in the 1960s there was a movement to utilize the drug in the context of psychiatric treatment. Timothy Leary was a major proponent of this. The mystical experience induced by LSD has been described by many commentators. Grey (1990) argues that it provides a sense of profound unity within oneself and with the outside world; a transcendence of space and time or a feeling of being in touch with infinity and eternity; a sense of sacredness, awe or numinosity; a sense of the supreme reality and truth of the insight; the embracing of paradoxes or transcendence of duality; ineffability; and overall positive effect (p. 31). Grey further describes a vision-experience that he and his wife had pretty much simultaneously. He narrates that their consciousness moved at tremendous speed through an inner universe of fantastic chains of imagery, infinitely multiplying in parallel mirrors. At a superorgasmic pitch of speed and bliss, we became individual fountains and drains of Light, interlocked with an infinite omnidirectional network of fountains and drains composed of and circulating a brilliant iridescent love energy. We were the Light, and the Light was God.... All polarities were incorporated and transcended without conflict-past and future, microscopic and cosmic, male and female, self and other.... “I” was one particular point in the vast network, aware of “my” unique relationship with all points in the field.... The visible and invisible universe became our family. We were no longer separate, but part of a mysterious web of energy that connected body, mind and spirit (p. 7). A transcendent experience such as that has a healing force in that it provides one with a vision of sacred interconnectedness and innate harmony. Tierney (2010) argues that scientists today are taking a new look at psychedelics, using rigorous protocols to study these drugs’ potential for treating depression and other mental problems, as well as shedding light on the nature of consciousness. “Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate” (Tierney, 2010). This chapter has provided a thumbnail sketch of altered states of consciousness. While attaining an altered state of consciousness can be achieved without ingesting substances-by drumming (shamans), singing, dancing, physical exertion or deprivation-at times people will employ the substances we discussed to help induce a voluntary altered state. In most instances, people seek an altered state of consciousness to expand their awareness of the world, to attain insights about life, to attain a sense of unity with the world, and in the case of shamans, to enter the spirit realm to find out what has caused the patient’s illness.


John Alan Cohan

Our ordinary, day-to-day consciousness is quite limited, as pointed out by William James (1977): “The human... lives far within his limited; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum.... [H]is life is contracted like the field of vision of an hysteric subject....” (p. 674) In the next chapter we will go into some detail on the phenomena of trance and possession states-phenomena that are pervasive not only in primitive cultures, but are widely prevalent in modern society today.


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CHAPTER 11 Trance and Possession States Abstract. Trance and possession states are a worldwide phenomena, usually voluntarily induced. Practically everyone has at one time or another fallen into a trance or possession state, either spontaneously or induced by drugs or by circumstances such as extreme stress, physical exertion or deprivation. In the West, trance and possession phenomena are for the most part associated with bad things-demonic possession, madness, insanity. But in many cultures trance and possession states are customary in religious ceremonies, rites to cure illness, rituals to attain communion with ancestral spirits, totemic guardians, and a means of practicing mediumship and prophesy-and are even regarded as a social responsibility. For instance, after a successful pig hunt, hunters in Papua New Guinea will seek to enter a trance to fulfill a social responsibility of giving what the spirits ask as a reward for providing a successful hunt. In many cultures, mediums and other channelers are thought to have a heightened perception of spiritual truths. There is a continuum of sorts, a trance being a slight alteration of consciousness, whereas possession is a “deep trance” in which the individual seems to be somewhat taken over by a supernatural agency. Some possession states are hysterical in nature in that the individual might lose control over equilibrium, and may tend to strike out threateningly towards others, engage in self-inflicted violence, or become blind, deaf, and entirely unresponsive during the episode. In many cultures trance and possession states are normal and empowering features of everyday human life, while psychiatrists in the West often regard such states, for the most part, as a mental disorder. In any event, all cultures regard an involuntary, uninvited trance or possession state to be undesirable and dysfunctional. Trance dances are known in many cultures and function to release emotional tension, to escape everyday worries, to provide a catharsis for primal instincts and patterns, or to provide a profound religious and spiritual experience. In many parts of the world it is normative for women to occasionally fall into a trance or possession state as a kind of protest or a way of seeking redress for their feelings of powerlessness and low status. Trance and possession states are quite common and widespread in charismatic Christian healing services. Extreme involuntary possession-demonic possession-is indicated by violent, aggressive behavior, a distinct experience of being controlled by an alien force, a change of voice, convulsions, intermittent states of unconsciousness, superhuman strength, and obscene behavior. Its emergence is usually gradually, and many believe is prompted by either witchcraft or by the victim’s conscious or unconscious inviting of evil spirits. In chronic cases rituals in the form of exorcism will be performed by a priest, shaman, or medicineman.

INTRODUCTION Trance and possession states are altered states of consciousness. Practically everyone has at one time or another fallen into a trance or possession state, either spontaneously or induced by drugs or by circumstances such as extreme stress, physical exertion or deprivation. Hughes (1991) estimates that there are institutionalized forms of altered states of consciousness in fully 90 percent of cultures. In our Western culture trance and possession phenomena are for the most part associated with bad things-demonic possession, madness, insanity. But a comparative perspective offers a very different picture of these states. In many parts of the world, trance and possession states are customary in religions ceremonies, rites to cure illness, rituals to attain communion with ancestral spirits, totemic guardians, and a means of practicing mediumship and prophesy. Shamans and people who have the power of mediumship or the gift of prophesy are able to will themselves into trance or possession states in service of the community, and these people occupy an honored status in their cultures. According to Wedenoja (1990), the potential for trance-which is a milder state than possession-appears to be genetically hardwired in the human species (p. 284). In principle, anyone has the capacity to enter into a trancethrough hypnosis, auto-suggestion, meditation or, for vulnerable individuals this could happen spontaneously when undergoing stressful experiences or childhood trauma. One can fall into a trance state while driving, being unaware what you are doing, being on “automatic pilot.” When you reach your destination you have a kind of amnesia of what happened. PREVALENCE IN PRIMITIVE CULTURES In many cultures, trance and possession states are viewed as a social responsibility. People will consciously seek out and induce these states, or they might desire them subconsciously. Trance and possession states are revered because John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


John Alan Cohan

they mark a divine presence in which spirits communicate through the subjects to the other people. For instance, after a successful pig hunt hunters in Papua New Guinea will seek to enter a trance to fulfill a social responsibility of giving what the spirits ask as a reward for providing a successful hunt. In West African cultures possession by the intrusion of a strange soul or force is often held to mark the presence of a divine and beneficial agency. Someone who experiences trance states enjoys enhanced prestige. Lunatics in that culture are treated with special reverence because they are thought to be in close contact with the forces of the unseen world; they are thought to be divinely energized. In many cultures, mediums and other channelers are thought to have a heightened perception of spiritual truths, and can discover and communicate occult secrets. The fact that so many cultures regard trance and possession states as a positive force is explained by Oesterreich (1930) as follows: To primitive people the possessed stand as intermediaries between the world of men and the spirit-world; the spirits speak through their mouth. It is therefore no wonder that as soon as men realized that states of this kind could be voluntarily induced, free use was made of the fact (p. 236). As we saw in chapter 8, it is considered “normal” for a shaman to undergo instances of involuntary trance or possession as a form of “initiatory illness”-a sign that the individual is being called to become a shaman. Later, after the shaman has been initiated, trance or possession states will be voluntarily induced during rituals. Shamanic trance or possession states might be seen as similar to the Hindu-Buddhist experience of samadhi, in which highly practiced yogis attain a state of nirvana, described by Eliade (1958) as an enlightened or “invulnerable state in which perception of the external world is absent” (pp. 78-80). However, the shaman’s trance or possession state is different from other meditative experiences because it is not part of a discipline for self-development, but is part of a curing ritual for his or her patients. For a shaman, this is the means of communicating with spirits to learn the cause of the patient’s illness, or to fight hostile spirits and recover the patient’s soul in order to effect a cure. The shaman will rely on a regular pantheon of spirit helpers, depending on the particular alliances of the shaman. Also, for most part, during trance or possession states shamans are lucid and can communicate messages to the audience, and unlike other practitioners, they can remember what happened afterwards. It should be noted that when a shaman “shapeshifts” into animal, this is something more like a transformation than a possession state. That is, the shaman possesses the animal guardian spirit, rather than the other way around. Possession states become more and more rare as natives are exposed to outside influences (e.g., mission activity, colonial hegemony and other forces of change). The so-called “mushroom madness” of the Middle Wahgi (Papua New Guinea) is now rarely seen, for instance (See discussion in chapter 15, “Dealing with Conflicts, Aggressive Impulses, Enemies and War”). DISTINCTION BETWEEN TRANCE AND POSSESSION While it is desirable to make a distinction between trance and possession states, the line between the two is a bit nebulous. There is a continuum of sorts, a trance being a slight alteration of consciousness and a possession state being an intrusion of an entity that more or less takes over the individual’s behavior and motor control. The main distinction is that a trance is a “lighter” form of altered consciousness, while the possession state is a “deep trance” in which the individual seems to be somewhat taken over by a supernatural agency. Sometimes people will refer to a “trance-possession” or “possession-trance” state, conflating the two terms. In anthropology literature people use the terms trance and possession interchangeably. Sometimes just the word “possession” will be used when clearly the context refers to a simple trance state. And often we see the terms “possession-trance” or “trance-possession” used in shamanic discussions, which makes things even more confusing. Sometimes it is not clear whether an individual is in a trance or a full-blown possession, particularly in ceremonies invoking spirit possession. Sometimes people will refer to entering into a trance state whereas really the individual has become possessed. On the other hand, often what is involved is not full-fledge possession, but a milder altered state.

Trance and Possession States


Typically, a trance state is characterized by personality dissociation, involuntary movement, mediumship or channeling. It is hard to verify whether a trance state is authentic or fake, whereas a possession state takes on clearcut manifestations. Halperin (1996) found that the trance state is associated in terms of brain-body chemistry with increased production of endorphins. According to Stephen and Suryani (2000), a trance state involves the “alteration in the person’s usual mode of cognition, perception and behavior, but without the sense of being taken over by another entity, as in possession trance” (p. 9). Halperin also claimed that sometimes it can be a mediumship or channeling situation, and other times it can involve entering an ecstatic state of consciousness. In an ordinary trance state the shaman will employ visions, hear voices, or simply generate powerful intuitions. If the shaman is merely in a trance, he might be heard to converse with spirits; if he is in a possession state voices or animal sounds might speak through him, and the shaman will provide a dramatic display of spirits speaking. Possession, which as mentioned is a deeper altered state than a trance, involves an alteration in behavior induced by what the people in the community believe to be another entity, spirit, personality or supernatural being that enters the subject’s body. Danforth (1989) points out that sometimes cultures take it that illness is a form of possession. A person who is possessed is changed, often dramatically, as a result of the influence of the possessing spirit. This change is generally experienced as coercive, as involving external control and a loss of individual autonomy (p. 59). In trance states one “shares” one’s space with the outside spirit, that is, one’s soul stays more or less intact; while in full-blown possession, one’s soul is entirely taken over, i.e., put aside by the spirit that comes into possession. That is, “the practitioner’s own personality is temporarily displaced by the personality of another entity” (Winkelman, 1986, p. 195). There is the sense that the individual is “dominated” by a spirit or other agency, that one’s free will is put towards one side. There is as it were a displacement of the subject’s soul by the possessing spirit. The source of possession can be spirits, i.e., “spirit-intrusion,” of greater or lesser gods, or of dead or even living humans, or even of animals, or as in Pentecostal spirit possession, discussed below, one’s body is said to becomes a tabernacle for the Holy Spirit, which, upon entering, completely eclipses the “owner soul” (Goodman, 1988, p. 3). There is a loss of self-consciousness, indeed there is usually a loss of awareness of what is going on in the environment, while in a trance state the individual retains awareness of what is happening. Amnesia usually follows a possession episode (Koss-Chioino, 2003, p. 164). According to Levay and Bilu (1980), in Jewish kabalistic literature, possession is explained by the mystical doctrine of transmigration (Gilgulim), in which spirits of the dead are held in limbo and cannot enter the heavenly realm. These souls, by possessing a living human, seek to gain reparation and appeasement so as to move on. As with trance states, there are different levels of possession states, depending on the depth, involvement, loss of control, loss of consciousness, and intensity of behavior. Sometimes the possession might be a momentary loss of control, and on other occasions it involves a prolonged altered state of consciousness and loss of motor behavior. Some possession states are hysterical in nature (e.g., Arctic hysteria or running amok, discussed in chapter 19, “Culture-Bound Syndromes,” or possession by evil forces, discussed below). That is, the individual might lose control over equilibrium, and may tend to strike out threateningly towards others, or engage in self-inflicted violence, so that the individual needs to be restrained. The individual is for all intents and purposes blind and deaf during the episode, and entirely unresponsive to others who might try to intervene. Indeed, as we discussed in chapter 8, at times it is difficult to distinguish from genuine shamanic performances and the handiwork of charlatans. As pointed out by Merkur (1985), this is always a problem-distinguishing among the genuine ecstatic reverie of an authentic medium or shaman, the trickery of a fake, and the hallucinations of a psychotic individual. Perhaps a quick “rule of thumb” might be this: “Unlike cultural beliefs, delusional beliefs are not credible to others in the local cultural context and impair the affected individual’s interpersonal, social, or occupational functioning” (Joshi, Frierson & Gunter, 2006, p. 515).


John Alan Cohan

Sometimes a trance or possession can take on the form of Multiple Personality Disorder (discussed below), which is thought to signify possession by several spirits one after the other, as in this description by Field (1937) of a West African medium: At each change of personality she goes round the ring shaking hands and greeting her friends on behalf of her possessing spirit, and when this leaves her she often bends down flapping her hands an inch or two over the ground, as though shaking something out of her finger-tips, and saying, Hoi, hoi! in a barking kind of voice (p. 105). Parrinder (1951) adds to this commentary by saying: The spirit possessing her may be a warrior, and the medium will act the part, with male dress and sword. She may be a cripple, a hunchback, a pregnant woman, a coquettish girl, or an animal on all fours; always acting the part, and adopting postures and voices suitable to the nature of the spirit (p. 178). There is a range and variability in behavior of people in trance or possession states. How they move and/or dance, and other elements of their behavior vary considerably depending on the particular power of spirits manifesting, the individual’s personal stamina, and depending on whether the setting is a formal ceremony or a private session in someone’s home. Spirit voices will speak through the shaman for the listeners to hear, and the shaman will usually retain the ability to walk about without stumbling over objects and to handle implements with customary skill. In the following passage, the author uses the single term, “possession” to refer to a variety of altered states of consciousness, even those that are momentary, that make up the trance-possession continuum. According to Mischel and Mischel (1958), there may be a brief “overshadowing” or momentary loss of control, dizziness, and a partial and temporary loss of consciousness. On other occasions, it involves an almost total and prolonged loss of consciousness and of many controls over motor behavior. However, even in the most extreme examples observed, the individual seemed to retain sufficient consciousness and control to permit him to behave without injury to self or others; that is, without stumbling over objects or mishandling implements. Further, the possessed individual appears to recognize those about him and may refer to them by name and make reference to known past experience. He may also refer to himself by his secular name and allude to aspects of his daily life. On occasion, things that were expressed privately in the normal state are publicly reiterated or rephrased under possession. It should be emphasized that possession does not appear to be an all-or-none process, utterly separated from the individual’s usual state. Rather, an extension and distortion of everyday behavior seems to be involved.... It would appear more useful to deal with different levels of involvement in possession behavior rather than “possession” versus “normality.” (p. 253). Mischel and Mischel further offer this account of a possession state concerning a healer named “Tanti” in Trinidad’s Shango group: When the “spirit begins to manifest on” or “catch” Tanti, a dramatic physical transformation takes place. If in a standing position, she staggers, appears to lose her balance, begins to sway (bending her body forward and backward rhythmically), and may fall either to the ground or into the arms of bystanders. Her entire body begins to vibrate, while her arms are either rigid at her sides or stretched out above her. Her feet are planted widely apart and she may lurch back and forth from toe to heel. The vibrations increase in intensity, and somewhat resemble the convulsions of a seizure state. At the same time, she emits deep grunts and groans. Her jaw begins to protrude, her lips pout and turn down sharply at the corners, her eyes dilate and stare fixedly ahead. An expression of masculinity and fierceness envelops her face. She rises from the ground or breaks away from her supporters. She dresses herself, or is dressed by others, in the costume and implements appropriate to the power possessing her.... In the standing position her stomach and pelvis are thrust forward, her head and shoulders are thrown back, legs wide apart, hands on hips. The entire posture is quite rigid. At this point the spectators recognize that full possession by the particular power has occurred (p. 250).



In many cultures it is normal for ordinary people, particularly women, to become possessed by spirits during the course of certain festivals or ceremonies. According to Prince (1974), During the period of possession (a few hours generally) the subject behaves in the manner of the possessing spirit and may prophesy, giving valuable advice for the community or for the subject himself. The subject generally does not recall how she behaved or what she said during her period of possession. Psychologically, she is in a dissociated state with subsequent amnesia (p. 316). WESTERN PATHOLOGY VS. PRIMITIVE NORMATIVITY Trance and possession states can be normal or pathological, depending on the cultural context. In many cultures trance and possession states are normal and empowering features of everyday human life, but psychiatrists in the West often regard such states, for the most part, as a mental disorder, known as Dissociative Disorder in the DSMIV-TR. The most common Dissociative Disorders are Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) (discussed in the next section) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “Dissociation” is described in the DSM-IV-TR as a “disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception of the environment” (p. 519). According to Metzner (1995), in and of itself dissociation is not a disorder: Dissociation is a normal and natural cognitive function, the opposite of association. Dissociation plays a role in hypnotic and other forms of trance, when we progressively disconnect perception of the external world in order to attend to interior images, memories, and impressions. Even the simple act of focusing or concentrating attention clearly involves some degree of dissociation (p. 63). The role of suggestions by therapists in creating symptoms of dissociative disorders was shown a hundred years ago when Charcot’s hysterics acted in accordance with his expectations (Veith, 1965). An involuntary, uninvited trance or possession state is considered undesirable and dysfunctional even in cultures where such states are “normal” in proper settings. These cultures make a distinction between welcome forms of trance or possession, and states of madness or evil possession. Running amok, for instance, discussed in chapter 19 (“Culture-Bound Syndromes”), as well as possession by evil spirits, are considered pathological in cultures where they occur, especially when accompanied by hysteria-now referred to as Conversion Disorder in the DSM-TR-IVelements that, as previously mentioned, include becoming deaf, mute, blind or paralyzed (p. 821) (For a discussion of Conversion Disorder, see chapter 19, “Culture-Bound Syndromes”). Thus, in primitive cultures trance and possession states can be a method of contacting the spirits and healing the sick, or an undesirable affliction, depending on the context (Paris, 1996). MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER AND POSSESSION STATES Some think that Multiple Personality Disorder is a type of spirit possession (Parris, 1996). Krippner (1987) states: Mediums are quite aware of the process and even when they claim to be amnesic for the experience, there are always colleagues eager to describe the session for them. Rather, the diagnostic category of MPD [Multiple Personality Disorder] in Western psychotherapy most closely resembles the spiritist description of “involuntary possession” used to describe those unfortunate individuals whose aberrant behavior is said to be due to long-term habitation and control by malevolent or immature spirits (p. 274). In Brazil, symptoms of MPD are explained in terms of people exhibiting subpersonalities of their own past lives, or that they are possessed by disincarnate spirit personalities. It is considered normative for one’s personality to be temporarily displaced by an alien one, for, according to Bourguignon (1989), “spirits of deceased humans seek temporary embodiment in living persons, who are their mediums” (p. 376). People will go to spiritual advisers “to learn how to give expression to these personalities” (p. 376). At spiritual centers people can be guided in how to enter trance states and how to be possessed by these spirits.


John Alan Cohan

NORMATIVE TRANCE AND POSSESSION BEHAVIOR In many cultures, trance and possession states are common and integral features of cultural and religious ceremonies. Boddy (1992) found that some cultures have been known to conduct everyday activities under what could easily be regarded as a trance state. For example, in the Middle East, including Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan, Somaliland, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, there is the zar cult in which women experience possession trances throughout their lives. According to Boddy, the zar spirits will take “total command of her body so as to enjoy earthly delights to the full or chastise her for neglecting to keep it sufficiently mollified by avoiding dirt and surrounding herself with beauty” (p. 394). The women regard spirit possession to be normal and in many cases beneficial, particularly in ceremonial occasions. In situations where it is undesirable, the spirits are “demanding and capricious, and their spontaneous ingress is often an indication that something is amiss, [and] there is a tear in the social fabric that has enabled their entry outside of ceremonial occasions” (p. 324). The zar cult also involves a kind of folk therapy in which the healer and the patient both go into a trance. Zar healers, who are referred to as priests, tend to know one another and usually claim to have inherited their healing skills. Their patients are thought to be possessed by zar spirits that cause pains, dizziness, fainting spells, and depression. To alleviate the symptoms a ceremony occurs in which both the patient and priest are in a trance, and the possessing zar spirit is “entertained” with music, singing, food, sweets and blood from sacrificed animals. Boddy (1992) found that in Haiti spirit possession is a desirable fact of human life and the growth of self-knowledge and self-confidence in various endeavours is attributed to the perpetual influence of certain archetypal Iwa (spirits) who not only possess their hosts during rituals, but also speak to them in dreams and “enter” them (either displacing the “usual” self or augmenting its capacities) in stressful situations like visiting an hospital or writing an examination (p. 325). Boddy further found that in the Comoro Islands spirits intervene in marital relations: The wife may be regularly possessed by a male spirit who, now in control of her body, speaks about her with her husband ‘man to man,’ dispensing advice and imparting information that it would otherwise be impossible for them to discuss (p. 325). It is estimated that from 20 to 50 percent of North Americans have had a “mystical” or “religious” experience in the form of a trance state. In the United States in recent years, numerous organizations, groups and classes have offered trance channeling services and training. Klimo (1987) defines trance channeling as “the communication of information to or through a physically embodied human being from a source that is said to exist on some other level or dimension of reality than the physical as we know it, and that is not from the normal mind (or self) of the channel” (p. 2). Hughes (1991) offers this comment: Questions are asked and answered, topics are discussed, and experiences are shared, examined, and interpreted.... Trance channeling is seen as a cooperative venture between the channel and the entity, with benefits in the form of new experiences in consciousness to be gained by both.” (pp. 164, 167) Trance channeling is not usually thought of as bringing forth spirits of the dead, but rather involves bringing forth some sort of supernormal intelligence to impart spiritual teachings to the audience. DANCE TRANCES In many cultures there are dance rituals employed to achieve spiritual power, to generate passion and energy, or to “exorcise” mental and physical ailments. The dancers consciously seek to attain a trance state, and this is aided by drumming, chanting and singing, in accelerating rhythms. These indigenous trance-dances are known throughout African cultures (including Egypt), Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Oceania, Polynesia, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and even



Israel. The trance-dances of young girls in Bali have been a tourist staple for nearly a hundred years. Drumming, singing and dancing are used in voodoo possession trance-dances practiced in Haiti. In some instances the function of these trance dances is to release emotional tension, to escape everyday worries, or to serve as a catharsis for primal instincts and patterns. To many, the dances provide a profound religious and spiritual experience. In any event, the participants in these dances strive to attain trance states. In Bali the training for temple dancers begins at age three or four, for the dancers require acrobatic skill and great agility. Usually the girls inherit the right to participate in these dances from families that have cultivated the art for generations. The sacred dances can be performed only by virgins, so that often the girls “retire” from taking part in them at puberty. The dance-trance phenomenon has a longstanding tradition among members of the Muslim Sufi order in Egypt. Participants employ accelerating movements, coupled with musical rhythms and chance, to leave their bodies and experience unity with God. According to Shafi (1985), they utilize music and movement to override words and logic, to connect them “to the invisible rhythms of existence, bringing catharsis of emotion and enhancing internal peace” (p. 84). What is called a possession-dance ritual takes place among the women of Bonerate, a coral island in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. As discussed by Broch (1985), during the climax of the ritual the women will dance on smothering burning embers with their bare feet. Once the audience assembles, the dancers come out and gorge themselves with eggs in front of everyone. Eggs are a central symbol of fertility and are used in initiation rituals of Bonerate girls. They then perform dance sequences, sometimes with weapons imitative of male war dancers. Sometimes a group of perhaps 10 women will perform a stylistic, graceful dance. At one point a woman will reach a trance state, and cry out for embers, which will be brought up and placed down. With loud cries and perspiring heavily, she will stamp on the live embers with her bare feet, and after a time will fall into the hands of other dancers. Other women will likewise demand embers and repeat the routine. The fire does not harm the women who participate in this ritual. The audience regards this ritual as entertainment. A famous dance-possession occurs each year in the village of Ayia Eleni, located in the eastern part of Greek Macedonia. It is one of several Greek villages where the Anastenarides-or the possessed-perform spectacular firewalking rituals at the festival of Saints Constantine and Helen on May 21. The participants are said to be possessed by St. Constantine, who empowers them to walk on fire, “to ‘know’ things other people do not know, and to diagnose the cause of other people’s suffering, illness, and misfortune” (Danforth, 1989, p. 75). Some people regard fire as an important symbol of cleansing and purification, and will leap over the fire to ward off illness, then take some ashes home “for protective and divinatory purposes” (Danforth, 1989, p. 129). Frazer (1927, Part VII) claimed that the custom of dancing and walking in fires is ancient and widespread. In Northern India, for instance, Frazer points out that in the early spring at the full moon of the month Phalgun, people dance around bonfires, believing that the fires prevent famine, and that the ashes heal disease. Festivals elsewhere in India and in many different parts of the world are similarly celebrated (p. 2). On another note, Castetter (2003) found that it is still customary for tribal councils of Pakistan to require the accused to walk over burning coals to determine guilt or innocence. If the accused is able to walk over the coals unharmed, he will be declared innocent of the charges, but if he refuses the test, or if he is burned in the walk, he will be found guilty. Somer and Saadon (2000) report that in modern-day Israel, Tunisian Jews who settled there in several waves of immigration from Tunisia, have strongly held beliefs that demons are responsible for many events in life. These people acquired their beliefs from the neighboring Muslims of Tunisia. Somer and Saadon claim that these people have adopted the general belief, common throughout Africa, that dance is an expressive means for coping with difficult circumstances, and is an important way of symbolizing a harmonious relationship between human beings and nature.


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They engage in a trance-dance musical ritual, called Stambali, offered to demons who are believed to cause physical and mental illnesses. The dance is performed by women only, while men are permitted to watch. The people have defined three types of encounter between demons and human beings: peaceful, hostile, or possession-type. Women who partake of the dance have individual purposes in mind, some just to be released from emotional tensions, others to negotiate with demons to help alleviate difficult problems or illness. The Stambali dance ritual has been described by the Jewish-Tunisian novelist, Albert Memmi, in a story entitled “The Dance,” in one of his books, The Pillar of Salt (1992). The dance is conducted in a festive spirit because the demons require joyful appeasement and enjoy fun. In the ceremony there is usually a lead dancer, and the music is provided by a small ensemble of bagpipes, a flute, large cymbals, tambourines, and tom-tom drums. The band drives the rhythm to help accelerate the dancers’ wild movements. Chanters will recite words in Tunisian Arabic to plead the demons for mercy. Some women will express a variety of erotic gestures. Invariably, within about 10 minutes, the group of women will get into a trance as they continue their body movements and scream, shake or tremble. The violent movements and raw expressions of emotion of the dancers are attributed to demonic possession. At the end of the dance many of them fall to the ground exhausted. Later, they will have no memory of their convulsive, immodest, even violent movements. The women generally report that they felt their soul left them during the dance, that some other force was moving their bodies, and that the demons entered their bodies and talked through their mouths, saying why they were upset. Usually a sacrifice of an animal, such as a cock, is made so satisfy the needs of the angry demons, and the blood is spread onto the hands of the dancers. Sometimes the Tunisian Jews in Israel will use the dance ceremony at festive events such as a bar mitzvah or a wedding, in which the hosts dance to dispel the evil eye on the part of guests. The prevalence of this cathartic dance might be explained by the fact that Tunisian Jews were immersed in the Arab cultural norm of what is called musayara-concealing one’s true feelings and speaking and behaving in a way that is socially acceptable. People in this and other Arab cultures are normally constrained from expressing painful problems or anger, and are expected to conform to a sedate regime of behavior. Disclosure of personal feelings or discussing personal conflicts will lead to disgrace and shame. Of course there are exceptions, but generally, from early childhood, Arabs learn to sacrifice their individuality and identify with the family unit as the main source of security and support. As a result, many become detached from their true emotions and needs. The dance ritual enables women to have a cathartic experience, to go wild, to behave in a lewd manner, without being “personally” responsible, in that the demons are said to take over during the trance state. They get to discharge repressed, stored tension, resulting in euphoria. In addition, the expression of anger, however slight, is thought to make the demons unhappy and to bring about bad luck or illness, for which the Stambali dance ritual has long been a means of cure. FEMALE POWERLESSNESS AND TRANCE-POSSESSION As we saw in the Stambali dance ritual, possession might be a way of engaging in bizarre behavior in a socially approved context, and in a way that also produces a release of pent-up emotions. Prince (1974) argues that the possessing spirit takes control of the person’s behavior “in a manner that would otherwise be socially unacceptable (change in sex rule, eating dirt, tearing animals apart with the teeth, etc.)...” (p. 316). In many parts of the world it is normative for women to occasionally fall into a trance or possession state as a kind of protest or a way of seeking redress for their feelings of powerlessness and low status. In these cultures ritualized possession states are almost the only way in which women can escape from difficult domestic strife and at the same time achieve social prestige. As in the Stambali dance ritual, these episodes provide a cathartic release of suppressed impulses. In Sri Lanka, for example, as researched by Wijesinghe and Dissanayake (1976), there is a benign form of possession that women will fall into as a “useful” way of handling stressful situations (We will see more examples



of this in chapter 19, “Culture-Bound Syndromes”). A housewife might fall into a possession state as a result of drunken rages of her husband. During the episode, she might sharply berate her husband in a way that she would never have the nerve to do in ordinary circumstances. Later she might say she was possessed by her grandmother’s spirit who shouted through her to her husband for his drinking and ill-treatment of his wife. Or, a widow might be unable to handle her family’s business and becomes possessed by her husband’s spirit, who calls out to friends and relatives to help her in the situation. Thus, this type of possession is explained in terms of the “catharsis model,” where psychological conflict, particularly over power relations, erupt. Ackerman (1981) found that these states are “disguised attempts at selfassertion on the part of deprived groups, particularly women,” and are “a culturally sanctioned form of rebellion against role frustrations, enabling disruptive tensions to be discharged in a manner that preserves group solidarity” (p. 90). TRANCE-POSSESSION AND CHARISMATIC RELIGIOUS SERVICES Trance and possession states are a normal part of religious experience in Pentecostal, Revivalistic and other charismatic Christian religious services. The power that takes over the celebrant may talk, do divining, deliver messages, give advice, produce healing and so forth. Christianity and many other religions embrace the idea of healing through divine intervention. Since the time of Christ, the efficacy of prayers for miraculous healing have been documented again and again in proceedings for the canonization of saints. Many other religions, such as Christian Science, firmly adhere to the doctrine of faith healing. In modern society, trance and possession states are regularly seen in services of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, a movement within the Roman Catholic Church. Csordas (1998) found that participants in this movement integrate Pentecostal elements, including the experience of being infused with the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues as a form of prayer (glossalalia), and laying on of hands for the relief of physical or emotional illness or for deliverance from demons or evil spirits. The healing rituals occur at large group-healing services or in small groups or private sessions. Priests and laymen participate as healing ministers. The movement adopts the view that the power to heal comes from spiritual gifts, or charisms, granted by God. Healers seek to tap into what they call discernment, or divinely heightened intuition, a divinely inspired ability to understand people and their issues. The healing etiology is somewhat similar as to that of shamans-finding out what sort of disruption or imbalance has caused the problem, and then set things right again. To charismatics, the main sources of illness are evil spirits and deceased ancestors, the latter who can pass down illnesses to successive generations. In cases where ancestors are thought to be the source of illness, a healing prayer is conducted, similar to praying for the souls of the dead, in an effort to actually heal the dead, and thereby sever their negative influence. This is similar to the practice in primitive cultures to appease the spirits of the dead and encourage them to move on and refrain from further bothering the supplicant. The charismatics also say that one can personally get rid of negative emotions by commanding them to leave one’s body in the name of Jesus Christ-a kind of mini exorcism. Pentecostalism is a worldwide Christian movement emphasizing a personal relationship between oneself and the Holy Spirit, in which people seek “gifts of the spirit,” and where spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, are said to be manifestations of the Holy Spirit, as was manifested within the early Christian community when the Apostles performed numerous miracles. There are nine gifts of the Holy Spirit: prophecy, tongues, healing, faith, interpretation, discernment, wisdom, miracles, and knowledge. In Malaysia there is a Pentecostal Catholic movement centered in Kuala Lumpur. In their worship services it is customary for a large portion of the congregation to engage in ecstatic behaviors, including falling into trance or possession states and speaking in tongues. There seems to be a “contagious” aspect, in which the state spreads from one person to another until a large portion of the congregation is taken up.


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In cultures where Pentecostalism is popular, folk beliefs are often melded into the religious ceremonies. This is seen not only in Malaysia, but in Brazil and Trinidad as well (Ackerman, 1981). Also in Malaysia, there is a long-standing trance festival called Thaipusam, in honor of Murugan, a pre-Aryan Dravidian deity important in Hindu worship in Tamil Nadu, India. The Indian population in Malaysia is primarily from Tamil Nadu, and this has become the most important festival of the Hindu Indian population in Malaysia. In studying this trance festival, Simons, Ervin and Prince (1988) made numerous findings. This is not a healing ritual, but an offering of thanks. Participants offer their worship to Lord Muruga to fulfill a vow made in times of illness or other distress. During the worship they enter a trance state during which they allow priests to pierce their bodies with special hooks and needles, which represent Murugan’s weapon and emblem. Devotees will go into a training session with a guru a couple of weeks before the festival, to practice getting into a trance state. In the trance state most devotees feel no pain and have no bleeding from the piercings. They regard the trance to be a sign that the god has entered their bodies and accepted the worshipper as a suitable supplicant. Once the hooks and needles are applied, the devotees, accompanied by drummers and singers, walk 272 steps up into the Batu Cave temple on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur for a final act of worship. Most devotees report amnesia for the time they were in a trance. A motion picture about this festival is called Floating in the Air, Followed by the Wind. A kind of healing rite consisting of fire-handling is prevalent among Pentecostal churches in the Appalachian region of the U.S. These churches are fundamentalist in theology, and hold that the use of fire is crucial in worship services. Worshippers who participate in the fire-handling rite will go into a trance state, and report that they feel numbness in their limbs and other parts of their bodies. They believe that in this rite they are being possessed by the Holy Spirit. As reported by Kane (1982), worshippers who partake in the rite will hold a burning torch against their exposed arms, hands, feet or neck for 5 to 15 seconds, then extinguish the wick with their fingers. They might have soot stains from the flames, but they do not experience any pain or discomfort and close scrutiny of their skin shows no evidence of any singeing or tissue damage. How this is possible is something that eludes modern science. Each of the healing systems discussed attend to the human condition differently, with different ritual elements, but in all instances there is an element of the sacred, of the invocation of divine power, or of help from the spiritual world. EXTREME INVOLUNTARY POSSESSION: DEMONIC POSSESSION AND EXORCISM Extreme, involuntary possession by demonic or other evil forces is a worldwide phenomenon. In the West, possession was brought to a frightening popular awareness in the 1970s movie, The Exorcist, which was based on a true story. As discussed below, the Catholic Church has an ancient Rite of Exorcism, which only a very small number of priests are authorized to perform. Anyone can look up the complete text of this Rite on the Internet. Symptoms of evil possession include violent, aggressive behavior, a distinct experience of being controlled by an alien force, a change of voice, convulsions, intermittent states of unconsciousness, superhuman strength, and obscene behavior. This is in sharp contrast to positive spirit possession, which as we have seen is usually sought after or invited, and is characterized by ecstatic behaviors, astral travel, talking in tongues, prophecy, healing, clairvoyance, etc. During the witch mania that seized Europe, England and the American colonies, victims would exhibit symptoms of demonic possession, which were thought to be caused by witches. The bewitched exhibited bodily contortions and convulsions, clairvoyance, uttered obscenities and blasphemies, performed great feats of strength, vomited foreign objects, were insensitive to pain, had knowledge of previously unknown foreign languages, spoke in strange voices, and expressed horror and revulsion at sacred things or the words of Scripture. A famous example of demonic possession occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, when a group of girls, manifesting various symptoms mentioned above, accused scores of people of harming them by witchcraft. Ultimately 19 of the accused witches were executed.



In the witchcraft trials the victims often give evidence by testifying about a vision they had in which the witch was identified to them. This was known as “spectral” evidence. In England such evidence was admissible well into the 1660s. The victim might report that the accused came to her in an apparition at night and tortured her or urged her to join the devil’s band or else be subject to further harm. Spectral evidence became controversial in the Salem witchcraft trials and ultimately was rejected as unreliable. However, evidence of a person’s “habit and repute,” or “having the reputation of a criminal,” was admissible. Indirect proof was also admissible, including such things as rumor, fame, suspicion, signs, and conjecture. Grotstein (1981) describes evil possession in these terms: [P]art of one’s being has undergone alienation, mystification, and repersonification-in effect has become someone else, an alien presence within... splitting is an act of imagination which bequeaths to the split-off portions of the personality a life-support system with a will to live, which repersonifies this creation in a way that it may well be thought of as someone else... (pp. 11-12). The pattern of involuntary demonic possession is somewhat the same across cultures. Kapferer (1979) found that among the Sinhalese Buddhists of Sri Lanka, any sort of sudden, frightening experience is thought to make people vulnerable to demonic possession. This could be a quarrel at work, a dispute over land or status, a failure to fulfill ritual responsibilities, a political or intercaste feud, and so on (As we will see in chapter 19, “Culture-Bound Syndromes,” there are a number of mental disorders thought to be caused by a sudden fright, but here our focus is involuntary demonic possession). The quarrel or frightening experience does not directly cause demonic possession, but makes one vulnerable to becoming possessed. Following such an experience, a person at risk might get possessed by eating impure foods, attending a funeral, or succumb during puberty initiation rites. One can become vulnerable to evil possession at certain places such as crossroads, wells, river crossings, and cemeteries, particularly if one is alone at these places. Demonic possession can also arise in vulnerable individuals if they are the target of other peoples’ anger, envy or hostility. Even the mere failure to perform customary social obligations can have this result on vulnerable individuals. It is commonly thought that one who becomes demonically possessed is in danger not only to himself, but to others. There is a likelihood that the demon can transfer its evil intentions to others who come into contact with the subject. Thus, people thought to be possessed are kept “quarantined.” Again in Sri Lanka, but much the same in other cultures, signs of demonic possession include an ongoing state of horror and fear, mental disorientation, shaking and trembling. According to Kapferer (1979), demons are thought to have entered into and subordinated the victim by threatening the patient with their unrestrained capricious, lusty, greedy, grasping, and bloodthirsty natures. The patient subordinated to demons is viewed as either actually or potentially given to consuming and overriding thoughts, which concentrate on the terrible and chaotic world of demons, and is seen to view every aspect of participation in the social world of human beings as marked by these frightening specters (p. 115). Kapferer goes on to say that in severe cases, “the patient is understood as having a unidimensional view of his or her social reality in which every action and identity of others is referred to the malign world of demons” (p. 115). It seems intuitive that some types of people are more vulnerable to possession than others, as in the above situation where possession is usually preceded by some sort of frightening event. In many cultures the syndrome known as susto or “soul loss,” produces a number of dissociative symptoms, as we will see in chapter 19. The individual sustains soul loss as a result of some type of frightening experience. Among the Roman Catholic community in Sri Lanka, evil possession is a common occurrence, according to Stirrat (1977), with symptoms that might start with


John Alan Cohan

a run of bad luck; it may be a series of illnesses, each in itself minor; it may be an illness which fails to respond to normal medical treatment; it may be a sudden change in behavior, such as a girl refusing to respect and honor her parents in the normal way or a boy suddenly refusing to go to school or ceasing to do well in exams. Almost anything abnormal can be the first sign of possession (p. 138). Such episodes are followed by fits or trances when the subject is exposed to sacred objects, such as a holy statue or rosary in the case of Catholics, or when entering a church. Stirrat further adds that demons are afraid of the power of the rosary. Only the strongest demons can withstand such power and remain “hidden” or “quiet” while the rosary is being said.... The demon in the body of the subject enters a fit because of the “power” of the religious objects. During the fit, the demon is suffering the fires of hell (pp. 138, 140). Throughout Malaysia demonic possession is a fairly common phenomenon. According to Ackerman (1981), The existence of spirits with the power to influence human well-being by attacking and taking control of a person’s body is an unquestioned aspect of everyday reality for Christians and non-Christians alike. The spirits, in penetrating a human body and possessing the soul within it, are believed to cause physical illness, insanity, or death (p. 92). Throughout the world, certain Catholic priests are authorized by their bishop to perform exorcisms. In Malaysia, cases of demonic possession are so frequent that there is a great demand on Catholic priests to perform the formal Rite of Exorcism. There are not enough priests available to perform exorcism rites on afflicted Catholics. Trained laymen are authorized to perform “deliverances,” that is, the removal of harmful spirits surrounding or oppressing someone rather than being inside a person’s body. This delegation of power frees up time for priests to attend to the hardcore exorcism cases. Malay Catholics generally believe that demonic possession can occur if the individual dabbles with non-Christian supernatural powers or consults occult practitioners, or that it is caused by a sorcerer seeking to control and harm the victim. In Moroccan Muslim culture, as discussed by Bilu (1980), demons known as jnun have a central role in daily life. Demons are thought to enter the person’s body and produce “evil spirit disease.” Morocco-born Jews for the most part have adopted the demonic tradition along with the rest of the population, and those who emigrated to Israel carried with them the belief that various ailments are demonically caused. Symptoms of possession by jnun can take various forms: yelling and screaming while wandering aimlessly, falling down mute and appearing to be comatose (“falling down sickness”), crying incessantly, seeing demons accompanied by overwhelming fear, or other bizarre behavior. Sometimes possessed individuals need to be restrained in order to prevent them from injuring themselves and others. During the episode the possessed, who are usually women, will exhibit extraordinary strength. Sometimes the possessed will speak French, a language with which they are not otherwise conversant. Following possession spells, the subjects usually have amnesia of the episode. In recent years encounters with demons by Morocco-Jewish immigrants have significantly declined, likely because of rapid cultural change, the process of acculturation to the Israeli mainstream, and the emergence of a modernized approach to the status of women. Almost all victims of Moroccan evil possession disease have been women, so one might argue that the symptoms are but another version of possession as a way of dealing with female powerlessness, as we discussed above. The Moroccan jnun possession may simply be a form of female protest of male dominance, a response to role stresses, a sense of status curtailment and cultural inferiority to men. It may be a cathartic acting out of the conflict between the sexes in Moroccan tradition. In many cultures it is believed that demonic possession can occur through sorcery. Someone-an aggrieved or envious individual-will employ a sorcerer who will cast spells to attack the named victim. Stirrat (1977) claims:



The demon who is sent by the sorcerer may find that the actual named victim is too “strong” to be possessed, in which case the demon will attack a “weaker” member of the chosen victim’s household. Thus it is thought that an attack on any named victim is, in effect, an attack on the victim’s whole household. Thus women and children, who are considered “weaker” than men, are more liable to demonic possession, even though the actual sorcery is frequently directed against the men of the house (p. 138). GHOST SICKNESS Numerous cultures report what is called ghost sickness, with very similar symptoms to demonic possession as discussed above. In the DSM-IV-TR Glossary of Culture-Bound Syndromes, ghost sickness is described as a preoccupation with death and the deceased (sometimes associated with witchcraft) frequently observed among members of many American Indian tribes. Various symptoms can be attributed to ghost sickness, including bad dreams, weakness, feelings of danger, loss of appetite, fainting, dizziness, fear, anxiety, hallucinations, loss of consciousness, confusion, feelings of futility, and a sense of suffocation (p. 900). In these cultures ghost sickness-the perception of spirits of the dead by the bereaved-is common, and not seen as a manifestation of a psychotic disorder. It is serious enough, though, because the symptoms are quite disturbing and are treated by a shaman or folk healer. Often the ghost may be seeking to communicate something to the survivor, particularly if there had been death under suspicious circumstances. Ghost sickness is in fact not uncommon among bereaved people regardless of cultural background, although in the West people might be afraid to disclose such experiences for fear of the stigma of psychopathology. Ghost sickness is known, among other places, in India, where many people believe that the soul of a dead person becomes a ghost for a short period of time before passing through a cycle of rebirths. In some instances, this lingering ghost might be malevolent. In ghost sickness, a ghost enters the victim and tries to seize its soul. If successful, the ghost causes death. Symptoms start with a fever, then a voice or voices will speak through the delirious victim. There may be convulsions, involuntary body movements, choking, and difficulty breathing. In more severe cases the victim goes into more dramatic altered states of consciousness, with a voice or voices speaking through him, claiming to be trying to take the victim’s soul. In some cases the victim might try to commit suicide. Amnesia usually follows bouts of ghost illness. In India, the family will take the victim to an exorcist (siyana), shaman, village curer, or doctors practicing Western medicine. Exorcism is done by reciting mantras to call forth supernatural powers to drive the ghost away, placing protective amulets around the patient’s neck, and having the patient inhale fumes from different substances. The exorcist will engage the ghost in conversation, try to identify it (no easy matter), and try to satisfy its wishes or demands so that it will leave voluntarily. The exorcist might verbally berate the ghost, or use physical force such as slapping the victim’s face, to make the ghost leave. Sometimes several ghosts seem to be engaged, particularly if the victim has a number of dead relatives, friends or neighbors. In chapter 16 (“Treatment of the Dead”) we will explore various strategies that people will employ to ward off the unwanted intrusions of ancestral ghosts. “FAMILIARIZATION” A hybrid kind of involuntary possession is known as “familiarization,” that is, possession by a familiar spirit. It has been likened to Multiple Personality Disorder, one of the Dissociative Disorders listed the DSM-IV-TR. The possessing spirit seeks to “come and live with” the subject. If accepted, the spirit becomes the constant and continually present companion of the possessed. The subject is not exactly a “victim” because there is a kind of consent involved.


John Alan Cohan

The symptoms are different from full-blown demonic possession, with no aberrant social behavior, no physical violence, obscene behavior, repugnant smells or other symptoms of demonic possession. Rather, according to Martin (1976), with familiarization the subject and the “other person” remain separate and distinct personalities, but they “share” all experiences-body movements, pain, pleasure, thoughts, memoriessomething like Siamese twins. All privacy is gone, and the subject’s very thoughts are known by the familiar (p. 260). How does this “familiarization” possession get started? Usually the subject starts to see funny faces in windows, often frightening him. Sometimes an odd face will appear in a crowd, then disappear. Eventually there seems to be a “presence,” inside of the individual. Eventually there seems to be a “person” who becomes a constant companion. Again, this seems to be strikingly similar to Multiple Personality Disorder in the West. THE PROCESS OF EVIL POSSESSION It appears that evil possession is of two types-one due to the occult intentions of a witch, and the other caused by the direct action of evil forces on their own, coupled with some vulnerability on the subject’s part. It is theorized that there is free will involved in the process of evil possession. Under this view, demonic possession starts with an “entry point” in which the subject decides, however tenuously or unconsciously, to allow the evil spirit to enter. In this stage the evil spirit seems to appeal to some special interest or avocation of the victim. The victim gets a vague and reassuring sort of feeling. There is a feeling that great things could happen, or new developments could take place, or that one will enjoy some special success if one simply “listens” or thinks along certain lines. At some point there is a choice made that violates the victim’s normal conscience. A second stage manifests when the subject starts to make errors in judgment or makes odd choices in vital matters. This is thought to be a direct result of allowing the presence of the evil spirit. The individual slowly erodes his former sense of idealism, strength, and beauty by making judgments that contravene his values and freedom. Third, there is a “voluntary yielding of control by the possessed person to a force or presence he clearly feels is alien to himself and as a result of which the possessed loses control of his will, and so of his decisions and his actions” (Martin, 1976, p. 436). This may lead to perfect possession. This can take years to accomplish or it may occur swiftly. Consent of the victim is necessary at every stage, according to this view, either verbally or by choice of action. In a study of various people who had been restored to normal functioning after undergoing exorcism, it was found that all of the patients admitted “in retrospect that they knew-whether they acknowledged it vaguely or explicitly”that they had been offered “help” from a diabolical power (Martin, 1976, p. 437). The help that was offered, according to Martin, was always vague, always reassuring. It always alienated them from their surroundings and from those nearest to them.... At some point during this earliest stage there arrives a delicate moment when each person chooses to consider the particular offer made to him or her (p. 437). Once consent is initially given, withdrawal becomes more and more difficult as time goes on. Martin adds that there will be an increasing and finally unremitting pressure to allow an “inner control” by an alien force. This control will affect thoughts, emotions, acts of will, intentions, likes and dislikes.... [Subjects will feel] an eerie “pressure” to allow “someone else” to give them directives; and that “someone else” [is] “inside” them in some way or other (p. 439). After yielding, according to Martin, people will receive “instructions-ready-made judgments and attitudes... even words on their lips and actions in their limbs” (p. 439). There is an ever-growing sense of loss of self-control.



People who are possessed, to whatever degree, may well function efficiently in society, but their consciousness, their words, and often their actions are “taken over” by this alien entity. Many people who are partially possessed and display strange and terrible struggles between their own will and the possessing will-and who start to exhibit repulsive, disquieting and frightening behavior patterns-seek help from doctors and psychiatrists, who rarely succeed in helping them. Treatment with drugs provides perhaps a temporary “remission”-a calming of violence, a stilling of a disquieting “inner voice”-but the subject nonetheless can become progressively worse or end up in a mental institution. Psychiatrists might diagnose Multiple Personality Disorder, but in a case of true possession it is thought that some form of exorcism is the appropriate remedy. TREATMENT OF EVIL POSSESSION Intrusion by undesirable powers is a situation that usually requires expelling the spirits (exorcism), or transforming them into helpful spirits. In cultures where evil possession is recognized people will seek out a shaman, medicineman, priest or other healer to conduct exorcisms to eradicate the evil spirits. In Brazil the Spiritist Church, with 13 million members, conducts depossession work that brings together African and South American Indian elements. The church was given authority to manage a Brazilian government mental institution some years ago, and after a year of treatment, a substantial percentage of patients ended up being discharged. Most cases of evil possession of the Morocco-born Jews discussed above are treated by Morocco-born rabbi-healers who use sacred names and formulae derived from Jewish mysticism. And as was made famous in popular culture in The Exorcist, the Roman Catholic Church has, following Jesus Christ’s example, authorized certain priests to conduct a Rite of Exorcism to expel evil spirits. Morocco-born rabbi-healers will seek to know the demon’s identity. The rabbi will seek to find out the motivation of the demon to inflict this injury, such as retaliation for some offense on the patient’s part. Sometimes the patient will be encouraged to make a verbal apology emphasizing the innocent, unintentional nature of his or her behavior. The demon might require some ritual offering, such as food. The rabbi will try and verbally coax the demon to leave, and if that doesn’t work, will recite special incantations written on pieces of blue linen, and then burn them with demon-repellant herbs (benzoin, rue, and peganum harmala) to “fumigate” the patient. This is supposed to burn and choke the demon. The demon, if it finally agrees to depart, sometimes will want to injure the patient by leaving through an eye, an ear, the mouth or limbs, which would render the patient blind, deaf, lame or paralyzed. The healer seeks to drive the demon out through one of the patient’s big toes, which is thought to be a “safe” departure site. A scar is often produced at the site of the demon’s exit. If the exorcism is successful there is an immediate alteration of the patient’s consciousness. The healer will usually give the patient a personalized amulet to guard against future attacks. PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF INVOLUNTARY POSSESSION There are two divergent views about involuntary possession. One is the traditional view that possession is really a product of an evil force invading the subject’s body and taking control for a time. The other view is simply the cathartic model-that possession is a mental pathology-an “idiom” for the expression of “real” psychological issues. According to Stirrat (1977), “These problems are ‘projected’ into an unreal world of gods and demons which are ‘really’ something else. Explanations of the incidence of form of demonic possession are to be sought in the individual psychologies of the actors concerned” (p. 134). Western psychiatrists are generally skeptical that a negative possession state is caused by spirits, much less a demonic force. Rather, according to Peters (1988), this is explained as an “hysterical psychosis” or a severe case of Multiple Personality Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder. The condition is discussed in terms of impulses, repressed memories, fantasies, an introjection of sadistic impulses and unwanted aspects of the self-so that the individual feels persecuted, i.e., possessed by internal objects that are really dangerous aspects of oneself. Jung (1940) says:


John Alan Cohan

The primitive “perils of the soul” consist mainly of dangers to consciousness. Fascination, bewitchment, loss of soul, possession, and so on are clearly phenomena of dissociation, regression, and suppression of consciousness by unconscious contents (p. 12). Sometimes a possessed person may feel that he not only is possessed, probably due to witchcraft, but that he also has attained certain supernormal powers to harm others. The victim may be a strong believer in witchcraft. He believes that others have magical and exaggerated powers to harm him, and also feels that he too may gain such powers, and thus exaggerates his own ability to do harm. Both of these traits are characteristic of Paranoid Personality Disorder in Western psychiatry (See the section, “Paranoia and Evil Eye Cultures,” in chapter 9, “Envy and the Evil Eye”). However, as we will discuss in chapter 19, Western psychiatry recognizes that, to some extent, mental pathologies regarded as a disorder in the West must be evaluated in the cultural context in which they emerge. Thus, criteria of evaluating personality in a Western industrial society does not necessarily apply equally in a radically different culture. In cultures where beliefs of sorcery and witchcraft are normative, the paranoia hypothesis has little persuasiveness. This chapter has been an overview of trance and possession states-phenomena found in cultures all over the world. There is a great divergence of opinion as to what “causes” various types of trance and possession states. The scientific evidence is clear that human beings are hard-wired so that anyone is susceptible to falling into a trance or possession state. Clearly, shamans and other healers, and participants in charismatic religious healing services seek out trance or possession states, and many people seem to be easily induced to speak in tongues. Are these people “possessed” by the Holy Spirit, or are they caught up in a mass hysteria. No one knows for sure, but Pentecostal and other similar religious movements are extremely popular in many animistic cultures as well as in modern society. Some people are skilled at putting themselves into trances, or may utilize mind altering agencies to help accomplish this. In modern society it is not uncommon for people to seek out the services of a trance-medium or channeler, either to communicate with dead spirits or to channel teachings from the spirit world, and people will go to a hypnotist to induce a trance state to help overcome certain problems or bad habits, or will learn to employ selfhypnosis. There is no clear line marking the boundary between trance and possession. Sometimes shamans will be merely in a trance state; other times they might go into the deeper possession state. A trance state is hard to verify and easy to fake; a possession state is extremely difficult to fake because there are so many secondary features-such as extreme overshadowing of the subject’s personality. In trance or possession states people have been known to perform super-human feats, walk on burning embers, or endure other physical ordeals with no apparent sense of pain or harm. In many cultures trance or possession states are celebrated and are often the focal point in festivals and celebrations. Dance trances are a staple of innumerable cultures, and, in Bali and other places, are a tourist attraction. Perhaps the most controversial issue concerns extreme involuntary possession: Are the subjects really possessed by spirits, benign or evil, or are they manifesting symptoms of psychosis? According to Prince (1974), in a great many cultures the common view is that these cases are signs of “special grace and a desirable state of affairs. Spirit possession indeed was one of the modes of treatment of a mental illness rather than its cause” (pp. 315-316). To hundreds of millions of people in the world, witchcraft is real and people are ever vigilant to guard against hexes lest they become possessed by the witch who wishes to work havoc in their lives. Demonic possession is a real thing in the Roman Catholic faith, so that the formal Rite of Exorcism is employed in cases of extreme involuntary possession that defy medical and psychiatric explanation. It is not likely that the debate as to the causes of possession will be resolved between psychiatrists and people of cultures that embrace magic, sorcery and witchcraft. There are those who believe, for instance, that the persecution of witches that swept Europe centuries ago was a response to a real threat to society, that peoples’ very souls were at stake. On the other hand, Stevens (2003) claims that there are those who view the witch as an “enemy within,” as a scapegoat who carries the collective guilt of the people, and as a focus of group hatred she permitted all ‘decent’ people to remain peacefully unconscious of their



own evil propensities. Her sacrifice at the stake promoted the cohesion of the Christian community by enabling its members (the godly in-group) to reaffirm their allegiance to the ordinances of God (p. 274).

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CHAPTER 12 Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft Abstract. Magic, sorcery and witchcraft-terms often used interchangeably-fulfill many emotional and practical needs in many cultures. Chiefly, magical thinking is a way of coping with uncertainty-to help abate anxiety by seeking the aid of supernatural forces to help solve problems. Magical ceremonies-for healing, to alter the weather, to produce good crops or a successful hunt, to punish wrongdoers, and so on-are part and parcel of the work of shamans, medicine-men and other healing practitioners. When illness strikes, shamans or other healers will invariably determine, before anything else, whether the patient has been subjected to witchcraft. Magical techniques are omnipresent in conventional religions of the world-gifts, offerings, or sacrifices, lighting candles, kissing icons. Magic is rightly feared because it can be used for antisocial or disruptive purposes-to cause illness, death, accidents or misfortune in others. Often the mere threat of sorcery or making known that sorcery has been practiced makes it surprisingly easy to settle a quarrel. A magical spell is said to work through the law of contagion-involving some “essence” or bodily residue of the victim, such as nail clippings, hair, food leavings, an article of clothing, etc. The spell works through the particular medium utilized so as to affect the victim. In many cultures people take great care not to leave nail clippings, hair or food leftovers where any enemy might utilize them for sorcery. It is commonly thought that the victim of witchcraft may well “deserve” the hex as just desserts for some transgression, such as refusal to pay a legitimate debt, unprovoked aggression, or a breach of charity or neighborliness. Accusations of witchcraft in cases of death or illness, may lead to a feud between the victim and the sorcerer, resulting in countermeasures or blood revenge. During the witchcraft trials of Europe, England and the American colonies, people believed that witches were in liege with the Devil, who in turn granted them powers to harm others. In many cultures, vampires and zombies are thought to be real entities. The belief in witchcraft is widespread in modern cultures-people will seek potions, candles and spells to help produce financial success, jobs or other good luck, or one can hire a witch or sorcerer for various intentions such as to attract love, to mend family problems, to cure addictions, to offer help in business, etc. Occult supply stores are found in every urban center selling magical robes, potions, herbs, books, incense, and talismans. In the Southern United States a “hexing culture” is widely prevalent.

THE NEED FOR MAGIC: THE UTILITY OF MAGIC IN ABATING ANXIETY Magical thinking is quite widespread not only in primitive cultures, including many that have adopted Christianity, but also in the industrialized world. Magical thinking is a way of coping with uncertainty. In life, chance and circumstance play a prominent role, we often seem to have little control over events, our destiny, or the environment. Anxiety occurs when we have a desire or goal and don’t quite know how to insure its fulfillment or avert failure. In an uncertain world, when we are engaged in risky activities, when we face a difficult trial or extreme uncertainty, we want to take whatever action is appropriate under the circumstances, but we often think that is not enough-so we will seek the aid of supernatural forces that we believe, whether correctly or superstitiously, can help us along. Thomas (1971) argues: [Magic] lessens anxiety, relieves pent-up frustration, and makes the practitioner feel that he is doing something positive towards the solution of his problem. By its agency he is converted from a helpless bystander into an active agent (p. 775). To shamans, tribal leaders, medicine-men, healers and “big-men” of many different cultures, there is a body of knowledge, comparable to modern scientific knowledge, that people utilize to control circumstances-whether to change the course of bad weather, to cure an illness or insure a safe and successful hunting expedition. When the people believe that a magical ritual will produce a practical result, this relieves their anxiety. A magical ceremony that everyone believes has efficacy insures good luck and bolsters confidence. While magical techniques have been around for thousands of years, and continue to flourish in many cultures-no one can really prove whether the techniques have sound metaphysical basis or whether they are effective as a kind of group autosuggestion. People of all religions pray and make offerings to their gods for good luck, good health, and for other hopes, but often there is some “doubt” as to whether the gods will come to their aid. Coupled with a pervasive sense of being unable to control certain events in life on our own, resort to other means such as magic can become an attraction. John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft


It has been said that “Magic is the science of the jungle” (Jung, 1933, p. 155). In many cultures magical spells are often the principal means of bringing about the desired event. One can go to a magician and achieve some measure of comfort that one’s goal will be achieved-whether it is to attract the love of someone, to defend against the evil eye, to ward off a creditor’s claim, or innumerable other objectives. In modern society athletes will wear lucky charms at the Olympics, and soldiers will do the same in battle. Magical amulets of all types are sold in occult supply stores across the globe (See discussion later in this chapter). Magical rituals are often used to insure a successful hunt, or to appease the gods and insure abundant rains and crops. As such, these rituals serve to abate anxiety in uncertain times when one can’t rely completely upon one’s knowledge and skill. In open-sea fishing, for instance, some ritual would be desirable, but not in lagoon fishing, where the abundancy of fish means one can rely on oneself without ex deus intervention. According to Lindquist (2000), magic is a way of exerting power in the world like other strategies, from persuasion to coercion to raw violence.... Magical practices are a part of agentive action on the world, to bend or control its structures in the contexts where other modes of action (technological, legal, communal, etc.) are hampered or insufficiently provided.” (p. 316) According to Freud, the magical thinking underlying beliefs such as evil eye involve “omnipotence of thought” and “projection of a wish.” In the face of stressful situations one tends to regress into infantile attitudes, one becomes preoccupied with one’s well-being, and there is a pull towards magical thinking, which to Freud is a form of infantile omnipotence. Magical thinking of course also manifests to explain ill-fortune, particularly in cultures that are technologically and medically underdeveloped. Unexpected disasters-the sudden death of a child, the loss of a pig, an accident, crop failure-have an “obvious” explanation: the influence of a malevolent neighbor, an angry ancestor, or the violation of a taboo. For a remedy, one will seek out the services of a shaman, witch-doctor or other practitioner who will employ magical techniques to detect the cause and provide a remedy. Even in communities where there are many Christian converts, such as in Papua New Guinea, people retain magical thinking, with the idea that God can be called upon to punish a wrongdoer. Hogbin (1935c) found that Another interesting carry-over from the old religion is that if a man fancies that someone has injured him he is apt, instead of performing magic to cause misfortune to overtake him, to pray that God will afflict him. This practice is naturally frowned upon by missionaries (p. 22). It is not uncommon in modern society for people to believe that natural disasters are punishments from God for sins. We touched upon this in chapter 5 in the section on “Animism and Natural Disasters.” In our own culture we still ascribe out-of-the ordinary phenomena to “acts of God,” and insurance policies invariably contain “acts of God” clauses that limit liability in disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, or wars. Magic is usually compartmentalized, one specialist providing for the abundance of crops, another for the swiftness of a canoe, another providing revenge against an enemy, another for the success of a hunting or warring expedition. Magical ritual is sometimes “combined with practical techniques, as, for example, when vegetables are carefully planted and watered, but also encouraged by the recitation of charms” (Thomas, 1971, p. 774-775). This is just as it is in modern society: We will perform the ordinary tasks necessary and proper to attaining our goal, but also turn to some magical technique to help insure success. A magical technique need not be elaborate, and many of us practice such techniques on a daily basis. Just carrying a rabbit’s foot, wearing a religious symbol, or displaying a good luck charm on one’s rearview mirror, qualifies as magic. In many cultures, all gardening and crop activities are dependent on proper ritual and magic. In Papua New Guinea, for example, magic is important in all aspects of life. Magical rites and spells are used not only for “good” but also for “evil,” and indeed such ends are simply different aspects of the same phenomenon. Malinowski (1965) says:


John Alan Cohan

Magic is conceived by the Trobrianders as an intrinsic element in everything which vitally affects man and his destinies. Magic is not a thing which could ever have been invented by man. It is believed to have emerged with the first ancestors of man from underground. There it always existed. Its origins are as little a matter for speculation as the origins of mankind or of the world. The words of the spell, the form of the ritual, the very substance used in it, are coexistent from the very beginning with the things or natural processes over which they exercise a power. Magic then is a traditionally established power of man over certain natural processes, over some human activities or over other human beings (pp. 444-445). Since planting of seeds is a matter of such great importance to these people, for this determines how well the crops will grow and how edible they will be-there are rules governing this activity. Field work conducted among the Kwoma by Whiting and Reed (1938) revealed that usually only men of the highest status may plant yams or other important edibles. Magical rituals connected to growing of crops invariably have sex and food taboos associated with them. The day before planting the man must eat only of a special soup that it is believed would kill women or children who tasted it. And until the first shoots appear he may not chew areca nut and if he wishes to smoke he must hold the cigarette in tweezers after another has rolled it for him. A yam garden is endangered if its owner engages in sexual intercourse or if any of his helpers have been otherwise occupied. Any direct or indirect contact with female genitals is harmful to yams. If despite all precautions there is a crop failure, it will be attributed to sorcery. MAGIC AND CONVENTIONAL RELIGION Magical thinking is actually widespread among practitioners of conventional religions of the world. There is a tendency in all religions to have some type of oblation-gifts, offerings, or sacrifices, as a way of interacting with the supernatural. The supernatural can be “manipulated,” that is, to a limited degree can be influenced by certain symbolic acts. The magician was in many societies identical with the priest (Babylonia; Australia). The distinction between magician and priest is hard to make. The priest’s functions comes into play once there is some sort of religious belief system. Between the magician and “client” there is no lasting bond as among believers in the same faith or observers of the same cult; the magician has a “clientele”, not a church. Priests of various religions are thought to have a definite relationship between the deity in question and the community. The office of the priest is to propitiate the gods and act as their mouthpiece. Priests have a kind of divine authority and are regarded, at least to some extent, as sacred individuals. Religious rituals are often magical in procedure, sometimes having religious purposes-such as communion with God, and sometimes having definite practical purpose. For instance, in Catholic faith touching one’s hand to a saint’s statute, kissing the icon, lighting a candle-have magical overtones. These are heartily approved by religious authorities, and seem to be aimed at largely for practical effects, much the same motivation as with magical rites in primitive cultures. Even the central part of the Mass-in which the priest pronounces the words of consecration that causes transubstantiation and the resulting communion with God-is not different in any straightforward way from magical rites in primitive cultures (Granted, the purpose of transubstantiation is a religious result-communion with God, while most magical practices in nonreligious contexts are aimed at producing practical results). Masses today are said for an individual’s “special intention,” so that the mere performance of the Mass is thought to have temporal benefits contemplated by the individual for whom it is said. And other Catholic rituals are aimed at practical results, such as processions with the priest around the village to bless the crops-Rogation Day. Nature and morality are mutually dependent: that is, one needs to fulfill the ceremonies which tradition requires so as to help produce the ultimate results. Other religious rituals-again, magical in nature-pertain to ridding people of uncleanness, atonement for sins-the idea being that misbehavior can be transformed or purified in the ritual (Homans, 1941). Of course, not all religious rituals involve magic, but at the same time religious rituals of all kinds are thought by the faithful to be a way of abating their sense of danger, for participants can appeal to a supernatural power to protect themselves. This same principle applies in ordinary prayer of all faiths, where one appeals to one’s God.



WHITE MAGIC, BLACK MAGIC In more primitive groups what counts is the collective, not the individual; community is everything, and the religion is likewise collectivist. There is no such thing as a private religion. Clodd (1920) claimed that Magic, on the other hand, is antisocial and disruptive. The sorcerer acts alone; he works for his own ends. Now and again he serves the common weal, as when, by his spells, he inspires the tribe against the foe, or makes believe to control the wind and weather. But, practically, his arts are directed against the individual (p. 7). In popular culture magic is viewed as either white magic or black magic, the distinction depending on the magician’s motive. White magic is used for healing, or to produce good results in a hunt, in gardening, to produce favorable weather, or for other good motives. Black magic is used to cause illness, death, accidents or misfortune in others. Some areas may seem controversial and perhaps defy categorization: defeating an enemy, for instance, or success in warfare, or magic to induce someone to fall in love with you. For those seeking the downfall of the enemy, this may seem like a “good” purpose, but to the victim, it will seem to be black magic. In black magic, the practitioner-whether called a witch or sorcerer-will seek to mysteriously injure other people, either by physical injury or bringing about their death. A witch might also kill or injure farm animals or interfere with nature by preventing cows from giving milk, or by frustrating domestic operations such as making butter, cheese, or beer, or of interfering with the weather or frustrating sexual relations between people. Witches are often as it were “hired guns” who can be commissioned to cast spells to harm or even kill the victim. One might hire a witch or sorcerer prompted by sexual jealousy or envy of another person’s economic success. And sometimes a witch might simply make someone ill or cause someone’s death just for the sport of it. Since the effects of witchcraft cannot be known until the misfortune strikes, people might live in a perpetual uneasiness where it is impossible to tell beforehand when a misfortune might strike. Bewitching can be used to avenge every kind of real or fancied wrong, or for spite, so as to drive away fish from the enemy’s canoe, make wild pigs break through and eat his crop, cause his taro to shrivel up, etc. This might be employed against one’s wife’s lover, a recalcitrant debtor, a woman who has spurned one’s advances, against a rival suitor, or just because one is envious of someone. Perhaps the availability of magic for vengeance in some respects serves as a sanction backing up certain rules of conduct (e.g., to pay one’s debts) (See discussion of “Just Deserts,” below). White magic, such as to insure a successful hunt-is usually performed before the entire group. But black magic is usually performed in secret, rather than publicly announced or taunted to one’s enemy’s face. According to Hogbin (1935c), this enables a man to relieve his feelings when he is angry at an affront with the minimum of social disturbance. It gives him a chance to regain his equilibrium and at the same time preserve his own high opinion of himself intact. It is a safeguard for the personality which causes no inconvenience to anyone. In other words, it is the perfect safety valve (p. 11). However, Todd (1935) found that in parts of New Britain of Papua New Guinea, sorcery is usually made known to the victim rather than done in secret, as this is thought to be more effective. In fact, the mere threat of sorcery or making known that sorcery has been practiced makes it surprisingly easy to settle a quarrel or put an end to antisocial behavior. In the many cultures that are vigilant to protect against black magic, people safeguard themselves by always going about in couples, and never venturing far at nighttime. Also, people take great care to not eat before strangers, and to carefully dispose of their food scraps so that a witch or sorcerer might not gather it up and use for a hex. “Even when he is casually chewing betel a man is always careful to retain the husk of his areca nut until he can burn it on his own fire” (Hogbin, 1935c, p. 21).


John Alan Cohan

DISTINCTION BETWEEN WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY Practitioners of magic come under various names. Shamans to some extent utilize magic. So do witch-doctors and other healers. In anthropological literature the terms “witchcraft” and “sorcery” are often used interchangeably. Generally, these two terms have fundamentally the same meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary defines sorcery as “The use of magic or enchantment; the practice of magic arts; witchcraft” (Murray et al., 1989, vol. XVI, p. 16). It defines witchcraft as “The practices of a witch or witches; the exercise of supernatural power supposed to be possessed by persons in league with the devil or evil spirits” (Murray et al., 1989, vol. XX, p. 439). It defines witch as “A female magician, sorceress; in later use esp. a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits and to be able by their cooperation to perform supernatural acts” (Murray et al., 1989, vol XX, p. 439). In Western history, witchcraft became the favored term and the term used in the English common law, but still, sorcery is somewhat synonymous. As we will see, witchcraft was thought of as a Christian heresy, and witches were thought to be people-usually older, eccentric, unattractive spinsters or widows-who partook of Devil-worship. Witchcraft was always thought of as harmful or black magic (See discussion below, “Witchcraft Mania”). One important point is that a “witch” or “sorcerer” can denote a a benevolent magician, who utilizes magic to heal or provide for the well-being of the client or the community-or a malevolent one who bewitches others so that harm will come upon them. It entirely depends on the context as to whether the object is black magic or white magic. Even shamans are at times accused of using their powers to harm enemies rather than for good. Still, in some quarters an effort is made to make a distinction between sorcery and witchcraft. According to Reay (1976), among the Kuma people of Papua New Guinea, sorcery and witchcraft are distinguished this way: Sorcery is a manly martial art, practised by a select few and directed solely against the clan’s enemies. It is known as “war magic,” an expression which uses the term for all benevolent magic. Sorcerers practise on behalf of their clan, so group members respect them and may even hold them in some awe but have no reason to fear them. They conduct their rites and sacrifices in strictest privacy, but their identity is well known. They openly claim or acknowledge credit for particular enemy deaths.... Witchcraft is the reverse of war sorcery in nearly every way. Witches may be male or female, but are more usually male. They are not men of standing, as sorcerers are, but are either rubbishmen or men of little account. Whereas a sorcerer subjects himself to a stern discipline of taboos and fasting,... a witch is lazy and inefficient and lacks both the energy and interest to be a credible citizen. Further, a witch acts solely against members of his own community and his identity has to be ferreted out by exhaustive public and private enquiry (pp. 1-2). Thus, the main distinction in that culture is that a sorcerer is loyal to the community by casting spells on enemies of the tribe, while a witch, by acting against his own people, is viewed as a traitor. Witches are thought to be possessed by a cannibalistic spirit that drives them to kill humans, exhume their corpses, then cook and eat them to satisfy this irresistible drive. Some other distinctions might be made, somewhat in generalities, and keeping in mind that the two terms are for the most part interchangeable and context dependent. Some think that sorcery is a learned technique, and witchcraft is an inherent ability, even an involuntary personal trait. The witch operates by innate mystical powers, with no need for words, incantations, rites, spells or potions. Thus, a witch can “cast a spell” by sheer force of will, without the use of any “aids.” Sorcery, on the other hand, can be practiced by anyone by using magical techniques, charms, spells, fetishes, incantations or potions. Sorcery can be conducted by anyone who learns the correct formula or magical techniques (e.g., image- magic, animal familiars, curses, fetishes). In many contexts witchcraft carries with it the notion of doing evil, and in the persecutions that swept Europe and America well into the 18th century, witches were thought to have made a pact with the Devil, and were brought to trial or tortured into confessing their guilt. Between 1450 and 1750 somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 persons, the great majority of them women, were tried for this offense in Europe, and more than half of those tried were executed, usually by burning at the stake (Levack, 1995, p. 1614). Witches during the European witch mania



were thought to be motivated by a kind of cannibalism, so that by bewitching others, the witch gained the victim’s life force and thus became more powerful. IMITATIVE MAGIC. HOW DOES MAGIC WORK? The efficacy of magic is not susceptible to scientific analysis any more than the belief in the existence of God is. But many things in life are in this category: as to whether the soul really exists science has nothing to say-yet billions of people believe they have souls. Magic usually, but not always, involves the bringing about of a desired end without the intervention of any supernatural forces, but employs spells, curses, evil thoughts or prayers, specific rites, or the use of special objects or potions to transmit the magic. In some instances involving black magic, the magician will specifically call upon an evil, supernatural force to aid in the matter, or use some object of the victim to aid in casting a spell. But black magic does not necessarily involve causing another person to be possessed by evil spirits; rather, it may simply involve the employment of some occult means of doing harm in a way which is generally disapproved of. Magic as a force is a kind of mana that carries the power of the spell. Mana acts through some agency, whether the words uttered by the magician, or by some agency or substance through which the spell is transmitted. Magic is something like reasoning by analogy, or by resemblance. Tylor (1896) offers this view: The North American Indian, eager to kill a bear to-morrow, will hang up a rude grass image of one and shoot it, reckoning that this symbolic act will make the real one happen. The Australians at a burial, to know in what direction they may find the wicked sorcerer who has killed their friend, will take as their omen the direction of the flames of the grave-fire. The Zulu who has to buy cattle may be seen chewing a bit of wood, in order to soften the hard heart of the seller he is dealing with (p. 340). In magic, shooting the image of the bear is like shooting the real bear, or mutilating a figure of an enemy is like killing the enemy. As in the Zulu example above, sometimes a spell can be given a little extra “kick” by the use of some potent substance. In reciting a spell for gardening, the magician might chew a strong herb such as ginger to infuse some extra pep into the spell, and then spit it out over the garden. Often we see the term “imitative magic.” The essence of imitative magic is to recite a spell or perform a ritual that somehow, perhaps symbolically, resembles, the wished-for result. The magician manipulates resemblance-symbols in order to “imitate” the intended result. Part of the spell might consist of straightforward statements of the hoped-for results-e.g., the magician might clearly state the species of animals that the hunters will catch, and the places-hills, valleys, etc.-where the animals are expected to be found. Other parts of the spell might consist of indirect, figurative, symbolic language. For instance, in a fighting spell the magician might compare the enemy to bunches of ripe bananas ready to be cut down. Or, in reciting a hunting spell the hunter might identify himself with-indeed impersonate-a bird of prey swooping down on the surprised and terrified enemy. Or, he might imitate a pandanus tree-as being silent, motionless and scentless, as the hunter will be in an ambush. But the essence of imitative magic is that the spell sets forth the hoped-for result as if it were sure to happen. Imitative magic is in essence the central element in the myriads of books on how to manifest abundance in one’s life-essentially incorporating the primitive art of imitative magic. In Western New Age groups people engage in guided visualization practices, with a typical exercise being to “throw” personal problems-fears, worry, anger, etc.into what you visualize to be a ring of fire, with the belief that the fire will consume the unwanted situation. People in a group might be told “to see the fire grow hotter... and turn to an intense light-the light of love-a pure white circle of light, which floats to the heart area and radiates love to all” (McGuire, 1983, p. 232). There are “laws” by which imitative magic works: the “law of similarity” and the “law of contagion.” The law of similarity holds that things that resemble each other in appearance or distinctive features also share more basic


John Alan Cohan

properties. Thus, one similar object in effect “equals” another object of the same sort, and the one can influence the other. An example of the law of similarity is the common practice of taking an effigy of one’s intended victim (e.g., a voodoo doll) and damaging it or burning it in some way, thereby bringing about similar effects in the victim, or making an effigy of the victim and sticking pins in it, or writing the victim’s name on a piece of paper and burning it. The idea is that this is a substitute for harming the person depicted by the effigy. The law of contagion involves the use of some “essence” or bodily residue of the victim, such as nail clippings, hair, food leavings, blood, saliva, a footprint, an article of clothing, etc. The magical hex works through the particular medium utilized so as to affect the victim. With the law of contagion, “...through contact, some ‘essence’ or ‘soul stuff,’ some as yet undefined contagious entity, may be transmitted. The transfer of properties or influence is accomplished through this ‘stuff’” (Nemeroff & Rozin, 1994, p. 159). One might utter a spell into the particular object, which becomes “charmed,” and transmits its potency to the victim at a distance, or bury the victim’s clothing or fingernail pairings. According to Lindenbaum (1971), in the Fore culture of Papua New Guinea a sorcerer will steal some physical particle intimately associated with the victim, such as food remnants, fragments of clothing, hair, nail clippings, excrement. He makes a bundle with a sorcerer’s stone-tying the components together with a vine. He then utters a spell, beats the bundle with a stick, calls the victim by name and says, “I break the bones of your legs, I break the bones of your feet, I break the bones of your arms, I break the bones of your hands, and finally I make you die” (p. 281). He then places the bundle in muddy ground, and as the bundle rots, so the victim’s health deteriorates. Other sorcery methods are used as well: making sharp little needles from pig bones, cassowary or possum, then folding them into certain leaves. The sorcerer will then light a pipe, call the name of the victim, and blow smoke across the bundle. The little nails fly from the bundle into the body of the victim, who falls ill with sharp chest and body pains. Lindenbaum found that people take great care not to leave nail clippings or hair, and use deep pit latrines so as to avoid sorcery. When there are hostile groups one will refuse to eat food in the other parish because of the sense of mistrust. When people move from an old house they take particular care not to leave behind old fragments of clothing. They wash blood from the placenta after childbirth and throw it into a latrine; scrape the ground where blood fell to remove any trace, and burn the umbilical cord. During hostilities, men guard the water holes of their tribe to prevent enemy sorcerers from contaminating them. Sometimes the efficacy of black magic depends on some physical contact with the victim, such as touching or giving out a potent but invisible emanation from the magician’s eyes. In many cultures people are all but paranoid about who prepares their food, lest some spell be cast over it to harm them. In Papua New Guinea, Stanhope (1968) found that “wives wishing to kill their husbands may do so by passing prepared food between their legs while menstruating, and then serving it to the husband” (p. 139), a powerful form of sorcery. SORCERY FEUDS Witchcraft and sorcery accusations serve the function not only of explaining misfortune but also of eliminating socially undesirable people or one’s personal rivals. In cases of death where witchcraft or sorcery is suspected, people will invariably look to members of an out-group to blame. A common institution in such cultures is the “sorcery feud,” which refers to acts of retaliation between clans in such cases. Often this occurs between groups that have pre-existing hostile relations. In a sorcery feud one clan will retaliate for suspected sorcery with acts of violence, or there may be vengeance by counter-sorcery. Unless the death is appeased by wergild or some other means (see discussion of wergild in chapter 15, “Dealing with Conflicts, Aggressive Impulses, Enemies and War”), the aggrieved group might plan an attack in which as much damage as possible is inflicted upon the alleged sorcerer and his group. At times allegations of sorcery might be directed against an in-group member, a scapegoat who perhaps has alienated people through frequent antisocial behavior or neglect of duties, or a political rival of the deceased (assuming that the deceased was someone of importance) (Levack, 1995).



WITCHCRAFT MANIA IN ENGLAND AND EUROPE. As society becomes more “civilized,” the witch becomes an outlaw and is at the mercy of the strong arm of the law. In Europe and England from medieval times through the Elizabethean period, witchcraft was a crime. Witchcraft laws were enacted to quiet the public nerves. Witchcraft in that period differed from that of primitive cultures with the notion that witches owed their powers to an explicit pact made with the Devil. Thus, witchcraft, apart from the damage it did to people, had a heretical character-Devil-worship, and was a Christian heresy, the greatest of all sins, because it involved the renunciation of God and a deliberate adherence to his greatest enemy. In return for her promise of allegiance, the witch was given some kind of supernatural or mysterious power to inflict physical harm or misfortune upon her enemies. Witches were invariably older spinsters or widows who were thought to hold grudges against other villagers. Witchcraft in the European context was always thought of as harmful or black magic. Witches might use various methods for destroying those upon whom they preyed, usually a spell or a curse. Witches could murder their enemies, cause accidents such as falling trees that killed people, inflict illness on children, kill cattle, start fires, and cause sexual impotence in bridegrooms. Stealing the spirit of individuals was a main goal of witchcraft, with the motivation being that acquiring another’s spirit adds years to the witch’s life. This was perhaps why old people, particularly old women, were so often suspected of witchcraft. They had a motivation to “steal” someone else’s life. Sometimes stealing of another’s spirit was thought of as a kind of “spiritual cannibalism,” in that the spirit or life force of the victim is “consumed.” Even if a witch was not successful in harming others, merely being a witch constituted Devil worship, i.e., having a compact with the Devil-and it was supposed that covens of witches worshiped their master at nocturnal orgies known as sabbaths-and was punishable by the death sentence. Both ecclesiastical and secular authorities declared witchcraft to be a crime, and between 100,000 to 200,000 people, the great majority of them women, were tried for this offense between 1450 and 1750. More than half of those tried were executed, usually by burning at the stake. In 1542, in England, it was made a felony (and therefore a capital offense) to conjure spirits or to practice witchcraft, enchantment or sorcery, in order to find treasure; to waste or destroy a person’s body, limbs, or goods; to provoke to unlawful law; to declare what had happened to stolen goods; or “for any other unlawful intent or purpose” (Thomas, 1971, p. 525). The law at that point made it a crime to commit overt acts of witchcraft rather than merely making a compact with the Devil as such. However, in 1559 a second Act of Parliament, more severe, made it a felony to invoke evil spirits for any purpose whatsoever. However, witchcraft, enchantment, charming and sorcery were capital felonies only if they actually resulted in the death of a human victim. A third and final witchcraft statute, of 1604, adopted the full doctrine then in effect in continental Europe making it a felony to invoke evil spirits even if the victim was only injured; and death was the penalty for a second offense in case of lesser kinds of magic, involving treasure, lost goods, unlawful love, destroying cattle, etc. It also made it a felony to “consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit to or for any intent or purpose” (Thomas, 1971, p. 526). This Act assumed that it might be possible, say, to destroy a neighbor’s cattle by magical means without necessarily having made any diabolical pact. The 1604 statute remained law until it was repealed in 1736. Prosecutions in England focused primarily on antisocial acts of witches, casting of spells to cause damage, rather than allegations of Devil-worship. In some cultures witches are thought to have the power to change themselves into the appearance of certain animals such as leopards, wild cows, goats, snakes, or trees, or and so on. In chapter 8 we noted that shamans are also known for their ability to do this.


John Alan Cohan

WITCHCRAFT: THE SOURCE OF ILLNESS, CALAMITY OR OTHER MISFORTUNE. Magical thinking holds that there is an “unseen hand,” an invisible world, that animates natural events. Most primitive people believe that all illnesses, with the exception of minor complaints such as toothache, indigestion or colds, have non-natural causes, either witchcraft, sorcery, the violation of a taboo, or action that has roused the anger of ancestors. A bad weather pattern, a snake bite, a hunting accident or other calamity-for the most part misfortunes of all kindshave supernatural causes. An accident is not just an accident. Witchcraft or sorcery is particularly thought to be responsible in cases of death preceded by a very short illness. Even the deaths of elderly people are invariably blamed on some supernatural agency, usually witchcraft or sorcery. In these cultures, when illness strikes, attention first turns to whether one has unwittingly angered someone else in the community who, in turn, has done some magic to cause the illness. A belief in witchcraft makes it intelligible, and gives confidence that, since an illness is due to human agency, it can also be cured by countermeasures. Also, the belief that a witch is responsible gives the victim, relatives and friends a scapegoat on which to focus their anger or indignation concerning the illness. In cases where witchcraft or sorcery is ruled out, still a supernatural cause is thought to be at work. The alternative is that the patient brought the ills upon himself by violation of some taboo, or an ancestor has caused the illness in response to something the patient has done that offends the ancestor. If there is violation of some taboo, it is the intention of the spirits inhabiting the trees, vines, bamboos, water, or rocks in the spirit places to punish the individual, for he is deserving of punishment, and thus counter-spells might be ineffective. In cases of the death of children who are too young to break taboos, their death is usually attributed to witchcraft worked against the parents or to some taboo violation committed on their part. As found by Benedict (1934), among the Dobu people of the d’Entrecasteaux group off eastern Papua New Guinea, sorcery and witchcraft are not criminal but are valued traits; one can’t exist without them. People own disease charms, each for a specific disease, and one “owns” the incantation that goes along with them for inflicting as well as for removing afflictions. Some might have a monopoly over charms for certain diseases and hence own the power to cure them. The charms make the owners powerful. Benedict argued: The Dobuan does not risk making a public challenge when he wishes to injure a person. He is obsequious and redoubles the shows of friendship. He believes that sorcery is made strong by intimacy, and he waits the opportunity for treachery (p. 148). If one is a victim of disease, one sends for the person who has put the disease upon him; there is no other way to ward off death. The sorcerer, if persuaded to exorcise the disease, does so on his own rather than by visiting the sufferer. In cultures such as this, the people are extremely paranoid. According to Benedict, a potent and terrifying, direct way to inflict disease is “vada,” where a powerful sorcerer will confront the victim himself. When the time comes the sorcerer will chew great quantities of ginger to make his body hot enough to raise the power of the charm to a proper pitch. He will abstain from sex, drink sea water to parch his throat so he won’t swallow his own evil charms with his saliva, wait for the victim to appear, and let out a blood curdling shriek, and the victim promptly falls to the ground. Benedict found that the theme of the people is ill-will, animosity, and seeking out victims upon whom to vent one’s malignancy. Each Dobuan struggles for the goods of life. “Suspicion and cruelty are his trusted weapons in the strife and he gives no mercy, as he asks none” (p. 172). Husband and wife are suspicious of each other, particularly if one becomes ill. Women guard their pots and pans particularly while a meal is being prepared, for fear that someone will poison the food. One might question how a society obsessed with lawlessness and treachery, such as the Dobu, can develop a consistent culture. One would expect such a people to split up and live like hermits, or else kill each other off.



Witches and sorcerers can, of course, be hired for high fees to eliminate an enemy. Sometimes an association with a sorcerer can be used as a covert threat to one’s rivals, enemies or trading partners to keep them in line. Burridge (1957) claims that sorcery is in sense “a mechanism for initiating, continuing, containing or resolving disputes” (p. 766). Sometimes if one gets wind that he is a proposed victim of sorcery he might be willing to pay compensation for wrongs he may have committed against the other before things go further. In many cultures it is not uncommon for people to believe that witches eat human flesh, sometimes that of a recently buried corpse. Thus witches are feared in part because they pose a constant threat to everyone-the threat of being eaten. Cannibal witches have been reported among the Trobrianders, Dobuans, Kuma and Duna, as well in as a number of African cultures. In Tarzania today, witch-doctors are known to sell various body parts of albinos, which the people believe have magical powers. Criminals, in association with witch-doctors, were reportedly responsible for the killing of at least 35 albinos in Tarzania in 2008 (Gettleman, 2008). The growing criminal trade in albino body parts involves the marketing of skin, bones and hair as ingredients for magic potions as well as limbs and other body parts as “charms.” Some fishermen weave albino hairs into their nets, believing this will enhance their catch (Agence France-Presse, 2009). Christians used to believe, with pagans, that illness could be brought on even by saints: “We worship saints for fear,” wrote William Tyndale in the early sixteenth century, “lest they should be displeased and angry with us, and plague us or hurt us; as who is not afraid of St. Laurence? Who dare deny St. Anthony a fleece of wool for fear of his terrible fire, or lest he send the pox among our sheep?” (as quoted in Thomas, 1971, p. 29). JUST DESSERTS AND MAGIC Often people in these cultures will think that if someone gets seriously ill or dies as a result of sorcery, there must be a case of just deserts. “He deserved what he got.” For instance, in order to secure one’s garden from trespassers, one recites a powerful spell to protect it, then ties up a bundle of leaves where it can be readily be seen as a recognizable warning that trespassers approach at their own risk. Anyone who trespasses is thus liable to fall ill (The owner of the garden must perform another rite if he wishes to enter the garden, so as to render the taboo ineffective). Thus we have a paradox of sorts. Even where witchcraft is thought to be the cause of an illness or other misfortune, people also take it that there must have been some sort of transgression on the part of the sufferer. For instance, the witch might seek to avenge an injury, something more than a mere quarrel, such as refusal to pay a legitimate debt or unprovoked aggression, or a breach of charity or neighborliness. And often enough, one who hires a witch feels justified in doing so to avenge some grievance or other. As a rule in these cultures it is necessary for people to keep on good terms with their neighbors so as not to become the subject of sorcery, for any breach of moral responsibilities will inevitably be repaid through it. A strong sense of mutual dependence makes it particularly important to avoid getting angry at other people. Hogbin (1958) asserts: Quarrels are rare for the simple reason that everyone depends on the help of his fellows and dares not risk offending them. When somebody is guilty of outrageous conduct the rest try to ignore his action; to punish him would not only do violence to their kinship loyalties but also deprive them of his valued services. Yet it is thought that the ancestors, observing all, will sooner or later intervene and cause the wrongdoer to become ill. These beings are regarded as the watchdogs of patrilineage morality, and most illnesses are ascribed to their anger. The relatives carry the patient to the house of the spirit medium, who discloses in a trance how exactly he has offended. Few persons, if any, lead a blameless existence, and gossip is often able to hazard a number of helpful suggestions. Perhaps he has disobeyed his leader, or neglected to take part in some communal activity, or struck a brother in anger, or interfered unduly in his nephew’s affairs. Once the particular sin has been ascertained, an attempt can be made to expiate the offense. Recovery is accepted as an indication of ancestral pardon, death as proof of their unrelenting vindictiveness. The victim’s kinsmen may feel resentful, but other members of the community are prepared to argue that he has paid the price of his folly (p. 114).


John Alan Cohan

Since the people are concerned about preserving harmony and not openly quarreling about things, it is permissible to obtain redress by carrying out sorcery in secret. If someone violates some norm and fails to make appeasement, it is perfectly appropriate to hire a sorcerer to cast a spell to make the offender get sick. One can then have the satisfaction of believing that these efforts at securing vengeance are successful, without engaging in an open conflict. In the Kuma community of Papua New Guinea, according to Reay (1959), “After the death of an important man, suspicion hangs about like a fog and men who have ever quarreled with him tread warily in case any minor details of their behaviour attract accusations like a magnet” (p. 11). If a man is ill and has a guilty conscience, he assumes that his illness is caused by someone he has wronged, who has used sorcery to get even. Since he wishes to recover, it is likely that he will offer compensation to the alleged sorcerer so that the latter will remove the spell. The acceptance of this conciliatory gesture is an acknowledgement by the sorcerer of his responsibility for the illness and also of his forgiveness. The conflict may thus be amicably resolved. By this means, the norms of cooperation and amity are reaffirmed and stressed. If an affliction does not get better, and one cannot think of anyone whom he might have wronged, the cause might something that has aroused anger in an ancestor. This could be failing in some religious observance or even a minor trespass at a taboo place. One will then seek to set things right with the ancestor by a healing ceremony with a shaman or witch-doctor. In situations where someone falls ill and is unable figure out what sort of wrong he has committed or whom he has offended, one instead will seek a remedy with a sorcerer or other practitioner who might provide a ritual or suggest other antidotes. Stephen (1999) found that the idea of just desserts is evident among the Mekeo of central, coastal Papua New Guinea. The actions of a witch are often interpreted as being within the moral order and necessary to maintain it. Relatives of a sick person or of someone who dies will usually regard the misfortune as justified vengeance for some wrongful action in the past. They will say that the victim brought this fate upon himself, rather than saying it was caused purely by malice or evil intent of a sorcerer (p. 718). SORCERY ACCUSATIONS: WITCH HUNTS As mentioned in the preceding section, usually witches do not act merely out of vindictiveness, but rather on some justifiable grudge against the victim. Once witchcraft is “diagnosed,” identifying the perpetrator of the hex is usually an easy matter. Sometimes the victim will have someone in mind, looking to his conscience in identifying someone who might likely bear him a grudge. There may be a hostile relationship between the victim and the sorcerer or someone who has hired the sorcerer to cast a spell. As discussed by Todd (1935), if the victim cannot identify the witch based on his prior unjustified injurious behavior toward someone else in the community, a shaman or witch-doctor will be expected to identify the evil-doer through divination. In some cultures the identity of the witch might occur in an “inquest” in which the headman seeks, through his own divination, to identify the culprit. Todd further reports that in Southwest New Britain, Papua New Guinea, if the victim dies, then at the time visitors attend a wake or other ceremony to view the corpse, a sudden release of fluid by the corpse indicates the guilt of the man close by at the time. Todd also found that if an individual is suspected of sorcery in a given case the suspect may be called to attend a indigenous court hearing at the victim’s hamlet, where he arrives with a contingent of his kin and supporters. The orators on each side debate the question for hours, but there might not be any resolution of the case. If someone is found guilty of sorcery he can be jailed, or at least this was the case in many cultures in the past. If the sorcerer and the victim are of different tribes, social separation, termination of visits or ordinary social congress between the two tribes may also result. Previous alliances will be redefined. If there appears to have been no basis for provocation so that the idea of just deserts is not in play-the victim, or in some instances the entire community, may be up in arms, literally, to hunt down and kill the culprit. For example, Steadman (1975) found that in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea the people known as the Hewa have



dealt with witchcraft the old-fashioned way-by killing suspected witches. Once the sorcerer is identified, the relatives of the victim might conduct a raid and so put to death the sorcerer. In village life it is not uncommon for there to be rumors that manipulate people’s impressions of events. According to Telban (1998), “[S]preading of rumours, and telling of stories in private conversations or in public meetings about sorcery, causes of misfortune, wrongdoings, or everyday events” (p. 98), are potent elements in group structures. Telban adds: In people’s everyday life rumour and gossip are not simply escape from or distortions of reality, nor just the narrativization of events (such that they are distilled from ‘real life’ into ‘story’), but are themselves extensions of events (p. 98). Anthropologists reported in 1975 that there were 80 killings during a two-year period among tribal people in Papua New Guinea, equal to one percent of the population per year, and half the killings were witches, most of whom were female. The other killings were retaliatory, sometimes following the witch killings. The killings are preceded by accusations, which are of course denied. The family of the accused witch will usually fight the accuser, and the accusation will usually then fizzle out. Or, the family will move away. If the family ignores the accusation, this will likely result in the killing of the suspected witch. The accused witch will be attacked with arrows as he or she sleeps. If the accusation is a deathbed accusation, this often leads to direct action against the witch as soon as the individual has died and been buried. Sometimes the witch’s family will pay blood money to the accuser, and that will for the most part settle the matter, but renewed hostilities can and do break out. In some cases, the identity of the witch might lie entirely in circumstantial evidence. For instance, according to Levy-Bruhl (1923), if a swarm of locusts sweeps through the community and one man’s land is spared, his less fortunate neighbors will accuse him of witchcraft. The mere fact that his plantation was spared is actual proof that he had sent the swarm of locusts onto their land (p. 398). At the same time, it should be noted that generally speaking, larger scale incidents such as epidemics or floods that affect an entire community are not often attributed to witchcraft. Rather, witchcraft is the explanation for particular, not general, misfortune. Paradoxically, Lindenbaum (1971) observed that sorcery accusations can be a way of easing tension between people who lack the security of membership in stable kinship groups (e.g., Dobu, Tangu, Garia and Huli). In cultures where there are stable descent groups, sorcery is an attraction for different reasons: to preserve their identity by mutual suspicion, rivalry and hostility. Sorcery accusations can generate hostility leading to a kind of warfare unrelated to territorial acquisition because such accusations appear to preserve the identity of the groups, whether they are fluid groups or stable groups. Accusations may also indicate an insecurity among co-residents and a possible political means of expressing their identity. According to Lawrence and Meggitt (1965), “Sorcery accusations act here both as an important medium for expressing enmity and as an excuse for imitating warfare, which is ultimately the most effective means of relieving feelings of aggression” (p. 17). VAMPIRES Vampires are a folklore legend, but many people have a firm belief that they are real, particularly in historical Eastern Europe. Vampires have inspired hundreds of horror movies, and in recent times have become a popular genre in popular culture. Vampires are a kind of witch, ghost, or re-animated body of a dead person that changes into a strange animal and sucks the blood from the victim. The vampire is believed to come out of the grave, wander about at night, suck blood from people while they are asleep, usually waking them up in the process, and usually causing their death. Vampires no longer breathe, digest food or even have a heartbeat, and their organs shrivel. The blood they suck is their only sustenance. They have an allergic reaction to sunlight and sleep during the day, usually in a coffin or other enclosed casing to protect them from the sun.


John Alan Cohan

Vampires are neither living nor dead, but are “undead.” The idea is that there is another state of consciousness between life and death. According to Dunn-Mascetti (1992): It seems that since the vampire is dead he is also outside the time-frame that governs our own human actions, thoughts, and feelings; he is able to feel, hear, and sense every event, every detail as detached from time and time-bound thoughts, and is therefore able to perceive reality in its uniqueness and savor it fully. It appears as though, by having trespassed the curtain of death, the vampire is endowed with a heightened sense of reality (p. 62). One can become a vampire by dying of the plague, committing suicide, being buried prematurely or without without a priest, or by being a social outcast. One theory is that vampires are the dead who cannot achieve divine status, and they refuse to be dead: “Blood would give them a second birth” (Masters, 1972, p. 4). There were so many cases of vampirism in 17th and 18th century Europe, particularly in Hungary, Poland, Silesia, Bohemia and Moravia, that they cannot be entirely dismissed as folklore. The typical case involves reports of people being visited at night by identifiable individuals who had been dead in their graves for some time. The vampires would suck blood at the victim’s throat, and sometimes, as mentioned, cause their death. Often the vampire would be a deceased husband who came repeatedly to visit his widow and suck blood from her throat. Because most of the cases involved specifically identified deceased individuals, those affected would apply to the authorities to open the grave. Usually they would find what appeared to be a perfectly sound body, with no decomposition, a rosy flush on the cheeks, flexible joints, and blood flowing fully if the body was pierced. The party would then take a heavy stake or nail and drive it into the temple or the heart of the body; often the corpse would vomit blood. Or, they would remove the body and burn it. In most instances the corpse would howl like a madman, kicking and flailing as if it had been alive. An account set forth by Calmet (1850) reports that in the 18th century there were sensational vampire trials in Hungary. According to Calmet, in some towns of Eastern Europe there were vampire epidemics. Graves of suspected vampires were opened, bodies were found to appear in glowing good health, breathing, blood flowing, and an executioner would drive a stake into the heart or head of the body, sever the head, and often top this off by burning the remains. ZOMBIES Zombies are known in popular culture from horror movies. Zombies are different from ghosts, and are thought to be the “living dead.” Haiti is the site of recurring accounts of zombies, and the majority of the population there believes that zombies are real, not folklore. According to Haitian belief, zombies are real people who have been targeted by evil voodoo priests (bokors) who will cause a person’s death. The priest will then “raise” the dead from their graves, put them into a comatose trance, and force them into slave labor. But how could such a thing be true? The explanation is that the bokors will target an individual with poison extracted from puffer fish. These fish have the powerful nerve toxin tetrodotoxin in their skin, liver, ovaries and intestines. The effects of tetrodotoxin poisoning vary from an overall sensation of warmth, flushing, malaise, dizziness, numbness to extensive paralysis, depending on the dosage. If the dose is of proper strength, the victim will be unable to move or speak, and his eyes will become glassy. He will become comatose but remain alive. If all goes as planned, the victim will be pronounced dead while actually still alive. After the victim is buried, the voodoo priest will unearth the victim and force him into slave labor. It sounds fantastic, but that is the story. Studies have suggested the use of other substances from various local plants, toads and reptiles in Haiti containing poisons and hallucinogens. The effects of tetrodotoxin poisoning have been well documented in Japan, where eating various species of puffer fish, particularly the fugu fish, is quite popular. Davis (1983) found:



In eating these fish the Japanese accept the obvious risks because they enjoy the exhilarating physiological after effects, which include sensations of warmth, flushing of the skin, mild paresthesias of the tongue and lips, and euphoria. Because of its popularity as a food, and the relatively high incidence of accidental poisonings, the fugu fish has generated an enormous medical and biomedical literature (p. 93). The majority of Haitians believe in the physical reality of zombies. Many cases of zombification have periodically appeared in the Haitian newspapers, and a number of cases have been scrutinized, documented and verified. One, for example, one account studied by Davis (1982) involved Louis Ozias, who in 1962 entered the hospital with symptoms much along the lines of tetrodotoxin poisoning. Shortly afterwards he was pronounced dead, and was buried in his village cemetery. In 1981 Louis Ozias returned to his family, saying he had been forced into slave labor with many other zombies at a sugar plantation, until the death of their master freed them. He wandered the country for 18 years, seeking to avoid being recaptured by the master’s vengeful brother (pp. 87-88). Davis narrates another case that involved a young woman named Francina, buried in 1976 and found wandering a catatonic state in 1979. “Her mother recognised her by a childhood scar she bore on her temple, and later when the grave was exhumed, her coffin was found to be full of rocks” (p. 87). Her jealous husband was thought to be responsible for her “death.” The rationale behind the physical reality of zombies is that the victims appear to be dead, but are not; rather, the semblance of death has been induced by some drug or poison that inhibits the part of the brain responsible for speech and will power. Poison from the puffer fish, for example, in proper dosages, can lower the victim’s metabolism to such an extent that he or she can appear to be dead. Courlander (1960) claims: [T]he victim is not really dead but has succumbed to a virulent poison which numbs all the senses and stops bodily function but does not truly kill. Upon disinternment, the victim is given an antidote which restores most physical processes but leaves the mind in an inert state, without will or the power to resist. (p. 101) Among many cases of poisoning from puffer fish studied in Japan, the symptoms of zombification are remarkably similar. For example, according to Halstead (1978): A gambler ostensibly died by eating fugu, and the body was placed in storage for the officials to examine. About seven days later the man became conscious and finally recovered. The victim claimed to have recalled the entire incident and stated that he was afraid he would be buried alive (pp. 714-715). WITCHCRAFT IN MODERN CULTURES Today witchcraft is alive and well in modern cultures throughout the world, not just among primitive people. Wilson (2008) reports that in hard economic times there is a business boom in urban centers for magicians, psychics and occult shops. People will seek potions, candles and spells to help produce financial success, jobs or other good luck. Romero (2008) found that in El Alto, Bolivia, for 50 bolivianos (about $7) you can hire a witch to perform a ritual involving an armadillo-either to insure healthy crops, success in studies, insure an accident-free year for truck drivers, prosperity in business, or to gain good luck. Farmers in particular want to make sure they appease the earth and mountain deities that are thought to be especially hungry as spring approaches. According to Romero, at the local witch’s market, hawkers sell dead fetuses of llamas, pigs, deer, cats and dogs, which are used in magical rituals. These are then offered to the gods by smoking them on coals with alcohol or beer, and once the items are burned they are buried so as to feed the soil. Gewertz and Errington (1991) claim that magic is used to attract voters to a candidate running for provincial elections in villages of Papua New Guinea, and to blind them to the candidate’s defects (p. 121). In many communities today, just as was the case in earlier times, people will seek to avenge suspected acts of sorcery. For example, recently in Kenya, a group of about 300 young men killed 11 people accused of sorcery, by


John Alan Cohan

slitting their throats or clubbing them to death and then burning their bodies. The villagers complained that the suspected sorcerers were “making the bright children in the community dumb” (Associated Press, 22nd May 2008). Today in Moscow, and indeed throughout Russia, much popular attention is given to magic in everyday life. Practitioners are referred to as “magicians,” not witches or sorcerers. Many people feel that they have little control over their lives. The business world is imbued with distrust. Even small entrepreneurs are subject to common scamse.g., prepaying for supplies, and getting neither the goods nor their money back. Magicians are called upon to protect property against vandalism, and to cast spells to to help reduce harassment by coercive, greedy authorities and “protection” rackets. In the new Russia, there apparently is a lot of cheating in business transactions, and it is not uncommon for cheats are gunned down by hired killers in broad daylight. Lindquist (2000) found that more and more, people in Russia put their hope in magic. Advertisements are seen for love magic, for family problems, to cure addictions, infertility, and to offer help in business. Magicians will sell amulets to help insure business success or good luck; and will give advice on concrete business problems-e.g., whether to enter a new contract or which employee is responsible for stealing. Magicians will provide charms, spells, rituals or prayers to help find or keep a job, or to help bring in more money for the client. A magician might ask the client to bring a pinch of salt and then will read spells over the salt. This is to imbue the salt with “active, dynamic energy. The client then takes the salt to her shop and strews it over the goods, so that they will receive an impulse to move out of the shop, that is, to sell better” (p. 345). Russian magicians might find that the client’s afflictions or troubles are consequences of misdeeds or betrayals of ancestors-that there is a karmic “knot” that needs to be treated. A significant portion of the population carries amulets on their person, and they recite the spells or prayers that have been given them by magicians. Witchcraft-usually of the white or benign type-is quite popular in England, with untold thousands of practitioners. These people provide the same sort of assistance as witches do in primitive cultures-engage in rituals to manipulate forces and powers to alter the physical world. In England they are often members of organized groups. Small groups, sometimes called “covens,” are led by “high priestesses.” Some have a feminist theme, or are like an ancient fertility religion worshipping the Earth-Goddess. And in the United States there are many thousands of members of Wicca, which is a modern witchcraft cult. A modern-day manual for witches, Starhawk’s Spiral Dance (1979), sold 50,000 copies between 1979 and 1985. Every year there are hundreds of pagan festivals, attended by hundreds of thousands of people who claim to be witchcraft practitioners in America (Luhrmann, 1989, p. 5). Occult supply stores are found in every urban center both in the U.S. and England, selling magical robes, potions, herbs, books, incense, and talismans. Just check the number of new books on arcane magical subjects in any occult book store, and one gets the impression that magic-i.e., rituals to achieve certain ends-is of significant, growing interest in modern society. This does not even include modern interest in astrology, mysticism, kabbalism, folk healing and so on-topics that are also very much alive in modern society. In Bocage, France, where St. Therese Lisieux was born, the people of this rural population generally believe in witchcraft. If a farmer incurs unexplained misfortunes, such as livestock that fall ill or die, cows that abort or lose their milk, fires, machines that break down, or drastic reduction in sales revenue-these are attributed to “spells” or loss of “force.” The belief is that a witch is “draining the force” of the farmer by bewitching his crops, animals, machines, and so on (Favret-Saada & Cullen, 1989). Witches in the community are thought to cast spells by rituals or by looking, speaking and touching. The motivation of the witch is based on the notion of limited goods: by draining the victim’s farm of resources, the witch’s own farm will increase. The remedy for witchcraft in this community is to get help from a professional magician (the desorceleur or unbewitcher). This is kept as private as possible because the magicians do not want the authorities to charge them



with fraud or the illegal practice of medicine. The magician will visit the farm and conduct a thorough search through the house, farm buildings, the fields, and sheds, examine the animals, farm machinery, etc. He will get an account of the farmer’s misfortunes, make a list of his acquaintances, neighbors, people he might often meet or greet in the village, people with whom he has business dealings-people who are possible sources of the witchcraft. His ritual will focus on “sending the spell back to the witch.” The magician will identify the witch and then perform a ritual that varies from one magician to another. An example would be to boil an ox’s heart, representing the witch, pierce it with a thousand pins, fry some coarse grey salt in a white hot pan-and engage in verbal challenges against the accused witch. The ritual acts at a distance so that the witch is said to immediately writhe in pain, and to subsequently incur repeated misfortunes such as were visited on the victim. The magician will also prescribe preventive measures to avert future witchcraft: the liberal use of holy water, the use of blessed medals, especially a medal of St. Benedict (St. Benedict’s power, concentrated in his blessed medals, is supposed to make any witch who would try to cross one’s threshold to step back or deal a blow that will stop him short), enclose the farm with better fencing, wear a protective sachet with blessed salt in his pockets, throw blessed salt on the fields, fill any openings in the earth with magical ingredients, and repeat these operations at crucial timesusually before sowing, calving, and other crucial times-and above all avoid further contact with the suspected witch, and not touch anything he has touched. Afterwards, the victim will usually spy on the witch’s family, making note of any mishaps that occur on the witch’s farm, and then discuss these with the magician, who returns for consultations and to scrutinize the farmer’s property in this post-ritual period to see if anything abnormal is happening. Usually, the magician’s work is successful and, if not, the farmer will seek the services of a different one. THE HEXING CULTURE OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH While the idea of coming under the magical influence of a “hex” or “spell” is age-old and worldwide, this type of belief is widely apparent in urban and rural communities of the American South. Some psychiatrists have referred to this as a “hexing culture” Snell, 1967). The motivation to hex someone is usually envy. Snell goes on to say: Virtually any symptom-physical or emotional-may be ascribed to the operation of a hex. Often a patient will explain his illness by naming his tormentor, although sometimes the source of the hex remains unknown. Patients who were raised among hexing beliefs tend to hold to them tenaciously as perfectly rational explanations of how the world operates (p. 312). As in primitive cultures, hexing in the South is often accomplished through the law of contagion-working on some substance of the individual such as human hair, fingernail cuttings, urine, etc.; or this can be done by sprinkling sand, salt or pepper across the victim’s front door, so that when he steps over the material, the hex takes hold. Also, burying a knife with its point towards the victim’s house, together with some hair or nail clippings, is thought to be especially effective. Hexing beliefs may seem somewhat paranoid, but in the rural South these beliefs are traditional, are formed as part of one’s childhood teaching, and are found throughout communities. People who think they have been hexed will consult “root doctors” or “root workers,” who abound not only in rural areas but in the cities, and who utilize herbs, roots, candles and prayers in the cures. Rootwork beliefs are thought to be an Afro-American form of voodoo, and constitute a significant part of the worldview of many people in the South. In this chapter we have seen that a fundamental belief across cultures-whether real or mere superstition-is the efficacy of magic. In primitive cultures the belief is so pervasive that people structure their lives to avoid occasions of witchcraft. When illness or other misfortune strikes, the first thought is that one has become the victim of witchcraft, and one will search one’s conscience to see whether one’s behavior has offended someone in the community. Often enough people believe that a victim of witchcraft is simply being repaid for some offense that he has committed. In modern cultures, as well, people often react to the news of a serious illness by thinking God has punished them for some transgression. In many communities the fear of witchcraft is a kind of social safeguard in


John Alan Cohan

that people will avoid conflicts and seek to maintain harmony as much as possible-lest they create ill-will that provokes acts of witchcraft. Of course, an act of witchcraft might not motivated by vengeance for a grievance, but might simply be the product of someone’s mean-spiritedness or envy. As history has shown, and as is evident in the daily news reports in modern society, many anti-social acts and brutal crimes have no clearcut motivation other than blind rage, frustration, and alienation.

PART IV: CONFLICT AND DEATH


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CHAPTER 13 Death by Suggestion: Voodoo Death, Taboo Death, and Pointing the Bone Abstract. A phenomenon seen in primitive cultures is the occurrence of death by suggestion, in which strong cultural beliefs-in the violation of a taboo, for instance-cause people to believe that they will suffer imminent death or serious illness. The efficacy of these beliefs might best be explained by the phenomenon of autosuggestion whereby the subject has become convinced that death is inevitable, and for all intents and purposes gives up hope. A similar phenomenon has been reported in combat zones whereby soldiers may die of a combination of anguish, confusion and severe mental and physical shock. In communities that experienced the black plague in previous centuries many people died simply of fear of contracting an otherwise innocuous illness. Cancer patients informed of their condition are known to die, as if hexed, before the malignancy develops to the point where it could cause death. Voodoo is both a folk medical system and a means of casting spells. “Taboo death” is a phenomenon whereby people will die as a consequence of violating some taboo: People of many cultures believe that taboo violation carries automatic repercussions, even if inadvertent or accidental. The individual may well undergo a sense of panic, hopelessness and stress resulting in death in a few hours upon learning he has violated the taboo (e.g., eating a tabooed food, accidentally eating out of the chief’s bowl). Another form of death by suggestion is “pointing the bone,” whereby someone with evil designs literally points a bone at a targeted victim. Pointing the bone is thought to be so potent that the victim will be literally scared to death, gripped by paralyzing fear, and may start to get extremely weak and die.

INTRODUCTION Witchcraft in various forms, coupled with powerful beliefs on the victim’s part, can cause a sense of entrapment, helplessness and hopelessness, resulting in death. At least, that is what seems to be the case in communities where the belief in witchcraft is normative. To many in the modern world the belief in witchcraft is a ridiculous superstition. Even in Europe, where the fear of witchcraft became a mania that obsessed the population for centuries-initially with persecutions by the Church and later by the secular authorities-eventually witchcraft trials fell into disfavor, witchcraft laws were repealed and accusations of witchcraft were no longer given credence. Still, certain beliefs, however ridiculous they may seem to the modern mind, can have a searing grip on people. The efficacy of these beliefs might best be explained by the phenomenon of auto-suggestion. If you believe strongly enough that something is harmful, your mind may be so taken with the belief that you might become, literally speaking, frightened to death. Cannon (1942) reported this account given by A. G. Leonard of individuals in the Lower Niger region who had been bewitched: I have seen more than one hardened old Hausea soldier dying steadily and by inches because he believed himself to be bewitched; no nourishment or medicines that were given to him had the slightest effect either to check the mischief or to improve his condition in any way, and nothing was able to divert him from a fate which he considered inevitable. In the same way, and under very similar conditions, I have seen Kru-men and others die in spite of every effort that was made to save them, simply because they had made up their minds, not (as we thought at the time) to die, but that being in the clutch of malignant demons they were bound to die (p. 169). The accounts we will examine seem to be cases of “death by suggestion,” a situation in which the subject has become convinced that death is inevitable, and for all intents and purposes gives up hope. This phenomenon has been well documented in modern cultures. It is well known that fear and anxiety can have severe adverse effects on surgical patients. A psychiatrist in the Spanish Civil War used the term, “malignant anxiety” (Gomez, 1982, p. 76) to describe soldiers who died of a combination of anguish, confusion and severe mental and physical shock. The outpouring of adrenalin with accompanying rapid pulse-the heart beating faster and faster-can push one into cardiac John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


John Alan Cohan

arrest. In situations where patients are told they have malignant cancer, the patient may die, as if hexed, before the malignancy develops to the point where it could cause death (Gomez, 1982, p. 79). We will briefly discuss three types of “death by suggestion”- voodoo, pointing the bone, and taboo death. In these situations the individual may well die as a consequence of giving up, caused by a sense of hopelessness in the face of the suggestion that he faces imminent death. Often the victim will refuse food and water, thus hastening death by dehydration. VOODOO Voodoo is a species of sorcery in which the victim is bewitched, falls ill and sometimes dies. It is a mix of African religions, Catholicism and animism, and traces its origins to West Africa. It incorporates pagan elements that made Christian missionaries uneasy, including casting of spells and worshiping spirits of nature. A voodoo spell might cause the victim to suffer an acute and chronic illness short of death, or death itself. At the same time, voodoo is a folk medical system. Practitioners can cast spells or help cure people from them. Voodoo priests, known as houngans, lack any formal hierarchy, but have a national federation in Haiti. Voodoo today is popular in Haiti and other Latin cultures, even among those who attend Christian churches. Voodoo is well known the in American South along the Gulf Coast, especially in the vicinity of New Orleans, where it is known as hoodoo. This region was settled by Haitian refugees following the island’s revolution in 1791. The immigrants preserved their African religious rituals, language, gods. Voodoo is known by a few different names: hoodoo, vodun, conjuring, root doctoring, black magic, and other names. The French, veaudeau was used in the past to describe African magical and religious practices. That term may have been derived from a West African term, juju, which means “black magic” (Maduro, 1975, p. 427). Voodoo is a phenomenon with counterparts in many different parts of the world by other names: witchcraft or sorcery, casting a spell, pointing the bone, etc. According to Cannon (1942), the term “voodoo death” describes a mysterious “death by suggestion,” or “thanatomania.” It is thought to be a psychosomatic or magical reaction that brings about an individual’s death. It is also known as “terror death,” that is, a fatalistic acceptance that death is imminent, based on the victim’s belief that sorcery can cause death. It has always been difficult to study actual cases scientifically, but there is substantial evidence of voodoo deaths in numerous cultures, particularly in Australia, Melanesia, New Zealand, Africa, Polynesia, and in Latin America. Similar to other religious rites we discussed in chapter 11 in the section, “Trance-Possession and Charismatic Religious Services,” people in hoodoo cultures encourage uplifting religious experiences involving trancepossession states, where people are possessed by the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues and are permitted to “go crazy” and vent their anguish and pain in the hoodoo temple. However, at a certain point these uplifting states might become “abnormal,” in that the individual experiences increasingly debilitating possession outside the hoodoo religious setting and becomes worried, feeling that the possession has taken an evil turn. This may be accompanied by depression, worry, and listlessness. It is at this juncture that people will seek a remedy from a hoodoo priest or priestess, believing that they have been “witched” by someone practicing black magic. Like shamans and other healers, hoodoo priests usually go into a trance or possession state in their healing protocols. Maduro (1975) observed with respect to hoodoo treatment for possession that “folk treatments in the urban industrial context tend to reaffirm rural Southern values and to reintegrate an individual into some meaningful social order” (p. 429). Voodoo, then, like magic in general, can be used for good or for evil. Voodoo entered the popular culture of France recently when someone decided to market a voodoo doll made in the image of President Nicolas Sarkozy. This came with with 12 pins and a manual explaining how to put a curse on him, and was a best selling cult item (Bennhold, 2008).

Death by Suggestion


TABOO DEATH In cultures where fear of sorcery is prevalent, another sort of voodoo death has been reported, known as “taboo death.” There are many documented cases in primitive cultures of taboo death, that is, death as a consequence of violating some taboo. As we saw in chapter 6, “Totemism,” the violation of any taboo in these cultures is thought to carry automatic repercussions, or sometimes a dead ancestor might be offended and wreak havoc. If the taboo that one has violated-whether inadvertent or accidental-is a serious one, the individual may well undergo a sense of panic, hopelessness and stress resulting in death in a few hours upon learning he has violated the taboo. The taboo might be something such as eating out of the chief’s bowl or using the chief’s tinder box. However accidental the occurrence, the violation of the taboo causes rapid death. As we have previously seen, in these same cultures practically all illness is attributed to supernatural forces-often enough in response to a taboo violation. A typical case would be like this: Someone is informed he has eaten a tabooed item or something that has been taken from a tabooed place, or has accidentally eaten something that the chief has left over, or violated some other taboo. The individual will be greatly possessed by fear, and simply die within a few hours. In these instances it is the invisible power of spirits or dead ancestors that play a direct role in punishing the taboo violation. Again, we might explain this as autosuggestion, induced by the emotional state of the victim, grounded in his belief system that he faces a certain death unless there is a shaman who can assist him in appeasing the spirits who are offended by his conduct. POINTING THE BONE “Pointing the bone,” or “boning” is a magical influence of suggestion known in aboriginal Australia, Papua New Guinea, and parts of Africa. It is in the same category as voodoo death. If a witch-doctor or other practitioner with evil designs acts against you-by pointing a bone at you-the victim will be gripped by paralyzing fear, and may start to get extremely weak and die unless the witch-doctor “retracts” the deed (Cannon, 1942, p. 171). Anyone can do this, not just witch-doctors. One who desires to point the bone might simply take up a kneeling position facing the doomed man coming down the path, lift the bone and point it at the victim, saying: May your skeleton become saturated with the foulness of my stick, so that your flesh will rot and its stench attract the grubs which live in the ground, to come and devour it. May your bones turn to water and soak into the sand, so that your spirit may never know your whereabouts. May the wind shrivel your skin like a leaf before a fire, and your blood dry up like the mud in a clay-pan (Basedow, 1925, pp. 177-178). One might also tie the claws of a bird of prey, preferably the eagle-hawk, to the pointing instrument. Thus, the evil magic works like the grip of a bird, by clutching the doomed man’s chest and crushing it. Levy-Bruhl (1926) commented that by pointing the bone “a magic stone proceeds from the body of the sorcerer to the body of his victim-still invisibly-and, entering there, induces a fatal malady” (p. 62). The belief that death inevitably results in a day or two as a result of pointing the bone is so firmly held by members of these cultures that the victim readies himself for death, cooperates in the withdrawal from life, and is obsessed by the knowledge that all others hold this conviction. This again suggests the role fear plays in the matter. One might say these people become “scared to death,” literally. A doctor reported this account from north-central Queenland: So rooted sometimes is this belief on the part of the patient, that some enemy has “pointed” the bone at him, that he will actually lie down and die, and succeed in the attempt, even at the expense of refusing


John Alan Cohan

food and succour within his reach; I have myself witnessed three or four such cases (Cannon, 1942, p. 172). Basedow (1925) offers this general account of a boning: The man who discovers that he is being boned by an enemy is, indeed, a pitiable sight. He stands aghast, with his eyes staring at the treacherous pointer, and with his hands lifted as though to ward off the lethal medium, which he imagines is pouring into his body. His cheeks blanch and his eyes become glassy and the expression of his face becomes horribly distorted, like that of one stricken with palsy. He attempts to shriek but usually the sound chokes in his throat, and all that one might see is froth at his mouth. His body begins to tremble and the muscles twist involuntarily. He sways backwards and falls to the ground, and after a short time appears to be in a swoon; but soon after he writhes as if in mortal agony, and, covering his face with his hands, begin [sic.] to moan. After a while he becomes more composed and crawls to his wurley. From this time onwards he sickens and frets, refusing to eat and keeping aloof from the daily affairs of his tribe. Unless help is forthcoming in the shape of a counter-charm administered by the hands of the “Nangarri” or medicine-man, his death is only a matter of a comparatively short time. If the coming of the medicine man is opportune he might be saved (pp. 178-179). Pointing the bone can be cured only if a medicine-man is opportune in providing a counter-charm to neutralize the effects. The faith of the natives in the powers of tribal magicians exceeds anything known in the faith-healing disciplines of more developed communities. Doctors have observed many cases of death attributed to pointing the bone, and autopsies reveal nothing about the cause of death. So rooted is the idea in the patient that death is imminent, that the fear factor, it seems, is the immediate cause of death. Similarly, in these cultures one might die from a simple wound of a spear that has been enchanted. EXPLANATION: “DEATH BY SUGGESTION” In these cases, whether of voodoo, taboo violation or pointing the bone-people might avert death by the opportune intervention of a powerful healer. But in many cases, the individual feels that there is no hope and accepts death as inevitable. Thus, the main explanation for these cases is that there is a strong cultural belief that act of pointing the bone, or what-have-you, necessitates the victim’s demise. Much will depend on the morale of the individual and the support of the social group. If the individual is treated as an outcast, as if already dead, his personal morale will understandably be low. This is exacerbated if the individual’s belief in the curse is strong and unshakable. As noted above, in wartime casualties there are frequent instances of soldiers with superficial wounds who suffer severe shock, fear and death. The frightened soldier simply gives up. It is a parasympathetic death of hopelessness. The phenomenon of sudden death under stress has also been shown in laboratory experiments with rats (Lester, 1972). It has also been observed that in communities that experienced the black plague in previous centuries many people died simply through fear: “As soon as a man finds himself attacked with the least illness, he fancies that he is seized with the epidemical disease, which idea occasions him so great a sensation, that it is almost impossible for the system to resist such a revolution” (Calmet, 1850, p. 270). So, if a person feels at the end of his ropes as a result of “pointing the bone,” he may experience hopelessness, an inability to cope, and a sense that he is doomed to die and that nothing can aid him. The extreme fright experienced by the victim can be as fatal as a dose of poison. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Thus, because individuals firmly hold the belief that being subject to bone pointing, or sorcery, or failing to observe certain tribal taboos-death is sure to happen. According to Cannon (1942),

Death by Suggestion


This is a belief so firmly held by all members of the tribe that the individual not only has that conviction himself but is obsessed by the knowledge that all his fellows likewise hold it. Thereby he becomes a pariah, wholly deprived of the confidence and social support of the tribe. In his isolation the malicious spirits which he believes are all about him and capable of irresistibly and calamitously maltreating him, exert supremely their evil power. Amid this mysterious murk of grim and ominous fatality what has been called “the gravest known extremity of fear,” that of an immediate threat of death, fills the terrified victim with powerless misery (p. 186). A person’s frame of mind can also affect his or her propensity to to get well, and the belief in the efficacy of worthless cures can go a long way in curing ailments of all kinds-a phenomenon known as the placebo effect, discussed in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER 14 The Placebo Effect Abstract. The phenomenon of death by suggestion, so often seen in primitive cultures, is linked to the modern notion of the placebo effect. The role of suggestion in treatment-whether it is folk healing, shamanism, or other practices-cannot be underestimated. In the placebo effect, almost any treatment will work, though medically inert, so long as the patient is convinced that it has efficacy. The idea that a placebo pill will cure patients of illness is so well established a phenomenon that in clinical trials control groups receive a placebo to compare their outcome with those receiving the trial drug. The success rate of the placebo is in some cases as good as that of the genuine drug. Shamans, witch-doctors and folk healers often rely on the patient’s strong belief that the cure will be effective. The placebo effect may be an explanation for the apparently miraculous healings that sometimes occur through prayer or other religious practices.

INTRODUCTION The role of suggestion in healing has been well documented in what modern medicine calls the “placebo effect.” The placebo effect is a phenomenon known to make almost any treatment appear to work, so long as the patient hopes and believes it will. Treatments that science says do not work are still able-even likely-to work for patientsdue to the placebo effect, which is essentially the belief in the efficacy of a cure. “The pill in which both patient and doctor have faith may achieve remarkable results, however trivial its pharmacological content.... Indeed, the success rate of the placebo is in some cases demonstrably as great as that of the genuine drug” (Thomas, 1971, p. 248). We also have a phenomenon known as the reverse placebo effect (also called the nocebo effect), in which someone who is cursed dies soon afterwards, as we saw in the previous chapter. There are modern accounts of this in urban centers, primarily in the South, which is sometimes known as a “hexing culture.” One documented case researched by Meador (1992) claims that a local man who had been hexed by a voodoo priest and started to waste away, near death in the hospital. When his physician learned that the man had been hexed, he concocted a “ceremony” in which he informed the patient that he, the doctor, had confronted the voodoo priest, learned that the priest made the patient breathe in some lizard eggs that climbed down into his stomach and hatched out some small lizards, and that he would extract them. The doctor gave the patient a powerful emetic that caused him to vomit, then, with a lizard hidden in his hand, he slid the lizard into the basin into which the patient had vomited, and called out in a loud voice: “Look what has come out of you! You are now cured. The voodoo curse if lifted.” Meador reports that the patient quickly recovered. Another documented case told of a patient who died believing he had widespread cancer, but an autopsy showed only a 2 centimeter nodule of cancer, but that had caused no medical problems. The patient had believed, incorrectly, that he had widespread cancer, a belief shared by his wife, family and his surgeons, but in fact he was entirely free of anything organic that could have induced him to die. It is theorized that the physician, a figure or authority and power, had persuaded the patient that he was soon going to die soon. Meador (1992), who was the doctor who investigated this case, said: If indeed we can cause something as drastic as death by what we say or how we act, then what lesser patterns of behavior do we induce in our patients. How effectively do we persuade patients to get well or get sick? Is this phenomenon operating whenever we talk to our patients? Is the ubiquitous placebo effect not just a strange trait of the patient, but inducible by how the physician speaks and act? (p. 247) This leads to the idea that suggestibility plays an important role in some deaths-based on the individual’s belief in the authority and power of human persuasion. Surgeons are often wary of operating on patients who believe they will die-because they often do. Under the nocebo effect-nocebo meaning “I will harm”-dummy pills and negative expectations can produce harmful effects. It has also been established that about 60 percent of patients who undergo chemotherapy start feeling sick before their John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

The Placebo Effect


treatment with what we might call “anticipatory nausea.” Overall, autopsies reveal that the certified causes of death listed by physicians are wrong in at least a third of cases (Le Page, 2006). The nocebo effect may help explain how symptoms of hysteria can spread from one person to a group-a phenomenon known as Mass Psychogenic Illness which we will discuss in chapter 20 (“Mass Hysteria, Mass Possession”). The role of suggestion in treatment-whether it is folk healing, shamanism, or other practices-cannot be underestimated. The mind influences the body. The cure is more likely to work if the patient has the expectation that the treatment offered by the practitioner will be effective. In primitive cultures catharsis through confession of wrongdoing for violating a taboo, or of offending someone who in turn may have bewitched the patient-may also play a role. The idea that “confession is good for the soul” suggests that some measure of peace and equilibrium can be established when one admits to wrongdoing-and this heightened sense of well-being can help give the patient a positive outlook that helps promote a cure. Group support by the patient’s kinsmen also comes into play. The elements that go into healing are diverse: the physical setting, the practitioner-patient relationship, the patient’s perceptions of his body and mind, and the patient’s belief in the efficacy of the treatment itself, whether herbs or other remedies prescribed by the practitioner. Of course, it helps if the practitioner expresses to the patient that the preparations contain impressive properties that have powerful effects. So important is the placebo effect that in clinical trials conducted to get new drugs approved for the marketplace, a control group is given placebos to see to what extent they report improvement compared to the group that receives the actual drug being tested. In many instances, people receiving a placebo report improvement at rates very nearly as promising as those receiving the real drug. While conventional physicians might label certain folk healing or shamanic practices as “quackery,” nonetheless these practitioners actually cure disease in their communities. One might argue that the efficacy of a shaman or medicine-man depends on the susceptibility of the patient’s mind to influence. At the same time, within a given cultural practice, specific healers might gain the reputation of being unreliable or “quacks,” while the people retain a belief in the genuineness of the particular modality. The placebo effect may be an explanation for the apparently miraculous healings that sometimes occur through prayer or other religious practices. There is much evidence of miraculous healing of people who have become caught up in charismatic movements. One example, discussed by Lebra (1972) involves the Dancing Religion, which emerged in Japan after World War II, led by its charismatic founder, a farmer’s wife who believed that she was the manifestation of the third messiah after Buddha and Christ. She was called Ogamisama (Great Goddess) by her followers. Her following spread across the Pacific to Hawaii. There were many reports of post-conversion healings of cancer, tumors, paralysis, asthma, bronchitis, tuberculosis, skin disease, muscle pain, tremors, seizures, mental disorders, and so on. It is impossible to tell whether the cures so effected at Lourdes, France, and at other sacred sites visited by pilgrims, are due to the placebo effect or some actual spiritual intervention. The belief in the efficacy of the cure at Lourdes is very similar to the belief of primitive cultures in the efficacy of their shaman’s healing rites. According to Frank (1961), “The healing ceremonials at Lourdes, like those of primitive tribes, involve a climatic union of the patient, his family, the larger group, and the supernatural world by means of a dramatic, emotionally charged, aesthetically rich ritual that expresses and reinforces a shared ideology” (p. 59). Shamans, to one degree or another, seek to arouse the patient’s faith in the healing protocol-although in these communities the patients already have this belief, based on their cultural tradition and learned from an early age. Shamans will often seek to convince patients that they are on the road to recovery, and thus create and create a mindset that facilitates healing. The shaman’s emotional arousal, the evocation of faith, hope and trust, converge to strengthen client expectations. Effective treatment of illness, according to Torrey (1986),


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reflects one or more of four fundamental principles: a shared worldview between practitioner and client, certain qualities of the practitioner, positive client expectations, and procedures that engender a sense of mastery on the part of the client. Social influence and persuasion are apparent in each of these principles. Much of the effectiveness of shamans rests on the fact that their concepts of sickness are the same as those of their clients (p. 39). The beneficial effects of a placebo-type treatment lie in its symbolic power. It gains its potency to the extent that the patient believes that the physician is a healer. According to Frank (1961): Physicians have always known that their ability to inspire expectant trust in a patient has something to do with the success of treatment.... It may be mentioned that a patient’s expectations have been shown to affect his physiological responses so powerfully as even to reverse the pharmacological action of a drug (pp. 65, 67). The placebo effect has the ability to heal wounds in any number of ways, so long as the patient has a strongly held belief in its efficacy. Frank (1961) found that by painting a wound with a brightly colored but inert dye and telling the patient that the wound will be gone when the color wears off-this can be as effective as any other form of treatment (p. 68). Apparently, the emotional reaction to a placebo can change the physiology of the individual’s body. The effectiveness of the placebo treatment is best with those patients who have favorable expectations. In communities that place great trust in the shaman, people in general accept and respond to the symbols of treatment even though they are medically inert. And to a significant extent, people in urban settings, according to a number of surveys, believe they can heal their bodies using the power of their minds rather than traditional medicine. Carey and Nagourney (2008) discussed a study in which two groups were told they would be receiving prescription pain relievers that in fact were placebos. One group was told that each pill was priced at $2.50 per dose, and the other group was told that their pill sold for ten cents per dose. The placebos had a strong effect on both groups: 85% of the group with the expensive pills reported significant pain relief; and 61% of the group with the cheaper pills reported significant pain relief. The study concluded that manipulation of price affected the expectations of the drug’s benefit, despite the fact that everyone got a placebo. Still, both groups experienced strong pain relief. A writer about the placebo effect mentions his late mother-in-law, Sarah, a concert pianist who developed painful arthritis in her old age and found her doctors unable to provide satisfactory pain control. “So, being an independent, take-charge sort of individual, she subscribed to Prevention magazine, in order to learn more about the multiple remedies suggested in each month’s issue” for symptoms like hers. She announced “with great enthusiasm and conviction” that this or that food supplement or capsule had practically cured her arthritis, although she regularly replaced one regimen for a different one (Zuger, 2007) This brief overview of the placebo effect is intended to help explain why it is that treatments regarded as medically inert or worthless-nonetheless provide relief to patients. While in modern cultures people might be skeptical about the efficacy of shamanic rituals to cure illness-in cultures where the practices prevail the people believe in it, and there are impressive cure rates. The placebo effect helps shed light on the tremendous role that the mind plays in healing. And in modern cultures the placebo effect is so pervasive that people will swear by all sorts of treatments that doctors insist are not medically effective. Just as we saw in the preceding chapter how powerful the mind can instill fear sufficient to convince people that they face imminent death-due to pointing the bone, voodoo, violating a taboo or fear from battlefield casualties-so it is that the mind plays a powerful role in the cure of illness.


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CHAPTER 15 Dealing with Conflicts, Aggressive Impulses, Enemies and War Abstract. This chapter discusses the importance of aggression, in its various modes, not only as a means of resolving conflicts, but as something important for group cohesion. Humans beings are universally capable of aggressive behavior. A common theme is that if a harm has been done, the injured party or group feel they must seek vengeance-by ceremonial fighting, revenge by sorcery, open discussion and argument, apology and forgiveness, settlement of disputes at ceremonial feasts, by the payment of compensation, or other means. Many groups believe that it is important to sustain traditional enmities with other groups, to promote solidarity within the clan. A mild form of conflict is known as petty wrangling, perhaps consisting of teasing or arguing over various privileges or prerogatives. In some cultures people will openly engage in violent displays of emotion-e.g., fights between spouses out in the open-with the expectation that others will intervene and prevent the situation from escalating. Adultery is a common source of conflict-and is remedied by monetary compensation in some cases and death of the offending party. An ancient and widespread way of settling conflicts is wergild, or blood money, presently operative in many regions. Retaliation for acts of sorcery is quite common: For example, the victim will engage in countermeasures to cast a spell on the suspected sorcerer. A pervasive phenomenon is the idea of collective responsibility: This entails that people are collectively responsible for the acts of others in their clan-for the individual only functions as a member of the group, there is tremendous strength of bond, and group consciousness is more important than individual consciousness. A man’s improper sexual advances against a girl from another tribe, for instance, may embroil whole villages until vengeance is exacted. Collective responsibility even entails the idea that revenge can be exacted against anyone in the wrongdoer’s tribe. Collective responsibility is the philosophy of modern day terrorists: the indiscriminate targeting of civilians of the enemy is justified because they are collectively responsible for the policies of their government. In many cultures the expression of anger or conflict, particularly by women, is highly improper, and emotional outbursts must be kept in check. In many of these cultures there are periodic “rituals of rebellion,” in which people will express their pent up anger at rulers and chiefs, or women at the men, singing and dancing lewdly. Rather than being socially disruptive, these rituals are ways of integrating groups and forming social balance. Dueling in the West was a long-standing mode in which men would resolve insults and minor disputes that impugned their honor. Lynching in America was also a method by which mobs would enforce a code of honor by taking the law into their own hands. In modern cultures today conflicts often take the form of vehement and unpleasantly sharp verbal attacks against adversaries-in politics and other contexts.

IMPORTANCE OF CONFLICT FOR INTERNAL COHESION As we all know, humans beings are universally capable of aggressive behavior. In nature, boldness has obvious payoffs: Fearless animals explore new territory. They fight their way to the top of the dominance hierarchy, and are first to get the food-and to win a desirable mate. People in all societies have hostile impulses toward other human beings. Some people seem to have a greater propensity towards aggression than others within their culture, while some cultures as a whole seem to have a greater or less propensity towards aggression than other cultures. Stevens (2003) argues: ... [A]gression is a fundamental and ineradicable characteristic of all social mammals including man: without aggression survival would be impossible; but survival also demands that aggression be constrained (p. 263). Even after laws are agreed upon to govern civil life, the brutish traits that Hobbes mentioned (see discussion, chapter 1) can manifest under pressure. The vicious traits of human beings may be restrained, or lie dormant, but they will be unfurled in all their fury, sometimes quite easily, particularly in the face of an outrage to one’s honor or imminent danger to life and limb. Stevens goes on to say: Readiness to do battle is one of the less appealing characteristics of our species, but it is unfortunately universal. Although some apparently peace-loving tribes have been described, they are invariably timid peoples who have been driven into inhospitable enclaves by their more aggressive neighbours where they have adapted to their circumstances by adopting a strategy of collective submissiveness (p. 269). John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


John Alan Cohan

Freud opened up a whole line of research that underscored the human propensity to violence and destruction. He claimed that aggression is deeply rooted in human nature, and is as natural as sexual appetite and almost as easily aroused. The source of aggression, according to Freud, is the death instinct that haunts our unconscious minds. In a famous letter responding to Einstein's comment that humans have a very pronounced violent streak, Freud wrote: Conflicts of interest between man and man are resolved in principle, by the recourse to violence. It is the same in the animal kingdom, from which man cannot claim exclusion.... Moreover, the slaughter of a foe gratifies an instinctive craving.... Thus we see that, even within the group itself, the exercise of violence cannot be avoided when conflicting interests are at stake.... You are amazed that it is so easy to infect men with the war fever, and you surmise that man has in him an active instinct for hatred and destruction, amenable to such stimulations. I entirely agree with you (as quoted in Einstein, 1960, pp. 192-197). As a matter of simple human nature, it seems intuitive that if an injury is inflicted, people will feel they have a justified basis to seek vengeance, and once that is achieved, they will feel satisfied. In primitive cultures, as we have seen, there often is a restraint imposed on expression of emotions. Vengeance might then be covert-such as witchcraft. Or, pent up grievances might erupt in bizarre ways-hysteria or possession, for instance-and we will see more of this in chapter 19(“Culture-Bound Syndromes”). But in a great many cultures people do not feel compelled to show restraint in venting their outraged emotions, preferring to show the community that no one can violate their dignity without a valiant effort being made to set things right. Warner (1931) argues: “[I]f a harm has been done to an individual or a group, it is felt by the injured people that they must repay the ones who have harmed them by an injury that at least equals the one they have suffered” (p. 461). In primitive cultures we often see informal social mechanisms for dealing with conflicts. Hoebel (1954) points out: As for law, simple societies need little of it. If the more primitive societies are more lawless than the more civilized, it is not in the sense that they are ipso facto more disorderly; quite the contrary. It is because they are more homogeneous; relations are more direct and intimate; interests are shared by all in a solid commonality; and there are fewer things to quarrel about. Because relations are more direct and intimate, the primary, informal mechanisms of social control are more generally effective (p. 293). In modern cultures “vengeance” may take the form of a lawsuit in which an aggrieved party seeks vindication of the wrong through the judicial system. In criminal matters, the state has the exclusive right to inflict penalties against wrongdoers. A modern parallel to conflict resolution is mediation where the parties come together in a formal setting before an agreed upon mediator to state their position on fancied or actual grievances, with witnesses joining in the proceedings, with a view towards reaching a harmonious resolution. But, for the most part in primitive cultures, instead of lawsuits, wrongs of all kinds are regarded as matters to be resolved by ceremonial fighting, revenge by sorcery, open discussion and argument, apology and forgiveness, settlement of disputes at ceremonial feasts, or by the payment of compensation, perhaps at a funerary potlatch (see chapter 17, “Potlatches”), whether of pigs, ornaments, shells or other valuables-or outright acts of vengeance such as raids. “Self-redress” is a frequent recourse for an aggrieved party. Often, vengeance will then be followed by counteraggression. Witchcraft inflicted to get even with an enemy, for instance, might be followed by identifying the witch, then counter-sorcery, as we saw in chapter 12 (“Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft”). This is particularly the case if an entire clan is affected. Masumura (1977) found: Self-redress may involve the use of physical force. Retaliation may lead to counterretaliation, and so on. Vengeance is a common motive for aggression. Feuds are often vendettas; and the most prevalent goal of primitive warfare is revenge (p. 388). In West Africa today, particularly Ghana, it is customary for people to engage in what is called instant justice. For instance, if you are robbed on the street, you shout an alarm and enlist the aid of bystanders, who will form a crowd and beat the suspect, often to the point of death (Dzokoto & Adams, 2005, p. 56).

Dealing with Conflicts, Aggressive Impulses, Enemies and War


While primitive cultures generally hold vengeance to be a virtue, in modern society we learn to control these impulses, and channel aggression into benign substitutes. We teach children that using violence to get even is not only morally wrong, but illegal, and that aggression must be defused or sublimated-to take a run or a cold shower and thus work out one’s rage, for instance. Of course, aggression is not necessarily harmful or destructive; it can be a creative strategy for attaining various appropriate ends, and a range of emotion can accompany aggression-not just anger. With tribes of the Wahgi Valley in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, social approval surrounds overt expressions of hostility. Before things got a bit on the tame side, the people believed that warfare between clans was important because fertility in pigs, abundance in gardens and in human procreation were thought to be bound up with warfare. Reay (1959) observed: The natives believe that the clan can only increase if traditional enmities are carefully sustained. Solidarity of the clan against its enemies is essential for the maintenance of order within the clan-oriented community. The ritual expression of inter-clan conflict draws the community together (p. 290). For primitives, killing of enemies is tied to the idea that “death feeds life, blood must be shed, the seed must fall into the ground and die, to sustain life” (Keen, 1986, p. 28). To kill an enemy is to partake of the primal battle between the forces of creation and of destruction. Once the enemy’s blood has been spilled, the war can end because the sacrifice symbolizes the recreation of the cosmos. Keen further comments: This symbolism explains much of the spirit of game, conscious drama, and play, that accompanies primitive warfare. An Ojibway raiding party would sometimes ambush the Sioux and allow everybody except one man to escape, because a single death allowed the war ritual to be completed, the dances to be done, the purification to be completed, the victory to be celebrated (p. 28). The primeval instinct, if we could call it that, to wreak vengeance against those who have dishonored us or otherwise caused us harm, is familiar to all people in all periods in history. According to Bilz (2007), [T]he basic urge for retribution is a cultural universal, across time and place, and it establishes itself early in life. Some evidence even hints that non-human primates experience a retributive urge (p. 1063). In many cultures the idea of destiny is foremost when engaging in war. As we previously observed, to the primitive mind there is no such thing as chance. Success is not a matter of prowess, strength or courage, but of proper ceremonies, chants, dances and magical preparations prior to the departure of the warriors, the wearing of charms to protect the warriors, and the proper reading of omens during the campaign, deduced from everything the sentinels see in their path. Weapons are treated as sacred objects after magical enchantments are performed over them. Since magical operations are thought to be infallible, once magical preparations are finished, future success is guaranteed. The future has already “happened.” The enemy’s weapons will malfunction, their vision will be clouded, they will be caught off guard, they will be unable to defend themselves, their confidence will fail them, their magic will be ineffective, their animals will be captured, and so on (Levy-Bruhl, 1923, pp. 324-327). One of the functions of war, according to Wedgwood (1930), “is to strengthen the bonds of union between the individuals of the fighting community and make them increasingly conscious that they are members of a single unit” (p. 6). It is a bit of a paradox, but war seems to unify people; it affords an opportunity to participate in a common effort; it enables men to come together and feel bonded in a common sacrifice. They can get away from the pettiness of everyday life, and find in heroic effort a satisfaction, self-esteem and meaning which everyday striving of individuals does not give. When an entire society takes on certain beliefs, a culturally sanctioned way of expressing hostility can develop. Tensions and conflicts on the individual level give way to a collective projection onto societal “scapegoats.” This was particularly observed during World War II, when Americans were remarkably unified and motivated to contribute to the war effort against the “evil” empire of Japan and the Nazi atrocities.


John Alan Cohan

With primitive groups, as we might also note in modern warfare, military honor is also a factor that motivates going to war. One wants to show the whole clan that one can demonstrate fearlessness. Still, in warfare men need to be “pushed,” that is led into battle. They need to have leadership, either from elders or from an experienced general who has overall responsibility for the battle. Social conflict among primitive peoples arises most commonly in connection with theft, adultery, disputed land ownership, default on debts, and sorcery. While many cultures are now under the authority of police forces and court systems, still many indigenous people rely on their native institutions and sanctions to redress wrongs. Vengeance in primitive cultures may be given release in a variety of ways-from overt acts such as attacking the enemy, to covert ways, including hiring a sorcerer, which is usually done secretly. And in cultures where the open expression of hostility is suppressed, vengeance might come out in other ways-such as periodic rituals of rebellion, where on particular occasions women will behave in hostile ways towards men-in a more or less organized ritual-or people will be allowed to ceremoniously engage aggressively toward their chief. Let us now explore different types of conflicts as observed in a wide range of cultures. PETTY WRANGLING A simple form of conflict consists of what we might call petty wrangling. One version of this is found in peasant cultures. In peasant cultures the most powerful means of expressing aggression is the indirect type: gossip, backbiting, criticism, and defamation. In the Society Islands where the norm is for people to refrain from hostile behavior, aggressiveness or inter-personal conflict, and where people are discouraged from individual striving and that sort of thing-people compensate for these constraints with gossip, teasing, coolness-and other substitutes for direct expressions of hostility. Beyond that, we see more explicit styles of petty wrangling. As told by MacClancy (1994), in August of each year there is an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Besse in the Italian Alpine area. This particular pilgrimage is centered on a steep rock that has been made holy by its association with the local saint. This is a Catholic transformation of a more ancient animistic cult pertaining to the sanctity of rocks. The people of surrounding villages all vie over who should bear the ritual ornaments in the processions. The people of different villages, in wrangling over who shall do what in the ceremonies, will ridicule those of other villages, perceive others as intruders, argue and carry on with shouts, fights and knifings. Teasing is a form of petty wrangling, often with humorous or playful overtones. In modern cultures teasing is a way of negotiating conflicts, according to Keltner (2008): In teasing, we learn to use our voices, bodies and faces, and to read those of others-the raw materials of emotional intelligence and the moral imagination. We learn the wisdom of laughing at ourselves, and not taking the self too seriously. We learn boundaries between danger and safety, right and wrong, friend and foe, male and female, what is serious and what is not. We transform the many conflicts of social living into entertaining dramas (p. 55). King (1973) studied a common practice in Sardinia-violence in the form of banditry. There is a pervasive animosity between shepherds and crop farmers. The isolated and difficult topography makes hiding out and concealment of stolen livestock easy. King found that if a person is aggrieved by the wrongful acts of another, the peoples’ code of unwritten law provides for conflict resolution by way of brigandage, vendetta murder, livestock rustling, or kidnapping for ransom. The people on both sides of a grievance will refuse to cooperate with law enforcement, preferring to use their customary tactics to achieve vengeance. Petty wrangling is often seen in modern society. This can be seen in situations where people keep strict control over internal affairs by taking the law into their own hands. Vitello (2009) found that in Brooklyn, New York, for



instance, members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community reject modern secular culture, just as their ancestors did for centuries, and disputes of all sorts-whether concerning marriage, children or business-are adjudicated by rabbinical courts called beth dins. These tribunals are insulated from the secular authorities, and it is taboo for community members to report crimes or other concerns to the police. Another example of the way people in modern society resolve internal disputes can be seen with urban gangs. This might take the form of a quarrel between boys of rival gangs due to a minor slight, or as a result of an insult, or boasting of success in love affairs. Gang leaders will seek to resolve the dispute, big or small, although this can easily escalate into gang warfare as fellow gang members unite against the offender. VIOLENT DISPLAYS OF EMOTION WITH EXPECTATION THAT OTHERS WILL INTERVENE In many cultures, both primitive and modern, the following is a common scenario: Two acquaintances start to quarrel, and to prevent the situation from escalating into a real fight, friends will attempt to hold them back. On these occasions the contestants might be relieved that the conflict does not intensify beyond the exchange of verbal epithets and threats. It is always a social cushion of sorts to know in the back of your mind that even if you get into a fight, others will simply put a stop to it so that no one in the end expects to get seriously harmed. The Dou Donggo people of the island of Sumbawa in eastern Indonesia are known for violent displays of emotion. According to Just (1991), they will display anger by screaming or throwing temper tantrums in public, or if a domestic dispute arises, husband and wife will violently hack up furniture, smash up crockery and yell at each other until neighbors come to restrain them. There is the cultural expectation that angry or violent displays in public will be restrained by friends, kin or elders. Thus, in this close knit and densely housed community someone will immediately step in and prevent the altercation from escalating. The main point is that violence is publicly displayed where others can be counted on to tame it. If someone has a grudge against you, this will become a public matter rather than something worked out quietly between the parties. In some cases a dispute will come before a panel of village elders, during which there is a passionate display of emotion and violence by all the participants (even the judges). People will scream abuse at each other, weep, and reach for weapons, but if anyone really makes threatening gestures, onlookers will restrain him or her and thereby prevent physical damage. VINDICATION OF PRIVATE WRONGS The private wrongs most frequently studied by anthropologists include adultery, homicide and sorcery. While individual cultures have a variety of approaches in dealing with these social conflicts, we will highlight some of the more interesting aspects below. A great deal of literature has been published on these subjects. ADULTERY In almost all cultures there are restrictions on sexual activities-with adultery usually being prohibited. Adultery is often the source of conflict between the aggrieved husband and his wife’s lover. While rules regarding adultery are found nearly universally, the rules defining it may vary, its application might be limited, and there are vast differences among cultures in the sanctions and attitudes regarding to adultery: In numerous cultures adultery is, on the one hand, quite commonplace, and on the other hand is always an occasion of vehement protest by the wronged partner. Some cultures condone adultery on the part of the male, and others demand fidelity of both spouses. For the most part, in primitive cultures adultery is compensated by the culprit paying compensation to the husband who has been wronged. Intercourse with an unmarried girl, which is usually regarded as misconduct, is compensated by payment to the girl’s father and brothers. If a woman is raped, the compensation goes to her husband rather than to the unhappy woman. In cultures that allow polygamy, sex relations are still limited to the designated partners. In some cultures, such as the Eskimos in the early 20th Century, there was wife lending as a form of hospitality. In Pakistan and other Islamic states, the laws of zina strictly forbid any sexual contact outside of marriage, and women can be convicted of


John Alan Cohan

adultery as a result of being raped, and sentenced to death by stoning. That is because under the zina statutes, rape can only be proved with the testimony of four male witnesses, a standard that is almost impossible to meet, so that many women have been convicted of adultery even though they claimed they were raped. In Somalia and other Muslim nations it is not uncommon for people to have a public killing of women by stoning to death-even girls-accused of adultery (Reuters, 2008). There are many cases where women who have been raped and then seek protection from the authorities will in turn be accused of adultery and sentenced to death under Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Koran. These practices persist to this day, even as human rights groups protest and seek to change such practices. As found by Hogbin (1935a), in areas of Papua New Guinea, such as Wogeo Island in the north, if a man learns that his wife has been unfaithful, he will first of all give her a thrashing. He will refrain from vengeance against the adulterer until some occasion such as a public festival or a ceremonial presentation of food by one village to another. In such festivals there are mock war ceremonies where people can attack others against whom they have some grudge, and the aggrieved husband will vent his fury at the other man at the public festival. However, sometimes a man of high standing will not wait for a festival but will proceed to the village of the adulterer, fully armed, and thereupon hurl insults to his face. According to Hobgin, the villagers and the culprit will remain silent and accept the shaming. Afterwards the matter will be concluded by the adulterer’s relatives paying compensation to the wronged husband. But if anyone dares to commit adultery with the wife of the clan headman, the headman will very likely kill the culprit outright or through sorcery (p. 324). HOMICIDE AND WERGILD Homicide, whether murder or manslaughter, or even accidental killing-for often no distinction is made in primitive cultures among the kinds of homicide-is a matter to be settled between the victim’s family and the perpetrator of the deed. According to Phillpotts (1913), in medieval Europe wergild, or blood-money, was exacted from relatives of the individual who committed a homicide and paid to the victim’s family as compensation. The payment was often prescribed by law (p. 149). Wergild had the practical effect of ending a blood feud between different kindreds. Blood feuds, a feature of primitive cultures, are characterized by killings and counter-killings perpetuated between members of antagonistic groups. A strong sense of collective solidarity, which persists to this day in many cultures, requires that all members of a group be accountable for the actions of any of its members. Thus, wergild was a way of maintaining peace between potentially feuding groups. In primitive cultures a payment of wergild might be supplemented by a temporary exchange of wives of the perpetrator’s village with those of the wronged. And thus peace will be restored. If payment is not possible as a way of resolving the homicide, there easily could be violent retaliation-continuation of the blood feud-or revenge by sorcery as a means of redressing the wrong. Wergild was also an important element of making peace throughout Melanesia at the conclusion of wars. Wedgwood (1930) found that each side would pay wergild for persons who were killed or injured in the conflict. The payment is negotiated by the two sides, and is made by the parties principally responsible for the damage inflicted, that is, from one man to the relatives of the man who had been killed or injured. Even if both sides suffered exactly the same number of casualties, the payments must still be made. The wergild ceremony is calculated to bring the two sides into harmony again. Peace cannot be concluded without the ceremonial exchange of wergild. Sometimes wergild might be paid not in shell money or pigs but by handing over one of its own people, either as a dead corpse or still alive, to be killed and eaten by the other side, as a peace offering (pp. 26-29). Wergild is still operative in many villages in the Middle East and Asia. It is used to help patch up feuds between families to avenge someone’s death. Birch (2008) found that in the village of Diyarbakir, Turkey, for instance, during a 10-year period an elderly man, Sait Sanli, brokered more than 500 deals for blood money between feuding families. In many instances the payment of blood money is a way of insuring that the families will not engage in titfor-tat revenge killings.



Of course, in modern society we have a counterpart to the custom of wergild: lawsuits for civil wrongs ranging from wrongful death to medical malpractice to automobile accidents-in which people sue to obtain a financial judgment or settlement. While redress for murder and other crimes is for the most part reserved for the state to prosecute in criminal proceedings-still people can and do sue for wrongful death in cases of intentional or negligent homicideand one highly publicized case on this point was the civil suit against O. J. Simpson for wrongful death after he was acquitted of murder in a criminal trial. In the civil trial, where the standard of proof is lower than for a criminal conviction, a judgment was obtained against him for monetary damages. You might call this a modern-day wergild. RETALIATION FOR ACTS OF SORCERY In many cultures the public display of grudges is not at all socially approved. Revenge has to be obtained by stealth. Actually, this is true in modern society as well as among a variety of primitive cultures. We do not want to openly bear grudges because, like envy, this is something we are loathe to admit, and is best kept under wraps or else people will form an unfavorable impression about our personality. Gillin (1934) found that among the Carib, people will engineer and execute plans for vengeance with great secrecy. This prevents the targeted individual from protecting himself against the secret attack, and helps avoid further reprisals. Where the cause of someone’s death is thought to be sorcery rather than a direct attack by a perpetrator, the suspected sorcerer might fess up and negotiate wergild to compensate the aggrieved relatives. Otherwise, the traditional pattern has been the inevitable revenge expedition by kinsmen, resulting in killing the sorcerer. This is sometimes called “judicial murder,” and is carried out in a deliberate manner perhaps by an entire village or tribe. There may or may not be a counter-reprisal by the sorcerer’s tribe. At the same time, anyone accused of sorcery death gains a certain measure of prestige, for he is credited with having used powerful magic, he is feared, and this fear gains for him extra social prestige. Sometimes people will simply retaliate against suspected acts of sorcery-whether it has to do with death, illness or some other misfortune-without bothering to confront the culprit. Once the perpetrator is identified by a diviner or by some other means the aggrieved party will perform retaliatory magic against the perpetrator, or hire someone to do so. According to Winans and Edgerton (1964), among the Hehe tribe in Tanganyika, doing magic against someone who has cast a spell on you is called litego. It is only to be done for moral reasons, i.e., retaliation for evil-doing. Sometimes an aggrieved party will confront the evil-doer and threaten to do injury by magic, but usually this isn’t “announced” because the threat might be returned by killing the adversary on the spot. According to Winans and Edgerton, if all goes according to plan, the initial sorcerer will fall ill or one of his kin might die. To end the cycle and in order to remove the spell, a ceremonial apology and mediation will need to take place. INDIVIDUAL VS. GROUP WRONGS: COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY As we discussed in chapter 1, lifestyle among primitives as a rule places an emphasis on collective solidarity rather than individual autonomy. This entails, for the most part, a sense that people are collectively responsible for the acts of others in their clan. The individual in these cultures is merged with the group, and as a result an entire tribe might be deemed collectively responsible for the misdeeds of a fellow member. Neumann (1969) makes this claim: Since the individual only functions as a member of the group, and group consciousness is more important than individual consciousness, not unnaturally we always find also group responsibility and a group ethic at this level. The condition of participation mystique, of the unconscious mutual identity of persons, is expressed in the fact that the group is responsible for the individual and that each individual, for his part, is regarded as an incarnation of the whole group. Primitive psychology abounds in behaviour-patterns which reveal how the group is identical with its constituent members and how, in turn, each single individual represents the whole group in his own person. Whatever happens to the individual happens at the same time to the whole group, and the whole group reacts as such to what happens to any individual member (cf. the phenomenon of the blood feud). Responsibility is located not in


John Alan Cohan

the individual but in the group. And just as the whole group is regarded as affected by an act of murder, so too it is not the intention of the group to strike back at the individual murderer. As the whole group to which the murderer belongs to is guilty, blood revenge can be exacted from any given member of it (p. 60). The most egregious situations involve sexual offenses or murder committed by someone from another tribe against a local individual. The situation may embroil whole villages or tribes until vengeance is exacted, as these offenses are thought to be against society as a whole (It should be noted that in modern society crimes of all kinds are regarded as offenses against “the people,” that is, against society as a whole, and prosecution for these offenses if delegated to the state). But wrongs committed by a local person against someone from another group may also embroil sympathizers and supporters on both sides. Even on a local level, unless resolved by compensation to the aggrieved family, a serious offense will be responded to by a revenge expedition orchestrated by a number of people who are related to the aggrieved party, as well as a group of sympathizers who take offense at the wrong, so that the case typically becomes one of group against group. Sometimes the outbreak of strife between groups that are normally friendly can be precipitated by adultery with a man’s wife, elopement with a girl, public insults, or thefts. Wedgwood (1930) found: Such is the strength of the bond between fellow clansmen that, though these trespasses primarily affect only the individual directly concerned, they involve their clans also; that of the injured man feels the injury to be directed against all its members; that of the offender is bound by the ties of kinship to protect him against retribution. If, therefore, any action should lead to a public brawl between two persons of different clans, the friends and clansmen of both soon take up arms and join in a general melee (pp. 9-10). Wedgwood goes on to say that between friendly communities, a conflict to vindicate the breach of honor of the parties concerned will usually be a “mild state of war” (p. 10), with not too much damage and not too much killing, lasting until the anger of the moment has subsided and honor has been vindicated. And as between communities that are not on friendly relations, the slightest suspicion or provocation can result in war. For example, as seen in Melanesia, any misfortune such as drought or flood, ill-luck in fishing or hunting, or any mishap-might be attributed to sorcery by an unfriendly tribe. Hatred and suspicion, already a common sentiment between the tribes, coupled with a current misfortune, may readily result in war. In such communities there can be never-ending conflicts, with temporary periods of unstable peace, only to be refueled by the slightest trespass, provocation, or suspected sorcery. Warfare with neighboring tribes has taken place for centuries among Papua New Guinea’s indigenous population consisting of several thousand villages, most having only a few hundred people. Often, because of the treacherous mountain terrain, some groups living only a few kilometers away retain a somewhat insular, isolated existence, with their own language, customs and traditions. A total of 717 tribal languages have been identified. Among various Native American tribes, collective responsibility seems to entail the idea that revenge can be exacted against anyone in the wrongdoer’s tribe. Lowie (1947) found: ...[A]mong the Crow if a Fox had disgraced himself and his society by taking back an abducted wife, the rival Lumpwoods had the right to cut up the blankets of all the Foxes; and in the same tribe the grief of parents mourning the death of a son slain by the Dakota was at once assuaged when vengeance had been wreaked on any member of the hostile people (p. 339). Among the Native Americans of Southeastern Alaska there were elaborate customs supporting the idea that crimes were against the entire clan, not against the individual. Their philosophy was an eye for an eye, so that revenge demanded equivalence. For murder of a man of high rank by a man of low rank, the remedy was to free the actual murderer and instead to exact revenge against a higher status individual in his clan. The status of an individual was based mainly on the amount of goods he gave for his bridal payment.



Oberg (1934) found that among the Tlingit of that region, we see a kind of wergild practiced on a collective level. If the murder victim was of low rank and poor reputation, the remedy would be a payment of goods to satisfy the injured clan. Representatives of the clans would meet and haggle over whether the victim was someone of low rank or not; and if so, how much goods should be paid by the perpetrator’s clan to the victim’s clan. If that couldn’t be worked out, they would decide who should be selected to die as compensation. If a man of high rank killed someone of another clan, he would usually go free, and his clan would select someone of lower rank to die in return, but of sufficient rank to satisfy the other clan. The clan would also designate someone within the clan, of low rank, to go to the home of the sacrificed individual and serve the family as a slave. Anyone who was selected to die as compensation prepared to die willingly. To die for the honor of one’s clan was an act of great bravery; the sacrificed man was proclaimed a great warrior. A peace dance followed the settlement of any crime. Clans among the Tlingit had relative status to one another. The rank of a clan was judged largely by the amount of goods it gave away at its last prestige potlatch (see chapter 17, “Potlatches”). The highly regulated customs of Tlingit society dealt with a great many things regulating inter-clan relations, particularly the right to compensation for all manner of injuries caused by members of another clan-from how to compensate for injuring someone’s dog, compensation for accidental death during hunting with another clan, and a variety of what we might regard as trivial matters. For instance, if someone fell down twice before a man’s house of another clan, he would be entitled to compensation; catching a chill in someone’s house of another clan, injuring oneself with another man’s tools, or becoming angry or irritable due to contact with others-would give a right to a small payment of goods, provided these injuries were “caused” by members of another clan. If a man of a low status clan killed someone of a high status clan, it was necessary to exact revenge against a higher status clan of the offender’s phratry, in which case bitter feuds or even war could break out between clans of the same phratry. Within the clan itself, in contrast to interclan crimes, there was no penalty for murder, theft, or adultery. If a clansman murdered another clansman, there simply was no remedy. But for offenses that bring shame or dishonor to the clan as a whole, such as incest, witchcraft, marriage with a slave or prostitution, the clan punished its member by death. If a man of high rank stole something from another clan it was thought he was bewitched; a shaman would get to the bottom of it and the sorcerer would be killed. It was not unknown for shamans to be bribed into naming a particular individual as “the sorcerer.” People of low status and slaves were in constant fear of the powerful families and the shamans they employed. The people practiced slavery, and if someone within one’s own clan owed a debt and had no means of paying it back, he was enslaved to the creditor-clansman until he worked off the debt, thus saving the honor of the clan. Incurring shame was a tremendous blow to members of this culture. The slightest thing could produce shame: If you fell down in public or otherwise injured yourself, this would cause shame. Cleaning fish or carrying wood or water was considered menial labor-shameful. Arguing with a slave or man of low rank, or sitting in a sprawling position, not dressing properly-would result in heaping ridicule upon the individual. Many other things could produce shame: being seen naked by someone of low rank; being seen with one’s mother-in-law; having sex with a woman of inferior rank in one’s clan; being seen relieving oneself in public. Anyone who was seen in a shameful situation would be thoroughly ridiculed by his clansmen. He would become the laughing stock of the village. People would circulate songs and stories about him, and make ludicrous wooden likenesses of the individual to be placed in prominent places. The remedy for incurring shame was to give a feast and invite whoever had seen the shameful act.


John Alan Cohan

In contrast to primitive cultures, in modern society we tend to subscribe to the view that we can be guilty only of those wrongs which we have personally committed. Thus, punishment is meted out only against the convicted murderer. His family and kin are not “brought to justice,” although they may suffer shame and disgrace. At the same time, in modern society we have the idea that crimes are an offense against the collective, against all the people-even though only one person might be the actual victim-and as mentioned, the function of meting out punishment is delegated by the people to the State. The District Attorney, for instance, represents the people of the particular jurisdiction, prosecuting crimes in their behalf. Instead of there being a lynch mob to vindicate the wrong, instead of the victim’s family seeking an eye-for-an-eye against the perpetrator’s family, the prosecutor is vested with the function of bringing the offender to justice. Of course, this does not always go as planned, and as we will see below, lynch mobs, enraged with emotion, have at times superseded the authority of law enforcement officials and taken “justice” into their own hands. On the question of whether there is such a thing as collective guilt reasonable people will differ. Some think that all of us are guilty of each and every wrong done by any human being, a view which Mohandas Gandhi seems to have held (Wilkins, 1992, p. 19). We see evidence of civilized nations subscribing to the idea of collective guilt. In World War II, for instance, the Allies regarded targeting of civilian infrastructure as proper because of the concept of “total war,” in which the entire population could be killed, not just soldiers. That concept was also in play in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Allied forces apparently endorsed the idea that the civilians of the enemy states “were all in one way or another complicit in the war effort and thus were not, after all, innocent” (Nielsen, 2003, p. 431). Collective responsibility is the philosophy of modern day terrorists: the indiscriminate targeting of civilians of the enemy is justified because they are collectively responsible for the policies of their government (Jenkins, 2001). To terrorists, citizens of governments qualify as legitimate targets of political violence because they are guilty of complicity in wrongdoing with the offending government which, itself, has perpetrated unjustified political violence (Corlett, 2003, p. 65). Civilians share common interests and values with their government, and hence are not “innocents,” but are collectively guilty. The entire population is guilty as a collective for nurturing a culture that participates in imperialism and oppression. This, at any rate, is the rationale of terrorists. A statement posted on an Al Qaeda web site in 2003 stated: “We have the right to kill four million Americans-two million of them children-and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, it is our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons” (Bumiller, 2004). Osama bin Laden has said, “We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians: they are all targets in this fatwa... The fatwa includes all who share or take part in killing Muslims, assaulting holy places, or those who help the Jews occupy Muslim land” (as quoted in O’Boyle, 2002, p. 40). The tactic of indiscriminate targeting of civilians is sometimes employed by groups that conduct a national or ethnic struggle, in that they are fighting against an entire population. When Palestinian terrorists carry out random attacks against the Israeli public, it is because they perceive Israel as their enemy, rather than a particular class of Israelis. According to Fletcher (2004): When a suicide bomber attacks Israeli children, the Jews consider the entire Palestinian population guilty, directly or indirectly. When Jews move into the West Bank, establishing new settlements, Palestinians accuse the entire Jewish nation of “taking” Palestinian land and creating facts-on-the-ground that render a Palestinian state less feasible. This reciprocal perception of the other side’s collective guilt fuels the endless cycle of violence that has tragically dispelled dreams of peace in the region (p. 163). Fletcher further claims that “collective guilt is a plausible, widely-shared, and sometimes healthy response to collective wrongdoing” (p. 168). He further points out that Palestinian terrorist groups regard all Israelis as collectively guilty for occupying Palestinian “ancestral land,” and for perpetuating an ongoing humiliation to Arab honor (p. 166). Fletcher adds: “It is not surprising that... Israel’s partnership with the United States only exacerbates the image of Jews as exercisers of uncanny powers-able not only to kill the Son of God, but to conquer and manipulate the world’s media and financial systems” (p. 166).



The idea of collective guilt is also said to be a Marxist view, which Corlett (2003) describes as follows: [I]f a society allows or fails to prevent what it well could have prevented without cost to itself, then if that circumstance eventuates in a wrong doing, then society becomes, morally speaking, an accomplice in or cause of the wrong doing. Society becomes collectively responsible for the wrong doing (p. 64). Scholars, including Alan Dershowitz (2002), and Nathan Lewin (2002) have proposed collective punishment of citizens for nurturing a culture that takes pride in suicide bombings. Of course, their discussion is in the other direction, that is, collective guilt for those who are supportive of terrorists, rather than collective guilt of members of the society whom terrorists are attacking. The indiscriminate targeting of civilians under this notion of collective guilt amplifies the terroristic component of the violence, since members of the public will sustain heightened fear and insecurity in recognizing that an attack can happen at any time to anyone. The indiscriminate nature of the attacks serves to create an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity, and the decomposition of society. The people will get the message that no one is safe until the injustice in question is abated. The logic of, and moral justification for, indiscriminate targeting of civilians are not different from what motivated the United States to systematically bomb German and Japanese civilian populations in World War II, as mentioned above, under the concept of “total war.” Terrorists take themselves to be engaged in a total war. HEAD-HUNTING RAIDS AND CANNIBALISM Sometimes war has a utilitarian benefit above and beyond getting rid of enemies. Many believe that the spirit of the dead man enters the body of the slayer, who acquires all the strength of the man who died. Later, the spirit of the dead man can communicate with the slayer, telling him where to go hunting or where to find a new honeybees’ nest. Harner (1962) found that this belief prevailed among the Jivaro in eastern Ecuador, who were known for their warlike practices. The people believed that killing leads to the acquisition of souls which provide a supernatural power conferring immunity from death. Suspicions, hostility, sorcery, murder, and poisoning were common practices among tribesmen. According to Harner, the head of a captured enemy would be kept as a powerful keepsake, dried and shrunken, and is called a tsantsa. In some primitive cultures, at least until recent times, in order for a boy to be considered to have achieved manhood - he must prove himself by killing someone, decapitating the body, and bringing the head back to the village as proof. Thus, young men would need to organize raiding parties to set out and attack some distant or unprotected group from whom there was little fear of retaliation. In connection with Kwoma culture, Whiting and Reed (1938) found: On reaching the selected hamlet the raiders silently surround a dwelling and crouch with their special man-killing spears poised. The attack takes place just at dawn when a leader rushes the house. If there are novices in the party men who have already secured heads stand aside to let them make their kills. As the occupants of the house rush out in terror they are felled by the spears of the raiders. Other houses are searched for possible victims for the object of the attackers is to exterminate the hamlet. No one is spared on account of age or sex, but only the heads of adult male victims are carried home (p. 209). As mentioned in chapter 4 (“Mana”) in the discussion of names, at times raids would occur expressly for the purpose of obtaining a “stranger,” dead or alive, whose remains would be used in a sacrificial ceremony of one sort or another. For instance, in some regions of Melanesia, such as the Solomon Islands, funeral rites could not be properly performed without a human sacrifice, and the inauguration of a new canoe house or the completion of any important work, had to culminate with the sacrifice of a head, which is then put on display. If there were no slaves on hand or prisoners from a former war, a raid would need to take place against an enemy tribe to obtain the necessary human victim for these rites. In the Solomon Islands at times there was a mania of sorts in head-huntingso great was the demand for ritual sacrifices. In these ritual sacrifices the practice of cannibalism was quite common


John Alan Cohan

in addition to the glory displaying the heads. At various villages, the heads of victims would be piled up at special sites, where their skulls remain to this day. According to Wedgwood (1930), in the Admiralty Islands warfare might take the form of sea-fights in canoes, where chiefs of enemy tribes would engage in a single combat with lances, later to be joined by other warriors. Oftentimes in Melanesian cultures the lex talionis principle applied, so that if a chief were slain on one side, another of the same rank must be killed on the other before peace-making could be considered. Wedgwood found that sometimes, but not always, a kind of chivalry seemed to exist in that there would be a cease fire if a chief were killed so as to allow the other party to recover his corpse and perform funeral rites. Often enough, however, the bodies of village chiefs or headmen would be retained by the slayers and ceremoniously eaten (p. 19). Melbye and Fairgrieve (1994) found that both oral tradition and studies of excavated skeletal remains reveal that for many years Inuits of the Arctic regions and Indians of the Canadian region were bitter enemies and engaged in periodic interpersonal violent vendettas. During spring or summer, one party would attack the camp of another when the men were away hunting, and torture and kill children, women and elders. According to Melbye and Fairgrieve, evidence of the massacres indicates that there was violent postmortem trauma, i.e., “butchering” of the bodies, dismemberment, mutilation, scalping, and defleshing-suggesting cannibalism. Cannibalism has been reported by anthropologists in diverse regions of the world, including Australia, Oceania, Africa, South America and North America. Today cannibalism still appears to exist in parts of the world as a way of “disposing” of the remains of enemies who have been killed. Salopik (2005) reported about this with regards to rebel forces that killed and cannibalized Mbuti Pygmies in the Congo’s Ituri forest. CULTURES WHERE ANGER IS SUPPRESSED: RITUALS OF REBELLION Sometimes conflict can be more in the nature of an inner struggle against the values or behavior norms that are regarded as desirable in a given culture. People may behave in an external way that conforms to what is expected, yet consciously or unconsciously they may have conflicting inner attitudes about the values. We all are more or less “practiced” in keeping emotional outbursts in check. It is generally undesirable to have a tantrum in public, regardless of one’s culture. The suppression of anger and related emotions is particularly prevalent, as a matter of custom, among women in Latin American cultures. There does not seem to be any significant catharsis or release for the expression of anger by women, so that ultimately this gets turned upon the self in the form of somaticized illnesses such as ataques de nervos (attacks of nerves), discussed in Chapter 19 (“Culture-Bound Syndromes”). Somaticized illnesses are thought to be caused by this tension between values of the society and the inclinations of the individual. Jung (1940) argues: Emotions are instinctive, involuntary reactions that upset the rational order of consciousness by their elementary outbursts. Emotions are not “made,” or wilfully produced in and by consciousness. Instead, they appear suddenly, leaping up from an unconscious region (p. 10). Somatization is a way of coping with psychological and social problems. Danforth (1989) claims as follows: Somatization is particularly common in societies where mental illness is heavily stigmatized, where it is improper to discuss personal or family difficulties with outsiders, and where no form of psychotherapy is available. In such situations, because of a lack of any acceptable psychological or social idiom for the expression of distress, somatization occurs, and distress is expressed in a more acceptable somatic idiom (p. 53). Not only anger, but other emotions that must be kept hidden can lead to outbursts of bizarre behavior if there are no ordinary means available of venting one’s frustration. Thus, as we will also see in chapter 19, young men in Papua New Guinea tend to display a syndrome known as longlong, in which they become hysterical and run amok. And in New Zealand the Maori tend to develop a syndrome called dark intestines (pouri te ngakau)-a state of heightened tension and constant brooding due to unavenged grievances. Sometimes this leads to suicide if revenge cannot be obtained.



In many cultures people will engage in annual or periodic “rituals of rebellion,” or “rituals of conflict.” Open conflicts between people, particularly in a ritualized and sanctioned context, can serve an important social function in which the people will express their pent up anger at rulers and chiefs. Rather than being socially disruptive, these rituals are ways of integrating groups and forming social balance. A counterpart to these rituals of rebellion might be the conduct of court jesters in medieval England. Court jesters and fools were allowed to mimic the king or make provocative remarks and play pranks as part of daily court life. It was a way of expressing frustrations presumably held in check by others of the court-in a humorous and socially approved manner. Dirks (1988) found that rituals of rebellion might involve women behaving in aggressive ways towards men, or the people in general deriding and ridiculing their chief. It might involve men expressing ritualized anger towards women, or rites representing conflict between community groups. It might consist only of verbal abuse towards the chief or towards antagonists. These are distinct from ceremonies for settling disputes, but are regularly celebrated occasions where ridicule, threat, assault, or other conflicts are expressed, enacted and considered proper. Dirks claims that the rituals might involve tournaments or other physical contests (tug-of war, whip fights, etc.), mock battles, playful attacks on people or their property, crude pranks, and other acts of derision and mockery. In some cultures there are end-of-Lent festivities that inevitably turn into dancing, drinking, quarreling and even homicide (e.g., the Metacos’ alagroba festival). Frazer (1959) referred to this as “annual periods of license” in which “darker passions find a vent” (p. 319). Norbeck (1963) found that rituals of rebellion are widespread throughout Africa. In these rituals the people will ridicule, criticize, threaten and openly express resentment against the authority of leaders. Also, according to Norbeck, women will express resentment against men (particularly their husbands) for their formal subordination, and men will express their resentment against women. Women in the ritual will sing and act lewdly, going naked or wearing male clothing and imitating males. Many African rituals involve cross-dressing and lewd dancing, simulating sexual intercourse and masturbation. Also, men and women will gather in two groups, holding bunches of sharp nettles in their hands, and when they are ready they will rush forward, attacking their opponents with the nettles. They will also hurl handfuls of soft ash and mud pies at their antagonists. All the men are united against all the women, except that husband and wife may not attack each other. This ritual conflict is known as “the nettle game,” and is conducted in a spirit of good humor, although it could become rough. The people will not only express grievances against their chiefs and superiors, but will vent anger in ritual fashion and openly express their grudges against their equals at funerals, at a sacrifice for a sick person and at other formal occasions. Family quarrels are allowed to erupt at rites held at birth, marriage, death and when someone is seriously ill. Dead men are insulted at their funerals to counter the grief felt by relatives. Cathartic acting out is also seen in the Mudhead Kachinas of the Hopi who function as clowns and mock the customs and engage in all sorts of antisocial behavior (Kennard & Earle, 1938). In the Afikpo masked rituals in Nigeria, masqueraders not only can act as fools, but become aggressive against others who have been aggressive towards him (Ottenberg, 1975). The Heyoka Cult of the Dakota Sioux Indians have an institutionalized acting out ceremony that mimics and mocks the white man. The actors will dress in caricature of whites, with outsized urban clothes, sport caps, white face masks, large phallic noses, bushy eyebrows, etc., and there will be outrageous, ostentatious, arrogant, intimidating and drunken displays of behavior (Jilek, 1978, p. 126). The Inuit have a long-standing tradition of engaging in song duels-organized when someone with a grievance challenges his opponent. Hoebel (1954) found that the contestants prepare by composing songs with words that express a combination of contempt, derision and humor, and these are then performed, sometimes punctuated by dancing. The songs are designed to hurl reproaches, ridicule and insults to each other for misdeeds, and are performed before an audience assembled for the occasion. The contestants are expected to maintain composure and not show anger or passion. The dispute is “decided” in favor of whichever contestant has garnered greater audience approval. Afterwards the contestants are expected to be reconciled, and may even become good friends (p. 96).


John Alan Cohan

The song duel “gives social sanction for histrionic behavior designed to provide catharsis and gain sympathy for the aggrieved individual” (Parker, 1962, p. 89). A dramatic presentation of a song duel was depicted in the film, The Wedding of Paloa, made by Resmussen and released in 1937. According to Dirks (1988), during the period of slavery in the British West Indies, field slaves would engage in an annual ritual of conflict in mid-December, when new crops appeared and overseas vessels filled with food shipments began to arrive: Contingents of slaves came to their masters’ doors, dancing, flourishing mock swords, and miming threats. Troops of slave “actors” played out scenes of murder in the streets. On Jamaica, sets of women dressed in lavish costumes frequently came to blows over who was most beautifully bedecked. Such escapades continued for several days, in effect marking the conclusion of the hunger months with ritualized, mostly playful aggressions directed across virtually every social boundary in the plantation community (p. 862). Rituals of rebellion, as an organized protest, provide a cathartic effect in ritual manner, helping to unify the community, and keeping rebellion within bounds. The free expression of anger clearly helps to produce a change in the feelings of the parties, and restores the peace between the two groups. Rituals of rebellion are a kind of psychological safety valve: If people are able to break rules of decorum on certain occasions, and thereby vent their anxieties and frustrations, they will be more likely to behave themselves the rest of the time. MUSHROOM MADNESS IN NEW GUINEA A kind of ritual of rebellion has been reported among the Kuma people in the Wahgi Valley of the Papua New Guinea highlands. In her study, Reay (1960) found that these people have a kind of social convention in which groups of people will ingest certain hallucinogenic mushrooms that induces wild behavior. Men high on the mushrooms will decorate themselves carelessly with exaggerated bustles, then run amok, terrorizing the village, chasing after others with spears, bows and arrows (This is different from the syndrome known as longlong, which also entails running amok, discussed in chapter 19). According to Reay, women, who also ingest the mushrooms, ordinarily are not permitted to dance, but on these occasions will be encouraged to do so. Unmarried girls will make sexual advances to married as well as unmarried men. Married men will likewise turn to sexual experiences with unmarried girls. The rebellious behavior induced by the mushrooms is socially sanctioned and, like the other rituals of rebellion discussed above, produces a catharsis that in turn promotes social cohesion once the craziness subsides. DUELING IN AMERICA In the colonial period of America there was a trend of sorts for people to express anger through violence. Insults and minor disputes were resolved by personal vengeance rather than relying on legal procedures. In the early days of the republic defamatory comments, a threatened blow, someone lewdly touching one's wife, daughter, sister or a female companion-were occasions for a duel. Dueling was an honorable and just mode of settling personal differences. Alexis de Tocqueville (1834/1971) described the frontier of America as “a wild country where [men] must fight daily against all the miseries of life” and that this made “their passions still more irritable and violent and further removed from society” (p. 285). Dueling was an outgrowth of a culture of honor, and an accepted element of the social code. It was usually precipitated by an insult or perceived insult, through words or writing, a disparaging gesture, contemptuous sneer, other expressions of contempt, or affronts to one's sense of autonomy and dignity. Passions were little under control, and political arguments often advanced to stabbing. Men participated in duels out of fear of what would happen to their reputation if they allowed an insult or a disagreement to go unchallenged. Even after anti-dueling statutes were enacted in the 19th Century, public sentiment made it rare to convict a man of killing another in a duel because jurors still regarded dueling as an appropriate response to insults, slander, and libel.



Dueling was particularly prevalent in the South, in what was called the Southern “honor” code. The Southern code required men to defend themselves, their honor, and their integrity as a matter of personal duty. Dueling in America was not confined to the upper classes, as it was in Europe. The more democratic society of America allowed lesser men to raise their social status by demonstrating physical courage. Dueling was presented in the romantic literature of the 18th Century as an appropriate response to insulting behavior. Sir Walter Scott's novels treated dueling as a regrettable, but sometimes necessary, method of resolving disputes. As one of Scott's characters in The Bride of Lammermoor observed after a duel, “If one of us falls, all accounts are settled; if not, men are never so ready for peace as after war” (Scott, 1819/1991, p. 79). The Burr-Hamilton duel, and several lesser known ones in the early 1800s, brought widespread condemnation of the practice of dueling in the North. The Burr-Hamilton duel was between the former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and the then Vice President, Aaron Burr, on July 11, 1804. Burr shot Hamilton, who died the next day of his wounds. In the South, the Civil War marked the end of dueling as a method of upholding honor, and by 1870 it was regarded as foolish and criminal. Still, despite anti-dueling laws, there were numerous prominent duels. LYNCHING IN AMERICA In the 19th Century at all levels of southern and frontier society, group venting of anger took the form of vigilantes, who had their golden age in the period after the Civil War until around 1900. They were enforcing a code of honor or taking the law into their own hands to supplant the slowness of civil law. Lynchings took place mostly in the South, with almost 3,000 lynchings between l889 and l9l8, consisting of both black and white victims. Lynch mobs were vicious, brutal, and extremely overt, directing their attack towards suspected rapists or just plain troublemakers. Nobody bothered with masks or disguises. What the vigilantes did was never actually legal, but was tolerated, winked at or even encouraged by officials, particularly since there was a relative lack of official interest in violent crime by the police. Nobody was ever punished for joining a vigilante group. In lynchings the mob seemed to feel that self-help was preferred to the criminal justice system in situations where the community believes swift punishment is deserved. Their approach was usually chaotic, excessive, procedurally unjust, and definitely dangerous. As told by Hodes (1997), a black man might be lynched for the alleged rape of a white women: Capture might involve white people taking the man forcibly from the street, his workplace, or his home. If a man was already under arrest, it meant taking him forcibly from the local jail with little or no objection from the white jailer or sheriff. White people of all classes came from miles away to participate in the spectacle, sometimes with their children and picnic supplies in tow (p. 176). Well into the 20th Century, and to some extent persisting to this day, police brutality also served as a kind of collective venting of anger, and was sanctioned by Americans as appropriate “rough justice.” Beating up bums, suspected thieves and other lowlifes was considered in the 19th century as a kind of necessary evil; you had to fight fire with fire. And it is a striking fact that people in modern society will occasionally take the law into their own hands and kill someone who is accused of a heinous crime, choosing not to wait for the system of justice to play out. For example, in 1993 Daniel Driver was on trial for sexual molestation of four boys. A mother of one of the victims, on her way to the witness stand, pulled out a handgun and shot and killed her child’s abuser (“Police: Witness Kills Man at Court,” 1993). This is but one example indicating that vigilante justice, that is, taking matters into one’s own hands, is deeply compelling to a lot of people. Sometimes we can even understand and forgive people for indulging in self-help. As stated by Bilz (2007):


John Alan Cohan

After all, despite the fact that criminal cases are styled as crimes against “the People” or “the State” in the courts, prototypically crimes are wrongs against individuals. And psychologically, we understand the retributive impulse as a personal, even primal, desire to strike back directly at someone who has harmed us. The very idea of revenge on a wrongdoer seems, at first cut, to demand that the victim be the first one to deliver the blow (p. 1061). CONFLICTS IN AMERICA EXPRESSED WITH WORDS Americans are no longer willing to risk death as a result of an insult. As Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist observed citizens must tolerate insulting and even outrageous speech in order to provide adequate “breathing space” to the First Amendment freedoms (Hustler Magazine and Larry C. Flynt v. Jerry Falwell, 1988, p. 50). The Supreme Court has ruled in sweeping language that satire, cartoons, commentary and parody depicting public figures in a repugnant or outrageous manner is protected by the First Amendment. In that ruling the Supreme Court said that the First Amendment protects even “vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks” (New York Times v. Sullivan, 1964, p. 270). We have enjoyed a longstanding liberty to express unflattering opinions towards others, however much that might wound peoples' feelings. In American politics, we are regularly subjected to negative attacks, ad hominen insults and mudslinging. Police endure insulting behavior when they stop motorists. Parents sometimes behave outrageously in their interactions with umpires and other parents at school sporting events. And in professional sports we see daily reports of sanctions being imposed against players for spitting, cursing or other unruly behavior in the sports arena. Road rage is a common phenomenon. While today many people deal with conflicts with rude words or offensive, disturbing speech, the First Amendment has its limits in the “fighting words” doctrine. Fighting words are utterances that inflict injury (e.g., racial epithets, hate speech), or words that tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. This doctrine permits the state to criminalize spoken words in cases that are likely to lead to imminent violence or lawlessness. The fighting words doctrine came out of a l942 case in which Walter Chaplinsky was convicted of violating a New Hampshire ordinance that provided: No person shall address any offensive, derisive or annoying word to any other person who is lawfully in any street or other public place, nor call him by any offensive or derisive name, nor make any noise or exclamation in his presence and hearing with intent to deride, offend or annoy him, or to prevent him from pursuing his lawful business or occupation (Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 1942, p. 569). This law remains on the books today with only slight modification. Chaplinsky was convicted of violating this law by saying to a police officer who was arresting him for a separate offense involving leaflets he was distributing, “You are a God damned racketeer...a damned Fascist and the whole government of Rochester are Fascists or agents of Fascists.” The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the conviction, asserting that there are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which has never been thought to raise any Constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or “fighting” words (p. 572). Chaplinsky's speech was punishable because the use of these words in a public place to the police was deemed so insulting as to threaten a breach of the peace. Today, the Chaplinsky doctrine has been narrowed so that in assessing whether “fighting words” are such as to precipitate a physical confrontation between the speaker and the person in whose presence they were uttered, one must take into account “the circumstances of their utterance” (Lewis v. City of New Orleans, 1974, p. 135). In other words, certain utterances might be charged with offensive language and convey anger and frustration, but might not necessarily provoke a violent reaction. Today, fighting words usually means something more flagrant than uttering “Fascist” at the police, but in any event the seriousness of the facts depends entirely on the specific circumstances in each case.



And in more recent years there have been laws passed pertaining to criminalizing “hate speech,” racial slurs, and other offensive epithets that might be directed to various ethnic groups or gays. And in Germany it is against the law to make any statement denying the historical reality of the Holocaust. In this chapter we have touched upon ways in which people and groups deal with conflicts. Clearly, cultures throughout the world regard it as inappropriate to directly express anger, hostility, grudges, resentment or rage. At the same time, there are institutionalized ways in which these emotions do get expressed-or else the pent up emotions may erupt in other ways such as somaticized illnesses or violent assaults on others. In any event, human aggression is apparently hard-wired into the species, just as it is with other animals. Many think that we live in a very angry world, and that people in urban centers are continually “on edge,” worried, anxious, and jumpy. Truly, life in the big city is much more stressful today than it was a century ago-but even in more primitive cultures where people carry on their lives with a veneer of social harmony, there is a undercurrent of fear: neighboring villages may have been enemies for centuries, and periodic raids can occur unexpectedly; someone in your own village who begrudges you might take revenge with an act of sorcery that results in unexpected harm; the violation of the slightest taboo could have dire consequences-with the revenge of an ancestral ghost, and so on. In many cultures women are constrained in what they can do or say in their daily lives-and the expression of any emotion is simply not allowed. Yet in these cultures we have rituals in which women can rebel against men in formal ceremonies-and people can yell and express anger at their chiefs, hurtle mud pies, entertain mock combat, and so on. In these ceremonies pent up frustrations can be released so that they do not erupt in outright acts of violence. In modern society we see an epidemic of sorts with the eruption of violence-by youngsters shooting up schools, by otherwise “normal” citizens going berserk and shooting up their families-so familiar are these occasions that they scarcely command our attention. If we had rituals of rebellion in modern society, or some other socially approved means of channeling pent up frustrations-this could help avert such tragedies. War on a wide scale or between feuding villages, while universally disdained on the one hand, inevitably and paradoxically unifies people in that they have a common cause and a common enemy to rally around. As to whether violence will ever be eradicated in human behavior-this is a utopian ideal more the realm of science fiction than modern psychology.

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CHAPTER 16 Treatment of the Dead Abstract. There are diverse cultural and religious values concerning how people show respect for the dead, and in beliefs about what happens to the soul after death. All cultures apparently believe that the body of the deceased has a certain status that needs to be respected, as well as grave sites. In many cultures anyone’s death, except perhaps for the very old, is attributed to sorcery. This may entail a revenge expedition or demand for compensation. Ancestral worship is both an ancient and modern practice. The belief that the soul continues to live after one dies extends to the idea that dead ancestors interact with the living in one way or another, that they take an interest in the lives of loved ones, that they appreciate the prayers of the living. Ancestral shrines are often built as a place to worship ancestors. Ancestors to whom obligations have not been discharged are liable not only to withhold their guidance, but can be potentially dangerous by sending illness and disaster. The belief in ghosts is widespread in primitive and modern cultures alike, and it is not uncommon for people to believe that they are being harassed by ghosts in their homes. In honoring the dead, all cultures, now as in ancient times, have customs regarding funeral rites and mourning, each unique in its own way, ranging from rock burial, cremation, mummification, embalming, or feeding the corpse to carnivorous animals. A famous cremation ritual in Bali involves a dance with strong emotional outbursts and the outright abuse of the corpses, and it is expected that people will engage in the overt expression of hostility towards the deceased. Where practiced, mortuary cannibalism is motivated by the belief was that by consuming another’s flesh, one acquires some characteristic of the person eaten. In some cultures it is the custom to burn a dead person’s house and personal belongings, burn or give away crops planted by the deceased, and avoid using the dead person’s name. In numerous cultures there is great reverence shown for the skull of the deceased. Sometimes, after burial and the lapse of time, skulls are unearthed in mortuary ceremonies, decorated and then given a secondary burial in caves or other sacred places. In Madagascar there is a custom to open ancestral tombs for the purpose of rewrapping the corpses with new silk shrouds every six or seven years.

CUSTOMARY RESPECT FOR DEAD BODIES AND GRAVESITES There is great differences among cultures in how people show respect for the dead, and in beliefs about what happens to the soul after death. There diverse cultural and religious values concerning the treatment of human remains, so that different groups have different approaches to the treatment and disposition of dead bodies. All cultures apparently believe that the body of the deceased has a certain status that needs to be respected. All cultures appear to treat dead bodies with reverence-except in extreme cases where the deceased was an extraordinary public enemy. The grave itself is everywhere regarded as a place of sanctity. Ancestral burial grounds are treated as sacred sites, protected from desecration and looting. Interfering with a person’s buried remains is thought to be intrinsically badharmful to the spirit of the deceased-just as if it were an assault on the person while alive. Virtually all religions provide rituals and standards for the care, treatment and disposition of human remains. Proper observance of funerary rites constitutes one of the most important aspects of of religious doctrines. Author Robert Pogue Harrison (2003), in his book, The Dominion of the Dead, claims: “Human beings housed their dead before they housed themselves” (p. 38). Harrison further states that many believe that the dead “perpetuate their afterlives and promote the interests of the unborn” (p. 40), and protect and guide the living. Many believe that the dead in effect give shelter to the living. According to Harrison, “It is impossible to overestimate how much human culture owes, in principle and in origin, to the corpse-not the animal corpse in its sacrificial generosity but the human corpse in its personification of loss” (p. 92). The law in many countries strictly prohibits mistreatment of the dead and protects the sanctity of the grave from unnecessary disturbance. The unauthorized disinterment of the human body has long been considered a crime under common law. In the United States laws have long criminalized the desecration or interference with grave sites and cemeteries. Many states recognize “[t]he right to have the body in the condition in which it was left by death, without mutilation” (Infield v. Cope, 1954, p. 719). It is well established in the law that “[p]hysical mutilation of remains may be expected to distress next of kin... [and] where they believe that the treatment will affect the afterlife of the deceased, the impact inevitably is greater” (Kohn v. United States, 1984, p. 573). John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Treatment of the Dead


Many laws make it illegal to engage in mining activities at cemeteries. For example, Arkansas’ statute on this point reads: “It shall be unlawful... [to] mine, extract, or remove coal or any other mineral or substance from under or beneath any cemetery, graveyard, or burying place in this state” (Ark. Code Ann. 5-39-211(a)(1), 1987). However, as Gerstenblith (1995) found, many American laws pertaining to the desecration of grave sites were rarely, if ever, applied to archaeological digs of Native American or other indigenous cultures. As mentioned, across cultures there is a sanctity accorded not only to dead bodies, but to grave sites. Under common law, “The place where the dead are deposited all civilized nations, and many barbarous ones, regard, in some measure, at least, as consecrated ground” (Dwenger v. Geary, 1888, p. 112). Furthermore, “The ground once given for the interment of a body is appropriated forever to that body.... Nothing but the most pressing public necessity should ever cause the rest of the dead to be disturbed” (Brendle v. Reformed Congregation, 1859, p. 29). DEATH ATTRIBUTED TO SORCERY In many cultures anyone’s death, except perhaps for the very old, is attributed to sorcery. Modes of identifying the sorcerer have varied from culture to culture, and clues might include deathbed comments made by the deceased. In many primitive cultures there frequently would be an “inquest” to determine who caused a person’s death, presumably by sorcery. And as we saw in chapter chapter 15 (“Dealing with Conflicts, Aggressive Impulses, Enemies and War”), once the sorcerer is identified, either compensation is to be exacted or a revenge expedition will be sent out by the headman of the group affected by the death, for the purpose of killing the “murderer.” The revenge expedition might result in the actual killing of the suspected sorcerer, or just a lot of fighting and quarreling, ending with an exchange of women, of gifts, or other signs of peace. Among the Nivkh people, death, even in old age, is generally attributed to evil forces at work, with the exception of death by violence or from natural elements. The people believe that it is necessary to remove whatever evil spirit remains lodged in the deceased’s body, for otherwise the spirit has the power to harm kin of the deceased. A ritual is conducted to “exorcise” the spirit from the deceased. Some dogs are sacrificed at the funeral pier (by strangulation), but a special dog, usually the deceased’s favorite, is thought to have the deceased’s soul reside in it for a while, so that dog is saved and treated with special kindness for the rest of its life. The sacrificed dogs constitute the main portion of the meal held at the cremation site. In the modern world the idea of death by sorcery is equated as a bizarre superstition, and it is hard to find anyone who seriously considers sorcery to be the cause of someone’s death. We have “modern” death certificates on which the attending physician or coroner is expected to precisely list the cause of death. If a doctor were to indicate the cause of death as “sorcery at the hand of another,” he or she would certainly be brought before the Board of Medical Examiners and subjected to psychiatric evaluation! But in a great many cultures, as we have seen in earlier chapters, harms of all kinds are attributed to hostile acts by magicians-or else the explanation might the acts of an angry ghost, the evil eye, the violation of a taboo, or some other spirit-based cause. ANCESTRAL WORSHIP The belief in the survival of personality in one form or another after death is apparently universal in world cultures and goes back thousands of years. This belief usually entails that something of the dead person continues to have power and to interact causally with the living-in spirit form or a more tangible ghost form, and that in any event the dead seek to communicate with the living. Ancestral worship is both an ancient and modern practice. In most cultures the belief that the soul continues to live after one dies extends to the idea that dead ancestors interact with the living in one way or another, that they take an interest in the lives of loved ones, that they appreciate the prayers of the living, and that the living need to show respect for their ancestors. Again quoting Robert Pogue Harrison (2003), “Human beings housed their dead before they housed themselves” (p. 38). He claims that the dead, “through the care of the living, perpetuate their afterlives and promote the interests of the


John Alan Cohan

unborn” (p. 40), and protect and guide the living. Moreover, he claims that the dead in effect give shelter to the living: “It is impossible to overestimate how much human culture owes, in principle and in origin, to the corpse...” (p. 92). Dead ancestors are often viewed as members of the family who continue to have a relationship with the living, particularly as guides, guardians and mentors. Thus, the living will honor their ancestors through rituals, offering thanks for their protection. People throughout the world construct elaborate mortuary monuments and have commemorative ceremonies and prayers for the dead. Messages from ancestors may come in dreams, visions, or in spontaneous daily activities. Many who embrace ancestral worship believe that prosperity depends only in part on hard work, and chiefly on the favor of dead ancestors and other spirits. Often there are prayers or sacrifices made to dead ancestors to help maintain good health, increase the number of livestock, and have success in one’s trading efforts. For example, the Confucianist Chinese regard it as an important spiritual obligation to worship one’s deceased ancestors. If properly revered, the dead are thought to have a protective role over the welfare of their family, and will even bring good fortune to their descendants, but if ritual duties are not carried out, the dead will wreak havoc on their survivors. There are ancestral halls, memorial halls and temples in which descendants can worship their ancestors. People can lease a space in the memorial hall of the temple and place their ancestral tablets there. They can visit and conduct individual worship. Offerings are also conducted by Confucian monks and nuns. In Chinese villages throughout the country people have communal celebrations in which they worship their respective ancestors. In addition, families will construct an “ancestral house” where clan or lineage members can gather to worship their ancestors. Also, in the homes of well-to-do Chinese, we find the ancestral shrine room in which the ancestral tablets are kept and where the family worships their ancestors on a daily basis. Today we consciously honor dead ancestors by naming children after an older or deceased relative. In many cultures if an infant cries a lot the child is seeking to be named after a particular relative who is deceased; the deceased relative is seeking to become the special guardian of the child; a magic priest is called in to investigate the situation, and a new name will be given at some public gathering along with a potlatch or mask feast. VINDICTIVE GHOSTS OF ANCESTORS As we have seen, dead ancestors can be a double edged sword, not only helpful to the living, but downright harmful if survivors are not vigilant in honoring them. The idea is that dead ancestors can remain around and interact, or try to interact, with surviving kin-sometimes out of jealousy for those who are still alive. Ancestors to whom obligations have not been discharged are liable not only to withhold their guidance, but can be potentially dangerous by sending illness and disaster. Thus, it is important to take great care in discharging customary duties to the dead. As further precautions, as we will see, there are numerous strategies employed to help ward off ancestral ghosts, and failing that, there are remedies to appease them and restore harmony. People in many cultures believe that the souls of the dead initially stay close to their bodies, so that great reverence must be shown in the way the corpse is laid to rest. Still, the dead might take the form of ghosts, occupying a nebulous space and coming in and out of material manifestation. The belief in ghosts contemplates that the dead survive for a certain time as “living beings” of a different type than ourselves, with impaired capacities to participate in the world. Many think that the dead are, at least for a time, lonely and forsaken, and that they want surviving relatives to join them. Phenomena such as bad storms are thought to be caused by the recently departed. No matter how well-disposed during their lifetime, many believe that the deceased are quite capable of injuring their survivors, particularly if they are displeased with the behavior or attitude of survivors towards them. If ghosts are displeased, they might seek revenge upon the living and bring them sickness and even death.



In these cultures, according to Levy-Bruhl (1923), it is believed that the dead are as a rule, evil-disposed and ready to to harm to the survivors. It matters little that they have been kindly and amiable when alive. In their new state their disposition is quite otherwise; they are irritable and vindictive, perhaps because they are unhappy, weak, and suffering, while their bodies are decomposing (p. 70). Thus, survivors will usually show great respect in treatment of the corpse and in performing funerary rites, and in other strategies to protect and distance themselves from ghosts. Mortuary rituals are not just to honor the dead-but to keep the departed spirits from wanting to come back and haunt the living, bother them, play pranks, or cause other disturbances, and to help the dead depart finally for the land of the dead. Some ghosts are malevolent for no apparent reason. They kill, injure or frighten anyone unfortunate to meet them. Angry ghosts are thought to have suffered a violent or premature death, an accident, murder or suicide, or died while violating some norm or taboo. Many believe that these ghosts can visit survivors to inform them about the perpetrator of a violent death. According to Singer (1978), in the Micronesian atoll of Ifaluk, the people believe that “all immoral behavior and illness are due to malevolent ghosts (alus) who possess human beings” (p. 272). Unlike people of other cultures, they do not attribute illness to the activities of fellow clan members who are believed to be witches. That is probably due to their strong aversion to the idea of aggression, as stated by Spiro (1952: “No display of aggression is permitted in interpersonal relations; and in fact, no aggression is displayed at all” (p. 498). They do, however, express open hostility towards malevolent ghosts, but otherwise in this tiny island, where sharing and close cooperation are important for survival, the expression of anger towards others is all but taboo. It is theorized that the people displace their pent-up hostility and channel it into a culturally sanctioned area-ghost bashing. The belief in ghosts is widespread in the West, and it is not uncommon for people to believe that they are being harassed by ghosts in their homes. The idea of ghosts has been popularized to a substantial degree in horror movies. For people who believe their home is haunted, the remedy might be hiring of a ghost expert to conduct purifying rites and rid their homes of ghosts. Ghosts do not need to “appear” in order to work havoc on the living. The presence of a ghost can be indicated by noise, a thumping sound, laughter, or the sound of invisible objects as they fling about. Ghosts can appear in various forms-spirits, the shape of a man, a woman, an animal, and they can appear as a flame or a lamp, as a shadow, in the form of a ball, and many other forms. A person usually feels a sense of dread if he encounters a ghost. On the other hand, if the ghost is of a deceased relative or acquaintance, this may give rise to a warm, positive feeling. Sometimes ghosts will appear while one is asleep, as figures in dreams. As we discussed in chapter 10 (“Trance and Possession States”), Ghost Sickness is a recognized culture-bound syndrome, where people manifest a kind of possession, accompanied by hallucinations and other symptoms, that are thought to be associated with the intrusions of ancestral ghosts. In many cultures, including Fiji, the people tend to focus on the malicious power of ancestral spirits. According to Tomlinson (2004), many people believe that their suffering, poverty, sickness, and other difficulties are due to curses from their ancestors, whom they believe were “bigger, stronger, and more effective workers than people in the present but also are thought to have been morally worse in many ways” (p. 8). This is a persistent theme in ancestral worship: ancestors are both loved and feared-feared because they can seek to inflict harm against the living for the slightest infractions. In addition, there is the idea from the Old Testament that God will punish the living for the sins of ancestors: “You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me” (Exodus 20:5). Under this ancient belief, the past can adversely affect the present, in that families can be “cursed” by misdeeds of their ancestors. In many cultures people believe that the spirits of the dead might try and take the soul of a relative. Dances are performed during cremation to wish the spirit a “good trip.” People throw pieces of food into the fire to feed the


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spirit as it makes its transition. There are displays of violent anguish, with relatives cutting their hair and throwing it into the fire, and leaning into the fire to singe their remaining hair. Sometimes mourners will cut themselves in arms and ears, and they might destroy some of their property. Among various strategies the Battaks put thorns in the grave to keep the spirit from coming back, and the personal belongings of the deceased are scattered along the path near the grave so that the spirit will not come back to the village looking for them. Food is placed on the grave together with utensils and other belongings of the deceased. Sleds used in transporting the body are broken and remain at the grave. Ceremonial bathing of the relatives occurs after the funeral for cleansing, perhaps with the supervision of the medicine-man. The Sakai bury their dead affectionately with necklaces, wallets and other goods, and according to Read (1915), they say to the deceased: “Do not remember any more your father, mother, or relations. Think only of your ancestors gone to another place. Your living friends will find food” (p. 26). They then burn his house and desert the settlement, even abandoning standing crops. Read further states that among the Kikuya, “if a person dies in a village, that village is often burnt, and the people trek off and build elsewhere” (p. 26), even though they have expended a lot of labor in the surrounding fields. Sick people are often deserted. In addition to leaving food at the tomb, it is quite common for people to bury weapons and ornaments with the corpse. According to Read, the Todas of South Australia, who burn their dead, lay the body on a bier with many valuable offerings and swing it three times over the fire; they then remove the money and the more valuable ornaments and burn the rest with the corpse. They believe the dead will utilize the valuables that are burned with the corpse, and will still have the use of the things that were swung over the fire before being retrieved (p. 27). Natives of the Bismarck Archipelago used to be cannibals and greatly feared the ghosts of the deceased whom they devoured. While feasting on the dead body they would hang up a slice for the ghost himself, and afterwards make an uproar to scare him away (p. 28). In many cultures when someone dies, the surviving spouse must observe a period of silence for weeks or months. The reason for this silence is to avoid attracting the ghost of the deceased. In addition to keeping silent, a widow might cover her body with clay or ashes, discard her finery, and shave or burn her head, in an effort to be disgusting and repulsive to the ghost. In some cultures widows take seek to ward off their husband’s ghost during their mourning period by changing their rooms and disguising themselves in male clothing so the ghost will pass them by and leave them alone. As mentioned, ghosts of the departed can be aroused to anger by acts of the living for all manner of offenseswhether a violation of a taboo, a custom, or for showing disrespect to the deceased-and take vengeance by causing an illness or worse. A seemingly trivial act might suffice. For instance, throughout Melanesia it is considered disrespectful to remove vegetables or cut a tree from the gardens of someone who has recently died. The harvest should remain untouched as as a sign of respect to the deceased. Otherwise, ghosts will cause illness by entering the body of the offender or his kin, causing weakness, nausea, or other symptoms of ghost sickness. Thus, failure to comply with the will of the deceased, or failure to honor the deceased, can have dire repercussions for the survivors, not just ghost sickness, but more serious illnesses, misfortune, or even death. The remedy for ghost sickness or for any misfortune thought to be caused by a dead ancestor is usually sought with a shaman or medicineman, who might verify whether the deceased is indeed causing the trouble, and perform a purification to make the ghost go away. The patient then visits the grave and, depending on local custom, might sprinkle pig’s blood on it, at least in Melanesia, as a form of compensation made to the aggrieved ancestor. Thus, there is a return to the status quo. As told by Tomlinson (2004), to counteract the effects of ancestral malice, and to build up protective power, the people of Fiji engage in “chain prayers” whereby participants pray, individually or in teams, in rotation at the church once a month. The prayers are usually directed to specific topics to do with the peoples’ welfare. Tomlinson points out that in 1998 and 1999 the Methodist Church in Fiji issued bulletins suggesting that congregations engage in chain prayers to prepare for the year 2000. In cases of illness or, worse, possession by evil spirits, people will organize a private chain prayer for the afflicted individual. The local Methodist minister will usually lead the sessions. The participants will pray at certain patches



of soil where ancestral influence is thought to emanate, or pray before bags of soil gathered from burial grounds. The focus of the prayers is to neutralize the power of the dangerous ancestors. God will be asked to “defeat or disturb” the lingering spirits. At times the prayers may take on the form of an exorcism in which the malefactor is ordered to depart from the victim’s body. Chain prayers are not uncommon in churches in the United States, particularly in Catholic churches where weekly or monthly vigils are organized around adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. People will sign up and agree to be present to pray at designated time slots. In potlatch cultures, such as among Native Americans, it is crucial to hold a memorial potlatch, or “feast of the dead.” This takes place some time after the deceased dies, and particularly in olden times involved a year or two of preparation, with hunting, tanning of beaver and moose skins for clothes, making of fur blankets and parkas decorated with beads, buttons and fringe, and so on. A memorial potlatch will involve days or weeks of feasting, oratory, singing and dancing, culminating in a distribution of gifts. Perhaps the main motivation for the memorial potlatch is to appease the ghost of the deceased. It is also a means of repaying members of other communities for their participation in the funeral. It marks the time when grief is transformed into joy. Through distribution of gifts that were invested with their sorrow, the hosts symbolically dissolve the corpse and thus let go of the deceased. It is also an occasion that gives enormous prestige to the hosts, depending on the lavishness of the event and their generosity. RITES FOR THE DECEASED. FUNERAL CUSTOMS In honoring the dead, all cultures, now as in ancient times, have customs regarding funeral rites and mourning, each unique in its own way. Funeral customs take such diverse forms as rock burial, cremation, mummification, embalming, or feeding the corpse to carnivorous animals. Some cultures will frequently chance upon the identical idea (e.g., embalming) in disposing of remains while preserving the sanctity of the body and averting the abhorrent smells that denote decay. According to Eng (1999), in addition to appeasing the ghost of the deceased, one of the purposes of conducting a funeral is to provide a rite of transition for the deceased, without which the cycle of death and rebirth or resurrection would be incomplete. Many cultures, particularly in Melanesia, have the custom of making funeral preparations once it appears that the individual will soon be dead. Advance preparation is important partly because of the need to secure pigs for the series of feasts that surround the mortuary rites. A funeral necessitates large numbers of pigs and other goods to be distributed to clan members, and this takes time because there are seldom sufficient pigs on hand for that purpose. If the family does not have enough pigs of their own, it will need to secure pigs from others in the community. If the death is not forthcoming, the plans made in anticipation of the death must, of course, be postponed. Unexpected deaths present a problem because of the need to gather the necessary number of pigs and money for the rites. Langness (1965) found that in Papua New Guinea funerals are not only planned well in advance, particularly for the elderly, but held prior to the death of the person concerned. This practice is seen other cultures as well, where relatives will actually begin funeral rites before the individual has died. This might take the form of singing funeral songs. This may occur in cases of voodoo death or pointing the bone, where death is thought to be imminent, or in cultures where there is the concept of recycling the individual soul through future generations of the clan. The dying individual might find a certain relief and comfort once the rites begin. When the funeral is for someone who has actually died, a clan spokesman makes a long invocation, calling upon the dead person to receive in good faith the pork which had been killed and cooked for him or her, and beseeching the deceased’s ghost not to bother the survivors. The pork is consumed by the clansmen but the “spirit” of the pork is believed to be consumed by the deceased. Foster et al. (1972) found that in Tzintzuntzan, guests who come to the wake after a neighbor’s death bring small presents, dry beans, shelled corn, money, a bottle of liquor-as a means of averting envy on the part of the mourning


John Alan Cohan

family, since death gives them good reason to envy more fortunate families. The gifts are a kind of appeasement to the bereaved family to help make up for the loss of their loved one (p. 178). In a similar vein, periodic grave offerings of food and drink to the dead are done to assure the dead that the survivors still think of them and wish them well. It is a way of “buying off” the envy of the deceased (p. 179). CREMATION RITUAL OF BALI-ABUSE OF CORPSES Field work conducted by Connor (1979) focused on a famous cremation ritual in Bali that involves a dance with strong emotional outbursts and the outright abuse of the corpses. This cremation ritual is conducted to purify the dead. Months of preparation are involved, particularly if the deceased comes from a wealthy family. During the ceremony it is expected that people will engage in the overt expression of hostility towards the deceased. Connor found that whoever wants to do violence to the corpse is allowed to rip it apart and desecrate it as a way of expressing the hostility which the deceased has engendered among them. This violence is an oddity in Balinese society, for there is a strict norm requiring the suppression of emotions in general, particularly anger. Children are raised to be passive observers, and outbursts are dealt with by taunting behavior or withdrawal of attention and affection. If the Balinese get into a heated argument the language used becomes increasingly more polite on either side. The outbursts in the cremation ritual seem to be a kind of abreaction for pent up frustration and suppressed anger that the people might have. Sometimes an expanse of years separates the death from this rite. The decomposing flesh of a corpse is thought to attract demonic powers of the underworld, so the corpse becomes the potential focus of revulsion and horror. Also, as in many other cultures, the people believe that the ancestor has become an angry and vengeful spirit who makes frequent and burdensome demands from the underworld upon the living, further fueling the hostility of surviving kin. This ritual is a way of asserting a kind of collective social control over the deceased. There is, of course, some degree of ambivalence among the survivors who are torn between the love and affection they had for the deceased, pitted against the impulse to do violence against the corpse. In Bali there is a long history of ecstatic and visionary trance rituals. Balian trance rituals are usually directed towards deities, dead ancestors or demons. People are rejuvenated by direct contact with these supernatural beings. In these rituals the participants can disavow any personal responsibility for outbursts of emotion or things they might say during the trance. But outside of these ceremonial trance states, the Balinese avoid almost all violent behavior. In the cremation rites people do not go into trance states, but the hostile behavior they express is socially approved, not an offence against decorum, good taste or customary law. MORTUARY CANNIBALISM As we saw in chapter 15 (“Dealing with Conflicts, Aggressive Impulses, Enemies and War”), in former times cannibalism was practiced in ritual fashion to acquire the power or name of the victim. The magical belief was that by consuming another’s flesh, one acquires some characteristic of the person eaten. Thus, men will eat the heart of a slain enemy so as to acquire his valor, or women will eat the penis of a slain warrior so as to insure fertility. The Iriquois were known to have institutionalized cannibalism following victory in war-torturing captured enemies and then eating them. As found by Conklin (1995), up until the 1960s when outsiders put a stop to the practice, the Wari people of the western Brazilian rain forest practiced cannibalism of their dead. This was a custom among other South American Indians, as well as in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere in Oceania. Sometimes cannibalism would involve eating of parents who were aged and helpless. The rationale was that eating of a deceased loved one was a means of restoring a relationship with the deceased, a kind of communion ritual. Conklin found that the Wari would consume all of the roasted flesh, brains, heart, liver and even ground bones, as part of their grief and mourning. This was a deeply embedded custom and was regarded as a most respectful way of



disposing of their loved ones. Among the Wari, burying the dead in the earth is considered “dirty” and dishonorable because body substances will languish in the cold earth. The people believe that “corpses are potent embodiments of identity, social relations, and interpersonal bonds” (p. 86). Eating the dead also helped the people deal with the loss of loved ones. They believed the dead would regenerate as animals that would have ongoing supportive relations with living relatives. Before the mortuary cannibalism, the body would lie in wake for a couple of days. Mourners would cradle the corpse, embrace it, press their own bodies against it, and lie on it. Following this wake, the body would be cut up and roasted. The mourners would alternate between eating very slowly and crying. The amount eaten depended on the degree of the corpse’s decay. Usually the corpse was somewhat decayed because the roasting took place two or three days after death. Any remaining flesh would be cremated. Bones were ground into meal and eaten with honey. Today, the people are forced to desist from this practice, and the elders are very unhappy about this. Instead, a corpse will be dismembered and the pieces buried in a large ceramic cooking pot. It was and still is their custom to burn a dead person’s house and personal belongings, burn or give away crops planted by the deceased, and avoid using the dead person’s name. This was to transform material reminders of the dead, and to help avoid ghosts coming back. Kin will also alter their appearance (e.g., cut their hair) to confuse ghosts who might try and abduct kin for companionship in the otherworld. According to Elkin (1937), among Australian aborigines blood relations might eat some of the fat of the cheek, cut off and eaten raw, in order to maintain courage and prevent too much grief. Elkin found that among the Wongkonguru, sudden and inexplicable deaths of course meant sorcery. To find the sorcerer, the people would cook the corpse and then send pieces of the flesh to all the camps in the area. Everyone to whom any of the flesh was presented had to eat it so as to prove his innocence. Whoever failed to eat of it would be the one who had “boned” the victim, for he would be poisoned by partaking of it. The aborigines also believed that mortuary cannibalism would restore the harmony and cohesion of the natives disturbed by the death. Eating of the flesh united the people with the departed. A related custom among tribes of the Great Victoria Desert was the practice of cutting off some hair from the deceased and making it into a “ring” called kilti-kilti. This ring of the dead person’s hair has curative powers when applied to the affected part of a sick person’s body. From the hair the spirit of the deceased enters the sick person and extracts the illness. Eventually this hair ring is deposited into a waterhole to be swallowed by the mythical serpent, Wonambi. OPENING OF TOMBS TO REWRAP THE DEAD There are various customs involving opening the tombs of the deceased and doing something with the remains. In numerous cultures there is great reverence shown particularly for the skull of the deceased. Sometimes, after burial and the lapse of time, skulls are unearthed in mortuary ceremonies, decorated and then given a secondary burial in caves or other sacred places. Also, it is common practice to place skulls of higher ranking individuals in prominent parts of the village or in one’s home. In these cultures the bones are thought to still belong to the deceased, and that body and soul remain together after death. Stephen (1936) found that in Fiji, natives will bury the dead with no coffin, sometimes with a sacrificed dog or other animal. Then, after a few months, they reopen the grave and pick around the bones, clean the bones, and spread the dirt and bone fragments all over their bodies, then rebury the corpse. After about a year the body is disinterred, and the skull taken as a keepsake. Also, two front upper and lower teeth are pulled out and given in pairs as heirlooms (worn on a necklace). The body is then reburied in the same spot. Graebner (1995) researched a custom known as famadihana in Madagascar. This is a ritual to open ancestral tombs for the purpose of rewrapping the corpses with new lambamema, or silk shrouds. The people do this at least every


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six or seven years, or in response to dreams in which ancestors will say they feel cold in the tomb and need to be wrapped in new shrouds. Failure to perform famadihana will result in misfortune to the survivors in regards to health, fertility and prosperity. Usually several ancestors are rewrapped in one elaborate ceremony. This is considered a ritual of celebration. There is a procession from the village to the tombs, with guests and neighbors in the hundreds, led by an astrologer and musicians, with flags and photographs of the deceased held aloft. Men open the tombs, splash them with rum, carry the corpses around the tomb, while the crowd shouts its enthusiasm and musicians play. Then corpses are placed on the laps of women, and people will pour rum and honey over each corpse, and place honeycomb, coins, ginger cow fat and candy inside the shrouds. Some people will usually burst into tears. People will request blessings from the ancestors with emotional intensity. Men then group around each ancestor and begin rewrapping the bodies, which still lay across the women’s laps. Old layers of cloth are kept intact (keeping in mind that usually the corpses have become somewhat pulverized), and the remains are rolled into new layers of bright silk, then secured with cords. Sometimes corpses that have long been reduced to dust are combined with other ancestors, and rewrapped in the same cloth. The bodies are then carried around the tomb once again, pulled and tugged roughly, while the people engage in wild dancing with the corpses, shouting and crying to the musicians’ vigorous accompaniment. Local elders and politicians will give speeches, and the men will reinter the bodies. An astrologer will bury magical objects in and around the doorway of the tomb to ensure that the ancestral ghosts will not emerge to trouble the living. What we have seen in this chapter is the diversity of ways in which people treat the dead-but there are some fundamental similarities: In virtually all cultures, including our own, people are expected to treat the remains of the dead and gravesites with respect and reverence, and to observe certain laws or norms concerning disposition of corpses. The ways in which people express their respect and reverence, however, are a matter of cultural variance. In all cultures there are commonly accepted practices concerning rites for the dead-often governed by the religious norms of the deceased’s faith. In many cultures there are a variety of practices above and beyond the funeral rites themselves, such as holding a memorial potlatch a year or so later, periodically rewrapping the deceased in new funeral shrouds, naming a newborn after the deceased, or disinterring the bones of the dead and rubbing them on the living, or keeping the skulls as a memento. While it is considered a violation of the order of things to mutilate a dead body-except where the deceased has donated his or her body to a medical school for dissection by anatomy students-at times mutilation and denial of burial are forced upon the situation by a collective desire to humiliate the deceased. Perhaps he was an ignominious killer; perhaps a lynch mob has taken justice into their own hands; perhaps, like Hitler, the deceased was supreme enemy of humanity, regarded as “sub-human.” During World War II, for instance, U.S. soldiers mutilated dead Japanese soldiers-taking body parts, including bones, skulls and teeth, as “war trophies.” Mutilating the dead seems to be a form of revenge. In Rome from the time of Augustus onwards, some criminals were publicly executed by exposure to wild beasts, crucifixion or burning alive-and their bodies were disposed of by dumping in the Tiber River or in pits. Practically everywhere the living believe they can be in communion with the dead-and in many cultures people believe that the dead can visit the living as ghosts and otherwise affect their lives. The liturgy of most major religions provides for prayers to remember and honor the dead. People of all cultures pray to the dead, remember the anniversaries of their death, and visit their gravesites. In some cultures people prefer to bury close kin underneath their homes, but in many instances the authorities have discouraged or disallowed this practice. In modern society if the circumstances of death are uncertain or suspicious the coroner might conduct an inquest in which witnesses and experts are called upon to testify as to what they know about the case. The findings of an inquest can lead to charges of homicide or manslaughter. In more primitive cultures an inquest occurs in cases of suspected sorcery, in which the goal is to identify who the sorcerer is. The eating of corpses has deep roots in cannibalistic cultures. Ingesting parts of a deceased body is thought to be a way of acquiring powers from the deceased-and that is why warriors will eat the heart of the vanquished or next-ofkin will eat the flesh of their loved one as a way of uniting themselves with the dead.

Part V: STATUS AND WEALTH


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CHAPTER 17 Potlatches Abstract. The social practice known as potlatches prevails to this day primarily among tribes of the North American Indians and cultures of Melanesia. Potlatches are part of an economic system that is based on compulsory gift-giving. Potlatches are given to display wealth of the host, to distribute gifts to mark a milestone-a funeral, a wedding, initiation, the conferral of a title, the completion of a project, or as a means of addressing grievances or announcing a vendetta. Potlatches involve feasting, dancing, giving of gifts by the host, and selfglorifying speeches by the host and his cohorts. There tends to be a conspicuous display of wealth, and this may involve the destruction of property as a way of validating rank or status. Gifts are such things as cloth, blankets, pots and pans, clocks, sewing machines, tables, shawls, and consumables such as meat, fat and skins. The gifts are supposed to be a demonstration of the excess or abundance that the host has available. Potlatches are analogous to the practice of giving a lavish party is a means of displaying wealth and garnering the admiration (and envy) that it invariably evokes. Potlatches are regarded by the people as crucial to gain prestige in the community.

INTRODUCTION Do you enjoy throwing a lavish party to impress your guests? If you attend a wedding are you mindful of the efforts that went into making the occasion an impressive one for those in attendance? Have you ever gone into debt in order to pay the costs of an expensive wedding or other event? If so, you can readily identify with a custom among Native Americans and the Inuits that carries with it significant prestige, known as the potlatch. The practice of potlatch arose initially in the Northwest Indian tribes around British Columbia and apparently spread from there. It is an occasion, sometimes referred to as a “party, usually to mark a milestone or special occasion, and where there is conspicuous giving by the host to guests. The word “potlatch” is derived from Chinook trade jargon that was brought north by prospectors in the late 19th century. A potlatch is any formal distribution of gifts connected to a particular event, such as a funeral, marriage or to celebrate the completion of a building. Potlatches are part of an economic system that is based on compulsory gift-giving. During these gatherings, there will be feasting, dancing and giving away as well as conspicuous destruction of property-a bizarre phenomenon discussed below. The host invites people from the community who, custom has it, are expected to be appreciative and purposeful in attending the event. The host and his family acquire significant prestige, distinctions and privileges from the public good will generated. The greater the gift, the greater becomes the status of the giver in the community. Potlatching invariably generates rivalry, as it is the unquestioned custom that each gift carries with it the obligation to reciprocate, mainly among the big chiefs. Each one tries to outdo in giving what his rival has done. When giving away of property seems inadequate to outdo one’s rival, the next step is to destroy property or, in past times, to kill some of one’s slaves, in full view of his guests. In primitive cultures that do not embrace potlatches, there is a counterpart of sorts in the custom of feasts. Feasts are given to commemorate someone’s death or a successful recovery from illness, to pay for services rendered in house building, to pay an ally for his assistance in battle, to celebrate initiation or marriage, to signal the termination of minor disputes, or to seal the peace after a serious conflict. But feasts are not normally public displays of gift giving as we see in potlatches. And in the West, the guests at weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions are the ones who give gifts, not the other way around as in potlatches. Potlatches are usually given to signal a transition from one stage of life to another, and thus is usually a festive occasion-birth, marriage, initiation, reconciliation-to mark the transition from childhood to adult, to mark a young boy’s or girl’s first successful harvest of food, or a girl’s first menses. Potlatches are not always festive occasions: John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


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Funerary potlatches are held to commemorate and honor the deceased, and other solemn potlatches serve as a means of addressing grievances or announcing a vendetta. In earlier times a potlatch was also given as a way of compensating for serious offenses, such as murder. A potlatch might also be given to gather witnesses to a ceremony in which the host takes claim to an entitlement, such a new crest. A potlatch might be held to apologize for a quarrel or to save face in connection with an awkward incident, or to settle debts. It might be held as a way of removing shame, i.e., “covering” one’s shame, in response to a situation such as an accident (e.g., capsizing in a canoe). Sometimes the potlatch will be an exchange between different social groups rather than between individuals. Potlatches are not merely displays of wealth or occasions for giving, but according to Walker (2007), are often imbued with significant spiritual dimensions, maintaining social and spiritual balance, affirming ties with ancestors. They are governed by strict protocols and function simultaneously as a religious, social, political and legal institution (p. 29). The dominant explanation for potlatches is prestige: Rank or status is validated through displays, destruction and distribution of wealth. The gifts distributed to guests “validate” the business of the feast and garner political support for the hosts. This is particularly so at proclamation potlatches: By attending the event, guests, as witnesses, recognize the ceremony in which the host seeks to legitimize his hereditary names, rank, prerogatives, crests, dances, land rights, or whatever it is that is the subject of the feast. In other situations, such as a mortuary potlatch, the guests attend to do honor to the person who has died, but there is still a display of wealth and distribution of gifts. There tends to be a “self-glorification” on the host’s part with the conspicuous display of wealth, a kind of materialistic, in-your-face competition, even though the occasion might be a sacred one such as a funerary potlatch. A potlatch often, but not always, creates obligations between host and guests-particularly the guests who are rivals of the host. The gifts carry with them an implied obligation of a counter-gift, a payoff in the future, and custom has it that a rival must reciprocate with gifts of greater value. So, if a guest receives thirty blankets at a potlatch, he would likely give to the host, at a later potlatch, forty blankets or more, assuming the donor and donee are of equal rank. Higher ranking guests always receive the more valuable gifts. Because potlatches can get out of hand-with people borrowing money or goods and incurring great debts with high interest to pay for the events-the authorities have from time to time sought to ban the practice. Missionaries and civil authorities suppressed potlatches, and for about 70 years they were legally banned in Canada, Alaska, Oregon and Washington State) Walker, 2007, p. 29). For example, Canada’s Indian Act of 1885 made any potlatching illegal. The act was intended to help assimilate the Indians into modern society, and to discourage the potlatching economic system-in which commodities were not bartered or exchanged, but gifted or destroyed, thus mocking the entire system of capitalism. These anti-potlatch laws were designed to suppress native traditions and to force assimilation, but were gradually repealed. According to Simeone (1998), the potlatch survives today mainly among Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest. Some potlatches are small in scale (e.g., to mark a girl’s first menses) and involve only the immediate community. Large potlatches are for the death of an older person or to commemorate someone’s recovery from a severe illness or accident, and involve several communities. The social status of the person for whom the potlatch is given also dictates the scale of the potlatch, just as in modern society the scale of, say, a wedding celebration will depend on the wealth and social status of the families involved. Potlatches in these cultures are obligatory, not voluntary, because through the potlatches different groups are held together. Some potlatches seem to be an exaggerated expression of vanity or narcissism, while other potlatches seem to be a way of garnering social recognition and prestige. The potlatch has always been a curiosity that defies psychological interpretation, but essentially the potlatch is a culturally sanctioned way of enhancing one’s rank or status. The overriding point of the potlatch is to produce good will, to enhance the prestige of the host, and to flatter others by recognizing their relative social worth. Guests are always thanked for coming, for watching and for making complimentary speeches.

Potlatches


In potlatches we have not only dancing, eating and of course the distribution of gifts-sometimes obtained by incurring great debts-but self-glorifying speeches by the host and his cohorts, together with “ridicule and score heaped publicly upon one’s opponents, who were, according to their customs, also their invited guests” (Benedict, 1934, p. 191). Most of the gifts are such things as cloth, blankets, pots and pans, clocks, sewing machines, tables, shawls. In some instances gifts consist of consumables such as meat, fat and skins. The gifts are supposed to be a demonstration of the excess or abundance that the host has available. Potlatches differ among different Indian tribes and the Inuits as to the occasions for which they are given, the frequency in which they occur, the guests who are invited, and the gifts that are given. In all instances, the potlatch is a ritual in which guests are witnesses to the rite of passage or other purpose for which it is held. Status, rank, and maneuvering of social roles all tie into the potlatch. The main reason why authorities sought to ban potlatches was the apparently irrational behavior, particularly of chiefs, in the peculiar custom of destroying valuable property in front of everyone. To chiefs, potlatches were a kind of contest in which the goal was to advertise his greatness and to vanquish his rival. Destroying property at a potlatch was a competitive act against the host’s main rival in the community, a way of showing that he is stronger, more powerful and more brazen than his rival. For instance, among the Native Americans of the Northwest Coast, a chief might destroy valuable “coppers” at potlatches. These were sheets of beaten copper, purchased for enormous prices, and constituted a chief’s most prestigious and valuable possession. The coppers were usually shaped into shields and engraved with prestigious emblems and other symbols from the owner’s crest, and usually tinted with colors. Some were of exceptional beauty and can be seen today in museums that have collections of Native American art. Each sheet of copper had very small intrinsic worth, yet cost as much as ten thousand blankets. It should be noted that the Indians accidentally discovered copper, and ascribed its origin to supernatural powers; it represented their bond with the supernatural world, and became a symbol of power and wealth. Coppers were important in documenting important events such as births or marriages, at which the host would break off part of the copper and distribute it to important guests. However, coppers were particularly important in situations where the host wished to humiliate a rival. The host would take a sheet of copper and break off a piece and give it to his rival, or destroy it in front of everyone by casting it into the fire or into the sea. In doing so, according to Benedict (1934), [h]e was then stripped of his wealth; but he had acquired unparalleled prestige. He had gained the final advantage over his rival, who had to destroy a copper of equal value or retire in defeat from the contest (p. 195). Surprisingly, the value of a copper increased as its owner broke it up and thus reduced its size. In order to avoid disgrace, the rival would need to throw a bigger potlatch at which he would break a copper at least of equal worth, but in order to outdo his rival he would need to break an even more valuable copper of his own. As an alternative to breaking coppers, the host might have his servants break up a number of his canoes and bring the pieces to hurl into the fire. Or, great quantities of valuable candlefish oil would be consumed as well as destroyed. Benedict offers this: The oil was fed lavishly to the guests, and it was also poured upon the fire. Since the guests sat near the fire, the heat of the burning oil caused them intense discomfort, and this also was reckoned as part of the contest. In order to save themselves from shame, they had to lie unmoved in their places, though the fire blazed up and caught the rafters of the house. The host must exhibit the most complete indifference to the


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threatened destruction of his house. Some of the greatest chiefs had a carved figure of a man upon the roof. It was called the vomiter, and a trough was so arranged that a steady stream of the valuable candlefish oil poured out of the figure’s open mouth into the house fire below. If the oil feast surpassed anything the guest chief had ever given, he must leave the house and begin preparations for a return feast that would outstrip the one given by his rival. If he believed that it had not equalled a feast that he had previously given, he heaped insults upon his host, who then took some further way of establishing his greatness (pp. 193-194). If his rival would not, in due course, hold a potlatch of his own at which he destroys at least an equal amount of property, he would go down a notch in status, while the host who held the earlier potlatch will enjoy substantial prestige. Sometimes there would be spectacular rivalry potlatches in which one rival will give, as well as destroy, greater amounts of goods to the guests than a previous host had done. This is how embittered rivals would humiliate each other. Gifts are distributed at a potlatch according to the rank of the receiver. Guests are always concerned with the amount they receive as compared with that of the other guests. The inequality in the gifts reflects a judgment of comparative social worth from the host’s perspective. An anthropologist, invited to a funerary potlatch in 1966, said he received a hand towel (draped over my shoulder, in customary fashion), three drinking glasses, two oranges, four apples, and two pairs of socks. This indicated the (relatively lowly) rank of the recipient. The fact that this was an average haul among the hundreds of guests present indicates the enormous expenditure that was mobilized within a few days of the death of the elder who was being commemorated (Roth, 2002, pp. 139-140). The goods given away in a potlatch often have symbolic value, being objects that embody a set of social relations, emotions, prestige or even spiritual power. There is an animistic element: “Every object has a soul that mingles with the soul of the giver, and to accept a gift is to accept a part of the giver’s spiritual essence” (Simeon, 1998, p. 116). Sometimes the potlatch is a form of compensation for people who helped build houses or plant crops. For example, the Kwakiutl and the Salish, among other tribes, have always thought it degrading to build one’s own house or ask one’s family to do it, so “guests” will undertake the construction, following which the host will reciprocate by giving a festive potlatch for their enjoyment. The potlatch in this context will be compensation for labor, and the host is expected to be generous. The people of the Northern Athabaskan tribe of central Alaska have long been known for their potlatches, particularly during the period of the fur trade, where high fur prices made them relatively affluent. With the Northern Athabaskan people, the potlatches are usually a mortuary rite with strong emotional and spiritual features. The people resisted the missionaries and traders who advocated abandoning the ceremony as a detriment to individual economic security. A mortuary potlatch among these people occurs after the funeral itself. The family will set out a huge feast of moose meat and other foods. After the guests eat there will be much dancing and more feasting. In this culture, as in others, potlatch gifts consist not only of traditional blankets and adornments, but purchased goods. The hosts will distribute hundreds of blankets, beaded necklaces, cotton scarves, money, and dozens of new Winchester rifles. While the display of wealth is often a crucial aspect of the potlatch in terms of the prestige it confers on the host, just as in our culture giving a lavish party is a means of displaying wealth and garnering the admiration (and envy) that it invariably evokes-among the Inuits the host takes care not to boast of his wealth. In that culture the display of wealth or the overt desire to acquire wealth is frowned upon. If people act greedy, or in an egocentric manner, they become vulnerable to supernatural forces that could kill them. On the other hand, if they refrain from excess and act in harmony with the world, they will live a long life. Thus, while everyone knows the relative wealth of everyone else in the community, guests at a potlatch must refrain from any indication that they covet the host’s wealth.

Potlatches


To some degree, there has been an erosion of the traditional restraint in displaying wealth among the Inuits. As the native people in the region prospered with the lucrative fur trade, a lot of people shifted to a more ostentatious display of economic achievement. Potlatch feasts included the traditional wild food but there were added elements that were thought to be status-enhancing for the host: all varieties of store-bought foods (i.e., “white man’s food,” boiled eggs, canned fruit, bread and jam). Large amounts of ammunition were used to create rifle salutes for the welcoming ceremony. Hudson Bay blankets were added, and Winchester rifles, which for many years have been considered items of prestige. The emulation of Western-style prestige was apparently the driving factor. In modern times, according to Roth (2002), potlatch gifts include many types of store-bought goods: sewing machines, pool tables, motor boats, musical instruments, comforters, bedspreads, linens, towels, plates, cups, electric irons, coffee makers, school supplies, toys small appliances, and souvenir pens and coffee mugs embossed with the date and particulars of the feast-in addition to traditional items such as blankets, bracelets, shawls, and dresses. In former times gifts would include pelts, skins, canoes filled with food, and carved feast dishes, spoons and ladles. On today’s banquet table one will find potato salad alongside traditional dishes such as salmon, seaweed, moose, herring roe and berries. In potlatch cultures, at times, after the festivities were over the hosts might become destitute. They might be forced to beg for help, or ask for credit at the trading posts. This kind of hardship led missionaries to try and stop the practice. They were concerned about what they regarded as waste and extravagance. Still, missionaries admired the generosity exhibited by the distribution of gifts, the charitableness of it, and the ability of the people to work in harmony and to make extended sacrifices to accomplish their aims. While we might regard potlatches as absurdly wasteful and irrational, the people themselves continue to regard them as crucial to gain prestige in the community. In cultures all over the world where potlatches are not the custom, there seems to be a counterpart in the form of feasts at which guests are lavishly fed and entertained. These events confer a certain measure of prestige on the hosts. We have party-giving at weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, anniversary parties, and even funerals as a similarly sanctioned way of enhancing the prestige of the host. In some countries, such as Pakistan, people will go into great debt in order to provide a “proper” wedding party. In Guadalcanal of the Solomon Islands hosts will enjoy significant prestige by giving feasts for the whole village to celebrate various milestones. As Hogbin (1938) found, “Every event of importance in a person’s life-marriage, birth, death and even the construction of a new house or canoe-is celebrated by a feast, and the more feasts a man gives, and the more lavish he is in providing food, the greater is his prestige” (p. 290). In a separate study of tribes in Papua New Guinea, Hogbin (1939) found that feasts are frequently given in the form of ceremonial potluck-style food distributions. These feasts are held for reasons similar to those given in potlatch cultures: to celebrate the restoration of social relations after a dispute, to celebrate the completion of a new house, to celebrate the completion of puberty rites, and so forth. The festivities usually include all-night dancing and singing. People from adjacent villages will be invited to participate. Food is carefully put on display, and then redistributed. The people love to look at the food on display, they love to carry it about, handle it, treating it with respect, setting it in neat piles, in a happy and carefree manner. In New Ireland, off mainland Papua New Guinea, the people have potlatch-style feasts throughout the year. Two local tribes sometimes conduct reciprocal feasts, for anything from circumcism, first menstruation, a child’s loss of the first baby tooth, engagements, marriages, deaths, anniversaries of deaths, going away or coming back, reparations to heal feuds, etc. They will eat quite a bit of taro root, and observe elaborate protocols for the feasts. The host never partakes of the food. Like regular potlatches, there are speeches, lots of fun and economic exchanges. Also, at these feasts people will settle market debts with one another. Potlatches are not known in Polynesia, but there has been a peculiar and longstanding custom of ceremonial exchanges of gifts. People will exchange gifts of precisely the same kind, or at least of equivalent value, in separate ceremonies. For instance, to celebrate the birth of a first child, relatives of the mother and relatives of the father will make reciprocal gifts. The gifts might be as simple as taro pudding, or more lavish, depending on the resources of


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the parties involved. Other occasions for reciprocal gifting occur at a woman’s first pregnancy, betrothal, marriage, and death. Another custom is the giving of reciprocal wedding feasts by both the bride and groom’s families, and at these events the guests have the right to take home any property they desire that are on display, such as utensils, weapons or canoes. It is a matter of prestige for the hosts to make as lavish a feast and presentation of goods as possible. In Polynesian cultures, according to Hogbin (1932), families united by a marriage have certain obligations towards each other, mainly to give assistance in time of trouble. Thus, the gift exchanges serve to help bind together the two groups concerned. The frequent gift exchanges serve to remind the participants of their reciprocal ties, contributes to group cohesion, and generates goodwill that makes the parties more willing to carry out their responsibilities to lend aid. While we are on the subject of gift-giving, a strange custom developed in Nauru Island (aka Pleasant Island, the remotest island of the South Seas-located just below the equator and about 600 miles northeast of the Solomon Islands; Gilbert Islands lay 370 miles east). Wedgwood (1936) found that rather than giving gifts, it is customary for people to more or less help themselves to gifts of food and goods. For example, to celebrate the birth of a child, particularly a first child, friends, relatives, and even strangers, are invited to visit the father’s house, and in doing so they may “loot” any property which they desire. Wedgwood points out that in anticipation of the visit, the family will take great care to hide more valuable possessions (such as precious shell money), but visitors are free to take anything in sight. Also in this culture people may help themselves to leaves from coconut or pandanus trees of others, provided the owner is later informed about it. What is more, people are permitted to cut down “tomano” trees, whose timber is valuable for building houses and canoes, on land belonging to another person at will, without permission and without any compensation being made. When a fisherman comes back and has a good size catch, anyone has the privilege to help himself to what he wants right out of the fisherman’s canoe. Sometimes the entire catch will be thus appropriated, and the fisherman will return home empty handed, but in good cheer. The economic philosophy prevalent in potlatch cultures is one of reciprocal exchange. The people seem to embrace the doctrine of limited good, as in many non-potlatch cultures as we saw in chapter 9 (“Envy and the Evil Eye”). Thus, the people view the accumulation of wealth as unthinkable unless it be for the purpose of immediate redistribution. It is immoral or antisocial to benefit from the extra bounty that an individual might accrue. Abundance thus accruing should be returned to its donor, i.e., the spirit world, or removed from the individual by public destruction of goods or gifting beyond one’s means. The return of gifts by further gifts signifies respect, enacts reciprocity and furthers sociality. In all cultures good hospitality-however that is construed under local custom-is a way of achieving social prestige and respect among one’s peers. The potlatch is a unique practice, still prevalent, that adheres to closely prescribed “rules” of the game, and where every gift is carefully noted by everyone else, particularly the host, who keeps a list. The direction of the gift-giving is from the host to the guests-rather counter-intuitive from the perspective of celebrations and feasts that are a staple of the Western world-in which gifts are given by the guests to the hosts or honorees. In the next chapter we will explore a variety of other ways in which people of many different cultures seek and achieve status, social recognition, and the respect of others in their communities.


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CHAPTER 18 Status, Prestige, Recognition-the Need for Social Approval Abstract. All people have the need for status, prestige and social approval, often expressed and manifested in diverse ways, such as the potlatches discussed in the preceding chapter. The ways people seek acceptance in one’s group and acquire esteem, prestige, and power in the community, take different forms-varying from merit achieved after a successful fishing expedition, to performers of a dance carried out with exceptional skill, to winning races, matches or sporting contests. The possession of certain goods will confer prestige on the owner, although the item might be relatively insignificant to outsiders. For example, in parts of Papua New Guinea the most highly prized item of prestige is a pair of rounded pig’s tusks, which are worn on ceremonial occasions only by elderly. Prestige may come from the right to certain names, or the right to perform certain rituals. Prestige may come from various honors, titles, or powers conferred by inheritance, such as the right to use certain songs and dances, or to use particular kinds of magic. Prestige may come from membership in certain clubs or, in Melanesia, the local secret men’s society. In Asian cultures social approval is associated with the concept of “face.” Losing face, by committing a socially disapproved act, is so humiliating that people can be driven to suicide.

INTRODUCTION All cultures appear to display a group tendency to recognize that certain people or categories of people are socially more important than others. Along with this, people in all cultures have a basic desire, if not an inherent need, for social approval, to achieve prestige or social status-the “need for positive affect.” Status seeking is something hard-wired in human nature, no matter how much people might strive to come across as humble and modest or “egoless.” The highly-acclaimed book by Vance Packard, The Status Seekers, which was a best seller in the 1960s, makes it clear how strong a drive status seeking is for practically everyone in American society. It is extremely hard to be immune from the influence of the advertising industry, not to mention peer pressure, to acquire those things that are thought to be status symbols in our particular time and place. For the most part this drive for status is in our everyday awareness. Plato in his Republic identified a part of the soul called thymos, or spiritedness. This thymos demands that other people recognize our worth or dignity. Given we are gregarious animals, we like to be in sight of our fellows and have an innate propensity to wish to be noticed, and noticed favorably, by others. To remain absolutely unnoticed or to be treated as if we were non-existing things, results in a kind of rage, despair, alienation. The ways people seek acceptance in one’s group and, by extension, acquire esteem, prestige, and power in the community, take different forms as laid down by the particular culture. In some cultures individual merit always is attained after a successful fishing expedition; in others, performers of a dance carried out in unison with exceptional skill and grace brings special prestige. And practically everywhere the winners of races, matches or sporting contests attain significant public approval, not to mention the attentions of eligible young women. Throughout history, wars are launched by rulers more as a demand for recognition of dominion or sovereignty rather than for land or money. This seems to be an inherent need in animals as well as humans. Animals often sort themselves into dominance hierarchies (pecking order), as a struggle for recognition. In this chapter we will explore different elements of prestige and status across cultures, ranging from goods, animals, prerogatives and other intangible rights, and titles. We will also explore the social concept of “face,” and other related issues. PRESTIGE GOODS AND ANIMALS The possession of certain things that people in a culture hold to be prestigious confers prestige on the owner, although the item might be relatively insignificant to outsiders. For instance, according to Groves (1934), in the John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


John Alan Cohan

Huon peninsula of Papua New Guinea, the most highly prized individual item of prestige is a pair of rounded pig’s tusks, which are worn on ceremonial occasions suspended from a cord around the neck. These tusks are made available only from one bigman to another. Possession of a pair of these tusks is generally regarded as evidence of one’s relatively high status in the community. Property of prestige among the Nivkh include ceremonial weapons, metal kettles (especially tripods of Japanese workmanship), Chinese tobacco pipes, bows and arrows, quivers, knives of fine workmanship (used for ritual or special purposes), daggers, and Japanese swords, pelts and furs, especially the lynx fur, Chinese silks. Some of these riches are destroyed at the funeral of the man who was lucky enough to amass them. The dog is also an important status symbol to the Nivkh. One’s worth is measured by the number and quality of one’s dog teams, in addition to other prestige goods. Dogs are slaughtered and their meat eaten only in ritual contexts. The dog is a powerful symbol, having multiple meanings. Dogs eat the same food as the people do in Nivkh culture, mainly fish and seal blubber. A female dog is always given with other bride-gifts, and is thought to be protection from evil influences. Dogs in general are seen as mediators between the human and the divine. Dogs are supposed to see and hear spirits. PRESTIGE IN PREROGATIVES Many cultures have property rights to art designs, names, rituals and honors. And various honors, titles, powers, rights and names are conferred by inheritance. Artists in numerous cultures (e.g., Papua New Guinea) own designs that are inherited, so that if you want to have a certain crocodile design carved on the front of your canoe, you can’t do it unless you pay this artist. Usually one pays for the artist’s right to the design and the artist’s labor, as two separate things. For the Indians of the Pacific Northwest, as discussed by Ruth Benedict, the things that were supremely valued were prerogatives rather than material possessions. Names, myths, songs, and privileges were the things that made up a man’s wealth. Thus, for the Blackfoot Indians certain songs and ritual knowledge were items of property that could be bought and sold, and were more important to prestige than bravery and war deeds. Also important to prestige were horses, medicine pipes, painted tipis, war charms, and war bonnets. These prerogatives constituted property owned by individuals who singly and exclusively exercised the rights which they conveyed. Nobility titles in particular were a high status property. People assumed titular names according to their rights of inheritance and financial ability; these were also used as personal names. In the Pacific Northwest and in many other cultures names were a high status item that depended on one’s lineage, one’s wealth and one’s overall status in the tribe. As we saw in the preceding chapter, often the purpose of a potlatch will be for the host to announce a new name, together with its associated prerogatives, before the invited guests. The Blackfoots would buy and sell visions of others for one’s social prestige; they were the basis of the tribal economic system, and they were readily salable commodities. One purchases the songs, the taboos, the “power,” and the right of performing the ceremony that goes with the vision. In many cultures tangible and intangible resources-such as the right to use certain songs and dances, or to use particular kinds of magic-are hereditary. And often these rights carry with them implied responsibilities over the well-being of others. Smith (2002) found that in Papua New Guinea, the bigman with primary rights to the magic for growing taro, for example, bears responsibility for supervising production of this highly important crop. A great deal that goes on in the village bears on the productivity of taro gardens. Too much unresolved anger and disharmony can weaken the taro magic; or simply neglecting to clear ground, plant, and weed with sufficient energy can render futile a bigman’s magical efforts. So, responsibility for magical husbandry of taro brings with it the right and the responsibility to play a prominent role in many spheres of village life (p. 111). Prestige in many cultures may involve obtaining membership in some group or club. For young men throughout Africa, Oceania and Melanesia, it is imperative to become initiated into the local secret men’s society. It is almost

Status, Prestige, Recognition-the Need for Social Approval


unthinkable to refuse-so important is the prestige of membership. In the West, schools have their own elements of prestige-often conferred simply by being a member of the “in” group. In modern society many young men and women find it important to join a fraternity or sorority in college, not only for the friendship and fun, but for the prestige accorded such membership. Indeed, what college you attend, in and of itself, can confer a measure of prestige, depending on whether it is Ivy League or or other factors. And throughout the world prestige is associated with membership in exclusive country clubs, yacht clubs, and innumerable other clubs that seek to distinguish members from nonmembers by class and financial status. The kind of organizations that confer prestige is boundless. Prestigious clubs also include the Tobacco Society of the Crow Indians, or of the Nevinbur of the Malekula. Being a shaman or becoming an apprentice of a shaman is something that confers prestige in the given community. Prestige of sorts is even conferred-within certain subcultures-on those who become a member of a revolutionary society such as a radical Islamic group or political extremists who join a secessionist movement, or members of a gang in the urban West. SOCIAL TRAITS THAT CONFER PRESTIGE. TITLES Titles such as count or duke have for centuries been the hallmark of prestige in the U.K. and Europe. Titles such as “Prince of Wales” and many other titles associated with royalty or with the “landed aristocracy”-carry prestige of almost mythic proportions for the holder. Some titles can be sold by those who are willing to relinquish them for a price-and auctions are held each year for the waning number of aristocrats who find it necessary to resort to this. Often a title confers nothing more than the prerogative of the sovereign to bestow it on someone who has attained some sort of public favor. For example, each year the Queen of England bestows knighthood on various individuals who have distinguished themselves in the arts, science, public service or in other fields. Knighthoods are a highly coveted, almost unsurpassed, form of prestige in the U.K. In other cultures the use of certain titles is also an important prestige element. The term don is conferred among Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Latin-Americans as a social reward, a title of respect, on certain men. When a man receives the term don it becomes a part of his name, as in Don Juan (used with the given name, not the surname). Romano (1960) found that the term don represents “successful masculinity” (p. 975). The term is used for curanderos as well as wealthy businessmen, political officials, and very old men (For a discussion of curanderos, see chapter 21, “Folk Medicine”). According to Romano, the term don signifies respect of the community for the man who has achieved a certain air of social distance, urbanity, education (albeit self-styled), good manners, cleverness in verbal dueling, and is above the envy and gossip that brews in his culture. In these cultures respect is achieved by maintaining a formal relationship with the community, so that a man avoids close associations with people other than his kin, remains aloof, and delegates tasks such as recruitment of labor to his children. THE CONCEPT OF “FACE” In China and other Asian cultures, social approval is associated with the concept of “face.” Of course, we all seek respect of our group and want to be perceived as decent human beings by others. But in China, according to Hu (1944), condemnation or disapproval by the group, i.e., to lose face (to lose lien), causes severe humiliation to the individual. Much activity in Chinese culture is based on trust, so that the loss of confidence in someone’s integrity is especially dreaded. In Chinese villages, if someone commits an irresponsible or immoral act, others will openly express their indignation, sometimes in public, thus attracting a crowd and making the other party “lose lien.” Hu states: A serious infraction of the moral code of society, once come to the notice of the public, is a blemish on the character of the individual and excites a great deal of comment. A fraud detected, a crime exposed, meanness, poor judgment, lies told for one’s own profit, unfaithfulness while in office, a broken promise, the cheating of a customer, a married man making love to a young girl.. (p. 46).


John Alan Cohan

These are but some of the acts that result in loss of face. Chinese society as a whole frowns upon boasting or other efforts to pump up one’s image. People tend to be excessively modest about their accomplishments and status. Young men will often ask friends to introduce them to the girl of their choice, fearing loss of lien if a direct approach is refused. Students who fail examinations will feel extreme loss of lien. The loss of lien varies in intensity, depending upon one’s status in society. The same act-say breaking a promisedone by a peasant entails much less loss of lien than on the part of an official or a scholar. In China public disgrace or ridicule also affects the reputation of one’s entire family, or in some instances can affect one’s college or even the reputation of the entire country. For instance, if a political figure is exposed for political corruption, the entire country will feel the loss of lien. If a college student commits a serious crime, this will cause the loss of lien for the entire college. This is a similar social phenomenon to collective responsibility, as discussed in chapter 15 in connection with how people deal with conflicts. There we saw that in numerous instances an offense by one person against another is thought of as an affront by one party’s clan against another clan, and is dealt with accordingly-by one clan paying compensation to the other, and so on. As is well known, in Japanese society people are greatly sensitive to situations that might induce shame. What we might think of as simply a slightly embarrassing moment would constitute shame, or haji. Even if a teacher praises a student in front of others in a classroom, this can be an occasion for shame. According to Lebra (1983), “What gives rise to haji here is the fact that one is exposed to the concentrated attention or ‘gaze’ of others, whether it is malevolent or benevolent” (p. 194). Lebra goes on to say that this “exposure sensitivity” might be explained by the modesty code whereby the self is supposed to remain hidden, unexpressed, or inconspicuous. One is thus expected, when exposed or about to be exposed, to behave as if one were embarrassed or shy. Viewed this way, self-exposure itself can be said to amount to a norm violation (p. 197). The highly formalistic nature of Japanese interactions, the perfectionism in display, in greetings, rules of speech, gesture, posture, the tea ceremony and other ceremonies, can be understood against the haji complex. To the Japanese, according to Lebra, abiding by strict and prescribed protocols, whereby everyone knows precisely what to do and when to do it-is “relaxing, therapeutic, or tranquility-inducing” (p. 198). LAGGING EMULATION Often enough, in seeking to satisfy the need for prestige, people will emulate the behavior of that strata of society to which prestige is usually identified. To some extent we see this in the tendency of people to voraciously consume gossip magazines about celebrities, copy their hairdo’s, ways of dressing, and even emulate their bad behavior. Emulation is a way in which the fashion industry seeks to sell clothes-by showing fashionable models in high status settings. In fact, advertising in general often seeks to play on peoples’ desire to emulate the higher status groups. Friedl (1964) found that at times we see instances of “lagging emulation,” that is, people will seek to emulate things they think high status people regard as prestigious-but that might no longer be the case. Emulation lag occurs if an upwardly mobile individual looks to older “ideal” patterns that were learned at a younger age, but which the higher status groups no longer follow. That is, people will emulate what they think are the manners and tastes of the higher social group, but the behavior imitated may be to some extent “obsolete” because the prestige group has moved on to new forms of behavior. This lagging emulation sometimes occurs when people of peasant cultures become acculturated into urban cultures. There is a tendency for older individuals to hold onto sustained views of the past concerning what elements of status are associated with the higher prestige group.

Status, Prestige, Recognition-the Need for Social Approval


For example, in India, when lower castes develop some wealth or power, they assume some of the obsolescent customs of higher castes. But these customs might be obsolete. A man moving into a higher social position might think that it is appropriate for a higher caste man to exert an authoritarian control over the women in his family, whereas the upper castes have already moved away from traditional authority and restrictions, as a means of increasing their prestige in a newly developing international community. In this chapter we have a brief overview of the situations that people regard as prestigious (or the opposite-shameful) in various parts of the world. While the things that do or do not confer prestige vary across cultures, the concernindeed the preoccupation-with prestige can be seen universally. Perhaps there are rare exceptions-such as a Zen master or a true religious ascetic-but prestige is so important to practically everyone that people will go to great lengths to attain it. In the previous chapter, for instance, we saw that certain chiefs would “break the copper” from their treasure trove of coppers-in an effort to humiliate their rivals and thereby significantly enhance their own prestige. In modern society “keeping up with the Joneses”-a quaint notion that was popularized in post-War suburban life-is an active motivator today as well-inducing people to spend money and go into debt for things they might not need or even want-just to “keep up” with what other people are acquiring or to avoid “losing face.” For losing face is not just a social concept in Asian cultures-it is alive and well in the West as well. Just think of how humiliating it is for political figures to be “exposed” for their secret lives, or for convicted criminals to suffer be stripped of whatever social standing they previously enjoyed. Take Bernard Madoff, for instance, who bilked clients of billions of dollars and was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his crimes. He and his family had had moved in the highest social circles and enjoyed a supremely privileged lifestyle. He then became one of the most hated schemers ever to reach the front-page news, and lost everything.

PART VI: CULTURAL PHENOMENA AND FOLK MEDICINE

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CHAPTER 19 Culture-Bound Syndromes Abstract. Culture-bound syndromes are patterns of abnormal behavior that occur exclusively within certain cultural groups. This topic brings into consideration the question, just what constitutes a mental disorder? Culture-bound syndromes often involve bizarre behavior that in the West might defy categorization. It is important to take into account an individual’s ethnic and cultural context in evaluating whether a mental disorder really exists. Deviant behavior in one cultural setting might be acceptable, even praiseworthy, in another. For example, for Native Americans it is normal to hear voices when alone, whereas this could be diagnosed as schizophrenia by conventional psychiatrists. A widespread culture-bound syndrome is running amok, also known as longlong, whereby the individual will become very agitated and run about, stealing things, trampling crops, chasing people and demanding things to be given to him. In Papua New Guinea longlong is regarded as an institutionalized means for reduction of tension, a temporary escape from unbearable situations. Another culturebound syndrome, lulu, is characterized by a generalized shaking of the body, distorted mental perceptions and bizarre behavior. Arctic hysteria is similar to running amok, and is found mainly among the Inuits of North America; it involves screaming, tearing off clothing and running naked into the snow. Bebainan is a type of anxiety or hysteria characterized by feelings of confusion, dizziness, trembling, blurring of vision, a cold sensation spreading through the body, a vacant feeling, and a loss of desire or will. Hwa-Byung seems localized among Koreans and Korean-Americans and is similar in symptoms to bebainan, but may also include physical symptoms such as there heart palpitations, headaches, chronic indigestion, poor appetite, and vomiting of blood. Taijin-kyofu-sho, common in Japan where saving face is so important, is a kind of phobia in which people are fearful of offending others in social situations through awkward behavior, imperfect body features, or imagined shortcomings. Koro is prevalent in Asia and India and involves intense anxiety, for men, that the penis will recede into the body and possibly cause death, and for women that the vulva and the nipples will recede. Susto or “soul loss” is a highly prevalent among Mexicans and Latin Americans, and is a kind of nervous breakdown, perhaps triggered by a frightening or traumatic event. The soul is said to literally be expelled from one’s body, and one might immediately start to feel “ill from fright.” A related syndrome is ataques de nervos, accompanied by weakness dizziness and disorientation. Similarly, saldero involves anxiety, depression, crying, poor concentration, insomnia, etc. Latah, confined mainly to Malaysia, involves lewd, disorganized outburst in public. Piot, a syndrome unique to Papua New Guinea, usually affects an entire family and occurs when a guest arrives or leaves the home; symptoms include headaches and an unusual lassitude. Windigo psychosis, among the Northern Algonkian Indians, was a compulsion to commit cannibalism, despite norms against it, and despite the individual’s personal sense of repugnance in the act. Pica and geophagia are found in diverse cultures, and involves a compulsion to eat unsuitable or unusual things, such as wood, clay, stones, ashes, hair, plaster or laundry starch.

WHAT ARE CULTURE-BOUND SYNDROMES? Culture-bound syndromes are patterns of abnormal behavior that occur exclusively among particular societies or culture areas. Indigenous people consider these to be “illnesses” or “afflictions,” but we only rarely see these behavior patterns in the West. Similarly, some disorders that are prevalent in the West are all but absent in other cultures. For instance, anorexia and other eating disorders that have been prevalent in the West are rare or absent in other cultures (DSM-IV-TR, p. 898). Many anthropologists and psychiatrists agree that “psychiatric illness tends to manifest itself in forms that reflect the cultural expectations of the society in which it occurs” (Levack, 1995, p. 1621). Anthropologists have been the chief source of information about culture-bound syndromes. Culture-bound syndromes are defined as “aberrant forms of behavior often interpreted as mental disorder by Western-trained observers, but nonetheless seemingly restricted to given cultural situations” (Kenny, 1985, p. 164). Thus, culturebound syndromes involve certain bizarre behavior patterns that are localized in certain cultures, and are seldom ever found outside those cultures. These strange behaviors do not fit conventional, i.e., Western, diagnostic categories. As Freud and others have observed, mental illness often stems from a person’s refusal to admit, even to himself, certain bottled up impulses. Many of the culture-bound syndromes seem to have somaticized symptoms, and occur in cultures where, as we will see, people tend to bottle up their emotions, particularly anger or hostility. John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Culture-Bound Syndromes


JUST WHAT CONSTITUTES A MENTAL DISORDER? Culture-bound syndromes often involve bizarre behavior that in the West might defy categorization, or be relegated to schizophrenia or hysteria. To be sure, the symptoms are distressing and disruptive, but to the people of the particular cultures, the symptoms are common enough so as to not be viewed with alarm. The patient experiences some sort of distress and for a time is unable to fulfill one’s usual social functions, but the symptoms are not regarded as psychiatric in nature. Indigenous people will treat culture-bound syndromes with folk remedies, shamanic healing, or the symptoms will simply be allowed to run their course. These localized syndromes usually have local names, and we will discuss a few of them below. The issue of how “mental disorder” should be defined is somewhat controversial. It is difficult to see how “mental disorder” can be universally defined across cultures because of a fundamental difference in local social practices, values, cultural and even scientific beliefs. Particularly in recent years, it has become apparent that what constitutes a mental disorder depends entirely on the context, on social identity, and on the proper interpretation of cultural factors. People can perceive reality in fundamentally different ways, yet be clearly sane. People in primitive cultures believe the world is populated by a variety of unseen creatures, ghosts, witches, spirits, demons, and that animals have souls that can come back and harm you unless you make amends to them after a hunt. We might find their criteria for perceiving reality to be fundamentally at odds with modern criteria, yet they are perfectly sane. The DSM-IV-TR states that it is important to take into account an individual’s ethnic and cultural context in evaluating whether a mental disorder really exists. The cultural identity and the degree of involvement with the culture of origin are important factors to consider. A person’s culture may have particular explanations or interpretations of symptoms of distress, e.g., evil spirits, violation of a taboo, or other cultural explanations that do not fit into Western psychiatric theory (DSM-IV-TR, p. 897). Deviant behavior in one cultural setting might be acceptable, even praiseworthy, in another. What is considered dysfunctional or crazy in the West (e.g., seeing ghosts, hearing voices when no one is present) may be perfectly normal in other cultures. In some cultures it is common for people to have vivid feelings of being visited by deceased ancestors, while in our culture these might be considered to be hallucinations or delusions indicative of psychosis. In recent times in the West there has been an epidemic of sorts of people claiming they have seen aliens from other worlds or have been abducted by them, and then returned to Earth after experiments were conducted on their bodies. Depending on how you look at it, these people could be considered schizophrenic, but a number of mainstream scientists and mental health professionals have argued that the reality of purported abductions cannot be entirely ruled out. A notable Harvard psychiatrist, Dr. John Edward Mack wrote a book of his research from interviewing abductees, entitled Alien Abduction: Creating a Modern Phenomenon (1994). For Native Americans it is normal to hear voices when alone, whereas this could be diagnosed as schizophrenia by conventional psychiatrists. The idea that illness is caused by malevolent spirits, the curse of an enemy, the evil eye or the violation of taboos may seem to be preposterous in our culture, but today these ideas are completely normative to the majority of people in the world. And in an earlier period in the West, people thought it to be perfectly credible that vampires existed and sucked blood from the living. People who experienced hallucinations and ecstatic trances were sometimes hailed as saints (e.g., St. Therese of Avila or St. Joan of Arc), whereas in our society there is a tendency to put the “psychotic” label on people who see or hear strange things. Thus, it is important to take cultural factors into account in assessing whether a particular behavior is a mental disorder. Moreover, in many cultures the ways illness is explained and treated are completely different than in in the West. Even a clear case of schizophrenia will be looked upon as spirit influences-some adverse spirit has interlocked with the patient, or the patient is obsessed by a spirit who disturbs his mind and causes it to malfunction. In such a case the attitude might be that the individual is totally subjugated by a foreign spirit. The distortion in reality is not attributed to the patient, but to the molesting spirits. One’s own spirit is as it were put aside and the mental confusion is imposed by the intruding spirits.


John Alan Cohan

RUNNING AMOK, WILD MAN BEHAVIOR, AND LONGLONG The Glossary of Culture-Bound Syndromes in the DSM-IV-TR refers to “amok” as a syndrome prevalent in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, Laos, the Philippines, Polynesia, and among the Navaho. It is also known in parts of Africa. This syndrome has been observed for several centuries by Westerners. In Papua New Guinea amok is called “wild man behavior” or “going berserk,” but more commonly it is referred to as “longlong,” which is Melanesian for “crazy.” Longlong is a kind of possession state or hysteria, depending on how you look at it-a temporary derangement, not associated with schizophrenia (Langness, 1965; Langness, 1967). The episodes occur primarily, if not exclusively, in males. Newman (1964) found that the individual will become very agitated and run about, stealing things, chasing people and demanding things to be given to him. He will usually grab a bow and arrows, a wooden club or other weapon, decorate himself with feathers and finery, run erratically around the village, crash through fences and gardens, destroy property, trample on or rip up crops, overturn graves, stuff strange things into his mouth (embers, green tobacco leaves, uncooked plantains, or dirt), try to set fire to a house, chase other villagers around in a threatening way, grab personal property of others, and take the objects into the woods and destroy them. The individual will usually avoid harming his relatives and friends, but in some instances might attack his wife or children. Usually no one really gets injured or killed. During the episode the subject’s eyes will be glazed or turned-up, his skin cold, and he will be oblivious to sights or sounds. There will be panting, rapid heartbeat, trembling, shaking, dizziness, or erratic motor control. He will not seem to recognize, understand or hear anyone. The subject does not respond even if someone yells loudly into his ear; he is “deaf” during the episode. People afflicted report that “the wind comes up and hits their ears and they cannot hear” (Clarke, 1973). Usually others will grab him, wrestle him to the ground, and hold him there until he eventually calms down. He will struggle to get free. He might then change his pattern and run back and forth in some bizarre fashion. If not restrained the individual will continue to run about, and speak or scream incoherently, usually making piercing, unnatural sounds (“insane cackle”). The episode might last an hour or two, and then the fellow, if not previous restrained, will collapse and come to. Afterwards he may claim amnesia. The onset is usually sudden and unprovoked. In many cases the individual deliberately starts the attack after a period of brooding. The episode usually lasts a few hours, but sometimes for days. The community, as mentioned, will attempt to quiet the man by holding him down or tying him up, but at the same time people think of longlong as a spectacle and gather to watch, finding it a form of theatrical performance. People will run away or scream in mock terror; some will tease the wild man. Spectators will tend to keep their distance because of the potential danger but at the same time they enjoy the display, the comic pursuit, the “performance.” Sometimes a medicine-man will be called in to help restore the individual to normality. The remedy might include the ingestion of therapeutic leaves, or if symptoms persist, ritual exorcism, but often enough people will simply pour cold water on the wild man, and give him a cigarette to smoke with magic spells affixed. This culture-bound syndrome is unique in that it is considered disruptive and antisocial, while at the same it is positively sanctioned. People regard it as a form of amusement, as an exciting diversion, a departure from the normal. Once the wild man comes to, there is no shame attached to such episodes, and the occasion is soon forgotten or joked about later. People will sit and discuss it as we might discuss a play or movie, but the spectators are part of the play, in that they were threatened or their belongings seized or damaged. According to Edgerton (1985), the result of such bouts is akin to declaring bankruptcy-the community places less demands on the individual for a time, and there is less pressure to repay debts, participate in food distribution or enter into exchange relationships (pp. 88-89. The sick role is appealing to many people in all cultures, and may be voluntarily sought out for strategic opportunism. According to Sigerist (1977):



Illness releases. It releases from many of the obligations of society, first, from school attendance, and generally from work duties. The sick person is relieved from many important concerns with which society demands that the healthy busy themselves. Yes, the sick man even becomes the object of duties, the recipient of special attention. Illness frees a man also from the performance of many occupations. It also lessens the degree of responsibility or removes it entirely, a viewpoint which has revolutionized the penal law from its foundations (p. 393). Men who run amok (very few women do) are celebrated by the community, and pointed out with praise. Some men are in the habit of going longlong, that is, they will intentionally go into the state, and admit that they take a certain pleasure and enjoyment from doing so. EXPLANATION OF LONGLONG Anthropologists have studied many cases of longlong and usually label it as a kind of hysterical psychosis, that is, according to Langness (1965): a state of uncontrollable behavior usually characterized by inappropriate excitement or withdrawal, sufficiently marked and continued to prevent useful integration in the activity of the group (p. 259). Clarke (1973) found that, because of the natives’ heightened suggestibility, which is associated with their strong beliefs in magic and the supernatural, they are ideally suited for hysterical mechanisms. Running amok includes symptoms similar to demonic possession, with the person’s physical movements and personality being altered or out of control. In the West we might refer to similar behavior as a “nervous breakdown” or “dissociation.” The incidence of running amok in the various cultures where it appears has been associated “with stringent proprietary rules and sanctions against confrontation and aggression” (Kon, 1994, p. 687). The people of Papua New Guinea seem to regard longlong as an institutionalized means for reduction of tension. A kind of healing takes place, as in other situations where someone undergoes an abreaction: Once the episode has acted itself out, the individual’s pent-up rage has been released, and there is a restoration to more or less normal behavior. Western observers agree that the episodes serve as a release from psychological tensions, and provide relief from a sense of frustration because of failure or loss. It’s a temporary escape from unbearable situations, and serves to work out aggression toward the group without being held responsible. At the same time, Papuans think that longlong is caused by malevolent ghosts that can cause temporary insanity. The fear of evil ghosts is an important, widespread, and very genuine belief in that culture. The people believe that on death, one’s soul goes to a heavenly realm and lives a happy life, while its ghost stays close to the living. The ghost might be good or evil, depending on the quality of interpersonal relationships with kinsmen prior to death. If they had argued with the deceased, the surviving kin are in a potentially dangerous situation. Old people sometimes threaten younger kin that their ghost will return to haunt them if they do not behave properly. A further stimulus occurs because of the generally approving attitude of the community. In many instances there is just a spontaneous onset, without any significant evidence of stress. Some cases are self-induced and played to an audience as a way of getting reactions from the community to alleviate social pressures. Young men face enormous social and economic pressures in these communities. While growing up as boys, there is virtually no work and no chores, but simply unbridled liberty, a life full of excitement, and almost no punishment. But there are considerable moral, personal, and economic pressures exerted on the boys despite the fact that they have a free and easy life, and other frustrations and conflicts with little means of recourse. For instance, there are extremely severe and painful initiation rites. And while boys are naked until age ten, men make fun of their size and lack of covering, habitually pull their penises, or threaten to cut them off with knives and axes-mainly in jest. Because of the history of battles with other tribes, there is an undercurrent of violence and revenge, and young men must undergo secret rituals to maintain male “purity” and superiority.


John Alan Cohan

Fathers, senior clansmen and bigmen exert constant pressure on young men to prove themselves and to fulfill outstanding obligations, and there is great difficulty in becoming a bigman. Young men’s desires are frustrated by their elders, leading to a feeling of being trapped. There is freedom of choice in almost nothing. There is no suitable way of expressing anger or resentment towards clansmen because this sort of aggression is forbidden in the culture. Young men are reminded that they don’t have a name, that they don’t have pigs and gardens, etc. A male cannot become a full-fledged adult member of the community until a somewhat advanced age. There is significant pressure to gain full community prestige at about age 30 or even as late as 50-by becoming “a man with a name.” This is a difficult process, and involves renouncing a great many childhood pleasures and assuming difficult and unpleasant adult obligations. Boys rarely have a say in the bride chosen (i.e., purchased) by his parents. There can be significant emotional stress if his parents fail to contract a desired marriage, and there is a long betrothal period before marriage. Once the bride comes to live in the boy’s household there is an avoidance taboo of long duration, one or two years. He cannot even look at her, nor can any of his age mates. The wedding does not take place until all his age mates also have brides chosen for them. Because of the avoidance taboo normal daily life is difficult, and boys will visit other villages to spend much of their time, courting other girls, and so forth. After marriage, about 25% of the men take second wives if they can afford the bride price (mainly pigs). Another societal pressure is that, by operation of the levirate, when a man dies, his brother inherits the widow. On top of this, there is the continual pressure to change native customs due to European contact. The pressure, tension and stress can simply be too much for young men to cope with. Thus, it perhaps comes as no surprise that young men who are unable to bear these cultural pressures will have episodes of longlong before finally making the necessary adjustment to adult life. In recent years, with increased European contact, young men are able to remove themselves from these pressures, either temporarily or more or less permanently. They can join the labor force, or can escape briefly by visiting friends in other towns. In East Africa, particularly Uganda, a counterpart to longlong is called eddalu, or violent madness. According to Orley (1970), the person will throw stones, run around naked, refuse to eat, speak strangely, apparently fail to understand what is happening around him, and behave in an abusive manner towards others around him (pp. 4-5). Another counterpart to longlong is a syndrome called “moth craziness,” among people of the American Navajo tribe. This involves paroxysmal spells of out-of-control, erratic or aggressive behavior in which the individual jumps around, even into a fire like a moth. It is thought to be caused by witchcraft. Also, a mild form of hysteria similar to longlong, called ufufunyana, is common among Zulu women whose husbands work in the villages and are gone for extended periods of time. In the West we see counterparts to running amok in urban settings. We even have expressions for situations in which people individually or in groups run amok-we refer to people “going ape” or “going postal.” Adults engage in road rage-a kind of urban longlong. Young boys acting individually or in groups might create havoc, even engaging in gang warfare. In more serious cases, we see depraved acts of brutality seemingly for sport, e.g., students going on homicidal rampages, opening fire at schools or colleges, killing students and teachers, and then committing suicide (Alford, 2008; Davey & Saulny, 2008). In the worse shooting rampage in modern United States history, a student killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech in April, 2007. There are many inexplicable cases of homicidal rampages among young men, often with warning signs-such as an unusual fascination with bombs and firearms-that go unheeded. Typical is the case of Kip Kinkel, who in 1998 shot and killed his parents before going on rampage at his school in Springfield, Oregon, killing two students and wounding twenty-five (Newman, 2004, p. 47).



The explanations for this troubling phenomenon are difficult to fathom. At root, violent prone juveniles are emotionally troubled and desperately in need of psychological intervention. Newman (2004) claims: We do not understand why [rampage school shootings] happen and have barely begun to consider their long-term consequences. Models derived from the study of urban violence have minimal value in deciphering the causes of rampage school shootings. Understanding what leads to these attacks does not free anyone of the obligation to think just as hard about the far more common incidence of urban shootings, something social scientists and policymakers have been working on for decades (p. 49). The social pressures on young men in the West are somewhat different than that found in Papua New Guinea-more subtle: alienation, social disintegration, lack of parental commitment to the emotional, physical, or educational wellbeing of their children, antisocial values, child abuse, association with delinquent peers, and other frustrations in the “urban jungle.” While we can make some sense of how social pressures in Papua New Guinea induce young men to act out frustrations by running amok, which is relatively harmless and even socially approved-it is hard to make psychological sense of the homicidal rampages that have plagued so many communities in the West. A study by Fleisher (1995) revealed that juvenile offenders in America manifested impulsiveness, insensitivity, a willingness to use violence and intimidation to repel others, a propensity for risk-taking, and a reluctance to become socially intimate (p. 104). There was the tendency of these children to care for themselves as if they were orphans. Fleisher argues they developed what he calls a “defensive worldview”(p. 104). Without inculcation of character, children often become radically self-regarding. By living for themselves alone and placing “zero value on the lives of their victims,” Fleisher claims they become capable of committing the “most heinous acts of physical violence for the most trivial of reasons (e.g., a perception of slight disrespect or the accident of being in their path)” (p. 104). They also become radically present-oriented. Fleisher goes on to say that by perceiving no relationship between “doing right (or wrong) now and being rewarded (or punished) for it later, they live entirely in and for the present moment and quite literally have no concept of the future” (p. 104). Such children “fear neither the stigma of arrest nor the pain of imprisonment” (DiIulio, 1995). LULU A widely reported psychological disorder among the Huli of the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, is called lulu. The disorder is characterized by a generalized shaking of the body, distorted mental perceptions and bizarre behavior. Lulu is a Huli word that simply means “abnormal mental behavior” (Rodrigue, 1963, p. 274). The syndrome appears to be triggered in crowds where people gather for Tawandas (sing-sings), church services, funerals or other gatherings. The subject will experience an involuntary onset of tremors in the hands and feet, which then extends through the entire body. There is a feeling of confusion, and the person will shake or shiver, perhaps with tears streaming as if crying. Susceptible subjects may start to feel the onset of lulu if they see other people manifesting the condition, suggesting that it can spread from an index case to a group-a kind of mass hysteria. Several people in a group may be affected at the same time. The individual remains conscious, but does not respond to others. The episode lasts from a few minutes to half an hour, and once the subject comes to, he will be in a confused state, but cooperative and rational. In more extreme cases the person will sit down and stare vacantly, or look around with a fierce expression and darting eyes, tense muscles, veins standing out, sweating profusely, and will emit grunting sounds, talking incoherently to “spirits,” all the while being entirely unresponsive to others. In many instances the individual will grab weapons, and then run about through the gardens in a manic state, uprooting plants, overturning graves, shooting arrows, and behaving generally in a disorderly manner, sometimes injuring others unless restrained-very much the same symptoms as running amok, discussed above.


John Alan Cohan

Physical examinations of people who suffer symptoms of lulu fail to show any medical abnormalities. ARCTIC HYSTERIA Similar to running amok, Arctic hysteria has been extensively studied by anthropologists and psychiatrists. It is found mainly among the Inuits of North America and the indigenous people of Siberia. Symptoms involve bizarre behavior, including mimicking others’ acts, running about naked, rolling in the snow, placing ice on oneself, jumping into water, inflicting gashes on oneself, and glossolalia (uttering meaningless syllables). A Glossary of the DSM-IV-TR (“Glossary of Culture-Bound Syndromes”) refers to Arctic hysteria as “pibloktoq”: [A]n abrupt dissociative episode accompanied by extreme excitement of up to 30 minutes’ duration and frequently followed by convulsive seizures and coma lasting up to 12 hours. This is observed primarily in arctic and subarctic Eskimo communities, although regional variations in name exist. The individual may be withdrawn or mildly irritable for a period of hours or days before the attack and will typically report complete amnesia for the attack. During the attack, the individual may tear off his or her clothing, break furniture, shout obscenities, eat feces, flee from protective shelters, or perform other irrational or dangerous acts (p. 901). There are two types of Arctic hysteria: one is called amurakh, which affects people who get easily frightened. Once triggered by a sharp noise such as the shout of another person-the sufferer will become terrified and imitate everything he sees taking place around him-the doings and sayings of others. This is usually accompanied by uttering obscenities. The second type, memerik, is where the sufferer howls and dances, acts mad or is thought to be possessed by an evil spirit. This often occurs with a novice shaman, and it is thought that these symptoms demonstrate that the shaman is struggling with and learning how to appease evil spirits. It is thought that only the man who has successfully battled the spirit world with the forces within himself, can help his fellow tribesmen and be intermediary with the spirit world. Shamans are expected to be, and usually are, perfectly healthy and normal, but in the Arctic regions of Siberia and North America shamans have a tendency towards fits of Arctic hysteria of the type just mentioned. In 1905 a Danish physician wrote that the Inuit of Greenland tended towards “impulsiveness, suggestibility and instability” (Dick, 1995, p. 2). Admiral Robert E. Peary wrote passages about Arctic hysteria in two of his booksNearest the Pole (1907) and The North Pole (1910), observing “a form of hysteria” (Peary, 1907, p. 384), with manifestations that “are somewhat startling” (Peary, 1910, p. 167), and that “seems to be the result of a brooding over absent or dead relatives, or a fear of the future” (Peary, 1910, p. 166). He wrote: The patient, usually a woman, begins to scream and tear off and destroy her clothing. If on the ship, she will walk up and down the deck, screaming and gesticulating, and generally in a state of nudity, though the thermometer may be in the minus forties. As the intensity of the attack increases, she will sometimes leap over the rail upon the ice, running perhaps half a mile.... [S]ome sufferers become so wild that they would continue running about on the ice perfectly naked until they froze to death, if they were not forcibly brought back (Peary, 1910, pp. 166-167). Since then much has been written about this distinctive mental disorder. One explanation is that the disorder has an environmental or ecological cause: The influence of the extreme cold, prolonged darkness of the Arctic winter, terrific snow storms, long periods of silence in the hunter’s life, the desert solitude, the brevity of the summers, and the sharp contrasts between summer and winter-are thought to be contributing factors. Another explanation is that Arctic hysteria is at least partly due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The Inuit diets are usually calcium poor and, during the long winter they are deprived of ultraviolet rays of sunlight, which are key to the formation of vitamin D, so if they suffer calcium-vitamin D malnutrition, this could contribute to the hysteric attacks.



Langness (1967) suggested that hysterical behavior among the Kuma can be explained in terms of ingestion of toxic mushrooms (p. 150). According to Dick (1995), the disorder has not affected explorers or anthropologists who have spent extended periods of time with the Inuits and shared their diet (p. 6). Some think that the Inuit personality has something to do with the tendency towards Arctic hysteria. Parker (1962) described certain traits he observed among the Inuit-that they are unstable, impulsive, prone towards convulsive excitements and fits of trembling, often in response to trifling incidents (especially women), that there is a tendency to engage in meaningless jabber, and fits of breaking things within reach. It is also theorized that Arctic hysteria is precipitated by a sense of separation or loss in the individual. “Arctic hysteria tends to occur in those individuals who continue to be most dependent, who are least individuated, and who have the greatest degree of separation anxiety” (Freeman, Foulks & Freeman, 1978, p. 208). The suggestion is that boys are “treated as a baby” by their mothers even after they become an adult. Men perceive their mothers or wives to be extremely strong, spoiling and indulgent. Men tend to overidealize these women. The man, in the face of separation, such as on hunting trips, becomes anxious and panicky, and this results in the “dissociative” reaction, i.e., Arctic hysteria. Running away and getting lost in the snow is a way of dealing with a sense of abandonment. The outbreak represents (a) a flight, a seeking to escape from danger and to run towards the illusion of protective reunion with mother out on the tundra; and also (b) a coercive maneuver, a seeking restraint and rescue by others. The undressing and running naked is probably partly related to the childhood nakedness which is maintained until toilet training is completed (Freeman, Foulks & Freeman, 1978, p. 210). BEBAINAN A culture-bound syndrome in Bali, known as bebainan, takes the form of possession that the people believe is due to sorcery. Attacks usually have a sudden onset, with feelings of confusion, dizziness, trembling, blurring of vision, a cold sensation spreading through the body, a vacant feeling, a loss of desire or will, ringing in the ears, a sense of fear, and other symptoms. The person will usually go lie down, and then shout out or sob, or walk about aimlessly. Convulsions and spasms are common. Sometimes people will be restrained by others, but will display extraordinary physical activity and strength. The episodes can last from 15 minutes to about an hour. Following the attack, people will have amnesia of the episode. People will go to traditional healers for treatment, and a Balinese-Hindu priest might be sought in addition to or instead of a traditional healer. For difficult cases, or to prevent recurrence, a traditional healer will perform an exorcism rite. The healer will use holy water and certain ritual objects to help coerce the bebai to leave the victim’s body. The spirit will speak through the victim’s voice, demanding certain foods or offerings. As mentioned, the people believe sorcery is the cause of this syndrome. But from a Western standpoint, the syndrome might be explained as an hysterical reaction to emotional distress-much in the same vein as longlong or Arctic hysteria. Anger, displeasure and other negative emotions are shameful in Balinese culture, and must be suppressed. Moreover, ordinary social outlets to relieve stress-such as drinking, dancing, partying, premarital sex, or animated conversation with others-are frowned upon. Like other syndromes in cultures where emotions must be suppressed, the usual explanation for bebainan is that it is a form of hysteria, i.e., a “neurotic mechanism which an individual unconsciously uses in order to avoid the psychological distress associated with emotional conflict” (Langness, 1965, p. 259).


John Alan Cohan

HWA-BYUNG (HB) Another culture in which an emphasis is made on suppressing anger and other negative emotions is Korea. An interesting culture-bound syndrome prevalent among Korean-Americans, is called Hwa-Byung (HB). According to Roberts (2006), Hwa mans “fire” or “anger,” and byung means “illness.” Thus, HB refers to “fire-illness” or “anger sickness.” In Korean culture, an excess of the fire element is associated with anger. Roberts found that symptoms include a stifling feeling in the chest, an impulse to go out, a “pushing-up” sensation in the chest, weeping, mortification, hot and cold sensations, sighing, depersonalization, paranoid feelings, blurred vision, fearfulness, impulsiveness, absent mindedness, irritability, flushed skin, anxiety, depression, and obsessive compulsiveness (p. 386). In addition, there can be heart palpitations, headaches, chronic indigestion, poor appetite, and vomiting of blood. The syndrome is thought to be a product of the tendency of Koreans to suppress distressing emotions, such as anger or hatred, and to avoid verbal aggression confrontations. What is of particular interest is that the syndrome affects Koreans living in America. Other factors that might contribute to this syndrome are the frustrations of acculturation that are not infrequent among immigrants to a new land. TAIJIN-KYOFU-SHO (TKS) Another culture-bound syndrome is taijin-kyofu-sho or TKS, a common disorder in Japan, where “saving face” is a social phenomenon. The term literally means a disorder (sho) of fear (kyofu)of interpersonal relations (taijin). TKS is a kind of social phobia in which people are fearful of offending others in social situations through awkward behavior or imperfect body features. The main elements are (1) irrational belief that one has serious shortcomings; (2) the belief that others perceive and react to these shortcomings; and (3) the belief that these shortcomings make others uncomfortable and should be corrected or removed by all means. This syndrome is characterized by a general anxiety about others’ feelings and attitudes towards oneself. Symptoms include fear of blushing, fear of eye contact, fear of showing an odd attitude towards others or an odd way of looking at others, and fear of offending others with body odors. We discussed the concept of “face” in chapter 18 (“Status, Prestige, Recognition-the Need for Social Approval”) and saw how important it is in Asian cultures for people to garner social approval and to be perceived as being respectful and decent individuals. According to Hu (1944), to lose face, or to have the belief that one has lost face-is a source of great humiliation. If one has lost face, this is also a blotch on one’s integrity. A related syndrome known in Japan is anthropophobia (taijin kyofusho)-the fear of interpersonal contact. According to Lebra (1983), is essentially a fear of self-exposure, and involves “the fear of blushing, of body odor, of facial expression, saliva swallowing... the fear of being stared at or of staring at another,” and the fear of eye contact (p. 198). Lebra says the fear of eye contact might be explained this way: “If I force myself to look, my gaze would appear too intent and cause discomfort in others” (p. 198). KORO Koro is another culture-bound syndrome, described in the DSM-IV-TR as “an episode of sudden and intense anxiety that the penis (or, in females, the vulva and the nipples) will recede into the body and possibly cause death” (p. 900). This syndrome is found mostly in southern China, Southeast Asia, India and affects thousands of people per year. In many cases, the man’s penis will actually retract into his body. The outbreaks are usually epidemic in nature, affecting large groups of men or women. The folk explanation for this disorder is that it is caused by contaminated pork, poisoned food, a fox spirit, attacks by malicious spirits, or excessive body heat. A Western explanation is that this, as with other culture-bound syndromes, is a depersonalization response to acute stress, or a somaticized manifestation for violating religious prohibitions to do with sexual overindulgence, preoccupation with masturbation and the like. The koro anxiety is a somaticized substitute for the fear of being punished.



Dzokoto and Adams (2005) found that a koro-like outbreak occurred in West Africa between 1997 and 2003, in which dozens of genital-shrinking episodes were reported by panicked individuals who claimed that malevolent strangers had intentionally caused their penises, breasts or vaginas to shrink or disappear. In contrast to the epidemics in Southeast Asia, there were no confirmed cases of shrinking or disappearance, and the outbreak appears to have been a kind of mass panic attack. SUSTO (“FRIGHT” OR “SOUL LOSS”) Another culture-bound syndrome is susto, which means fright in Spanish. It is also known as shock sickness or magical flight. It is a kind of nervous breakdown. Susto is extremely widespread in Mexico, Central America and South America, particularly Brazil and Peru, and pockets of it have been known to develop in India, the Philippines, Taiwan, and among American Jews of Sephardic background. Susto is usually triggered by a frightening or traumatic event-a sudden death, the anguish of discovering sexual infidelity, or the impact of violent blows. It could be caused by a fall from a horse, tripping over an unnoticed object in one’s path, seeing something particularly gruesome such as a highway accident, or knowing that one has shared a hospital room with someone who had died during the night. Susto can be caused by nonhuman elements, for example a family altar falling down and crashing, or accidentally breaking a treasured household item, or losing something of importance. The idea is intuitive: A sudden frightening or unpleasant event, a quarrel, or a shock-inducing experience evokes a reaction in which one “lets the fear out” through a gasp, scream or other abreaction. The soul literally is expelled from one’s body. One might immediately start to feel “ill from fright.” Symptoms in general are depression, withdrawal from normal activities and duties, and a temporary collapse of one’s sense of self. Susto appears similar to what we might call a “nervous breakdown,” or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder involves recurrent, distressing and intrusive recollections of a traumatic event (such as threatened death or serious injury to oneself or to others). With susto and with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder the person experiences intense helplessness or fear over the traumatic event. In both disorders the event could be a violent personal assault, physical attack, domestic battering, rape, robbery, or something even more serious such as torture or kidnapping, or witnessing a serious injury, violent assault or unnatural death of another person. Coming upon a dead body unexpectedly can trigger either syndrome. There may be a time lag of weeks between the incident and onset of symptoms. The person might have persistent dreams of the event, flashback episodes while awake, or intense psychological distress in the face of anything that reminds the person of the event. Other symptoms include persistent and generalized anxiety, a reduced ability to feel emotions, insomnia, irritability and outbursts of anger (DSM-IV-TR, pp. 463-464). In Latin cultures the way of averting susto after a frightening event is for someone to project a fine spray of liquid from his or her mouth onto the person who has just experienced fright-a practice called soplando. This is also done as part of the native cure for people with full-blown symptoms of susto. The folk explanation for susto is that in a frightening incident the spirit forces in the environment (e.g., lords of the air, the mountains, the fields, the rivers, etc.) steal the individual’s soul. The incident in turn produces somatic symptoms, characterized as soul-loss. In many instances, patients identify fright only after they have a susto episode, and sometimes the fright might have been quite slight (O’Neill, 1975). In some cases, the illness is not a response to a frightening event, but is simply an attempt on the part of the patient to withdraw from a stressful situation-e.g., inability to comply with a role expectation. While susto itself is geographically prevalent mainly in Latin America, variants of soul loss are seen throughout the world. For instance, as researched by Fortune (1931), the Manus people of the Admiralty Islands believe that ghosts


John Alan Cohan

can make living people ill by taking their soul stuff, or mwelolo, in disapproval for their sins or other laxity. Someone might nearly drown in a stream, or rescue someone from a stream, and the spirit of the stream will be responsible for the soul loss. This has the same etiology as susto-a traumatic event followed by what the people believe is spirits of nature taking away the person’s soul. The soul can be restored by confession and expiation of the sin through right action. Gillin (1948) found that once symptoms of susto take hold, the treatment is in the form of soul-retrieval, usually sought from a folk specialist (a llamador or soul-caller). The curer will first determine the precise nature of the frightening event that triggered the syndrome, and where the incident occurred. The patient will be encouraged to have an emotional catharsis by narrating the circumstances to the curer. Herbs, pharmacy preparations, and other items will be prescribed to be taken in preparation of a healing ritual, scheduled a few days later at the patient’s home. According to Gillin, the patient will be asked to invite friends and relatives to assist in the ritual itself, and to prepare a feast to follow afterwards. Prior to the ceremony the llamador and participants will go to the local church in procession, carrying censers and candles, and pray to the altars of various saints, invoking their aid in recovery of the patient’s soul. The soul-loss ceremony is essentially a pagan proceeding and is not approved by the Church. Gillin found that in the ceremony back at the patient’s home the llamador might use small wax images representing evil spirits. Eggs will be used to stroke all over the patient’s body, as well to make the sign of the cross before the patient’s face. This is to remove some of the sickness from the body into the eggs. The llamador and guests will then take the eggs to the place where the frightening incident occurred, as an offering to the spirits that caused the harm. Candles, perhaps a cigar, a pitcher of a ceremonial drink, seeds, sweet biscuits, a bottle of liquor, etc., will also be presented. Drinks will be poured for the spirits. The curer will address the spirits in a friendly manner, flatter, cajole, implore and bribe them (using the gifts at hand), to restore the patient’s soul. Dirt and pebbles will be placed in a gourd dish and the curer will rattle the container as the group walks back to the house, so that the soul might follow. Gillin also found that back at the house the llamador will purify the house and there will be a sequence of prayers and elaborate rituals lasting well into the night, including a magic potion prepared at the curer’s directions and consumed by the patient. The soul restoration will finally be completed perhaps by 5:00 AM the next morning. In a successful cure, the patient will seem to have a new personality, and her social withdrawal and anxiety symptoms will disappear. Of course, different healers have different protocols. Orley (1970), studied a counterpart to susto found in East Africa and called emmeme etyemuka. This, like susto, is thought to be caused by a sudden fright. Symptoms include intense fear, persistent hard beating of the heart, running away and hiding, and the desire to seize something and strike others (p. 8). Many local people think that the heart is normally motionless, so that palpitations or other sensations are interpreted to be particularly dangerous “for the soul may be moving and may leave the body, and life may thus be in danger” (p. 8). ATAQUES DE NERVOS (ATTACKS OF NERVES) Ataque de nervos (also called nervos or nervios-meaning “nerves”) is another culture-bound syndrome. It is a common illness among poor, marginalized ethnic minorities in North and South America, Europe (especially the Mediterranean) and the Middle East. It is particularly well known in the Caribbean and in the rest of Latin America, as well as in Mexican-American communities. The syndrome has been the subject of extensive analysis among medical anthropologists. It is thought to be a psychosomatic expression of social stress due to family, community or work-related conflicts and tensions. The individual will feel nervous, weak, shaky, dizzy and disoriented, sad and depressed, lacking an appetite, and may vacillate between passive withdrawal and unpredictable outbursts of rage. In some cases people will have periods of uncontrollable laughter. People will feel paranoid and fearful, and stay at home. Symptoms also involve shouting, swearing and striking out at others, and falling to the ground with convulsive body movements. The attacks usually happen during a family conflict, at the scene of an accident, or at funerals.



Usually the onset occurs without any apparent cause, and no one is considered responsible for causing someone else’s nervos. Thus, while some of the symptoms are similar to susto, unlike susto it is not necessarily caused by a frightening event. The patient usually regains normal composure rapidly, but amnesia usually follows an attack. Women have a higher frequency of nervos than men. This may be due to a certain inequality in power relations between men and women in many of these cultures, and the sense throughout Latin America that certain emotions are socially disruptive and must be suppressed, particularly by women. This suppression is called “swallowing frogs.” Men, on the other hand, are allowed to have bouts of rage and express irritability. According to Scheper-Hughes (1988), this condition is caused largely by poverty and chronic hunger, although wealthy individuals also have nervos. Another explanation is that the condition has to do with stressful family relationships. Domestic violence is common, and many women feel trapped by fear, family pressure and economic dependence. Interestingly, nervos will often run in families, so that that grandparents, parents and children will suffer from the affliction, suggesting that the condition may be hereditary. This disorder strongly resembles generalized anxiety disorders, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and panic attacks. Often enough in these cultures, even a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, will be called a case of nervos by the patient’s family rather than loco (“craziness”), because of the fear of cultural stigmatism and social ostracism (Jenkins, 1988). Nervos is not stigmatized and is considered to be an affliction without blame. Rebhun (1994) found that in the Latin American communities where nervos occurs people nowadays will visit regular doctors for treatment. For most people the condition is chronic, but can be alleviated with anti-anxiety medication. According to Rebhun, nervos sufferers usually do not get “sick role privileges,” or any special treatment within the family, and are expected to fulfill normal household duties. Children with attacks of nervos are still sent to school. Although in some situations the symptoms seem to be hereditary, for the most part nervos might be best explained as a response to stress, or due to the suppression of emotions. Thus, we see again that suppressed anger, hatred, irritation, or silently putting up with unfair treatment, are thought to cause distress that in turn triggers nervos and other culture-bound syndromes. In addition to nervos, many women develop “blood-boiling” bruises on their thighs and arms, which they attribute to the force of their blood boiling in their veins with anger. Women commonly complain that they cannot express their strong emotions openly. They are silent for fear of open conflict. These unexpressed emotions, for anyone, can be suffocating. Among Brazilian women nervos takes the form of being unable to tolerate or deal with stressful situations. The women will find it unbearable to deal with life’s ups and downs. They will be prone to attacks of crying or rage, and will have chronic trembling. The condition is often chronic. Again, the cause is thought to be the presence of too much suppressed anger, which in turn frazzles the nerves, leaving women unable to withstand even the mildest of stressful situations. According to Danforth (1989), in Greece a version of “nervious attack” is called nevrika (from nevra meaning nerves). In serious cases symptoms include temporary or permanent paralysis, incoherent speech, hallucinations, dizzy spells, rapid heartbeat, loss of appetite, inability to sleep, pains, trembling, and so on (pp. 77-78). Danforth found that the local people believe that nevrika is caused by worry, anxiety, distress, depression and other negative emotions that people tend to suppress in rural Greece, as well as poverty, family problems or the death of a loved one. In developed cultures we also see what might be viewed as an epidemic of nervous disorders covering a broad spectrum of symptoms, not unlike the attaque syndrome-including agitation, headaches, restlessness, shaking, jerking, insomnia, and feeling the need to escape from something from which there is no escape. The daily difficulties and demands of family life may become intolerable-and this can result in a “nervous breakdown.”


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Another version of nervous attacks has been studied in the Kui communities of Northeast Thailand. The symptoms include being frightened and exhausted, as well as being bad-tempered and irritable. One local woman described her symptoms as follows: I wake up frequently in the middle of the night and every time my heart will be pounding and I am frightened as if I am afraid of something mysterious. In these last few years I always feel very tired, exhausted, and my body feels extremely fatigued. I also feel numbness, first in my feet and then it rises up to my arms, and all over my body. Then my feet feel terribly cold as if they are dead. I have to have someone massage my feet and my arms with rubbing balm until they get really heated. Oftentimes I get headaches and dizziness also (Chuengsatiansup, 1999, p. 284). An interesting feature of this illness in Thailand is that individuals are highly sensitive to certain sounds, which exacerbate their symptoms. Of course, many of us get frightened or irritable by jarring or invasive sounds. The sounds that are particularly troublesome to the people of Thailand are motorcycles, people arguing, the rantings of drunks, and the roar of trucks or heavy machines. The sounds provoke a sense of panic and rapid heart beating. LATAH Latah is a culture-bound syndrome that some think of simply as an amusing eccentricity in Malaysia and Indonesia, primarily affecting post-menopausal women (Kenny, 1978). It is characterized by disorganized speech, involuntary utterances of sexual obscenities, mimicking the actions of others, or other offensive behavior. Kenny found that outbursts of latah usually start if the individual is startled by a loud noise, teased, harassed, or faces some other situation that makes her ill at ease. Women undergoing an attack usually find themselves surrounded by onlookers who invariably are laughing, making the episode somewhat embarrassing and humiliating, because social decorum and respectful, subdued behavior and speech are prized conventions in these cultures. According to Kenny, the prevailing folk theory is that a shock makes the individual susceptible to an irrational spirit intrusion that causes one to behave in the bizarre manner. Also, older people are thought to be more susceptible to latah because they are closer to the ghosts of the dead, which have dangerous erratic traits, as we have discussed in other parts of this book. Latah seems to affect women who no longer have a prescribed social role, or are in an undefined position relative to men, and so are marginalized. Latah is common enough that some think it is simply part of the Malaysian way of life. Kenny noted that there are early anthropological accounts of Malaysian natives who went into a latah state and imitated the behavior of a tiger-in order to frighten away tigers. SALDERO Saldero means salt. This is a culture-bound disorder in the Peruvian Amazon that mainly affects urban migrant workers, who are usually poor and work as laborers, vendors or are unemployed. According to de Rios (1985), the main symptoms are anxiety, depression, crying, poor concentration, insomnia, and sighing. People with saldero (also known as saladerra) complain that they are suffering “bad luck” or generalized misfortune, coupled with a high level of anxiety. In cultures that recognize saldero, the belief is that persistent difficulties in life, such as chronic unemployment, are due to the malice of others, not one’s personal shortcomings. These cultures link salt with bad luck, possibly because when salt is placed on living plants, it destroys them. In local witchcraft salt is an ingredient for casting hexes, and people believe that they can destroy enemies by tossing salt on plants grown by their victims. They also believe that if an unwelcome guest is in your house, all you do is throw salt on the fire, and that will hasten his departure.



This syndrome may well be caused by stress of modernization in a society steeped in folk beliefs. However, the people claim that the illness is caused by witchcraft. In any event, it is treated by folk healers with herbal baths and medicines. Of course, in modern cultures people who go through periods of bad luck, financial catastrophe, or other misfortune often have symptoms similar to saldero. Indeed, in the West there is a kind of epidemic of anxiety, depression, poor concentration, and insomnia. Many people with hard luck stories tend to feel sorry for themselves. Perhaps the only difference is that in the West these symptoms are not attributed to witchcraft. BRAIN-FAG SYNDROME In many cultures people do not directly experience depression, as people do in the West. Rather, they tend to have somatic complaints that are said to be a depressive equivalent. In Africa a condition known as Brain-Fag Syndrome has been noted by anthropologists (Prince, 1981). It involves high school and university students who exhibit the following symptoms: pain or burning sensations in the head, visual difficulties, inability to understand the meaning of printed symbols or spoken words, poor retention of new material, and fatigue despite adequate sleep. According to Prince, it is thought to be a somatization of anxiety and depression, based on the idea that these students unconsciously see themselves as offending dead ancestors by studying Western books and attending Western schools, or that in some other way they are failing to follow the wishes of their ancestors. The symptoms may be exacerbated by energy depletion due to the difficulties encountered in acculturation. PIOT A syndrome unique to Papua New Guinea is called piot, but in some parts of the country it goes by different names. The condition arises when people pay visits to other peoples’ homes, and symptoms also occur upon their departure. Symptoms usually affect everyone who lives in the house, and include headache, bodily pain, lassitude and generally feeling lousy after the arrival or departure of the guest or guests. It is thought to be like “a wind” or a heaviness that people feel when others come or go. Sometimes an entire hamlet will experience piot if someone new moves into the men’s house to sleep, or if someone who regularly sleeps there goes somewhere else to sleep. There is no cure once the symptoms take hold, and one must simply wait until the piot has passed, usually a few days. How to explain this? Perhaps in these close-knit communities the people are super-sensitive to the mana emitted by everyone else, so that the presence of another person makes a kind of rupture or an encroachment upon the group’s mana field. This explanation is highly conjectural, but there is something about the presence of a person that has effects on others in a given space. We all notice this if, in a meeting with a group of people, a new person comes into the meeting. There is a temporary feeling of discomfort, one must “adjust” one’s sense of time and place, and “regroup.” The person brings something to the place when he arrives, and leaves traces of himself in the space when he departs. According to Hemer (2008), in Papua New Guinea people employ various techniques to ward off piot, including sprinkling bespelled ashes around the house after someone leaves, which is thought to send the piot going after the person who has departed, and then it gets lost on the way. Or, a bucket of water placed by the door will capture piot. The piot goes into the water and, finding it cold, then does not want to stay and affect the people in the house. Notice that the techniques here are animistic-the piot is regarded as having volition and agency. WINDIGO PSYCHOSIS A very peculiar culture-bound syndrome is called the windigo psychosis. This is the name given to a compulsion among certain people to commit cannibalism, despite norms against it, and despite the individual’s personal sense of repugnance in the act (Hay, 1971).


John Alan Cohan

Windigo psychosis was widely reported among the Northern Algonkian Indians, including the Ojibwa, well into the 20th century. The northern Algonkian people were known to be emotionally restrained, yet with an undercurrent of hostility. According to Hay, the windigo is a mythical monster with cannibalistic traits found in Northern Algonkian folklore. The tales are about the monster itself and people who have become like the monster. Cannibalism among the people is taboo, and is regarded as being something extremely repulsive and horrifying. The windigo psychosis is marked by a strong desire to eat human flesh, despite the taboo. A case study reported by Landes (1938) described the following: The onset is withdrawal into melancholia.... He lies inert, said to be brooding over the possibilities of cannibalism, wanting to eat men and yet afraid. His family around him looks to him like luscious beavers heavy with fat.... He neither eats nor sleeps and seems insensible to all about. The next stage is that of violence, which may follow almost immediately or only after a considerable period (pp. 25-26). In most instances, someone with a serious case of windigo will be attended to by loved ones in an effort to help him or her gain strength of control and avoid acting on the impulse. In other cases, where the individual seems intent on acting on the impulse, other members of the community would kill him or her, or the individual might commit suicide. In a significant number of cases, the people effectively acted on their impulses, killing a family member or someone else in the community, sometimes with the help of others, resulting in group cannibalism. About half of the people studied by anthropologists in these communities admitted to having engaged in it. Still others who had the strong impulse to eat human flesh managed to restrain themselves from acting on this impulse. It is not known what causes this syndrome, but the Indians have their own theory-that the desire to eat human flesh was the result of sorcery or possession by evil spirits. A thorough analysis of this phenomenon can be found in Morton Teicher’s book, Windigo Psychosis (1960). PICA AND GEOPHAGIA A further syndrome that merits attention is known as pica. This is widespread in cultures throughout the world, both modern and primitive. Pica is the compulsive eating of unsuitable or unusual things. The substances most widely eaten are wood, clay, stones, ashes, hair, plaster and starch. In the DSM-IV-TR it is an eating disorder along with anorexia nervosa and bulimia. People who are afflicted with pica usually crave, sometimes intensely, the substances in question, and persist in the behavior despite shame, threats, ostracism and the risk of serious illness or death. Some of the more bizarre cases involve eating of metal, needles, putty, crayons, paint, and feces. We are talking about adults, not children. It is considered normal for children to go through phases of eating inappropriate substances, or at least it is tolerated, until weaning. The most common form of pica is geophagia or “earth eating.” While being defined as a psychiatric disorder in the West, in many cultures geophagia is quite prevalent and culturally sanctioned rather then being thought of as a disorder. For many people, the eating of clay or of earth has deep roots in the magic, religion and social customs of their cultures. For example, take the earth-eating habits of the Ewe of southeastern Ghana. White clay, molded into an egg shape, sun-dried and sold in markets, is a regular part of their diet. After a good meal, men in Ghana will eat clay, something like desert to top it off. The Ottomacs of the Upper Orinoco bake clay at the fire, and eat it during flood season, but also when fish are abundant, mingling the clay with other foods. The practice of eating clay has been endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church in what is known as the Black Christ cult, centered in the shrine of Esquipulas, 150 miles northeast of Guatemala City, Mexico. The cult dates back to the 1560s. An orangewood image of Christ in the local chapel became blackened by the burning of incense and candles,



and soon became famous for miraculous cures. An ornate sanctuary was built at the site in the 18th century to house the image of the Black Christ. Other shrines of the Black Christ cult have been built widely throughout Central America. At these shrines tablets of sacred earth called tierra santa, which are blessed by the Church, are sold. They are stamped with pictures of saints, the Virgin Mary, or the Black Christ. These clay tablets are eaten by the faithful for their special curative powers. Related to this are miracles reported in connection with dirt collected at the Santuario de Chimayo, a small adobe church in a village called Chimayo, in New Mexico. On Good Friday tens of thousands of people descend on the church. As reported by Eckholm (2008), daily scores of people visit and collect dirt from a pit inside the church. Tour buses regularly make stops. The dirt is continually replenished from nearby grounds by the caretaker. People make tea out of the dirt, or eat it, rub it onto their bodies, or carry it for good luck. According to Eckholm, the church was built in 1816 on a site sacred to the Pueblo Indians after a miraculous wooden crucifix was said to have been found at the site on Good Friday, 1810, by several monks who were engaged in rites nearby. They took the cross to a church 10 miles away, but the next day the cross miraculously reappeared at its discovery site. Today’s dirt pit is supposed to be that very spot where the crucifix was found. Clay eating is widespread today in urban cultures throughout the world, and sometimes touted as a kind of health food supplement that is rich in minerals. We see this in Egypt, South and Central America, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia, and especially in Java (where it is popular as a weight loss method-thin clay sticks sold in marketplaces, called ampo). According to Reid (1992), in ancient Greece and Rome people would eat red clay tablets, mixed with goat’s blood, to treat plague, fevers, diarrhea, and poisoning. Reid claims that eating of earth from the graves of saints or holy men was practiced in Morocco and Egypt, for its healing properties. In the 1930s edible clay was sold throughout Persia. Aboriginals in Australia have long used clay from ancestral clay sites for body painting and for consumption. Reid also claims that Native Americans of Southern California used to make bread from a mixture of clay and acorn meal. The unusual cravings of pregnancy, called pica gravidarum, might account for the fact that throughout the world pregnant women eat clay. Clay eating in the Southern states of the U.S. was especially popular a few decades ago. Furuseth gives the following account: “The ingestion of earth provides satisfaction for an unusual craving during pregnancy. This clay represents a culturally perceived means of satisfaction for the special needs of pregnancy” (as quoted in Reid, 1992, p. 340). Reid reports that a study in 1950 found that 27 percent of 331 pregnant black women in Mississippi consumed clay and 41 percent consumed laundry starch (p. 339). Still today in the South the practice eating clay is not uncommon, and seems to represent a culturally perceived way of satisfying unusual cravings during pregnancy among African American women. In Holmes County, Mississippi each community had its own clay pit named for its location, and people would ship clay to relatives up North. In 1955 an anthropologist described how women in Dallas, Texas obtained a “specially tasty, bluish clay” that they made into a fudge-like paste, dried, cut into squares and served after meals. What is even more amazing is that edible clay is now offered in many varieties on eBay-touted as a “great detox,” and in different flavors. One web site among many others, IAmPerfectlyHealthy.com, offers terramin or “red desert clay,” stating: Edible Terramin is a beautiful naturally occurring calcium montmorillonite clay, which has been sitting in the desert for 47 million years. It is the clay of choice written about in magazines, books and on TV shows such as Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. “Living clay for humans” is said to be a powerful detoxifier to help remove toxins such as mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, parasites, bacteria, and others, and to enhance cell function and for acid reflux. There are cookbooks that offer recipes for edible clay in appetizers, breads, casseroles, cookies-you name it!


John Alan Cohan

EXPLANATION OF CULTURE-BOUND SYNDROMES Somatization As we have seen, in large part the explanation for many of the culture-bound syndromes is that the symptoms are a somatization process in which suppressed anger and other emotions erupt in bizarre behavior patterns and physical disturbances. Somatization, according to Danforth (1989), is often an adaptive, culturally constituted coping mechanism that provides a legitimate medium through which people can communicate what would otherwise be unsanctioned personal or social distress. When such distress is encountered, it is articulated through the medium of the body. Illnesses, their symptoms, even pain itself, can thus be seen as powerful symbols that express through the body something about the social situation and the psychological condition of people who are ill (p. 53). Somatization is an important principle in medicine. The notion of somatization originated with Wilhelm Stekel in 1930 and is based on psychoanalytic theory. The defining feature of somatization is that the patient has medical complaints of one form or another, but the symptoms have no organic cause explainable by medical tests. The physical ailments mask or are caused by psychological problems. In this well-studied field, it is understood that people can feel ill and manifest physical symptoms, yet not have a medical disease. It is a category of mental illness under the heading of Somatoform Disorders in the DSM-IV-TR (pp. 485-511). According to Danforth (1989), Somatization is particularly common in societies where mental illness is heavily stigmatized, where it is improper to discuss personal or family difficulties with outsiders, and where no form of psychotherapy is available. In such situations, because of a lack of any acceptable psychological or social idiom for the expression of distress, somatization occurs, and distress is expressed in a more acceptable somatic idiom (p. 53). In many instances, running amok, Arctic Hysteria, ataques de nervios, koro, and other culture-bound syndromes seem to be somaticized disorders in which the subjects are expressing negative emotions and distress in bodily rather than psychological forms. These and the other culture-bound syndromes are simply too difficult to explain other than as somaticized symptoms due to stress. McGuire (1983) argues: Increasing evidence in Western medical terms suggests that illnesses previously thought to be biogenic are related to social and psychological states such as stress, conflict, sense of “threat,” rapid social change, and sense of powerlessness. If this is the case, it is plausible that non-“scientific” healing methods... may be able to address those problems as well as, if not better than, the dominant scientific medical system. Believing oneself to be in touch with a great power may very well literally empower the individual believer to be more effective in daily life or at least to cope more adequately (p. 230). Conversion Disorder A main area of somaticized distress involves what is known as Conversion Disorder, formerly known as hysteria, which is defined defined in the Glossary of Technical Terms of DSM-IV-TR as: A loss of, or alteration in, voluntary motor or sensory functioning suggesting a neurological or general medical condition. Psychological factors are judged to be associated with the development of the symptom, and the symptom is not fully explained by a neurological or general medical condition or the direct effects of a substance. The symptom is not intentionally produced or feigned and is not culturally sanctioned (p. 821). The term “conversion” is used because of the idea that the person’s somatic symptom represents a symbolic resolution of an unconscious psychological conflict, reducing anxiety and serving to keep the conflict out of awareness (“primary gain”). The individual might also derive “secondary gain” from the conversion symptom-that is, external benefits are obtained or noxious duties or responsibilities are evaded (DSM-IV-TR, p. 494). Conversion disorders adversely impact the person’s voluntary motor and sensory functions. There may be impaired coordination or balance, paralysis, loss of touch or sensation, blindness, deafness, hallucinations, seizures or



convulsions (DSM-IV-TR, p. 493). Thus, it appears that many of these culture-bound syndromes may be explained in terms of conversion disorders. Of course, certain conversion-type symptoms may be culturally sanctioned. For instance, speaking in tongues, or having ecstatic visions are part of many religious traditions. The people might have symptoms such as deafness, paralysis, and impaired coordination, but these behaviors are encouraged and expected in certain religious contexts, as well as in various rituals we have discussed, such as dance trances. Culture-bound syndromes are an important facet in the study of cultures because they shed light on how unconscious forces manifest in peculiar symptoms. The syndromes appear to be a way that people cope with psychological and social “difficulties of living” in their communities. The symptoms are a somaticized manifestation of suppressed anger in cultures where people tend to experience anger in a passive way, directing it inward instead of outward. The syndromes are culture-specific and widely familiar to the people within the culture. The symptoms usually consist of unpredictable and chaotic behavior, including impaired control over one’s mind and body, loss of coordination, paralysis, blindness, deafness, and other impairments that defy medical explanation. The symptoms will either be allowed to run their course, or people will turn to folk models of healing and caring. Some of these syndromes appear to have counterparts in the West. For instance, it is not uncommon for people to say they have had a “nervous breakdown,” meaning that they have had symptoms of Conversion Disorder-which are somewhat similar to ataques de nervos. In our own culture we might say that obesity, bulimia nervosa and anorexia are culture-bound syndromes, for they are not found very much in other cultures. And we might also include the following as culture bound in the West: chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, Gulf War Illness, fibromyalgia (a medically unexplained syndrome of pain in the muscle and connective tissue), and UFO abduction phenomenon (in which people describe abductions against their will forced medical examinations by aliens). One might say that there is an epidemic of sorts in what I would call “excessive angry provocation,” characterized by episodes of temper tantrums, road rage, and other antisocial outbursts. Another Western culture-bound syndrome has been proposed, with symptoms of chronic struggle against time, frustration at not achieving goals, overly aggressive ambition, and impatience in interpersonal relations (Hughes, 1996).

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CHAPTER 20 Mass Hysteria, Mass Possession Abstract. Outbreaks of mass hysteria are not uncommon in primitive and modern cultures alike. A group of people will exhibit bizarre behavior, including seizures, tremors, running amok, comatose-like trance or possession states, or other sudden hysterical symptoms with no identifiable medical cause. Western psychiatrists call this Mass Psychogenic Illness. Mass hysteria usually starts with a single individual, and this quickly spreads to others, particularly in close settings such as schools, nunneries, or factories, particularly if individuals are subject to intense anxiety of stress. Sometimes these states are voluntarily elicited in religious or healing ceremonies, with incessant drumming, excitement and suggestibility as one person after another falls into a trance or possession state. Sometimes the outbreak will pertain to a collective fear that is entirely false, for example a collective delusion that there is a poisonous gas in the air-and many people will fall victim to symptoms of toxic poisoning despite the fact that there is nothing in the air. A mass dancing mania emerged following the Black Plague epidemic of the 14th century. People would hop, dance, clap hands and jump about in a frenzy, often naked. How hysteria spreads from the initial case to a group is deeply mysterious. Perhaps hysteria can be contagious much in the same way as a violent mood can spread in a mob and lead to a riot, or there is some sort of decoupling of an individual’s personality in the context of group dynamics.

WHAT IS MASS HYSTERIA? In many cultures we see episodes of mass hysteria, in which a group of people will exhibit bizarre behavior, including seizures, tremors, running amok, comatose-like trance or possession states, or other sudden hysterical symptoms-i.e., Conversion Disorder (as discussed in the preceding chapter). Mass hysteria usually starts with a single individual exhibiting symptoms, and this quickly spreads to others, particularly in close settings such as schools, nunneries, or factories. Of course, sometimes these states are socially approved and voluntarily elicited by the group. An example of this is the mass possession states that are not uncommon in religious or healing ceremonies, with incessant drumming, excitement and suggestibility as one person after another falls into a trance or possession state. Or this response may be deliberately fostered by preachers using the well-tried methods of creating anxiety and excitement in the group by fiery preaching and rhythmic chanting and clapping. The members of the group usually invite this state, and it is welcomed as a sign that the rituals are moving forward in a customary manner. A similar pattern is seen in charismatic Christian congregations, as we discussed in chapter 11 (“Trance and Possession States”). People usually attribute these states to possession by the Holy Spirit, with manifestations in holy laughter, holy rolling, holy barking, speaking in tongues, spinning, shaking, quaking, convulsions, whirling and howling, running and leaping, and shouting and crying. But in this chapter our focus will be on mass hysteria states that occur in unwanted and involuntary circumstances. Mass hysteria has been extensively discussed in psychiatric literature, and it is also known under the technical term, Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI) (Colligan, Pennebaker, & Murphy, 1982). This involves the collective occurrence of physical symptoms and related beliefs among two or more persons, with no identifiable medical cause. The disturbed behavior of one individual will trigger an outbreak of similar behavior in others. Episodes of mass hysteria usually occur in settings where there is some tension or social strain common to the people involved. In mass hysteria there is usually an “index” case, i.e., an individual who first exhibits symptoms such as fainting attacks or screaming-and the outbreak fans out. To understand “mass” hysteria, we should first understand “hysteria.” As mentioned at at the end of the preceding chapter, the proper clinical term for hysteria is Conversion Disorder. As we saw, symptoms of Conversion Disorder include the impairment or loss of sensory or motor function with no detectable organic cause. The loss of function can manifest in a wide range of symptoms, such as running amok, screaming, or other acts that suggest an alarming loss of control over one’s bodily movements. The symptoms under Conversion Disorder are not traced to any John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Mass Hysteria, Mass Possession


physical problem. The term “conversion” is used because the impairment is said to be psychosomatic, that is, there is a “conversion” of emotional conflicts and anxiety into physical symptoms. There are two types of mass hysteria: one is anxiety hysteria, in which an individual, the “index case,” exhibits symptoms that are sudden and dramatic. Others, perhaps in the line of sight, may “catch” the illness. This first type also can get started in a group in a close setting without an index case. People in the group might get hysterical over a strange odor or rumor of contaminated food or a toxic gas leak. Despite the falsity of the rumor, the people will quickly develop stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and so forth. The symptoms will usually go away within a day or so. Another type of mass hysteria involves motor hysteria, that is, a slowly developing state fueled by long-term group stress or pent up anxiety. Often the people will attribute the outbreak to demonic forces. In principle, this is the type of outbreak that occurred in the Salem, Massachusetts witchcraft episode and in the mass possession states of Loudun, France between 1632 and 1637 that affected many of the nuns in the town. A parish priest in that town was accused of causing the possessions in a famous and scandalous case that was widely known throughout Europe. The priest confessed under torture, and was executed in 1634. Levack (2004) comments about this episode: Contemporary scholarship has tended to view the possessions as deriving from a mixture of imagination, mental illness, and deliberate deceit. Regardless of the explanation, the behavior of the nuns conformed to the stereotype of demoniacal behavior that was current at the time (p. 252). In cases of mass hysteria of this latter type, where the group has been under a great deal of stress, it is not at all clear what triggers the outbreak at that particular time, since the people had been exposed to the same stressful conditions for a significant period of time. It seems that in mass hysteria, the outbreak gets started when there is the perception, however bogus, that one is vulnerable to a real and present threat. Still, in many instances, mass hysteria is not induced in any straightforward say. In Japan in 1997, 618 children were hospitalized after watching the popular Pokemon TV program in which there were flashing lights in a particular scene (Radford & Bartholomew, 2001). This was not mass hysteria in the typical sense, since children from diverse places, with no contact among them, exhibited symptoms. The symptoms included altered states of consciousness, breathlessness, seizures, vomiting, blurred vision, and general malaise. Radford and Bartholomew theorized that bright, flashing lights on the TV screen triggered an altered state of consciousness in some of the children, and this was called “photoepilepsy.” Rapidly blinking graphics in movies and advertisements can have the effect of altering the viewer’s state of consciousness, inducing a kind of hypnotic, suggestible state. Some people are more photosensitive to this than others. However, after the news media extensively reported the incident, and the seizures were the topic of talk in the schoolyards of Japan, 12,000 more children succumbed to similar symptoms whether or not they had viewed the Pokemon TV program. The cause of the outbreak remains largely conjectural. Perhaps many of the initial cases were based on a real toxicological component in the form of the rapidly blinking lights on the TV screen. But the remainder of the cases seem to have been a product of suggestibility in being exposed to the media reports of the outbreak. In some cases, outbreaks of mass hysteria may well have organic causes, such as chemical contaminants, but this may be denied by authorities. For instance, in 2009, 1,200 workers suffered symptoms including convulsions, breathing difficulties, vomiting and temporary paralysis at a textile mill in Jilin City, an industrial city in northeast China (Jacobs, 2009). Many of the workers believe the cause was “unknown substances” from a nearby factory that produces a highly toxic chemical used in the manufacture of rubber, herbicides and dyes. But Chinese health officials said this was an outbreak of mass hysteria based on feared chemical exposure, and that there was no evidence of organ damage that would indicate chemical exposure. According to Jacobs, many others insist that there really was toxic poisoning, and that officials are trying to cover up malfeasance.


John Alan Cohan

THE CONTAGIOUS ASPECT OF MASS HYSTERIA How “hysteria” becomes “mass hysteria,” is deeply mysterious, but it clearly spreads from one person to a group, or else an entire group will more or less simultaneously fall into hysterics. Numerous reports of mental epidemics have confirmed the phenomenon of hysteria “spreading” simply by being exposed to hysteria going on in others. McEvedy and Beard (1970) claim: “[T]he hysterical reaction is part of everyone’s potential and can be elicited in any individual by the right set of circumstances” (p. 10). Just what those “right set of circumstances” are is not at all clear. Some think that in order for mass hysteria to get going the individuals must have some latent susceptibility, something more than ordinary personal problems or conflict-such as a kind of hyper-suggestibility. A well known case involved an epidemic of young women, including nursing students, in Telefomin, New Guinea. According to Frankel (1976), sixteen girls exhibited episodes mainly within two weeks of the initial incidentconsisting of a feeling of faintness, confusion, headache, drowsiness, a feeling of coldness, a sense of becoming deaf-followed by unsteadiness or falling, and then a stage involving violence and running amok, using any handy object as weapons, sticks or stones, or just fists and feet, and directed towards close relatives, contemporaries and children. Most of the young women returned to normality within a few hours of being restrained, although some were disturbed for days or up to two weeks. After recovery they suffered no apparent ill effects. Nobody really can explain what happened. It is theorized that the women had internalized grievances because there was strong pressure to conform with traditional values, they were forced to adhere to rigid female-only taboos, and their sex lives were strictly controlled. Most of the young women attended a nursing school and lived together. On top of that, there was a polio epidemic in the community, and the students were somewhat anxious because they felt susceptible to the epidemic simply by living in this closed community. Moreover, they believed that they would be attacked not by a virus but by a spirit. A dissociated state was easily induced in this hypersuggestible condition. Also, the girls, while privileged, still were subject to and sensitive to constraints of being young women in their culture-e.g., the expectation that they were to acquiesce in major issues such as marriage. In another school mass hysteria incident in Papua New Guinea, studied by Frankel (1976), girls were said to experience intense anxiety and fear when rumor spread that any girls suspected of promiscuity would be sent to a state correctional school. Frankel theorizes that the students developed the symptoms as a way of handling their conflict between authority and their impulses. An outbreak in Taipei involved a background of anxiety and hypersuggestibility with the spread of a rumor that a “phantom slasher” was at large in the community. Frankel reports that there are many other examples all over the world: [I]n an epidemic in a school in Uganda a schizophrenic boy acted as a trigger, and the pupils affected developed symptoms identical to those exhibited by the schizophrenic, such as grimacing, using vulgar language and neglecting personal care. In an epidemic in a Louisiana School one girl developed conversion symptoms, particularly twitching, and this set the pattern for those subsequently affected, who also twitched. Ideas can be as contagious as actions. In Mattoon, Illinois, a woman telephoned the police complaining that a prowler had gassed her by throwing anaesthetic through her bedroom window. The episode was given dramatic publicity in the local press, and twenty-eight more people were convinced that they too had been gassed. In another epidemic in the ward of a mental hospital, a dream about childbirth of one woman prompted three other women to experience hysterical parturition. In an epidemic in a Malaysian school a girl saw a ghost, screamed and fainted. Many others also thought they saw ghosts, and they reacted in the same way (pp. 117-118). Sharp (1990) found well-documented cases of spirit possession by groups of people, particularly in schools and factories in Madagascar, where there is a long tradition of spirit possession. Madagascar is very much a spirit culture, where good and evil spirits are employed in many contexts. According to Sharp, the people are very much into magical remedies, and obtain magical substances from specialists for health, romance, conditions at work, or to help children’s performance in school. The use of magic is sometimes



tied to envy and fear of one another. Children themselves will use magic against one another. Healers are usually employed to perform exorcisms on victims of evil spirits. A number of mass possession episodes have been reported in the cosmopolitan center of Ambanja, involving adolescent school girls. For example, in 1980, repeated mass possessions occurred in a middle school with some frequency. One student would break out with possession symptoms, then others in the school would quickly follow. The symptoms included uncontrollable screaming and wailing, aimless wandering, loss of memory, and mental confusion. It is not entirely clear what accounted for these episodes. Many in that culture believe that evil spirits, known as Njarinintsy, are reckless, dangerous, and contagious so that when one person is possessed, others quickly follow. The school hired a specialist who said that the outbreaks were not due to magical spells or evil spirits, but that local ancestors were annoyed because the school was built on sacred grounds. A traditional ceremony to honor the ancestors was performed on the school grounds: Community members gathered to sing, ask forgiveness and sought permission to continue to use the school, and an ox was sacrificed. The possession fits dropped considerably thereafter. Mass hysteria outbreaks are also well known in Tripura, India, which is in the Eastern border and bounded by Bangladesh. Chowdhury, Nath and Chakraborty (1993) studied a 1992 outbreak of mass hysteria that started with a 20-year-old girl in the village of Garopara, and then spread to others. The people called this “wild madness.” The symptoms consisted of extreme restlessness, thrashing about of limbs, self-injury (slapping one’s face, hitting one’s head against bamboo pillars or mud walls of huts), inability to identify family members, fixed stares, running amok, and shouting animal sounds (such as a dog, horse, cow, monkey, fox or crow). In the index case, bystanders sprinkled cold water on the girl to bring her out of the state. However, her fits reoccurred five or six times a day over a period of several weeks. After regaining her normal senses she had amnesia about the episodes. According to Chowdhury, et al., the village tantrik (a high ranking village charmer) performed lengthy rituals but was unable to stop the girl’s hysteria, and concluded that it was caused by an envious neighbor through black magic. He said that the neighbor cast this spell through some carcass bones that were buried. The tantrik performed further rituals that led to the discovery of the bones, which he dug up at the corner of the neighbor’s yard. The bones were identified as those of a horse, cow, crow, monkey and fox. The discovery of these bones caused a severe panic in the entire village, and everyone started performing religious rituals to help protect themselves. Since the tantrik had identified the sorcerer, the villagers nearly beat him to death, but for the intervention of the police. Still, 12 other people started developing this “wild madness,” and for a time this tiny village was seized with extreme fear. The symptoms for most cases ran its course in less than a week. Medical examinations disclosed that none of the patients had any psychiatric abnormalities or medical basis for the symptoms. In Teliamura in 1992 a mass hysteria outbreak episode started with a housewife who claimed that a divine spirit of a clan priest was being transmitted into her soul, inducing a trance state. Members of her family soon went into a similar trance state and believed they also possessed the divine soul of their clan priest. About 60 other people also acquired symptoms, claiming they lost all sensation in their limbs, and could not walk. Medical examinations yielded no plausible explanation. The episode lasted two weeks. A kind of mass hysteria that I would call a collective catharsis sometimes affects people who attend pilgrimages, festivals or even sporting events. This collective catharsis has to do with releasing pent-up anxiety can take the form of obscene or bizarre behavior, wild dancing, crying, shouting, and general frenzy. This can become dangerous and lead to a stampede that kills many people. A Dionysian sort of collective catharsis often takes place all over the world during celebration of the Carnival. The entire community, people of all classes, can join together and cast aside the usual behavioral inhibitions. People will


John Alan Cohan

wear highly stylized costumes in the streets and in the parks, and paper mache masks. In addition, at Carnivals we see group chanting and dances, sexual licentiousness, aggressive behavior, and other dramatic disinhibited behaviors in which the entire populace can partake. The most primitive fantasies are allowed to emerge in direct or symbolic behavior, including voyeurism, exhibitionism, homosexuality and transvestism. It is a socially sanctioned and institutionalized cathartic outlet. DANCING MANIA Colligan, Pennebaker and Murphy (1982), following the Black Plague epidemic of the 14th century, episodes of mass hysteria occurred on pilgrimages to shrines of St. Vitus (St. Vitus suffered martyrdom at the time of Christian persecution under Diocletian, in 303. His body was taken to Corvey, Germany in 836, and from that time onwards many miracles were said to take place at his tomb). These and other similar incidents are known as dancing mania. Colligan, et al., wrote that in these St. Vitus dance epidemics, people would hop, dance, clap hands and jump about throughout the countryside, often naked in groups of a few hundred people, going into ecstatic frenzy, throwing themselves on the ground in convulsive movements and twitchings (p. 2). Brueghel made a famous sketch depicting this dancing mania in 1564 (Hecker, 1837/1970). According to Martin (1930), in 13th century Italy there was another dancing mania episode in which people would run out of their homes naked and shout and dance in the streets, soon to be joined by neighbors. In some instances hundreds of individuals would participate. Martin found that the people would emit animal-like squawks, shout obscenely, and toss each other in the air. The initial dancer’s hysteria was said to be caused by the bite of a taratula, and so the phenomenon was called “tarantism.” Once bitten, victims were thought to be subject to relapses for the rest of their lives. EXPLANATION OF MASS HYSTERIA The true nature of mass hysteria is really a matter of guesswork, even though it has been extensively studied and written about by psychiatrists over the course of the past century or so. From what I can tell, there are some general elements that help explain this phenomenon. Many cases of mass hysteria are associated with some sort of anxiety, stress or social tension. In these cases the hysterical reaction is a mechanism that one person, then another, use unconsciously in order to avoid the psychological distress associated with the emotional conflict. One might see these case as a mass catharsis that helps release pent-up anxiety in that many of the episodes consist of people who, cloistered in small communities, face particular life stresses that are pent up and eventually need some sort of outlet. But in the end, just what triggers the breaking point in someone to get the index case going, is deeply mysterious. Hecker, (1837/1970) has this to say: The whole world is full of examples of this afflicting state of turmoil, which, when the mind is carried away by the force of a sensual impression that destroys its freedom, is irresistibly propagated by imitation. Those who are thus infected do not spare even their own lives, but, as a hunted flock of sheep will follow their leader and rush over a precipice, so will whole hosts of enthusiasts, deluded by their infatuation, hurry on to a self-inflicted death (p. 36). Perhaps hysteria can be contagious much in the same way as a violent mood can spread from one person to another in a mob and lead to a riot-or a positive mood at, say, political rallies, can permeate the entire audience. Or in the same way that copycat crimes occur in urban centers-where publicity of a sensational crime will apparently trigger something that induces others to imitate the crime. Spread of the symptoms can gain momentum as otherwise undisturbed people become influenced by collective accounts of the symptoms. Perhaps the best modern example of this was in the 1997 episode in Japan among children who “heard” about the initial cases. When people talk about the symptoms of a given hysterical reaction, when this gets circulated in a close-knit community, when rumors and innuendo fly-others may be susceptible to conversion hysteria. Suggestion and self-suggestion may be the key in producing the spread of a hysterical reaction.



As mentioned, sometimes the outbreak will pertain to a collective fear that is entirely false. There will be a collective delusion that there is a poisonous gas in the air-and many people will fall victim to symptoms of toxic poisoning despite the fact that there is nothing in the air. And in situations where an index case falls into a possession or trance said to be induced by a spiritual entity-others in the group might well fall into the same mode. We see this, as well, in charismatic religious ceremonies that employ possession states for healing-where one person after another will “drop.” Some cases are, as we have seen, voluntarily sought by the participants. States such as this can be a good thing, not only in religious revivals where people get transformed, but in other contexts such as when an audience sways to music at a concert, or at political rallies when people get inspired. In other situations group dynamics can turn deadly, such as in a stampede or riot, or in situations where there is spreading of false beliefs that, in turn, induce the conversion symptoms. People will get caught up in a highly charged, emotional situation, resulting in riotous, dangerous behavior. And as we saw in chapter 15 (“Dealing with Conflicts, Aggressive Impulses, Enemies and War”), a group of people caught up in a single-minded frenzy can easily turn into a lynch mob. Riots, accompanied by looting and vandalism, can easily erupt in a time of social or economic unrest-as was seen in the 1964 Watts riots in Los Angeles and, again in 1992 when people in the AfricanAmerican community got outraged about the acquittal of a police officer who had been accused of beating a black man, Rodney King, during an arrest. Another example was the looting that occurred in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. For all intents and purposes rioters and looters become “possessed” by the demon of the group, and proceed to do things they never would ordinarily expect they were capable of doing. There seems to be a decoupling of an individual’s personality in the context of group dynamics. People will do things in groups that they would not have the nerve to do singly. One’s identity to a certain extent merges with the goals and action of the group. There is an identification with the group’s purposes. A group “culture” or mood seems to have a life of its own. People in the group get fired up, as it were, by the stimulation and dissemination of emotions of others within the group. Everyone’s normal restraint is subjugated to the group’s concerns, and one tends to imitate the behavior of others. A kind of mana can quickly penetrate a crowd, for good or for ill. The slightest provocation can send the entire crowd into a whirlwind. Thus, the nature of group dynamics can help explain, at least in part, how mass hysteria can get going.

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CHAPTER 21 Folk Medicine Abstract. Folk cultures are self-sufficient, interdependent groups that are homogenous in race and custom, retaining traditional customs and getting along with simple technology. There is usually a strong attraction to things of the earth and strong bonds to lands, employing obsolete means of production. These cultures endorse traditional healing practices (“folk medicine”), often in addition to shamans, medicine-men or modern medicine. Modern physicians often label some of their practices as superstitious or bogus. Folk healers abound in urban centers with significant population of immigrants who are attuned to folk medicine. Like shamans, folk healers usually attribute illness to “personalistic,” or unnatural causes-such as a spell or a spirit of an ancestor causing the illness. People seek folk healers for culture-bound syndromes such as running amok, lulu, susto, or for the evil eye. Also, folk healers are sought for non-somatic concerns, such as for fortune-telling, advice or help in ending bad luck, in bringing back an errant spouse, etc. Curanderos are popular folk healers among Mexican and Latin American people, and they incorporate Catholic religious symbols in addition to herbal concoctions, wild plants, bone-manipulation, “energy techniques,” massage and practical advice. In Mexico a great number of folk practitioners are known as spiritists. They go into a trance-possession state, much as shamans do, and employ ritual cleansing, purgatives, massages, baths, spiritual surgeries, religious ritual, as well as pharmaceuticals. In many instances the patient has an evil spirit that requires extraction. Catholic folk healers, called rezadeiras, use prayers, rituals, advice, charms, herbs and pharmaceuticals to treat common ailments as well as complaints of the evil eye. In Guatemala the people invoke a Mayan figure known as San Simon-a trickster spirit of many talents. He is the patron saint of businessmen as well as healer of illnesses, and no task is beyond his potential assistance. A popular folk hero known as Jesus Malverde is a powerful influence on people in Mexico as well as immigrants in the United States. Rootwork, an African-American form of voodoo, constitutes a significant part of the world view of many people in the Southern United States and in Mexico. Root doctors combine a belief in the magical causation of illness (usually thought to be hexes) with cures by sorcery. Native Americans often participate in some form of traditional healing-whether attending a Sun Dance ceremony, consulting with a shaman, or participating in singing rites, purification rites, or the use of herbal remedies and medicine wheels. In the Philippines “psychic surgery” has become a very popular and “miraculous” folk healing. The claim is that these healers open up the patient’s body with bare hands and “remove” organic material such as palm leaves, seeds, hair or even blood, tumors and diseased tissue.

WHAT ARE FOLK CULTURES? In order to discuss folk medicine, it is helpful to first define “folk cultures.” In the 1950’s anthropologists broadened their field of work beyond primitive, tribal societies-to people that were somewhere between tribal and modern urban society-and these are referred to as folk cultures (Foster, 1953). Folk cultures are small, isolated, nearly self-sufficient, interdependent groups that are homogenous in race and custom, and that get along with simple technology. There is usually a strong attraction to things of the earth and strong bonds to lands. Folk style of clothing is thought to be “old-fashioned,” and often reflects the popular style of dress of urban cultures in earlier centuries. People in these cultures often use obsolete modes of production-e.g., old fashioned irrigation wheels and sugar cane presses, and other technological items that have long become obsolete in urban centers. Traveling through India, for example, one sees many villages in which these arcane modes of technology are happily employed. There are many folk cultures in the Middle East. In Lebanon, for instance, we find villages in which everyone shares a common lineage from “three foundational brothers” that goes back about a dozen generations (Gulick, 1953). In folk cultures the family is the central institution. However, boundaries of privacy are expansive rather than restricted, so that intimate aspects of family life are not “private,” but extend into the village as a whole. People keep a watchful eye on what’s happening in other families. There are tight bonds of kinship, not necessarily seen in dayto-day interactions, but in a deeply felt solidarity. There might be rivalries and feuds between villages with different strands of lineage. John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Folk Medicine


People are guided by customs that are almost sacred in their observation, and these customs are slow to change. Conformity to these norms is regarded as an unflinching obligation. The people have a strong ethnocentric feeling. Piety is emphasized, ritual is highly developed and expresses the wishes and fears of the people. Folk cultures are for the most part illiterate. Until recent times people of folk cultures had little knowledge of what goes on in the world beyond their own experience. Folk cultures have significant contact with the larger social units of their country, while true primitive cultures are somewhat isolated. As is true with many primitive cultures, a lot of folk cultures might undergo a rapid process of acculturation and assimilation, in which case their customs will change much faster than otherwise, or even be put out of existence. In such cases, as in urban centers, relationships will be impersonal, and there might be a deemphasis of family organizations. In contrast to folk cultures, urban life is characterized by social heterogeneity, personal individuality, secular institutions of control, division of labor, a money economy, and a general impersonality in interpersonal relationships. Sometimes people in folk cultures travel-going to markets in distant and large towns or taking religious pilgrimages far away from home. Sometimes there is a greater degree of social mobility and shifting of economic positions. There is a folk-urban continuum. In Guatemala, for instance, we see “unfolk-like” urban traits mixed with folk traditions. And some urban centers emphasize folk elements, as we see in West Africa-with complex economies yet folk-type relationships with religion being the focal aspect-urban sacred societies. We might refer to the Amish and Mennonites of Pennsylvania as a folk culture because they adhere to outmoded means of agriculture, and they shun electricity, motor vehicles, and other modern conveniences-although they do visit modern doctors for medical treatment. The thing that will be our focus in this chapter pertains to folk medicine-which is simply a traditional mode of healing relied on by people in many different folk cultures. Often folk remedies will be popular not only among the people in indigenous folk cultures, but also in urban centers throughout the world where they have immigrated. WHAT IS FOLK MEDICINE? A fascinating thing about cultures is the diverse ways that human populations deal with their physical and mental health. Folk medicine is a popular alternative healing system, at variance with Western, scientific medicine. It is also different from patterns of shamanic healing that we discussed in chapter 8. Folk medicine is strongly endorsed by its adherents and practitioners, yet is at variance with the “official” health practices of the larger community or nation. Folk medicine, it is well worth keeping in mind, is traditional medicine to hundreds of millions of people in the world. That is, the practices are of long-standing duration, and people believe in the soundness of folk medicine even though modern physicians might label some of their practices as superstitious or bogus. Folk healers often exist in addition to shamans or medicine-men, and in many cultures these are the only available or convenient resource for peoples’ needs. There is a particularly high incidence of folk medicine in primitive and peasant communities, in economically underdeveloped urban centers, and in nonindustrial areas where modern medical resources are scarce. And we also find folk healers in urban centers that have a significant population of immigrants who are attuned to folk medicine. Folk healers, depending on their orientation, may or may not regard illness as a condition of supernatural origin. Most of them attribute illness to “personalistic,” or unnatural causes-such as a witch casting a spell or a supernatural agent or spirit of an ancestor causing the illness. And usually people who go to folk healers believe in supernatural causes of health, illness, and death, and participate in folk healing practices that are designed to control such influences. Folk healing plays a role in popular beliefs in hexing in the American South, voodoo among Haitians and other Latin Americans, and curanderismo among Mexican Americans (see discussion later in this chapter). Folk healing might also include faith healing and exorcism rites among fundamentalists and charismatic Catholics, as we discussed in chapter 10 (“Trance and Possession States”).


John Alan Cohan

People seek folk healers for culture-bound syndromes such as running amok, lulu, susto, for the evil eye, and for other folk illnesses and ailments we will discuss-perceiving that conventional doctors have limited sensitivity to the cultural beliefs of indigenous groups. As with shamanism, folk healing takes into account the belief that there is a supernatural or magical origin to the problems presented by the patient, whether illness, an accident, other misfortune, or even death. As we have seen in our earlier discussions, the people of many cultures believe that there is a reason for everything that happens: nothing occurs by chance. Why the individual patient is afflicted, rather than someone else, is likely due to the influence of spirits that may reside in living or nonliving objects, (in a tree, rock, in the wind, etc.), or the malevolent action of a witch or sorcerer, or because the patient has broken some cultural taboo or offended an ancestor. Sometimes an illness or misfortune will strike not the person who has violated a taboo, but a close relative such as a child or spouse. The function of the healer is to determine the underlying cause of the condition and to appease the forces in question through rituals, and thereby restore the former state of well-being. This is much the same inquiry that concerns shamans, as we discussed earlier in this book, except the treatment protocols are different. Folk healers usually do not go into trance states or access spirit realms during rituals in which they diagnose and cure patients. Often they use more “down-to-earth” modes of healing that include herbs, homeopathic remedies, dietary changes, charms, and prayer. In some cases folk healers will seek out a socio-psychological source of illness. And folk healers will often use confession and forgiveness as a therapeutic device. Often, folk healers are sought for non-somatic concerns, such as for fortune-telling, advice or help in ending bad luck, in bringing back an errant spouse, in finding lost persons or objects, and so on. In urban settings folk practitioners sometimes work more or less underground because they could be charged with practicing medicine without a license. In many cultures folk healing is very highly respected. India and China have produced well-developed healing systems with complex herbal remedies and distinctive therapeutic techniques. Quite often these healers are open to input or collaboration with modern health practitioners, they may recommend modern drugs, and usually are well adapted to change, picking up modern medical knowledge on their own. They often serve as a complement to modern health services. One distinction between folk medicine and modern medicine is that the physician grants little validity to patient selfdiagnosis, while in folk medicine patients plays an active role in suggesting what caused their illness. And Western medicine differentiates between science and religion, while folk healing does not. According to Press (1978), folk healers, as opposed to physicians, “take their cues from patients, accept their stated symptoms at face value and thus offer a guarantee that the patient’s particular anxieties and sick role preferences will be validated” (p. 75). Another thing is that folk healers are said to be more “personal” than physicians, usually spending more time with patients and dealing with social aspects of their illnesses that physicians ignore. As with shamanism, the patient’s entire family is usually involved in the folk healer’s treatment sessions with the patient, collaborating on diagnosis and strategies for treatment. Curers have a wide range of style and specialization, and readily accept input from modern medical practices. There is a high degree of shared knowledge between folk medicine practitioners and the public. Usually we see simultaneous use of different medical systems, or the use of modern medicine while retaining primitive beliefs about illness causation. Many people will seek folk health services after having seen a physician as a kind of backup. Or, people will first see a folk healer, and if the symptoms are not cured, only then will they seek out a modern doctor. On the one hand, they will seek cures with modern medicine, but at the same time they will claim that it is the folk healer, shaman or medicine-man who can get to the bottom of the real trouble-the unseen, mystical cause-and effect a cure. Moreover, modern doctors are often unable to give indigenous people that faith and certainty that a folk healer, shaman or medicine-man can provide. For instance, even where villagers of Papua New Guinea turn to Western medicine, as being more efficient and less dangerous in dealing with the phenomena of ill-health, they still believe the reason why a particular person gets sick is tied to his relationships with other men or supernatural beings (Stanhope, 1968).

Folk Medicine


Folk health usage tends to fade out in the face of readily available modern health care. Still, folk medicine is alive and well in modern urban settings, catering mainly to immigrant groups that come from areas where folk health practices are strong (e.g., Mexican-Americans, Korean-Americans, Chinese-Americans, etc.). These individuals often seek folk healers even though modern medical assistance is readily available and usually affordable because “Western” medicine does not address their entirely different world view about what causes disease and how to treat it. Folk healers in urban centers work mainly in ethnic and lower income neighborhoods and can be seen after work hours. Often migrants are more comfortable with folk healers: they share a common language, they have a cultural bond, they feel comfortable interpreting illness in folk terms, with familiar labels and familiar implications (e.g., “evil eye”), and they understand one another’s behavior and attitudes. Folk cures are generally cheaper than physicians and prescription drugs. Moreover, some culture-bound syndromes such as susto are folk-cure specific because they are not recognized by conventional doctors. A sick person might go to the hospital and after treatment recover from the illness, but then go to a folk healer because of worry that the illness might return, and to find out what caused the ailment in the first place, so so as to prevent a relapse. Often modern medical providers will view folk healers as a legitimate health resource, particularly for the poor or marginal of the community. In Mexico, according to Ayora-Diaz (1998), local medicines survived previous efforts by the health authorities to eradicate and exclude them from the Mexican health system. Now they are accorded increased legitimacy, and local healers are striving to stand on an equal footing with cosmopolitan ones (p. 167). Folk medicine is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Not only do conventional doctors occasionally refer patients to folk practitioners, but there is an Office of Alternative Medicine as part of the National Institutes of Health (Kolata, 1996). We will now examine various types of folk healers, and see how their healing practices vary across cultures. CURANDEROS In Latin America, Mexico and parts of the United States we find a folk healing practice called curanderismo. Curanderismo stems from the Spanish word, curar, which means to heal. Curanderos (males) or curanderas (females) usually have a shamanic-type calling-from mystical dreams or a serious illness, or the prediction by an experienced curer that this is this individual’s destiny. According to Edgerton (1970), curanderos are thought to have intimate knowledge of the workings of nature, and their healing power is thought to be divinely bestowed. They treat a wide range of physical and mental complaints, but most commonly illnesses that have a large emotional component, and the main focus often is healing of the soul. People seek these healers for agitation, nervios, bad thoughts, bad luck in business (a particularly common complaint), other social stresses, spirit possession, mal de ojo (evil eye), susto, mal puesto, dizziness, headache, heart pain, loss of appetite, indigestion, rashes, alcoholism, diarrhea, fever, insomnia, blood clots, cramps, facial paralysis, and for children, depressed fontanelle. They provide counseling concerning conflicts of family and culture. Some curanderos, known as hueseros, specialize in setting bones. Many curanderos have a background in mainstream healthcare. Edgerton claims that curanderos incorporate Catholic religious symbols in their healing practices in addition to herbal concoctions, wild plants, bone-manipulation, massage and practical advice. In addition, curanderos generally use energy techniques-for example, they will sweep or cleanse the patient from head to toe, using an object (an egg, lemon, garlic, a crucifix, holy water, etc.) to absorb bad vibrations or to impart positive energy. They use special invocations directed at Catholic saints or spirits to help bring about the desired results. Some curanderos have a “spiritism” approach, which in some ways resembles shamanism, with the idea that spirits can speak through them and aid in the healing ritual, and that magical forces can cause illness and must be expelled to effect a cure.


John Alan Cohan

Edgerton found that usually problems presented to curanderos have a blend of social, psychological and spiritual factors. Curanderos treat illnesses that are thought to be caused by supernatural sources-either by evil spirits or by witchcraft. One of the difficulties curanderos encounter-as is the case with shamans-is identifying the nature of the causal agency in given illnesses. Often the patient will feel very strongly that the symptoms are due to being hexed, and will have in mind a particular person who caused the hex. Curanderos believe that many people in mental institutions are really hexed or bewitched, and they are never cured because psychiatrists do not recognize supernatural causes. Regular physicians do not recognize the idea of supernatural causation, and some people fault the system for that very reason. In the United States the practice of curanderismo is found throughout the Southwest, particularly Texas, Los Angeles, San Diego and other areas with high Mexican populations. Sack (2008) found that for many MexicanAmericans there is a lack in confidence in conventional doctors due to previous bad experiences and unmet expectations. Sack claims this is compounded to some extent by socioeconomic factors, lack of medical insurance, language barriers and undocumented immigration status of a significant segment of Mexican-Americans-which inhibits their utilization of conventional health care services. In Texas there was a famous curandero named Don Pedro Jaramillo who lived from 1829 to 1907. People trek considerable distances to visit shrines built to him and other successful curanderos (Romano, 1960). Many Mexican-Americans who are legal residents return to Mexico temporarily for the purpose of seeking traditional health care providers in Mexico, especially in Tijuana, where the costs are low and pharmacies sell many drugs without a prescription (Press, 1978). In Latin America there is an abundance of curanderos and curanderas. In Bogota, Colombia, practitioners are found throughout the city, along with venders who sell herbs, lucky charms and amulets for protection against evil eye. The Church of St. Ignacius Loyola offers curative waters from a spigot at the church entrance, and at market and street bookstalls there are many books on prayers and orations to particular saints for good luck, and books on herbs, occult arts, exorcism and the cure of innumerable conditions. Like shamans, curanderos are often respected members of their community, and lean heavily to the spiritual in discerning the nature of problems and effecting a cure. In many communities, particularly in Mexico, traditional doctors often will work in conjunction with curanderos. A good popular book on the subject is Elena Avila’s Woman Who Glows in the Dark. The author had a nursing career before becoming a curandera. MEXICAN SPIRITISTS In addition to the practice of curanderismo, in Mexico today there are a great number of folk practitioners who focus on a slightly different protocol that might be best described as sacred healing. These are spiritualism ministers, who treat patients for a wide range of ailments at Spiritualist temples. According to Finkler (1994), people will often seek these healers out after unsuccessful treatment by physicians. The healers, primarily women, go into a trancepossession state, much as shamans do, and in that way spirit protectors work through their bodies. These healers employ ritual cleansing, purgatives, massages, baths, spiritual surgeries, religious ritual, as well as pharmaceuticals. In many instances the patient has an evil spirit that requires extraction. Finkler found that the Spiritist movement recruits new healers from the pool of patients. Some patients are thought to possess the gift of healing and will end up participating in a community of people engaged in regular rituals at the temple. The common belief held by most Mexicans who seek healing from a Spiritualist is that the sickness was caused by witchcraft. However, Spiritualists themselves tend to believe that the cause is not witchcraft, but instead impersonal spirits are the cause, and these spirits must be removed from the patient’s body. Related to the Spiritist movement are Catholic folk healers, called rezadeiras if female, and rezadores if male, in Brazil. These healers use prayers, rituals, advice, charms, herbs and pharmaceuticals to treat common ailments as well as complaints of the evil eye.

Folk Medicine


Puerto Ricans in the Northeast United States and in their homeland follow a slightly different sort of Spiritist folk healing. This Catholic-leaning belief is sometimes referred to as “the work of the white table.” As with other folk medicine beliefs, these spiritists believe that people can be influenced or possessed by evil spirits, and that people can cause illness or misfortune on others through evil designs. Puerto Rican Spiritists, or “mediums,” will use perfumes, herbs, oils, candles, prayers, fruits and other symbolic objects to help cleanse a person of an evil influences. Sometimes the problem might be that the patient has ignored the influence of a good spirit, and is being punished for his or her inattention to that spirit. Spiritists are said to help Puerto Ricans cope with or prevent mental illness, and offer emotional support for immigrants experiencing anxiety associated to acculturation. Spiritist healing is also sought for cases of ataques de nervos (attacks of nerves), a culture-bound syndrome that we discussed in chapter 20, with symptoms ranging from sudden mute rigidity, temporary loss of consciousness, and general “nerves.” As we observed, this syndrome is fairly common among marginalized ethnic minorities in North and South America, among other regions. FOLK CULT FIGURES In the Catholic Church, when new saints are nominated for canonization, part of the proceedings involves proof that people have been healed of serious illnesses as a result of prayers to the candidate saint. However, there are numerous saints revered by the faithful, particularly in Latin America, who are not recognized by the Church, yet who are important figures in folk healing practices. For example, for hundreds of years the people of Guatemala have given special reverence to a Mayan saint known as Maximon/San Simon, or San Simon for short (Pieper, 2007). His origin is rooted in Mayan mythology. In the Mayan culture of Guatemala there has long been a blend of traditional Catholic belief and ancient Mayan deities. San Simon is not recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church, and at best he is tolerated by the Church hierarchy. According to Pieper, this saint is a trickster spirit of many talents, and is said to have a delicate and dangerous personality. He is the patron saint of businessmen as well as healer of illnesses. He also represents Mayan ancestors. He is invoked as the defender of love, hope and respect. No task is beyond his potential assistance. Some invoke the saint to capture the heart of a girlfriend or boyfriend, or to ward off a competing suitor. Pieper found that San Simon is also said to represent Judas Iscariot, whom the Mayan people regard as a saint (Judas Iscariot was the disciple who betrayed Jesus to the Roman soldiers). He is regarded as a saint because if Judas had not betrayed Jesus, the crucifixion and the redemption of the human race would not have occurred. On Good Friday, the people hang a figure of San Simon as Judas above the entrance of their churches, to help redeem the human race. Mayan shamans utilize life-size figures of the saint. The large figures are made with carved wooden heads, hands, and feet. A mask covers the face. The figures are like dolls in that they have flexible joints at the shoulder, elbow, hip and knee, and can be made to sit in chairs. The statutes are dressed either with familiar indigenous clothing, or modern garb with silk scarves and shirts, fine Stetson hats, and dark glasses. Offerings are made to the figure in the form of cigars or cigarettes, which people light and put in the statute’s mouth, and flowers, candles, and drinks of liquor (which are siphoned from the opening in the statute’s mouth into a receptacle below). A person can be cured by praying to the figure of San Simon and by touching his clothes. A shaman will take the clothes off San Simon and put them on the patient; or he might take the clothes off some other saint’s statute, such as St. Francis (It is their custom to put put clothing on statutes of saints). Efficacy in healing here, as we have seen in other areas, may depend in large part upon the disposition of the participants. If there is an expectancy or faith in the healing, the use of a fetish may have efficacy because of the placebo effect.


John Alan Cohan

People in this region strongly believe that if they pray to the object there will be a result. Or, perhaps in some way an energy vortex accumulates around this object over time: The prayers of people are focused on the object, and the object gets imbued with the mana of these prayers, so that it takes on a power of its own. In addition to the above example, a folk hero known as Jesus Malverde is a powerful influence on people in Mexico as well as immigrants in the United States. According to Murphy (2008), Jesus Malverde is considered Mexico’s Robin Hood in that he stole from the rich and gave to the poor until he was killed by the police in 1909. While not endorsed by the Catholic Church, he is the patron saint of drug dealers, as well as the poor. His grave site in Culiacan, Mexico (located in the state of Sinaloa, long associated with drug trafficking) is a popular shrine where drug dealers go to pray to be shielded from the police and to give thanks. Murphy found that his image-in statutes, amulets, T-shirts, candles, rosaries, trading cards and badges-is thought to provide protective powers. Malverde is revered not only in Mexico, but in the Southwest United States, where numerous Mexican restaurants, bars and discos have busts of him next to cash registers, or altars devoted to him. Malverde figures are so popular among drug dealers, that Mexican and U.S. authorities look for cars with Malverde symbols on the windshields or hanging on rearview mirrors, as a tipoff to the presence of gangsters. Courts in California, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas have ruled that Malverde trinkets can be admitted into evidence in drug and money-laundering cases! ROOTWORK We spoke of hexing cultures, particularly in rural and urban communities the American South, where people believe that all kinds of physical or mental ailments are caused by hexes (see chapter 11, “Magic, Sorcery and Witchcraft”). As mentioned, people who think they have been hexed will consult folk healers known as “root doctors” or “root workers.” Rootwork is thought to be an African-American form of voodoo, and constitutes a significant part of the world view of many people in the South. Joshi, Frierson and Gunter (2006) found: “This culturally based belief system combines a belief in the magical causation of illness with cures by sorcery, in addition to an empiric tradition stressing the natural causation of illness with cures by herbs and medicines” (p. 515). Root doctors provide cures for various illnesses, bad luck or other misfortune caused by evil influences. They operate from the premise that hexes are real and can cause illness, and that no child is safe from magical attack, even the unborn child. They also believe that God sometimes punishes his children with illness to teach them a lesson for gossip, backbiting, speaking unkindly of neighbors, and other misdeeds. A hex can change the victim’s usual behavior through depression, inability to perform daily tasks or “going crazy”; and modern medicine is not strong enough to effect a cure in such cases. Many root doctors and their clients believe that certain ailments, particularly gastrointestinal distress, are caused by someone putting a magic poison into one’s food or drink. For example, Snow (1978) wrote: a young pregnant woman was told by her mother-in-law that her baby would be born dead and that she would die soon after. The baby was stillborn at term and the same evening the young woman developed severe diarrhea and vomiting; the threat, the symptoms and the indisputable fact of the infant’s death were enough to convince the family that evil magic had been tried and had worked (p. 81). According to Puckett (1926), root doctors offer their patients certain protections against being hexed: horseshoes, red flannel, luck balls, candles, amulets, and other objects. If, however, hexing has taken hold, a curing session will be needed. Root doctors, who sometimes call themselves voodoo doctors, utilize herbs, roots, candles and prayers in their cures. Puckett found that they will perform a magical ritual, and also preach and pray to remove the evil spell and alleviate the symptoms.

Folk Medicine


Rootworkers also provide “love potions” or “love powder” to enhance the client’s love life or ensure fidelity. Rootworkers will sometimes be hired to spread a magical powder in the courtroom where a client is having a legal proceeding, so as to insure success. Rootworkers, like shamans, are sometimes feared because, in addition to curing or preventing illness, they can manipulate events so as to harm or even kill others. Sometimes rootworkers will be employed to retaliate against an enemy. Another species of root doctors is found in Catemaco, Mexico, a community that draws tourists because the town is known as a center for witchcraft. As reported by McKinley (2008), every March the town sponsors an International Congress of Witches, during which a black mass is held in a cave where the devil is said to dwell. Witches in the town can be hired to perform rituals to remove hexes and cure various illnesses. They will use a combination of Catholic prayers and old fashioned herb and root remedies. According to McKinley, they will also perform voodoo to kill an enemy, or distribute love charms and amulets for good luck, and cleanse peoples’ auras to ward off evil spirits (una limpia). AMERICAN INDIANS AND FOLK HEALING Despite centuries of intrusion by the dominant society, native Americans, even those who are urbanized, often participate in some form of traditional healing-whether attending a Sun Dance ceremony, consulting with a shaman, or participating in singing rites, purification rites, or the use of herbal remedies. Animism is evident in the Native American belief that illness is caused by a lack of harmony with nature or with other forces. Lack of harmony might result from unacceptable behavior (such as dishonoring one’s ancestors), aggressive feelings, or witchcraft by others. American Indian folk healers may or may not be shamans. They are usually called medicine men. The goal of these healers is to restore a harmonious relationship with the patient’s human, natural and supernatural environments. In Native American folk healing there is no basic distinction between physical and mental illness. Native American folk healing goes back for centuries. In the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming there is a wellknown Medicine Wheel of ancient origin-about 80 feet in diameter. Grinnell (1922) found that there is an inner circle of large stones piled up in a wall, and 28 lines of small stones, set close together, forming “spokes” out to the circumference (The number 28 is sacred to some of the Indian tribes as representing the lunar month). There are small huts outside the circle long enough for a man to lie down in. This is part of vast Native American sites in the region going back 7,000 years. There is a very old and worn trail leading to this site, suggesting that many people came here in ancient times. There are other monuments of this kind throughout the Northern United States (including South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana) and Southern Canada (including Alberta and Saskatchewan), and they are thought to be medicine lodges of Native Americans in past centuries. Medicine wheels are said to be sacred architectural sites that were of importance in religious and healing rites. They appear to be constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground, with spokes or lines of rocks radiating from the center. These sites must have represented the sacred circle of life, the cardinal directions and the elements. Medicine wheels might also symbolize the individual journey that each one of us takes in life. Sometimes they are called “sacred hoops,” to signify that the life cycle has no beginning or end. They may also represent the wheel of life that continually evolves, bringing new lessons and truths to each one of us. The Iroquois, living in New York State, have various medicine societies-e.g., the False Face and Little Water Medicine societies-whose members wear distinctive masks and use sacred objects in curing rituals. Each society has its own curing protocols to get rid of evil spirits and restore harmony. Cures involve the performance of songs, dances, games, and tobacco invocations to implore the dead to stop bothering the living. White (1928) studied the medicine men of the Acoma pueblo, 80 miles west of Albuquerque, who have operated at the same site since the arrival of the Spaniards in 1539. They believe that the main source if illness is witchcraft.


John Alan Cohan

Witches inject such objects as sticks, thorns, stones or even snakes into a person’s body, or else steal the victim’s heart and make off with it. A witch may assume almost any form-an owl, a donkey, a cat, or a human being, even a member of one’s own family. Medicine men will cure the patient by removing objects from the patient’s body, chiefly by sucking, although eagle wing feathers are sometimes used. If the heart has been stolen, medicine men will go out to wrest it from the witches. There will be a severe struggle, and the medicine-man will return injured, but always carrying the heart, which is in a ball of rags, the center of which is a kernel of corn-the patient’s heart. The patient swallows it. Medicine men wear bear paws, bear claw necklaces and whistles made of bear bone; eagle wing feathers are used to whip the disease away. A small quartz crystal might be used in diagnosis, giving the medicine-man second sight and enabling him to locate objects within the patient’s body or locate a witch who might be lurking about. Curing rituals also involves singing, dancing praying, smoking tobacco, mixing herb medicine in bowls, and sprinkling the patient, altar and paraphernalia with medicine water shaken from the eagle plumes. Maddox (1930) found that the Karok of California had women who were “barking doctors,” that is, they diagnosed sick cases by squatting dog-fashion and barking for hours. They specialized in “poisoned” cases, that is, illnesses induced by witches who cause some poisonous reptile or other animal to grow through the skin into the patient’s viscera or intestines. The barking doctor first locates the intruder, then sucks the “possessed” spot until the skin is broken and blood flows. Accordinug to Maddox, she then throws up what appears to be a frog or some other small animal which she says she sucked out of the patient. The Navajos have fostered a collaboration between native American and Western health professionals at the Navajo School for Medicine in Rough Rock, Arizona. A Navajo physician, Lori Arviso Alvard, arranged for the Gallup Indian Medical Center in New Mexico to hire a Navajo medicine man to conduct healing ceremonies. This has been repeated at a number of other hospitals located near Navajo reservations, including Banner Page Hospital in Page, Arizona. Traditional ceremonies can be held for patients on hospital grounds. At Hogan the hospital built a traditional eight-sided log structure used for Navajo ceremonies. Before opening the renovated emergency department, the hospital held a traditional Navajo blessing ceremony with a medicine man. PSYCHIC SURGEONS Over the years an offshoot of shamanism in the Philippines, known as “psychic surgery,” has become a very popular and “miraculous” folk healing (Singer, 1990). While seemingly incredible, the claim is that these healers open up the patient’s body with bare hands and “remove” organic material such as palm leaves, seeds, hair or even blood, tumors and diseased tissue. Every big hotel in Manila has a psychic surgeon on call. The healers are employed for a wide range of illnesses. In 1973 psychic surgery had achieved acceptance by the Philippine Medical Association, which concluded that there was nothing “illegal” about the practice. Psychic surgeons gained further credibility when former President Ferdinand Marcos sent a message to a conference of psychic healers saying that “the Philippine government... is fully aware of the many benefits that have been reported to have resulted from” (Singer, 1990, p. 449) this spiritual healing. Of course, the obvious question is: Aren’t these “psychic surgeons” out-and-out frauds? A group of anthropologists decided to test the procedure in a laboratory in Michigan, with a well known Filipino healer who volunteered to treat eight patients. The examinations were videotaped. The paper concluded that the “psychic surgery” was most assuredly the result of trickery in which the “healer” secreted away “loads” in a sink, and employed other tactics of sleight-of-hand. Nonetheless, there are hundreds of psychic surgeons in the Philippines, and there are international meetings held in support of psychic surgeons throughout the world.

Folk Medicine


Other instances have been reported in the annals of anthropology involving shamanic sleight-of-hand that produces “paranormal” objects the shaman claims to have sucked out of the patient’s body. After faking these materializations and “removing” the sickness, the patient might actually feel better. As we discussed in chapter 14 (“The Placebo Effect”), healing has much to do with the patient’s own belief system and faith in the healing practices themselves. Patients can feel better just as a result of the time, nurturing, and attention they have received from the practitioner. Folk practitioners, like shamans, believe that illness is not caused so much by “germs” or biological pathogens, as it is by evil spirits, witchcraft, angry ancestors sending a punishment, and other supernatural agencies. Folk remedies are oriented to restoring the patient’s harmony with nature. This chapter has been a brief overview of several types of folk healing practices found in various cultures of the world. One thing that these healers have in common-and share with shamanism-is the holistic approach in which the mind and body are treated as a unified system. One achieves wholeness, and hence equilibrium in health, if the two components are in synch with each other. In these systems, according to Roeder (1988), disease is not seen as a purely physical state that can be treated in solely biochemical terms. Illness results from a combination of, or an imbalance in, biological, environmental, emotional, social, and supernatural processes; any treatment of disease must therefore take all these factors into consideration (p. 148). There is considerable interaction of the healer with the patient and family members-as is the case in shamanic rituals. Many folk healers employ prayers as well as herbal remedies and magical manipulation in their treatments. There are those who think of folk healers “as being ignorant, superstitious and unscrupulous” (Roeder, 1988, p. 148), and undoubtedly this is true in some cases. But as we saw in our discussion of culture-bound syndromes (chapter 19), it is inappropriate to make cross-cultural comparisons by imposing Western orthodoxy on traditional systems. These various folk practices continue to flourish in many urban and rural populations because they satisfy basic psychological, spiritual and health needs of these communities. The practices continue even though education and occupational transformations are bringing about new knowledge, greater trust towards scientific medicine, and the ability to pay for private medical care. Often people will seek folk healers in addition to, rather than instead of modern health practitioners. We see again and again that orthodox medical research is often the source of contradictory studies and here-todaygone-tomorrow treatment programs. People hold to particular medical views for social reasons. They make sense of illness based on the realities in their culture. Western style medicine simply makes no sense to a great many people in primitive cultures. Indeed, Western medical values may be inappropriate and even ineffective for such people.

PART VII: WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES

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CHAPTER 22 The Treatment and the Role of Women in Primitive Cultures Abstract. Women are treated in diverse ways across cultures, and diverse attitudes about such things as promiscuity, adultery, and rape. The low status of women is somewhat pervasive, but in many cultures women enjoy a high status. For example, In Borneo, medicine women are highly regarded so that male shamans deliberately assume female habits and costumes, and are treated like women and do women’s work. There are many avoidance taboos associated with women-from the avoidance of menstruating women, to the avoidance of sexual contact with women during pregnancy or prior to certain rituals or expeditions. Sexually promiscuous unmarried women are known in Normanby Island of Papua. In contrast, modesty in women’s behavior is emphasized in many Muslim cultures in which the lust of women is thought to be greater than men. Among French-Moslem people who live in Southern Algeria, the men, not women, wear veils. In many cultures such as the Nivkh, it was fairly common for men to engage in seduction and rape. In some cultures it was customary for brothers to share their wives. For centuries in India and among Native Americans Suttee was customaryimmolation of widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands. The custom of the levirate prevails in many cultures today, requiring a widow to marry one of her deceased husband’s brothers. Today, honor killings are a cultural practice, mainly in the Middle East but also a worldwide phenomenon, in which family members will attack a female relative-by stoning, stabbing, beating or shooting, in order to kill her for bringing dishonor to her family or clan. A related aspect of honor killings pertains to the common practice for women or girls who are rape victims to be killed by relatives.

INTRODUCTION We see again and again not only in primitive cultures but in a good many developed cultures that women are on the whole treated as second class citizens. They may have little say in the choice of a spouse, and often they are expected to work extremely hard in fulfilling domestic duties-helping with fishing and gathering of food, not to mention firewood, cooking, washing, cleaning, taking care of children, and so on. In many cultures, even today, women are “regarded as beings infinitely inferior to men, are completely under the dominance of the latter, are forced to work like drudges for their husbands and are debarred from all share in the ritual, religious and political life of their communities” (Wedgwood, 1937, p. 401). The low status of women was revealed in some detail by Margaret Mead in Growing Up in New Guinea (1930). And today in many contemporary cultures-Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan-to name a few-women are subjected to numerous restrictions in their lives, from manner of dress, to career choices, to their comings and goings. There are many avoidance taboos associated with women-from the avoidance of menstruating women, to the avoidance of sexual contact with women prior to certain rituals or expeditions. In some cultures today, there is widespread opposition to women in public life. In Afghanistan, for instance, it is not uncommon for women to be intimidated or even assassinated if they run for public office (Gall, 2009). In many cultures it is quite common for women to go about their business bare-breasted, yet in the West this would constitute indecent exposure and result in arrest. And in Islam societies, it is not uncommon today for women to get arrested for immodest dress (such as wearing pants) and be punished with a public lashing, or subjected to honor killings, as discussed above. Sometimes there is a double standard concerning adultery-greater punishment bring meted out for women than men. On the other hand, in many cultures women enjoy a high status. Property rights and lineage might be traced through the mother’s side of the family. Women as well as men are entitled to become respected healers in the community-as shamans or as folk healers. Women play a very important role in rituals such as the Sun Dance in Native American ceremonies, and in the various trance dances found in many cultures of the world. Maternal instinct appears to be a feature of human nature that has biological roots, and is apparent in all cultures. This instinct takes the form of “natural affection such as the sacrifice made by a mother for her child...” (Urmson, 1958, p. 202). It appears that women are endowed significantly more than men with traits of nurturing of the young. In diverse cultures we see varying roles ascribed to women and men in the caring of offspring. John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

The Treatment and the Role of Women in Primitive Cultures


Males typically devote more effort to mating, and females to parenting. In the majority of cultures, females have been assigned the bulk of child rearing responsibilities even in the most egalitarian of hunter-gatherer societies. Women also have a prolonged process of internal gestation, and the intensive postnatal care that often includes several years of lactation and breast feeding. In this chapter we will explore some key areas that anthropologists have studied in connection with the treatment of women in primitive cultures. PROMISCUITY In Normanby Island and in the Trobriands off the southwest coast of Papua New Guinea, Roheim (1940) wrote about the prevalence of sexually promiscuous unmarried women and men. The women of this group are called sinebwaina, and take special care of their appearance and weight. In a culture where promiscuity is frowned upon, Roheim found that these women were extremely promiscuous, and this was an accepted feature of the local culture. The sinebwaina would have intercourse with any men who desired them-and indeed to refuse meant their personal reputation would suffer. According to Roheim, any decent looking man who wants to would simply come to their home and have sex and spend the night. While sexually promiscuous, these women behaved in a reserved manner, i.e., staying at home, not laughing or smiling much, or milling around. The women themselves were reported to say to the their lovers, “Let us have intercourse and then the men will talk about me and the people will hear my name” (p. 658). Also Hammar (1992), found that elsewhere in the region, on Daru, there are specially constructed houses called bwara awana (“its mouth or vagina”), for young girls who were prostituted to young boys during mortuary rites. “These houses became something like sexual finishing schools for the daughters of powerful chiefs and their female age mates, as well as sites of sexual release for various classes of males” (p. 26). According to Hammar, on nearby Rossell Island, “small groups of men unable to afford wives shared women who were sold sexually during festive occasions for money”(p. 26). Margaret Mead (1930) reported that on Manus Island women captured in war were kept in a brothel built specially for them, and they were “raped by every man in the village, young and old” (p. 16), with the men in charge collecting payments from those who partook. In contrast to the promiscuous behavior just noted, modesty in women’s behavior is emphasized in many Arab cultures that derive customs from the Koran-not only their bodily modesty, but also their seclusion, their chastity, their sexuality, their punishment, their protection, and control over them. According to Antoun (1968), in part the modesty code is derived from the idea that men can become contaminated or defiled by women. This is true in many other cultures, particularly among tribes in Papua New Guinea (see Avoidance Taboo, below). Antoun found that in Muslim cultures where the Koran is the law, women out in public should not be heard; they must not speak or glance at other men; if a kinsman passes by he can address her only by such terms as “O Mother” or “O Daughter” or “O Aunt”-terms that imply sexual distance (p. 675). They must not leave home without good reason. At shops the women do not enter but remain at the entrance communicating their request and passing on their money from the outside. In public places they must walk a few paces behind their husband. In these cultures, it is believed that women are the initiators of illicit relations, and that women have a propensity for sexual license because of the animalistic impulses that move them. The lust of women is thought to be greater than men. The worst insult one can say to anyone is “Your mother’s genitals” (kus immak). Killing of a girl who has engaged in illicit premarital relations is not unusual (e.g., killing by her father or brother)-but other solutions are elopement, marriage and compensation, hushing-up of violations, or banishment. The honor of the village group lies with the modesty of its women and the readiness of its men to protect this modesty. Women are given the virginity test on the day of consummation and if found to not be a virgin could be put to death. Women are never allowed to choose their husbands; their minds are deemed deficient. In many cultures it is customary for parents to arrange for the betrothal of their daughter or son. In Pakistan this has been taken to be such a serious matter that a young woman who decides to elope with a man not of her parents’


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choosing-could end up being shot dead by relatives because she has defiled tribal elders. However, this practice is considered murder by the authorities, and in recent years has been pursued more aggressively by the police (Associated Press, 2008). The Tuareg are French-Moslem people who live in Southern Algeria, part of Sudan, Nigeria and in parts of Libya. Murphy (1964) wrote that the women have unusual freedom for a Moslem culture. The men, not women, wear veils. Men wear the veil is even worn at home, at all times of day, while eating, smoking, and sometimes while sleeping. Only the eyes are seen by others. The veil is thought to be associated with a need for privacy and withdrawal, and the need to provide a high degree of social distance. But more importantly, according to Murphy, there is a sense of shame and pollution regarding the mouth, so therefore it is concealed by the veil. Why this would be the case with men and not women is not at all clear. ADULTERY Adultery, historically, has been a punishable criminal offense and, of course, still is a legal basis for seeking a divorce. In ancient times the typical punishment for a women caught in adultery was to be stoned to death. In Deuteronomy 22:22 it says: “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die.” Leviticus 20:10 says: “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife-with the wife of his neighbor-both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” In some parts of the world today this still persists. In Sudan and Nigeria, for instance, a married person found guilty of adultery is sentenced to death by stoning under Islamic law. Oberg (1934) found that among the Indians of Southeastern Alaska, if a woman of high rank committed adultery within her clan, her husband would ignore the matter; she could have the other man move into their house and keep him as a second husband, with no marriage ceremony. They felt this was a way of keeping idle women of the rich satisfied and at home. Adultery between people of different clans, however, was punishable by death of both parties. According to Oberg, if the husband wished to spare the wife, her kin would have to pay him property to restore his honor. “In case the adulterer was a man of very high rank, the husband’s own clansmen paid him goods to pacify him, for demanding the life of a very high man was a serious matter” (p. 148). RAPE In Nivkh culture women are generally venerated, respected, and adored by their families, sought out for their wisdom. But at least in the recent past, it was fairly common for young men traveling to villages where strangers lived, particularly during berry picking season when women wandered away from the settlement-to engage in seduction and rape. There were veritable raids by young men for this purpose. These raids on groups of women were referred to as “hunts.” In earlier times such raids to capture women inevitably led to inter-lineage warfare by the law of the blood feud, and often whole villages and lineages were wiped out in the ensuing conflict. While faithfulness in marriage was the norm, men in Nivkh culture nonetheless preserved a kind of prerogative of sexual freedom well into old age, while women were expected to be faithful to their husbands. Women caught in amatory pursuits often used to be severely beaten. Men sometimes took a second wife, often after getting the first wife’s approval. Love potions were used, sometimes by a young person whose object did not return his or her passion, sometimes by parents to excite proper feelings in their child towards the spouse whom had been chosen. SHARING OF WIVES Mandelbaum (1938) found that in southern India the Kotas of Nilgiri Hills have a polyandry system of sorts: a man’s brothers have free access to his wife and, if he is ill or incapacitated, his brothers take his place as “secondary husbands.” This culture emphasizes the principle of fraternal equivalence. The brothers enjoy equal privileges in all respects, hence the access to a brother’s wife. Mandelbaum found that a man has access to all the sisters of his wife. There is little known sexual jealousy within the fraternal group. Only the “real” husband is recognized as father of



the wife’s children (even if, in fact, the child was seeded by one of the brothers). According to Mandelbaum, a widow is expected to, but not required to, follow levirate tradition; but if she refuses she must sacrifice the property of the deceased, even jewels that her late husband had given her. Polyandry also has existed among the Eskimos, the Tibetans, and North American tribes (especially the Comanche). SUTTEE Many cultures, particularly in India and among the Native Americans, engaged in the practice of suttee-immolation of widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands. Sometimes the woman’s baby or young child would be included. Failure to comply with suttee meant ostracism, although this could be “dispensated” by the dead husband’s brother and marriage to him (MacLeod, 1931). This was also a long-standing custom in Papua New Guinea where widows would be strangled when their husbands died, even if they had young children (Goodale, 1995, p. 102). REMARRIAGE: THE LEVIRATE The custom of the levirate, governing the remarriage of a widow, prevails in many cultures today. It requires a widow to marry one of her deceased husband’s brothers. The practice was mandated in the Bible (Deuteronomy 25:5-10), and was widespread in Israel and the Near East. In India, if a widow has no brother-in-law, she may be given to a distant relative, and she is considered as a punarbhu, whose social standing is only a little higher than that of an immoral woman. In the valleys of the Jalemmo, in the central mountains of Western New Guinea, Koch (1968) found that when a widow or widower wants to remarry, a special rite must be performed by a medicine-man before sexual intercourse can take place. This rite is to purify the parties from contact with the ghost of their deceased spouse, for otherwise the ghost would bring sickness or death upon their new spouse. According to Koch, the people believe that the ghost abides in the penis of the widower or vagina of the widow until the purification rite takes place. The rite is essentially the “killing” of the ghost. The rite involves the husband-to-be and widow walking through a thicket on the fringes of the village; the medicine-man shoots the ghost with an bow and arrow when the widow passes by; high-pitched shrieks of the mortally wounded ghost are then heard. The medicine-man seizes and carries the ghost to a nearby bush where he cuts it up with a bamboo knife and throws the pieces into a rock crevice or some hole in the ground. According to Koch, there are other acts after this, involving passing around a bundle of pig fat between the couple, casting of spells, feeding a sacrificed pig, and other protocols. HIGH STATUS WOMEN In all cultures certain women enjoy a particularly high status. In the West, for instance, the wives of very wealthy men or important political figures, or famous movie actresses seem to occupy a high social standing compared to “ordinary” women. In other cultures, the status of women may depend not on material wealth but on other kinds of accomplishments. For instance among the Blackfoot Indians women who conducted the Sun Dance, the greatest religious and social event of the year, were considered to be very important people (See discussion of the Sun Dance in chapter 3, “Dionysian and Appolinian Cultures”). In villages of Papua New Guinea the wives of bigmen are sometimes called “mother of the village.” Her position is expected to be one who “sits” or “the one who holds,” that is, she is like a queen bee. According to Telban (1988): She is not supposed to work: she should not go fishing or processing sago and she should not work in the garden or fetch firewood. Whenever she and her husband move from one house to another, he is the one who should carry everything: baskets, mosquito nets, clay pots, personal belongings, and so on. The main obligation of the ‘mother of the village’ is to sit well... inside the house. In this way, she anchors the whole village. It would be quite improper for her to sit near the entrance and gossip or just look around, or, even worse, to have an affair with some other man (p. 96). By “sitting firmly,” these “mothers of the village” are thought to anchor the spirit guardian of the village “and preserve the well-being, literally ‘well-standing’, of the village. Women secure the firmness of the place” (Telban, 1988, p. 168).


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In Borneo, medicine women are highly regarded so that male shamans deliberately assume female habits and costumes, and are treated like women and do women’s work. They are known as manang bali. MANLY-HEARTED WOMEN Among the Piegan Native Americans, according to Lewis (1941), certain upper class women, called “manlyhearted,” enjoy a position of high prestige. They are known to be aggressive, independent, ambitious, bold, and sexually aggressive. These are married woman of some wealth and high social position (lower class women of the Piegan tribe who are aggressive are considered presumptuous upstarts rather than manly-hearted women). Lewis found that this culture puts a premium on masculinity and encourages male dominance, and ordinarily women are expected to be submissive, reserved, faithful to their husbands, and kind-hearted. The manly-hearted women, however, are allowed to violate these norms. A woman might become “manly-hearted” by becoming her husband’s favorite wife, subjugating the other wives. Sometimes wives lower in the household would be aggressive and bold and try to push their way into being the favorite or “chief” or “sit-by” wife-and were called manly-hearted. The manly-hearted women are also distinguished by their ability to perform tasks faster than others (such as making moccasins or beading a dress), and they usually own property and even have their own brand mark for horses and cattle. Some of them are medicine women. These women, usually well over 50 years of age, are able to dominate their husbands and inherit their property. At least in the past, their husbands had nothing to say about household matters and had to consult their chief wife to get their consent about domestic and business matters. According to Lewis, Manly-hearted women were known to dress very well, with fine leggings embroidered with porcupine qulls, for instance. They dispensed with the shawl and blanket that other women had about them. It used to be quite common for them to talk and argue in conversation with men, using obscenities, telling off-color jokes, and with their sharp tongues exposed others to ridicule and humiliation. Often their boldness led to quarrels and physical violence. These women were sexually passionate, aggressive in bed and were the subject of much gossip. They often ended up driving out the lower wives by mistreating them and causing many arguments. Of course, in the West the movement to establish equal rights for women in the past few decades has resulted in a wave of female aggressiveness unknown in previous eras. Women have entered into professions that were formerly completely dominated by men. Women have won the right to an abortion, whereas it used to be a criminal offense (and still is with respect to late term abortions except to save the life of the mother). Women are no longer expected to be “stay-at-home” moms, except for those who choose to do so, and unwed mothers are not stigmatized as they once were. AVOIDANCE TABOO In many cultures, particularly among villagers in in Papua New Guinea, there is a certain male-female hostility and avoidance. According to Lidz (1989): The dichotomy between men and women is among the most striking aspect of New Guinea societies, particularly in the highlands. The women are derogated and despised. They are forbidden to enter the cult houses on pain of death; and may, to the outsider, seem to be treated as little more than beasts of burden. The man, particularly in most of the highlands but also in other regions, fear the polluting and even lethal qualities of female sexual fluids and emanations, which leads to a separation of the sexes more or less in proportion to the severity of the fears of the noxious qualities of the female libido. Women share the belief that their vaginal secretions and odor and particularly menstrual blood are antipathetic and even



potentially lethal to men’s virility and health. Men, particularly young men, are weakened and their health undermined not only by frequent intercourse but even by frequent contact with women. In most regions, though not all, boys cannot mature into men if they continue to live with their mothers. The dangers of the female libido and women’s emanations and exudations thus have a profound influence on the social structure, interpersonal relations, and child rearing.... A man will say of his sister, or rather of his sister’s vagina, that it is “the road along which pigs come.” (p. 31) There is a particularly overt fear of female contamination and pollution during times of menstruation, childbirth and sexual intercourse. Not only in that culture, but in many others it continues to be a common taboo for men to avoid menstruating women. In addition, it is not uncommon during planting season for men to abstain from sexual intercourse, for that would have a blunting effect on preparation of the garden, or destroy the effects of all magic made over the plants. In many cultures it is also customary to avoid sexual intercourse before a band of warriors go an a foray-for at least a day before, during and a day after the fight, as intercourse would remove the effects of war magic. In some cultures intercourse during pregnancy is thought to cause premature births, or that any evil in the husband will be transmitted through her to the child. Thus, it is taboo for a man to have intercourse with his wife for the entire period of pregnancy, during which time the man in a monogamous marriage might well have have intrigues with other women, or if he has other wives, there will be little interruption of his sexual life. According to Lidz (1989), it was the practice among the necrophagic Fore tribe of the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea for a man to eat the vagina of a dead sister, but not of a deceased wife, as that would endanger his health (p. 33). Lidz further notes that it was obligatory in the Fore tribe and the Bimin-Kuskusmin, to eat dead relatives, or at least portions of their bodies, to preserve their spirits (p. 35). Maddock (1970) found that in Aboriginal Australia there is a very strict avoidance taboo between men and their sisters: one avoids the company of his sister, doesn’t even pronounce her name, doesn’t eat food cooked by her, drink tea boiled by her, smoke her pipe or a cigarette rolled by her, nor drink from her cup or sleep in her blankets. Objects pass between them through an intermediary. According to Maddock, there is one exception to this brother-sister avoidance taboo, and that is the peculiar custom called mirriri-which as far as I know still exists. In this custom the brother is entitled-indeed required-to come into the presence of his sister and attack her under certain circumstances. It involves a man making an armed assault on his sister if he overhears her husband or someone else swear at his sister in a quarrel. The quarrel between the husband and wife might be over money or something trivial, but the utterance must be especially insulting or obscene to qualify for mirriri (e.g., making insulting remarks about her sexual organs and appetite, or making an accusation of sexual improprieties). Maddock reports that if the brother hears the insult at the time it is uttered-he must act as follows: He will arm himself with spears, boomerangs or with sticks, in preparation of attacking his sister. The woman, knowing her brother is going to attack her, will usually run for cover, and others might try and restrain the brother. If the brother catches her he will attack her with the whatever weapon he has at hand, sometimes inflicting serious injuries. Afterwards, according to this custom, the sister is entitled to leave her husband if she so wishes, and take up with another man. Of course, this custom seems absurd: The chivalrous thing to do, it would seem, would be for the brother to attack his brother-in-law or other person who has insulted his sister, or stay out of the fracas altogether. One theory is that the brother, first of all, wants to retain relations between clans so he directs his anger to the sister rather than her husband in order to avoid conflict. The incest taboo also is a factor in that the brother publicly demonstrates his revulsion at the thought of his sister’s genitalia (which is usually the “object” of obscene remarks in a quarrel between husband and wife). It is to punish her for having her sexuality suddenly and dramatically thrust upon his attention. HONOR KILLINGS In various Middle East cultures, honor killings are a longstanding cultural practice in which family members will attack a female relative-by stoning, stabbing, beating or shooting, in order to kill her for bringing dishonor to her


John Alan Cohan

family or clan. This practice is thought to be “rooted in patriarchal norms of male superiority and control and female inferiority and obedience, encased in familial and social and economic structures of inequality, terrorizing women and perpetuating gender conformity and oppression”(Copelon, 2003, p 872). The dishonor is usually the result of violating sexual taboos such as engaging in premarital sex or extramarital relations, elopement with a man not approved by her parents, or a romantic involvement with someone disapproved by the girl’s family. A man who feels such an act has dishonoured the family will kill the woman in question as a means of restoring that honour. Motives for honour killing, however, have started to expand beyond female adultery, targeting women for enjoying basic freedoms.. (O’Toole, 2009). Honor killings are a worldwide phenomenon, particularly in the Middle East and Asia, including Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, India, and Jordan. The United Nations’s Human Rights Commission has also reported honor killings in Britain, Canada, the United States, throughout Europe, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Brazil, Egypt, Morocco, Sweden, and Uganda (Ageng’o 2009). Currently, the United Nations Population Fund estimates that there are 5,000 honor killings per year (Ageng’o 2009), although the number is likely somewhat greater given the fact that these crimes frequently go unreported (Madek, 2005, p. 56). Moreover, the accuracy of statistics on the number of honor killings in given countries are suspect because as many of the killings are hidden as suicides or accidents (Feldner, 2000, p. 41). It is estimated that in Pakistan on average three women a day die in honor killings (Coutts, 2009). In Turkey it is estimated there were about 1,000 honor killings in a five-year period (Worthington, 2009). And in that country there has emerged a way for parents to avoid engaging in killing their daughter who has disobeyed them: “honor suicide,” in which the parents seek to convince the girl to kill herself in order to spare them a possible prison sentence for murder (Worthington, 2009). Pervizat (2003) found that in some instances an honor killing might be motivated simply because a woman believes, or is perceived to believe, in values that are in conflict with the norms of her culture (p. 30). According to Pervizat, once the family decides, whether rightly or wrongly, that an assault on the family’s honor has occurred, the shame and humiliation cry out for swift revenge. This can only be atoned by death of the woman or girl who has violated the prevailing moral norms. “[H]er male relatives cannot walk in the village with heads high. To reclaim their manhood in the eyes of other men, they cleanse their honor by stabbing or sometimes stoning her [to death]” (p. 31). Pervizat found that adherents to the practice of honor killings believe that this form of violence, however horrendous, is deemed a “family problem” or a “domestic situation” (p. 30). Even a minor indiscretion, such as talking to a man who is not a relative, will bring dishonor-not only upon herself, but upon her husband, parents, siblings, children, aunts, uncles and cousins-and in tribal communities this dishonor may extend to her entire clan or even the entire tribe. Women are killed for refusal to wear head coverings, having a love poem written in their name, calling a radio station to request a favorite song (Pervizat, p. 31), or arguing with parents over clothes (Worthington, 2009). Even flirting or failing to serve a meal on time can be perceived as destroying family honor (Stephenson, 2010). In one bizarre case a man killed his wife after he dreamed she was unfaithful, feeling the killing was justified on that basis (Coutts, 2009). In another case a man in Gaza City was accused of bludgeoning his daughter to death with an iron chain in a brutal honor killing, after discovering that his daughter owned a cell phone (Jawad, 2009). He suspected that she used it to speak to a man not related to the family. In Pakistan, a well-publicized honor killing involved Samia Sarwar was reported by Waheed (2004). After she sustained ongoing physical abuse by her husband in an arranged marriage, she told her parents that she was getting a divorce. Her parents were upset about the shame this would bring to the family, and soon everyone in the family turned against Sarwar. Her mother, on a ruse, arranged to meet Sarwar at her lawyer’s office. The mother was accompanied by a hired gunman, who shot and killed Sarwar on the spot, and attempted to kill the lawyer as well. The gunman was never arrested, and subsequently the lawyer and her law partner, both of whom are prominent



Pakistani women’s rights lawyers, were subjected to fatwas by religious organizations in Peshawar, declaring them “kafirs” or “nonbelievers,” thereby encouraging all Muslims to kill them (Hussain, 2006, p. 242). The two lawyers have been subjected to ongoing death threats, while the authorities have done nothing to protect them (Waheed, 2004, pp. 958-959). Honor killings predate all modern religions, and originated among ancient desert tribes (Ruane, 2000, p. 1530). According to one Muslim tribal leader, “Men’s honor comes before the Book” (Pervizat, 2003, p. 31). The justification for honor killings is not based on the Koran or any related Muslim teachings (Pervizat, 2003, p. 31). Chapter 4:15 of the Koran states that if women are “guilty of lewdness, confine them to houses until death do claim them.” This does not seem to mandate killing but simply suggests that some sort of severe punishment is in order for women who exhibit offending behavior. Honor killings are often based on false allegations. Whether or not the woman in question has actually done something that defiles the honor of her family or is simply the subject of gossip and false rumors does not matter: “Only the public perception of honor matters and ultimately provides the catalyst for thousands of murders. If the woman shames the family, then she must die-only ‘blood cleanses honor’” (Ruane, 2000, p. 1532). According to Arnold (2001), Lack of verification as to whether illicit sexual activity actually occurred results in a high percentage of mistaken honor killings, because male suspicion of immoral activity is often based on rumor and is factually unfounded (p. 1360). According to Momen Hadidi, head of Jordan’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, most female victims of honor killings stemming from accusation of illicit sexual relations are found to be virgins during the autopsy, bolstering the argument that most honor crimes turn out to be based on false suspicions (Hazaimeh, 2009). Dr. Hadidi was quoted as saying that “killers based their judgements of the victims on mere suspicions that they had improper relationships” (Hazaimeh, 2009). Another aspect of honor killings pertains to the not uncommon practice in the Middle East for women or girls who are rape victims to be killed by relatives. A shocking but not atypical example was reported by Husseini (2009): A 16-year-old girl in Amman, Jordan, became pregnant after being raped by two relatives. She delivered a baby boy, following which her uncle decided to kill her in the name of family honor. He went to the girl’s room at night and shot her nine times while she was asleep. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Honor killings or other attacks against women are sometimes a means of punishing a man for wrongs he has committed. For instance, Castetter (2003) reported about a Pakistani tribal council case of a twelve-year-old boy who was accused of having an illicit affair with a woman of another tribe. According to Castetter, to restore the honor of the woman and her tribe, the council ruled that a member of the boy’s family needed to be disgraced. They ordered the boy’s sister to be gang raped in order to restore honor of the woman of the other tribe (p. 543). The “sentence” was immediately carried out, his sister was dragged to a hut by men from the other tribe and gang raped while a crowd jeered, and she was then forced to walk home naked (p. 545). There are many other instances where women have been used as a vehicle through which restoration of honor might be achieved, such as acid throwings. Like honor killings, acid throwings are invariably premeditated (Shah, 2009). “To change the appearance of a woman by maiming or burning her, or to sexually assault her or kill her, devalues her worth to the family and dishonors the family” (Gonzalez, 2000/2001, p. 23). Honor killings might be explained, to some degree, by the fact that the apparatus of the State might not be prepared to punish the women who have denigrated the honor of their family-although in some instances we see the government police stepping in, arresting the offending woman (for drinking in public, going about without an escort, and similar offenses to Islamic sensibilities). For an adulterer, stoning her to death might be endorsed by the Islamic courts, and for less egregious offense public lashings might be imposed. In Malaysia, for instance, authorities sentenced a Muslim woman to whipping for drinking alcohol in the lobby of a hotel in a case that got international attention in 2009 (Fuller, 2009). While Malaysia is a multi-cultural country with a secular leaning, half of the


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population of 27 million is Muslim, and Islamic laws are on the books, enforced against Muslims by a huge bureaucracy. The family might deeply resent it if the State refuses to punish the woman, for whatever reason, or if the law does not even consider the wrong to be a crime at all. Honor killings are almost always of women, but an honor killing in Turkey involved a twenty-six-year old gay man. As reported by Bilefsky (2009), Ahmet Yildiz chose to live an openly gay lifestyle, and this provoked his father to hunt him down in Istanbul, more than 600 miles from his hometown, shooting him to death as he left his apartment to buy ice cream. Afterwards, according to Bilefsky, his family refused to claim his body. A cousin who was interviewed by Bilefsky said, “Ahmet’s father had warned him to return to their village and to see a doctor and imam in order to cure him of his homosexuality and get married, but Ahmet refused.” Ahmet had filed a complaint with the local prosecutor’s office about his family’s threats to kill him, but the office had refused to investigate or provide him with protection. Another young man, Didar Erdal, fled from Ahmet’s home town and moved to the Netherlands after his family learned he was gay. He said that his father had ordered him home so that the tribal elders could decide his fate. Bilefsky quoted Didar as saying, “I know all too well what the tradition demands must happen to me.”


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CHAPTER 23 Child Rearing and the Treatment of Children in Primitive Cultures Abstract. There is great diversity among cultures in the way children are reared and treated as they grow up. In many cultures there is a strict taboo prohibiting any contact or communication between brother and sister, so as to avoid incest. In some cultures mothers tend to hold their children away from them, avoid eye contact, and generally minimize emotional responses of their infants. In other cultures people avoid punishing children for fear that their sensitive little souls may leave them and they will die, whereas in some cultures even young children are severely punished if they cry too much. It is not uncommon for parents to arrange marriages while their children are still very young. Among the Druze people, it is believed that the soul of the deceased reincarnates into a newborn baby almost immediately. Among the Beng people, infants are thought to be capable of understanding all languages spoken to them. Until recent times, in primitive cultures it was the custom to sacrifice the first-born child of a family. This seems to have been a kind of sympathetic magic in which the parents offered their firstborn in exchange for favors bestowed by the gods. Among the Berawan people it is the custom for parents to give up their babies for adoption if certain bad omens occur during the mother’s pregnancy. The custom of couvade still exists in many parts of the world, whereby the father of a newborn child must lie in bed for at least a month, with the child by his side, while the mother carries on her usual activities.

INTRODUCTION There is great diversity among cultures in the way children are reared and treated as they grow up. The length of breast-feeding varies considerably, for example. Norms regarding how to respond to a baby’s crying vary dramatically. The way fathers interact with their children also varies considerably among cultures. DISCIPLINE OF CHILDREN On the atoll of the northeast Solomons (known as Lord Howe), there are about 100 small coral islands, with two main tribes. Infants are given their mother’s breast until age four unless there is a newer baby. They are “toilet trained” early on at the beach. Their crying is quickly appeased with whatever they want. They learn to walk by themselves. Fathers cannot be with the babies until after 12 months, and then dote on them. In many cultures there is a strict taboo prohibiting any contact or communication between brother and sister, so as to avoid incest. In Java, for instance, a long-standing custom is that boys are not allowed to play with their sisters at all, nor with other girls (Hogbin, 1931). This taboo extends until the siblings are well into their adult years. In fact, the taboo in some cultures is so strong that even uttering the name of the sibling of the opposite sex is prohibited. In addition, no one ever makes any contact with foodstuff belonging to his or her sibling (These items are thought to be invested with the person’s mana and are therefore an indirect means of contact). In these cultures, if a brother and sister should by chance bump into each other, they immediately experience intense shame and instantly run away from one another (Hogbin, 1931). There is also a widespread taboo between a man and his mother-in-law. Among the Sebei of East Africa, mothers tend to hold their children away from them, avoid eye contact, and generally minimize emotional responses of their infants. As adults, the people tend to be remarkably controlled, detached and calculating in their interactions. The Battaks believe one should not frighten children or punish them severely because their sensitive little souls may leave them and they will die; this is especially so with infants. As we saw in chapter 9 (“Envy and the Evil Eye”), in evil eye cultures people take great care to protect their young children with amulets and covering them up from the eyes of strangers in public. McAllister (1941) reported that the Blackfoot poured water down the nose of infants who cried too much, and later threatened the child with the same discipline if it didn’t stop crying. This threat of bundling the child’s head in a blanket or throwing water in his face was constantly employed as a means of control over children-as punishment for fighting, talking back or otherwise annoying their mother. Sometimes older boys would take pleasure in finding John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.


John Alan Cohan

a child asleep and subjecting him to the cold plunge in the river-a kind of teasing. Boys could not express their fear because they would be called cowardly. The culture also had supernatural water-beings that were monsters to be feared; there were taboos on creatures connected with the water (The Crow and Blackfoot would not eat fish, though it was abundant, because it would offend the under-water people. It seems to be a phobia connected with the anxiety about water). BETROTHAL OF CHILDREN In Taiwan and other parts of Asia, not long ago (particularly in the 1930’s) parents arranged marriages while their children were very young. The girl went to live with the boy’s family, and was brought up with him and the other siblings in his family. When they got married at puberty, there was a tendency for their sex lives to be unsatisfactory, so that men often had extramarital affairs (but not the women for fear of greater ostracism). The idea is that there is associative incest taboo with those with whom one grows up with. The Nivkh people of Siberia also betrothed their children-as infants even-to another family’s son or daughter, and the girl would usually come and live with the boy’s family early in life, just as in Taiwan, and then marry at puberty. However, there is no reporting of, or at least no apparent research on, whether their sexual relations were affected once they were married. INCEST TABOO: EXCEPTION With few exceptions, all cultures have an incest taboo. The only exception to the incest taboo appears to have been dynastic incest between brother and sister, which was the norm with respect to the royal houses of ancient Egypt, Siam, Madagascar and more recently Hawaii, which required brother-sister marriage as a religious obligation, but this was never extended to an entire society. Different cultures have a different degree of kinship in which the incest taboo ceases to hold; for instance many regard it permissible for cousins to mate; while no society appears to have ever condoned sexual relations between parent and child. The incest taboo does not appear to have any particular biological or other connection to human nature, yet is nearly a universal taboo. Does the incest taboo have to do with a deeply rooted intuition shared by all human beings that sexual intimacy is incompatible with family affection and respect, or is it there to prevent sexual jealousies and rivalries within the family? Belo (1936) found that in Bali some years ago there was an exception to the incest taboo. Balinese folklore contains many examples of boy and girl twins who married and brought forth a tribe, or a line of kings. Thus, there is a certain feeling that boy and girl twins are intended to be man and wife, despite the incest taboo. At the same time, the Balinese believe that the birth of boy and girl twins is unnatural because the twins were thought to have had a too intimate contact in the womb. Their birth would bring famine and disaster on the village, unless averted by the temporary banishment of the children and their parents, followed by purification rites. After these measures were taken, and when the twins had grown up, they could marry, for their incestuous connection is considered to be already atoned for. And as is well known, in ancient Egypt it was not uncommon for the prince and princess of the pharaoh to join in matrimony. REINCARNATION OF DEAD CHILDREN The Druze people live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, mainly in small and close-knit villages. They are an independent Arabic religious community that diverged from Islam in the 11th century. They believe that at death one’s soul immediately transmigrates to a baby of the same sex born at around the same time. Indeed, in many cultures it is believed that the soul of the deceased reincarnates into a newborn baby almost immediately. What is particularly interesting among the Druze is that past-life memories are common among the Druze children. People who have past-life memories are known to be Nateqeen. Often children have specific memories of the names of their past-life spouse, parents or siblings. Because these communities are close-knit, it is relatively easy to investigate and confirm the past-life identity of these children. For instance, if the child believes that he has died in an automobile accident and “remembers” what his past life mother’s name was-this information can readily be investigated. If found to be true, a meeting will be arranged with

Child Rearing and the Treatment of Children in Primitive Cultures


the past-life family, and the child will be joyously received into that family. The child will usually develop a good and active relationship between the past-life family and the present family. The two families often become one big family (Dwairy, 2006). Given that many cultures embrace reincarnation as well as ancestor worship, the question arises-how is it possible to worship a deceased ancestor if that individual’s soul is reincarnated with the birth of a new life? The answer is explained in the Beng culture of Africa. The people believe, as the Druze, that a deceased individual is reincarnated almost immediately after his or her death. They also engage in ancestor worship. The idea is that once someone dies, the soul is transfered into a spirit form. When that person is reincarnated into someone else, the spirit continues to exist as an ancestor in a place called wrugbe, and is capable of appearing as a ghost, while the soul gets reincarnated in the newborn baby. There is thus a double existence where the individual exists simultaneously at two very different levels of reality: one in the newly born individual, and the other in the spirit realm (Gottlieb, 1998). Also among the Beng people, infants are thought to be capable of understanding all languages spoken to them. Mothers and caretakers address infants frequently, even newborns. They encourage babies to babble as much as they want, remarking on it and taking great delight in it, except when it interferes with adult conversations (In situations where a baby’s babbling proves distracting, caretakers might say, “Stop your speaking!” as if the infant were an older child, in an effort to teach norms of politeness). There is a high level of speech addressed by people directly to infants. The people believe that infants are profoundly spiritual in that they are still tied to the “spirit village” or waystation-the realm of wrugbe. It is there that a person travels once the person’s body dies, and it is from there that souls come into a new human existence. In that place all the world’s ethnic groups dwell in harmony, and everyone understands the language of everybody else. Gottlieb (1998) found that the people believe that infants have a divided consciousness, sometimes centered in wrugbe and sometimes in this world. Thus, children have limited understanding of what’s going on in this life, until they get older. Infants who cry a lot are homesick for wrugbe, or are seeking to communicate a spiritual need. Parents will seek to understand this by consulting diviners as intermediaries between the living and spirits in wrugbe. Since infants have only recently emerged from wrugbe, they have full comprehension of all the world’s languages. As children get older this knowledge gradually diminishes, and they adopt the language spoken in their culture. It has been widely reported that sometimes the Inuit will “change” a child’s gender and bring up the child as a member of the opposite sex. Boys may be raised as girls and vice versa. Sometimes this is done in order to reincarnate a dead child or another relative who was of the opposite sex from the new infant, and sometimes it is done because the parents had wanted a child of the opposite sex from the infant, often for practical reasons. If all the previous children had been girls, a new hunter would be needed; or if the previous children had been boys, the first priority might be to have another helper in the home. Such children are dressed and groomed as members of the opposite sex and taught the skills of that sex (Briggs, 1991, pp. 265-266). SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN Throughout biblical history, and continuing in primitive cultures until recent times, it was the custom to sacrifice the first-born child of a family. In the Bible we see that when the king of Moab was besieged by the Israelites, he took his son and sacrificed him on the rampart as a burnt offering. The prophet Micah said: “Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah, 5:6-8). Yahweh himself required sacrifice of first-born sons: “The first-born of thy sons shalt thou give unto me” (Exodus, 23:29). The sacrifice of the first-born son was always in the nature of an atonement for the sins of the father. Until recent times this practice continued in primitive cultures. This seems to have been a kind of sympathetic magic in which the mother and father offered their “first and finest” in exchange for the sacrifice of the gods for a bountiful harvest. According to Frazer (1927):


John Alan Cohan

In some tribes of New South Wales the first-born child of every woman was eaten by the tribe as part of a religious ceremony.... The natives of Rook, an island off the east coast of New Guinea, used to kill all their first-born children.... In India, down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, the custom of sacrificing a first-born child to the Ganges was common.... In Uganda if the first-born child of a chief or any important person is a son, the midwife strangles it and reports that the infant was still-born.... The Kutonaqa Indians of British Columbia worship the sun and sacrifice their first-born children to him (Part III, p. 179). And in many cultures, if an infant is born badly deformed, this is an offense to the entire community; the abomination threatens the dividing line between human and non-human beings. The women will kill the malformed infant and withdraw. The people then perform purification rituals. ADOPTION The Berawan people are located along the Baram River of central Sarawak, Borneo. All together, there are about 1,500 of them. They were to some extent relocated in the mid 1980’s as Mulu National Park, now a World Heritage site, was developed. Today most of the people are Christians, although there are overtones of the old nativistic revivalist religion. Metcalf (1974) found that an interesting feature of this culture is that a high proportion of their children are given up for adoption (about 15%). The people believe that certain bad omens and evil fortunes can be overcome by giving their babies up for adoption. For instance, according to Metcalf, it is considered unnatural and a bad omen if a baby is born in a position called sangakam-face downwards. If a child of such a birth gets ill, this is considered a particularly bad sign, and parents will immediately search for a new home for the child. The bad omen is usually directed to the parents, not the baby. So, if they fail to give the child away they run the risk of illness or early death themselves. However, some signs might indicate bad luck and probable illness for the child itself, unless it is adopted. According to Metcalf, if bad omens are encountered before the birth, the parents might decide even before the baby is born to give the baby away immediately after birth. A bad omen prior to birth might occur if the father encountered the decomposing remains of a large animal while his wife was pregnant. Or a bad omen might simply consist of bad dreams prior to the child’s birth. In some cases even if there are no prior signs, a child that gets chronically sick is diagnosed by the shaman as “bad luck,” and adoption is called for so that all concerned may overcome this bad omen. The shaman may “select” the new parents by holding out a pack of ordinary playing cards to various kinsmen, neighbors and visitors who are present. Each person will draw three cards. The person with the highest total face value of cards is the “winner,” i.e., becomes the adoptive parent. The child’s health is said to improve once the adoption takes place. Sometimes the birth mother will continue to be involved at least in breast feeding until age four (particularly if the adoptive parent is an unmarried man). Metcalf reports that the formality of placing the child into the hands of adoptive parents (or a single adoptive parent), is in and of itself, the way of escaping the bad omen. In many instances, the two families are closely related, so that the child will continue to have contact with the birth parents. Often enough the child might end up spending little time with his adoptive family, choosing to spend most of his time in the apartments of his natural parents. The adopted child, in his late teens, may decide to move back to his natal family and join his other birth siblings. The effects of the bad omen are deemed “cured” once the adoption takes place, so moving back to the natal home does not retrigger the effects of the bad omen. In any event, the adopted child maintains close relations with both the adoptive and biological parents. The shaman will usually perform an adoption ritual with the adopting parents at their prayer site. The shaman’s tray may have sliced eggs, tobacco, betel nut, cooked rice wrapped in little packets, and arack (rice spirit)-for

Child Rearing and the Treatment of Children in Primitive Cultures


refreshment to the spirit helpers of the shaman. The shaman makes prayers, sprinkles chicken blood from a sacrificed chicken over the wrists of the child, and ties beads onto the child’s wrist (to tie the child firmly into his new family). The other children of the adopting parents are involved in the ritual: the shaman will insure that their souls will not become jealous of the new child, as this would otherwise cause their souls to wander from their bodies, and lead to illness. Rice wine is served to everyone afterwards. COUVADE The custom of couvade still exists in China, India, Malaysia, Borneo, parts of South America and Africa. The father of a newborn child must lie in bed for a certain period, usually at least a month, with the child by his side, while the mother who has just given birth carries on her usual activities. Under this custom, the father must be treated as an invalid or else disaster will result. Also, it is said that since the life of the husband is more valuable than his wife’s, it is fitting that more care should be taken of him. There are usually food taboos during the man’s period of confinement. Frazer says that there are two types of couvade: one, pre-natal couvade (or pseudo-maternal couvade) in which the husband imitates the wife’s labor, practiced for the benefit of the mother in order to relieve her of labor pains (Munroe, Munroe & Whiting, 1973). The other is the post-natal couvade (or dietetic couvade), in which the husband observes a strict diet and regimen, for the benefit of the newborn child, for the father is thought to be intimately connected to the child so that all his acts affect and may even hurt or kill the baby. Both couvades rest on imitative magic-the belief that relations between things correspond to those between ideas, or that, through imitation of a process, the process itself is actually brought about. According to Munroe et al., there is a psychoanalytic explanation for couvade, particularly with regard to the taboos against keeping sharp weapons and cutting instruments in the house during the father’s confinement. The father must not touch any weapons during his couvade, or kill or eat any animals. Perhaps these taboos are forbidden substitutive actions to compensate for an unconscious death wish towards the child: The new father has a strange new being coming into his home, for whom he is responsible as provider; he has little affection towards the newborn, not yet, and is not happy over his obligation to support the new family member. On the contrary, he has an unconscious wish to kill the child. Thus, these taboos find their origin as protective measures instituted to counter the hostile tendencies of fathers. In other parts of this book we have touched upon the treatment and rearing of children in diverse cultures, and here we have simply explored some further points of interest. Many anthropologists have contributed to this topic over the years, perhaps most notably Margaret Mead in her very readable tome, Growing Up In New Guinea. As we have previously seen, children, particularly boys, are doted upon by their parents and given unusual free reign well up to the time of puberty. Often children are fed at the mother’s breast until age four unless another baby has come into the family. Children are objects of special protection in the many cultures that observe the evil eye, for fear that envious others will inflict harm on them. In Papua New Guinea, until recent times, men would go on raids to capture the heads of other villagers-for the purpose of acquiring a head-name for their children. One thing that seems clear is that children are children the world over-that is, the “language and thought of the child”-their imaginary life, their love of play, their affinity with animism-as noted in chapter 5 in our discussion of Jean Piaget’s The Child’s Conception of the World-is something that transcends cultures.

PART VIII: WHEN MODERN CULTURE MEETS PRIMITIVE CULTURE, AND A CASE STUDY

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CHAPTER 24 Cargo Cults Abstract. Cargo cults are a phenomenon that has been noted in many cultures and is associated with charismatic leaders who seek to lead people into a millennialist-type movement. Cargo cults seemed to have started in the 1930s, when the people of Papua New Guinea and other parts of Oceania reacted with wonderment and fear to European colonists, their airplanes their weapons and their seeming wealth. People who join the cargo cult have the expectation that cargo will magically be delivered to each of the participants via plane or boat. In their shared disdain of Europeans, people enjoyed a new unity as a result of cult membership. People enjoyed an increase in self-respect, a strengthening of community cohesion, a sense of purpose or mission. The cargo never materializes, the charismatic leader is discredited, and inevitably the cult dissolves and people get back to their former way of life. In modern cultures a counterpart to cargo cults occurs when people rally behind charismatic leaders who emerge at a time of crisis when there is a mood for a new beginning, and who make an emotional appeal into the people’s yearnings. These leaders may become dictators, and after promises fail to get fulfilled, popular support dissipates, and the charismatic leaders get ousted.

HOW DID CARGO CULTS GET STARTED? Messianic movements have long been a staple of many cultures throughout the world. These movements engage the supernatural together with apocalyptic and millennial elements. In modern society we have seen many “millennialist” or “end-of-time” movements, even as the year 2000 approached. Virtually all of these movements end in disappointment for adherents-that is, the end times do not materialize, life goes on, and the dreams of an otherworldly utopia are dashed. In this chapter we will explore the phenomenon of cargo cults, a magical nativistic movement that from time to time has gained a stronghold in various Melanesian groups. According to Mooney (1991), in the 1890s American Indians subscribed to a messianic theme that “the time will come when the whole Indian race, living and dead, will be reunited upon a regenerated earth, to live a life of aboriginal happiness, forever free from death, disease, and misery” (p. 777). A religious ceremony developed in which hundreds of people participated in the Ghost Dance, lasting all night. Dancing with intense excitement, people would fall into ecstatic trances in which they would come face-to-face with the messiah. Mooney found that frequent participation in the dance was something of a religious duty, and was thought to “ward off disease and restore the sick to health, this applying not only to the actual participants, but also their children and friends” (p. 786). The predicted Indian millennium, or “return of the ghosts,” would be marked by the annihilation of the white man and the Indian would again reign supreme. Leaders of various tribes claimed to have visited the messiah, usually during the Ghost Dance ceremonies, and delivered sermons in which the new religion was preached. According to Moody, when the end-time arrives the people thought that “a deep sleep will come on the believers, during which the great catastrophe will be accomplished, and the faithful will awake to immortality on a new earth” (p. 786). Inglis (1957) theorizes that cargo cults got going in the 1930s, when the people of Papua New Guinea and other parts of Oceania saw airplanes for the first time. The people reacted to these strange “creatures,” calling them the “Mother Bird of the Sky,” with wonderment and fear. They saw many white aliens coming out from these “birds” when they landed. After a time the European presence was not only feared, but the power of the intruders was perhaps an object of envy. The material goods of these Europeans-their gadgets, their clothing, their manner, their power-were somewhat alluring. After a time the people became increasingly familiar with Europeans, and received various goods, such as axes, rifles, canned meat, salt and fabrics, in exchange for labor. According to Reed (1958), they viewed the Europeans as a possible source of wealth, but how to obtain wealth for themselves was deeply puzzling. As a result, the cargo cult movement emerged. The expression “cargo cult” first of all has the connotation of paying homage to a divine being or to a particular person or thing by a group of admirers or adherents, with the expectation that “cargo” will be delivered to the people. John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Cargo Cults


Cargo cults emerged mainly in Melanesian cultures, and to a very small extent in Polynesian and Micronesian cultures. Cargo cults are associated with “end times” movements that still occur in Melanesia. With cargo cults there is a sudden and radical shift in which the people await the delivery of goods to them by supernatural forces. A “cargo” of European goods will be sent by ancestral ghosts or other spirits, and arrive by helicopter, ship or plane, already labeled in crates. The cargo cults of Melanesia involve ritual practices designed to secure European riches (“cargo”) from a supernatural source. They display the same note of expectancy and waiting for an imminent deliverance. Such movements are normally said to be produced by a sense of blockage and deprivation, experienced by those unintegrated and disoriented members of society to whom ordinary political action seems to offer no hope or relief (Thomas, 1971, p. 170). Sometimes a leader will claim a revelation from a dream or hallucination, and announce a great future event, or the end of the world, and may even provide the specific date. The leader of the cult will lead everyone not only out of misery, poverty and oppression, but to an afterlife of eternal salvation. Followers will make preparations to deal with the expected changes. People will build wharves, airstrips or helipads in preparation for the ancestral spirits who are to bring in the highly valued cargo. People might neglect their gardens and kill their livestock on the theory that they will no longer be needed. New customs, beliefs and practices are adopted, new clothing may be adopted, and new systems of law and ethics also came into being. When the cargo fails to arrive, the people often theorize that cargo ships were diverted by the unscrupulous Europeans who wish to deny their right to wealth. Or, given that in this culture responsibility for misfortune is often ascribed to “others” who fail to observe taboos or otherwise fail to conform to norms- people might target certain non-conforming villagers for blame. The Administration and the Government Council, as well as missionaries, were opposed to cargo cults, but they continued to flourish. EXPLANATION OF CARGO CULTS It is an intriguing puzzle as to how cargo cults get started and what motivates people to participate in them. Why do cargo cults occur at all? How are we to interpret cargo cult behavior? Why does cult behavior occur in the context of rapid social change? Various factors apparently converged to make the time ripe for cargo cults. Cargo cults emerge in cultures such as Melanesia where primitive people come into sudden contact with a domineering “modern” culture. There are social, political and economic factors as well as oppression from the dominant culture that help us understand the phenomenon. The arrival of Europeans, with their strange ways and apparently endless material prosperity, coming out of nowhere, seems to have been a catalyst. Cargo cults seem to be a reaction to the pressures for social change that is a product of European penetration. Europeans were more powerful economically, politically and even physically, through the possession of firearms. Anxious to share the wealth of Europeans and unable to achieve their ends by any of the means open to them, the people believed that the Europeans deliberately withheld their bounty from them. Cargo cults also may have been a “moral protest” in response to disrespectful and even brutal treatment by Europeans. The native Melanesian-and this is true in many other cultures-were faced with a continual series of dilemmas, as discussed by Hogbin (1958): Should he seek employment to earn money for the purchase of goods that are now so necessary, or stay at home to grow food for his family and care for his aging parents? Should he carry out the instructions of


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the agricultural officer and gather the ripening harvest in his coffee plantation, a crop his grandfather had never heard of, or fulfill his tribal responsibilities and attend the protracted funeral ceremonies of a chief in some distant village? Should he accept the judgment of his headman, who now has no power to enforce it but at least knows all the surrounding circumstances intimately, or take the charge to a European magistrate and submit to the tedious, and to him meaningless, procedure of the white man’s law? Should he spend his money on a new pair of trousers, which he badly needs, or pay the traditional dues to his chief? Should he listen to the missionaries who say that he is morally entitled to choose a bride for himself, or accept the stranger selected for him according to ancient usage by his kinsmen? Should he be strictly monogamous even if his one wife is barren or take an extra spouse to ensure the continuity of his clan? These and similar problems are cropping up all the time (pp. 38-39). Indigenous people became demoralized by the loss of their traditional way of life with the introduction of new morals and customs by the Europeans. Antagonism developed, coupled with resentment over the Europeans’ material advantages. There was a feeling of being exploited, resentment of colonial government, and the desire for liberation. Cargo cults gave the hope for a quick improvement of their situation. One might say that the people are foolish and gullible, believing that Europeans did not have to work for material goods. Particularly early in the cargo cult movements, they did not understand industrial processes such as manufacturing of the steel which forms the blade of a European axe or an automobile assembly line. To their animistic way of thinking, the physical and spiritual worlds are united into one comprehensive system. Agricultural and hunting success are a product of supernatural forces, and material prosperity is the gift of ancestral spirits. If villagers do not have command over material resources, this is due to some wrongdoing, disobedience, or taboo violations. To us, the people seem to resort to solutions that we might regard as irrational fantasies, but to them the idea of ancestors or other supernatural agents coming to their aid is firmly embedded in their thinking and is not regarded as irrational. To people the world over, there is often a pull to seek supernatural deliverance from misfortune, to hope for a savior or to be rescued or to attain a bounty without going through the ordinary steps of “hard work.” We see this in segments of the population that seek out unrealistic financial gain through fantastic schemes-Ponzi schemes, for instance. And even in economic downturns, believers in the “prosperity gospel” movement donate generously to preachers who promise that God will multiply their offerings a hundredfold (Goodstein, 2009). Cargo cults fit into this existing belief system of the Melanesians, who have cargo cults because they live in a tradition of magical and religious explanations of the world. This means that when they are faced with an intellectual problem the first and uncriticized assumption they make is “this has magico-religious explanation.” (Jarvie, 1963, p. 17) Throughout history we see movements where a society is stimulated into collective action due to persecution by outsiders, where the familiar way of life has become disrupted. The time is ripe for a charismatic leader to come upon the scene and offer assurances of greater material well-being and removal of the oppressive yoke. Thus, when a peoples’ way of life is disrupted by the intrusion of a “superior people,” and they are unable to assimilate new and difficult ideasthe native, faced with the collapse of many expectations and a multitude of new facts to be accounted for, naturally tends to move in the direction of least resistance: towards the vague, all inclusive and irrefutable magico-religious explanation (Jarvie, 1963, p. 17). Thus, oppressive colonial occupation, a sense of deprivation compared to the Europeans, a weakening of cultural autonomy and of of tribal authority, and the pressure to acculturate and change traditions caused a power imbalance, a sense of injustice, a feeling of inferiority-a sense of languor, envy, resentment of European domination-all contributing to the phenomenon of cargo cults.

Cargo Cults


In the Markam Valley of Papua New Guinea, the people distrusted the Lutheran missionaries as well. At times people held mass meetings and demonstrations aimed at changing administrative policy. There were bad relations between natives and Europeans and a strong reaction against the South Seas Evangelical Mission and other missionaries. Depressed economic conditions and World War II also played a part. After the war the situation improved because many foreigners returned to their homelands, but tension remained: The people were still in poverty. This was a heyday for cargo cults. Typically, a shrewd and charismatic leader-sometimes claiming to be a prophetgained command over the people, promising them cargo. These leaders claimed they would save the people from decline and final extinction, revitalize the culture, and obtain their fair distribution of wealth and happiness. The leaders did this by playing on the credulity and naivete of the people, and turning the situation to their own profitalthough some genuinely believed in what they were doing. People, anxious and despairing, were induced to believe in the promises of a new life. Often a leader would promulgate “new rules” for the observance of precepts, taboos, and ways to live. Leaders implemented “wealth-producing rituals” that resonated with the peoples’ traditional ideology. In their shared disdain of Europeans, people enjoyed a new unity as a result of cult membership. People enjoyed an increase in self-respect, a strengthening of community cohesion, a sense of purpose or mission. Their feeling of inferiority was replaced, at least for a time, by the pride and self-respect they achieved in joining the charismatic figure in his cargo cult. A recurrent theme in cargo cults is that the cargo cult leader himself is a prophet, or that a prophet with revelations from God or from the dead will appear. Invariably, the cargo does not arrive, the cult collapses, and normal activity resumes. Some commentators have described cargo cult leaders as suffering from a mental disorder that might be called a messianic delusional complex. Like the “messianic psychotic patient,” these cult leaders have “delusions characterized by the belief that they have been elected by a superior power for the execution of a special task and have been endowed with supernatural powers” (Levay & Bilu, 1980, p. 24). Cohn (1957) offers this comment: The megalomanic view of oneself as the Elect, wholly good, abominably persecuted yet assured of ultimate triumph; the attribution of gigantic and demonic powers to the adversary;... the obsession with inerrable prophecies... constitute the unmistakable syndrome of paranoia (p. 309). In the Hagen region of Papua highlands, Strathern (1971) found that cargo cults got started was when a few men suddenly became possessed by ancestral spirits who were said to be returning to their kinsfolk, bringing wealth in the form of pearl shells, axes, bush knives, etc. The possessed men built special houses on ceremonial grounds ordinarily used for public displays and gift exchanges. There was a separate space for each man in which goods were expected to be dropped off by the ancestral ghosts. A pole was set up in front of each cult house so that the ancestors could descend with cargo. The men stayed close to the houses and some said they could hear cases of cargo thudding on the floor. According to Strathern, taboos for the men were implemented (abstaining from sex, and from eating taro, greens, pig’s liver, etc.). Taro can make the throat rough and also tends to stick in it; this can prevent spells from being recited properly. No women were allowed near the house as they would make the house cold, and pearl shells-part of the cargo wealth-would not be attracted to it (p. 257). In some instances a cult would started by bigmen as if floating a new venture-asking people to give them resources such as axes, wives, pearl shells, and meat for sacrifices, with the promise that that cargo will arrive for all. Some younger men might become the unmarried assistants or servants of important bigmen in the hope of securing their patronage. To them, the cult might prove a feasible way of obtaining wealth, and they often began to choose young girls for marriage in anticipation of their cargo coming in.


John Alan Cohan

As reported by Stent (1976), in 1973, the Yamikum Cult in Papua New Guinea got started by an ex-policeman. He held a large feast and sing-sing attended by people from all parts of the sub-district, with the rumor that the spirits of the dead would return with an abundance of cargo for those following the sing-sing. The organizer charged membership fees-$2 for women, $10 for unmarried men and $12 for married men-and about 5,000 people paid up. Membership in the cult did not imply either belief in, or support for, the aims of the organization. Rather, there was considerable social pressure exerted on people to join. The cargo never materialized. In this and other cases, the cult eventually waned when the prophecies were not fulfilled. Cargo cults of Yamikum developed with an emphasis on the miraculous manufacture of money. Rituals were performed at various “branches” of the cult to magically make money, which was to appear at night. The people thought that silver coins would get multiplied. The ritual involved seven dishes of coins. People, during four shifts at night, took turns repeatedly tipping coins from one dish to another. There was supposed to be a magical increase of money during each shift. Different people attended the shifts, some asked to continue, others not, depending on how successful they were. Other techniques were employed to multiply money, including graveyard prayers with a Bible and a two dollar note. In conclusion, these common elements are found in cargo cults: (1) There is a conflict between the villagers and the technologically superior society, coupled with a strong wish for a better life and to resolve social, economic and political disparities (2). A charismatic “prophet” reveals visions of a new order that he obtained from a dream, hallucination, or intellectual development (3). A new way of life is seen in this vision, new customs and taboos, a new relationship between natives and whites-and the arrival of a boat load of cargo (4). The prophet gains a following (5). The leader and followers make preparations for the new order, including constructing a pier for the cargo unloading, a helicopter pad, and so forth. They will often abandon normal activities, neglecting their gardens and crops (6). The cargo fails to arrive, the cult breaks up, and life goes back to normal. Thus, in cargo cults a charismatic leader directs his message to people who are dissatisfied with their lot and are eager to embrace any form of change for the better. The movements are particularly appealing because the delivery of goods is unaccompanied by any major exertion on their part. The results of cargo cult movements have been primarily unfortunate-depression, impoverishment and antagonism in some tribes. MODERN COUNTERPART TO CARGOISM The tribal concept of charismatic, magical leadership, or hero worship, bears a parallel in developed cultures. Charismatic leadership is often a critical element in politics. Charismatic leaders can emerge at a time of crisis or national dissatisfaction when there is a mood for a new beginning, and make an emotional appeal into the nation’s yearnings. In many countries we have seen again and again how a charismatic leader attains office by gaining a popular following, gaining the alliance of the military, orchestrating a coup, and thereby taking over the reigns of power-as a dictator. Once elected, and after promises fail to get fulfilled, popular support dissipates, and the charismatic leader gets ousted. This same pattern can be seen in democratic governments, where the leader is elected to office rather than seizing power by force. In modern day politics, candidates have a certain advantage if they have a charismatic personality. Many felt that Barrack Obama got far not because of political ideas, but because he was confident, smiled a lot and managed to “dazzle” his way forward with the ability to make speeches that could inspire, and with a charismatic personality. Charismatic leadership can, in modern cultures, also be a factor that leads people into foolish schemes. Ponzi schemes, in which people, with the hopes of reaping enormous profits, lose everything in the end, are modern-day cargo cults. These schemes are often started up by charismatic individuals who have the knack of persuading others to join.

Cargo Cults


Millennial movements in the West, with a charismatic leader who warns of end times, have garnered huge followings in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. People will rally behind the “cause” with the hopes that they have been chosen to survive the end times and live in a future golden age. Jim Jones, the cult leader who lead a mass suicide of 900 people at his People’s Temple in 1978, is a famous example. In the late 1980s the leader of a survivalist movement, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, warned of an impending nuclear strike by the Soviet Union against the United States, and over 2,000 of her followers converged at a compound in Montana adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, stockpiling supplies and weapons in underground bomb shelters, soon to return to their homes after the predicted attack failed to occur. And many people believe that according to the ancient Mayan calendar, a cycle of more than 5,000 years will culminate on the winter solstice of 2012, marking an apocalyptic global transformation. Hundreds of books and Internet sites speculate wildly about the 2012 date. Often cult leaders will practice authoritarian control and classic mind-control techniques. Members may be told that the “outside world” is to be viewed with distrust, and leaders will attempt to stir up feelings of dread and gloom. Jushi, Frierson, and Gunter (2006) formulated the following description of modern day cults in the West, which has some similarities to what we have seen of cargo cults: 1.

Spiritual or religious preoccupation that breaks with accepted religious traditions and that is imposed on its members; these beliefs cannot be proved or disproved.

2.

A high level of group cohesion that may prevent members from exercising freedom of choice to leave the group.

3.

A profound influence on the members’ behavior, possibly inducing psychiatric symptoms.

4.

Leaders who are charismatic, are considered special for divine reasons, and are sometimes ruthless in their quest for financial, sexual, or power gains (p. 515).

There is a good deal of anthropological literature on cargo cults. For the most part the movements are a reaction “to a deeply felt frustration or basic problem with which routine methods, secular or sacred, cannot cope” (La Barre, 1971, p. 11). Usually the people are disillusioned with the economics of their way of operating, and they cannot seem to get a grip on new ways of generating money. The movements are apparently irrational because the goals are clearly unattainable. Many other beliefs of primitive cultures-such as mana, animism, the power of shamans, the efficacy of folk medicine, the importance of taboos, and so on-at least have some theoretical, traditional or mythological explanation-but cargo cults do not seem to fit into any previous patterning. On the other hand, to some degree the idea that cargo can be obtained by ritual is not altogether inconsistent with the traditional belief that magico-religious thinking can help effect events. It may be “rational” to cult believers in the same way that the use of lucky charms, magical incantations to insure a prosperous garden, shamanic rites to healand so on, work in convincing ways to insure success. As we observed early in this book, people of many other cultures have mystical, magical minds that perceive and explain phenomena in an entirely different way than we might judge to be “true.” As Jung (1933) said, “Our way of looking at things is conditioned by what we are. And since other people are differently constituted, they see things differently and express themselves differently” (p. 134). To the people of Melanesia, then, participating in cargo cults and the hope that goods will magically appear is not a far-fetched idea. We naturally prefer to deny this possibility because it would disrupt the regular progression of cause and effect that we have always presupposed. But to them there is a real possibility that their expectations will materialize.

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CHAPTER 25 Nomadic Peoples: A Case Study of the Batek People of Malaysia Abstract. Nomadic people lack a home base, except for temporary encampments, and have the tendency to roam at will. They display resourcefulness and the ability to quickly adapt to new circumstances. They are tremendously sensitive to the environment around them, and have the ability to get on with very little. The Bateks of Malaysia call themselves “forest people,” living in the forests, gauging their movements according to huntinggathering needs. They believe that if no one lived in the forest, the world would come to an end. They subsist on plants, animals (including fish and monkeys), wild tubers, yams, fruit and honey. They sell or trade honey, rattan and other forest products to Malay traders. They hunt monkeys and other small game with bamboo blowpipes with darts tipped with a poison made from sap. The Bateks are reluctant to uproot themselves into government settlements or otherwise integrate into modern society. Still, some Bateks now live in permanent settlements where they plant crops, while spending part of the year foraging for food and collecting rattan and other forest produce for trade.

WHO ARE NOMADS? Nomadic people are something akin to the homeless of modern urban centers. What they have in common is the lack of a home base, except for temporary encampments; the tendency to roam at will; resourcefulness and the ability to quickly adapt to new circumstances; tremendous sensitivity to the environment around them; and the ability to get on with very little. The nomadic lifestyle is perhaps the earliest lifestyle in history, for this preceded settled communities. We can describe two types of nomads prevalent today: one consists of hunter-gatherers who move about with great frequency and spontaneity. That includes the Bateks of Malaysia, who do not cultivate crops or keep livestock, and whose subsistence depends entirely on hunting and foraging in the wild. The other type of nomadic group are pastoralists who develop herds of livestock and occupy various stretches of agricultural, forest or grazing lands. Still, they are nomads in that they have a continuous mobility. Pastoral nomads still flourish today in the Himalayas. McVeigh (2004) found that pastoral production, consisting mainly of mountain cattle called yaks, is critical to the Himalayan farming system, and is one of the most important economic activities of the region. According to McVeigh, nomadic people of Tibet are constantly on the move with their livestock and horses. They need to be vigilant for poachers, and use Tibetan mastiff dogs to keep animals from straying. According to Ekvall (1961), the people are also constantly on the alert for horse thieves, keeping lookouts by patrolling. Nomadic groups are generally atomistic. As we mentioned in chapter 1 (“The Nature of Primitive Cultures”), atomistic communities-in this case nomads frequently on the move-do not identify with a particular “homeland” and there usually is no particular person or “chief” who holds authority over the people. Decisions might be made by consensus, often spontaneously or on the go-but there is no “top-down” authority, nor any laws, governing the peoples’ choices. Today nomads constitute a dwindling portion of cultures, as a consequence of “modernity.” Government development and conservation policies, not to mention deforestation, have limited the traditional grounds occupied by nomadic peoples, and have encouraged them to establish sedentary populations with the promise of state social aid in the form of schooling for children, proper nutrition to alleviate malnutrition, and health care. Also, forest departments have voiced concern that grazing by nomadic groups leads to environmental deterioration. Still, there are pockets of nomads that have more or less managed to resist government efforts to move them into settlements-such as the Batek people of Malaysia. John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Nomadic Peoples


THE BATEKS OF MALAYSIA The Bateks live in the Malaysian rain forest, and they are one of the last untouched indigenous peoples in the world. The Malaysian rain forest is their eco-refuge. Endicott (1979a), found that the Bateks are deeply animistic in their beliefs. They have a particularly intimate relationship with the forest: to them, everything has personhood. They gather information from subtle signs, from the sway of branches and from the sounds of animals that penetrate through dense foliation, and from thunder and lightening. According to Endicott, these people are referred to as Negrito, which means “little black” in Spanish. They have curly, woolly, hair, dark brown skin, round faces, broad, flat noses and receding chins. Their average height is 59 inches. They have relatively large, broad heads, long arms, short legs, relatively straight and high foreheads, large bulbous noses, and well developed chins. This race also occupies the Andaman Islands off Burma, parts of Africa, the Philippines, and southern Thailand. Some refer to them as Pygmies. Anthropologists think that the Malaysian and African Pygmies are related, somehow, despite the distance between the two regions. The Pygmy groups of Africa are technically known as Negrillo, while those of Oceania and Asia are called Negrito. Still, the origin of these people and whether they migrated from Africa to Southeast Asia is a matter of some speculation. But what is sure is that these people, like their counterparts in the rain forests of equatorial Africa, have lived in the forests for thousands of years in a “timeless past.” They make up an enduring, stable, vigorous population. Their way of life persists, apparently impervious to change, despite the radical changes that surround them. The total population of the Negrito population in Peninsular Malaysia is about 2,000, far less than in the 19th century. The Bateks occupy several areas in Malaysia, mainly in the Taman Nagara, the country’s 4,343 square kilometer national park in southeast Kelantan. They are for the most part very isolated from outside society. In the Philippines there are 33 Negrito populations living on different islands, consisting of about 33,000 people. When I visited a group of Bateks in 2007, I found that they are still nomadic, living in camps of about 20 nuclear families related by kinship and marriage. I was lucky to get to them, and enlisted the aid of a Batek native who had settled in a village near where I was staying in Taman Nagara. This and other Batek groups gauge their movements according to hunting-gathering needs, staying in a camp from one week to about a month. Over the generations they have become quite familiar with every nook and cranny of the extensive forest that they call their home. The Bateks have over time named obscure rivers, streams and landforms in the forest, indicating an ongoing cultural relationship to these places. When they move to a new camp it is usually one they have occupied in the past, so that they are familiar with its terrain, and they can “re-use” spots that they previously made suitable for huts. Each camp is merely an assemblage of families with common interests rather than an organized group. The families of each camp are politically independent. There are no “chiefs.” Even the authority of parents over children is weak. Wives are not submissive to husbands. Still, there is a moral unity to among the people, expressed most vividly in the practice of food sharing and mutual aid among all the Bateks who live in the same camps. Sometimes a couple will decide on their own, with due regard for obligations to close relatives, to move to a new site, so it is not uncommon to find camps with only a handful of Batek people. According to Tuck-Po (2003), the Bateks regard the forest as their true home, and thus they call themselves “forest people.” As mentioned, they are deeply animistic, and thus identify closely with their environment. They believe that if no one lived in the forest, the world would come to an end. They regard themselves to be guardians of the forest, and are very closely attuned to the ongoing changes in their ecosystem. The Bateks do not degrade the environment but take advantage of resources that would go unused but for their presence.


John Alan Cohan

Tuck-Po claims that they believe the rivers are “the veins and tendons” of the world, and that “superhuman beings” who live in the forest are the “heart” of the world (p. 177). These beings can get angry and convey their feelings to the Batek people, particularly through thunder, lightning, fierce winds and floods. If the people behave badly, the spirits will punish them with bad weather or by withholding the normally bountiful summer fruits. THE BATEKS’ HUNTING AND GATHERING SKILLS The Bateks subsist on food from the forest-plants, animals, wild tubers and yams (their main source of carbohydrates), fruit and honey. They gather and eat a lot of honey, and sell or trade it to Malay traders. They also collect palm-cabbage, mushrooms and fern shoots for eating. The Bateks, like other foragers, are good at problem solving and have important tactical skills: They look, search, discriminate, rank, remember, hear, track, compare, connect, map and listen. They dig their main food staple, wild yams, with iron-bladed digging sticks. The elusive vines and small leaves are hard to see in the midst of the thick forest vegetation, but the Bateks have the talent of locating the yams and then quickly digging them up. In three hours of digging one man or woman obtains about 10 pounds of yams and other tubers, enough to feed a family for a day or two, depending on what other food they have. In July and August they may live entirely on fruits that are plentiful, and fruit is a major portion of the diet in several other months. They remember where certain fruit trees are located, and they return to them each year when they expect the fruit to be ripe. The men climb the trees, and cut off small branches of fruit, to be collected below. Women do some of the climbing. Some types of fruit simply fall when ripe and need only be picked up. The Bateks are expert tree climbers, often using a series of rattan “rope-ladders.” In addition to fruit, plentiful trees provide them with materials for making huts, fires, mats, baskets, and rafts. During the flood season, December and January, it becomes difficult to forage, and rivers cause flooding. Digging tubers becomes difficult in muddy ground, and the holes quickly fill with seepage water. Also, the people digging are cold and miserable from the rain. Sometimes diggers will build a crude shelter of thatch over the digging spot and keep a fire going in it. Hunting is also difficult in the rain, although arboreal animals stay low in the trees, trying to keep out of the rain, and thus make easy targets. Endicott (1984) found that in addition to hunting and gathering, the Bateks use a range of skills to take advantage of economic opportunities in the marketplace. They trade forest products (such as rattan) for rice and manufactured goods. In the late 1970s a strong demand developed for kayu gaharu, a fragrant resinous wood used to make incense and cosmetics. This wood, which is found only in small veins in diseased trees of the genus, was being bought for as much as $140 U.S. per pound by Malay traders, who sold it to Arab buyers from the Middle East. For some years the Bateks spent a considerable amount of their time collecting this wood as well as large-diameter rattan. They also engage in wage labor when opportunity arises, and occasionally plant a few crops at fixed locations. Their economic health depends on a strategy of shifting from one type of economic activity to another as circumstances change and new opportunities arise. For protein they eat small tree-dwelling game-monkeys, gibbons, squirrels, civets, and birds, and hole-dwelling animals such as porcupines and bamboo rats (which reach six pounds in weight). The Bateks also fish in rivers and streams. The most common method, employed mainly by women, is to utilize store-bought hooks with worms for bait, and lines on a rod made of the ribs of a palm fronds. Men use casting nets that are thrown into shallow water. Sometimes they will set gill nets in the afternoon, strung between two poles, and collect the catch the next morning. They will also use poison juice extracted from bark and roots by pounding and twisting, and release it into a small stream above a natural dam, such as a log. When the stunned fish float to the surface, they are trapped at the dam, where they are collected. The Bateks take life easily and hold singing sessions at night, and particularly immediately after the annual floods to insure that there will be an abundant crop of wild fruit. They believe there would be no fruit at all if they did not sing

Nomadic Peoples


fruit songs. Each species of fruit has its own song. The songs are intended to induce the supernatural beings-called the hala, who control the fruit-to be generous in producing them. When they collect the first fruits they perform a simple ceremony of burning incense under the tree and singing a song in honor of that species of fruit tree. This is their thanks to the gods for the fruit. They also have bee songs that are thought to attract large number of bees to Earth to produce honey, which is a prized part of their diet. They eat a lot of honey, both raw and cooked. They collect honey in large quantities in May and June, and about half of it is sold or traded to the Malays. They eat honey with rice and certain tubers (but not with yam). The bees build large nests that hang in trees that are in flower. The Bateks climb the trees just after dark, when the bees have returned to the nest, and use a torch of dry leaves to stun them with heat and smoke. They cut the nest off the limb, place it in a bark basket, and lower it on a rattan line. As with the first fruits, they greet the first honey with incense and songs. The Bateks do not eat tiger, elephant, rhinoceros or large snakes because they might be bodies of supernatural beings who would take revenge on them. They do, however, hunt and eat monkeys, even though they recognize them as being much more like human beings than are other animals. Sometimes they will take baby monkeys that are orphaned after their mothers are blowpiped (see discussion below)-and raise them as pets, then turn them loose. As mentioned, the Bateks collect rattan and trade it for rice and other goods. Malay traders come up the river and camp near groups of Bateks to negotiate for rattan, and give them an advance in the form of rice or other foods. The Bateks collect and transport the rattan on foot or by raft to the Malay camp and get their final payment. The rattan is then transported down the river and transferred to trains. By taking opportunities to collect and trade rattan, the Bateks substantially reduce the time they must work each week collecting tubers and other food, while also gaining access to a variety of valued trade goods. The Bateks have numerous taboos, mainly concerning the respect to be accorded forest animals. They regard it as taboo to laugh at certain animals, including macaques, leeches, dogs, cats, snakes, butterflies and moths, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, caterpillars, beetles, lice, lizards, and others. The two main dangers from the forest are falling trees (from the frequent thunderstorms and flash-floods, and fierce winds that easily topple the shallow-rooted rain forest trees). Thunderstorms are thought to be retaliation from the spirit world, directed at people who have broken taboos. Thunderstorms at a distance do not trouble them, only those close by. If an individual has broken a taboo then someone, preferably the offender, must perform a blood sacrifice, for otherwise he and possibly others will die. Thunderstorms are frequent, so that only if someone in the camp has broken a taboo do they have reason for alarm (above and beyond the danger of trees collapsing). BLOWPIPE HUNTING Endicott (1979b) found that the Bateks do not hunt large animals, but only monkeys and other small animals. As is common throughout Indonesia and Borneo, bamboo blowpipes are employed, with darts tipped with poison made from the sap of the ipuh tree, thickened by heating over a fire. There are many gory details about their monkey hunts; I would prefer not to show a picture of a dead orangutan held up by the cheerful hunter. The blowpipe consists of two tubes of bamboo, one inside the other, with a bulbous mouthpiece at one end made of dammar resin. The larger pipes are about 2 meters long, with two sections of bamboo spliced together to form each tube. The darts consist of a splint of palm wood about 20 centimeters long, shaped like knitting needles, with a small cone of pith on the blunt end. Once the tips of the darts are coated with poison, they are carried in a quiver made of a short thick joint of bamboo, inside of which is a set of small reeds to hold the individual darts. The quiver also holds some vegetable fluff used as


John Alan Cohan

wadding behind the darts. To shoot a blowpipe one holds it vertically, inserts a dart at the mouthpiece end, and then inserts a ball of wadding which holds the dart in place. The blowpipe is clasped with both hands near the butt, and the mouthpiece is placed in the mouth. The hunter aims at the target and expels the dart with a sudden blow. The targets are often up in the trees, and most Batek men can shoot up accurately at the branches of the forest canopy as high as 40-45 meters. Successful blowpipe hunting demands silent stalking. The men usually go in groups of two or three, but often simply alone, and one may shoot as many as eight or ten darts at the animal and hit it several times. Because the darts are silent, the animal is not necessarily frightened by a miss, and even a hit may merely confuse it. The animal doesn’t feel much, and sometimes monkeys will pull out the darts, but the poison tip usually stays in. The men meanwhile simply bide their time below, until the monkey falls from the tree, perhaps in an hour or so. They usually butcher the animal on the spot, roast it, pack it up and bring it back to camp by 4:00 P.M. and share it with the entire camp. All parts are eaten, even intestines. Blowpipe hunting requires little planning. The men usually decide to go on short notice, particularly if there are reports of recent sightings of game. It is essentially a solitary endeavor. The presence of more than one hunter rarely increases the chance of success and it may in fact reduce it (several people being more likely to frighten off game than a solitary hunter is). They go in groups mainly for companionship, or for safety when, for example, tigers or elephants have been sighted. The poison itself is not fatal to pigs (the Bateks say it is because pigs eat earth and this neutralizes the poison). Deer and other large mammals may be killed by the poison if the dart can penetrate their skin, but the animal will usually run many miles before it drops, thus making it nearly impossible to find and retrieve it. ANOTHER METHOD: GETTING ANIMALS OUT OF HOLES The other hunting method of the Bateks, in which groups of men and women participate, is to get animals out of holes. They mainly go for the bamboo rat, which lives under clumps of bamboo where it feeds on its roots. Sometimes it’s a large group of men, women and children. The burrow is opened up, and when the animal is cornered it is dispatched with blows from the digging stick or the blunt edge of a bush knife. Large ground-living animals, such as porcupines and scaly anteaters, are sometimes smoked out of their holes in the ground or in hollow trees. They are then killed with clubs or bush knives. Bats and hornbills, during the birds’ nesting season, may be obtained from holes in trees. The male hornbill builds a protective mud wall across the mouth of the nest-hole, which confines the mother and her young to the nest. A person who discovers a likely bat-tree will return to camp and a group will quickly go back and cut the tree down. The Bateks chop down the tree thought to contain hornbills or bats and then hack the victims out of their nest or club them if they try to escape. All of these animals are cooked and eaten. One or two groups will usually venture out to hunt on a daily basis, and return late in the afternoon. Batek hunters usually kill at least one animal on about half of their blowpipe hunts. About 80% of hunting animals out of holes are successful, compared to only about 50% for blowpipe hunting. The Bateks love meat and eat as much of it as they can get, and this will be supplemented by other foods when there is no meat. On average, a Batek gets to eat about a third of a pound of animal flesh per day, and this along with the protein in the fish and vegetable foods they eat, appears to be an adequate amount of protein for them, given their very small stature. NO USE FOR SPEARS, GUNS, DOGS OR TRAPS There are numerous wild pigs in the forest, and these animals roam about at night in search for sustenance, and this is one of the main reasons the Bateks are reluctant to plant crops. Several species of deer, large and small, also inhabit the forest, but are not as numerous as the pigs.

Nomadic Peoples


The Bateks have spears which they buy in shops, and keep for defense against tigers. Usually the Bateks prefer not to hunt wild pigs or deer because they can’t get close enough to spear them. The Batek Nong of Pahang, however, are settled farmers and they sneak up on the pigs during heavy rain when the pigs are sheltering in their “nests”-and spear them that way. Elephants, rhinoceroses and wild cattle also inhabit the forests, but the Bateks find them far too dangerous to hunt. Other Malaysian aboriginal groups hunt and trap wild pigs and deer or kill them with shotguns or spears (The Temiar sometimes deliberately leave gaps in the fences around their fields, and when the pigs enter to eat the crops they close the gaps and kill the pigs with spears). Up until the past century the Bateks hunted with bows and arrows. An 1875 report describes them as using bamboo bows and arrows tipped with iron points (not poisoned). Perhaps they gave up bows and arrows because they were gradually driven away from the open country near the coasts by the incursions of the Malays and Chinese. Bows and arrows are probably more efficient in the coastal regions, while the blowpipe comes in handy within the forests. It seems the Bateks, except for a few of them, never had much access to guns and ammunition, and in any event could not get police permission to buy ammunition. It is possible that the gun replaced the bow and arrow for a time and then the supply of guns was cut off by the authorities during the communist insurrection in the 1950’s. The Bateks don’t use traps, although other indigenous Malaysian people in the forests do, catching even wild pigs in a simple wire snare. The Mah Meri (coastal Senoi) obtain more monkeys by trapping than by blowpipes. The Bateks say that they do not know how to make traps, but they have frequent contact with rural Malays and others from whom they could learn how to make traps, if they wanted to. Some Bateks say that traps are dangerous, that people injure themselves falling out of trees while attempting to set traps in them (Yet the Bateks climb trees daily, many over 50 meters tall, while collecting rattan, honey, and fruit, and they almost never hurt themselves). They could simply set traps on the ground, not in trees, but perhaps they are smart in not setting traps, because trapped animals can attract tigers, which have no aversion to eating trapped animals, and the squeals of a trapped pig might draw a tiger from miles away. From the Batek perspective traps require too much time and energy-in building, maintaining and patrolling themand the reward, if it comes at all, may come only after weeks of effort. Also, since the Bateks need to be willing and able to move camp immediately in response to any new opportunities, it is impractical for them to set traps, which must be tended to daily to be effective. Traps have to be reset, and game must be emptied before predators take them. Moreover, The Bateks find a fixed daily routine intolerable. Finally, time devoted to trapping would take away from time required to make and maintain blowpipes. The Bateks, while they have some food prohibitions (e.g., not eating snakes), have deliberately defied pressure from the Malays to not eat pork and other “unclean” foods of Muslims. They sometimes say with pride that it is eating such “unclean” foods as pork, monkeys, and frogs that marks them as aborigines (Orang Asli-which means “original people”). Although they do not normally kill pigs themselves, they eat them with great gusto when they are given them by Malay farmers, who sometimes kill them with shotguns. As mentioned, the Bateks apparently prefer to avoid hunting larger game, even though they could easily make weapons for hunting pigs or deer, as iron, finished spear points and other materials are cheaply available. They already know how to forge harpoon points and digging stick blades from nails and broken bushknife blades, using an ordinary fire, an iron hammer, and an axehead as an anvil. Probably this is because big game resting places are difficult to find in the deep forests, and the people seldom use fixed trails. And since they do not have dogs, this reduces their chances of taking big game. Dogs can flush, corner, tree, track, and actually kill some animals. They don’t keep dogs because they would interfere with blowpipe hunting, where noise is detrimental. Moreover, as the Bateks are in the habit of responding quickly to new opportunities as they arise, this spontaneity is incompatible with carrying out elaborate hunts. And as the Bateks are atomistic in that they have little of “central” leadership, it would be hard to organize a complex hunt, for no one has the right to tell anyone else what to do. Even deer hunting, which does not present the problems of a violent animal


John Alan Cohan

as wild pigs do-requires more planning and cooperation than is usual in Batek society. Also, since wild pigs weigh several times that of a mature monkey, they could easily get injured or killed from encounters with pigs. Also, the Bateks consider all violence shameful, and they avoid conflict whenever possible. Blowpipe hunting is relatively nonviolent. The hunter seldom has to fight with the monkeys. The Bateks, in the final analysis, have a cultural preference for the blowpipe procedure. The blowpipe seems to be a symbol of the Bateks’ ethnic identity, and for Malaysia’s Orang Asli people as a whole. A crossed blowpipe forms a prominent motif in the emblem of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Also, they enjoy blowpipe hunting, it’s a sport for them, though the element of competition is lacking. They enjoy the challenge of the chase and the chance to get away from the stresses of domestic life. And blowpipe hunting is safe and peaceful, particularly when compared to pig hunting. ATTEMPTS TO ACCULTURATE THE BATEKS The Bateks are reluctant to settle down partly because of fear of outsiders. Until the early 20th century they were victims of slave trading by Malays. Even now they and related groups are treated with contempt by segments of the dominant culture. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) regard the Bateks as a problem at best. Until the 1990s there was a push for the Batek to uproot themselves from the forests to government settlements where, it was reasoned, they could be integrated into modern society. As Ingold (2000) put it: The presence of indigenous hunter-gatherers in regions designated for conservation has often proved acutely embarrassing for the conservationists. For there is no way in which native people can be accommodated within schemes of scientific conservation except as parts of the wildlife, that is as constituents of the nature that is to be preserved (p. 68). The Department of Aboriginal Affairs has for many years tried to get them to settle down in villages, arguing that they must be permanently settled if they were to receive the benefits of the Department’s medical, educational, and economic development programs. According to Endicott (1984), the Bateks in forests near logging, mining and land development were susceptible to this pressure because resources for nomadic foraging had been eliminated in their areas. They were given tools, seed, technical advice, and rations (mostly rice) to support them until their crops ripened. Many Bateks have responded and now live in permanent settlements where they plant crops in earnest. Still, even the Bateks who are settled spend at least part of the year foraging for food and collecting rattan and other forest produce for trade. The majority of Bateks, however, are worried that if they settle down, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs will force them to send their children to school, which they basically see as indoctrination into Malay culture. They are afraid their children will be forced to become Muslims and will come to reject the Batek way of life. Change is an inevitable process that affects all human cultures to varying degrees, sometimes for good, sometimes as a tearing down of cherished traditions, and in many cases it is a mixed blessing. As is true in many other cultures that are at the crossroads, there is significant pressure from the dominant culture for Bateks to change, and perhaps this is part of a necessary process of social and economic “progress” to replace one way of life for another. But there is a certain sadness in seeing what may be the inevitable disappearance of pastoralists and nomads whose extraordinary survival skills have served them for millennia. In this book we have strived to recognize the diversity of cultural concepts of the person, even as it articulates the tensions between traditions and new choices or opportunities brought by social change or migration. By studying other cultures we can see how human nature manifests in diverse customs and habits. As stated by Kirmayer (2007) Every cultural community embodies a distinctive concept of the person and with it a particular vision of the good life. Not all such versions of personhood are equally desirable-some may give rise to forms of life untenable in a pluralistic society (p. 251).

Nomadic Peoples


As we have seen, anthropology is the science that seeks to define human nature with reference to evidence of how people carry on in their lives. Anthropologists seek to ascertain the habitual and definable behaviors of a culture. Anthropology accounts for basic common patterns in diverse cultures. Anthropology tells us that despite the great variety of cultures, diverse technologies, totally diverse languages, and utterly different conceptions of the universeall human societies have many of the same basic patterns of carrying on.

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APPDENDIX

Figure 1: Baker at work, Ludhiana, India

Figure 2: Man in Mulu, Malaysia

Figure 3: Fisherman at his LONGHOUSE, Mulu, Malaysia John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Appendix

Figure 4: Boy in Canoe, Lake T’ana, Ethopia

Figure 5: Boys on Beach, Mumbai

Figure 6: Maori Totem Pole, New Zealand



Figure 7. Masked Celebrants at Rio De Janeiro's Carnaval

Figure 8. Men's House Along Sepic River, Papua, New Guinea

Figure 9. Bedouin Nomads At Meal

John Alan Cohan

Appendix

Figure 10. Dancers, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea

Figure 11. Kava Drinking Ceremony, Solomon Islands

Figure 12. Woman with Cigarette, Papua New Guines



Figure 13. Farmer and Ox, The Seychelles

Figure 14. Ancient Drawings of Shamans in Cueva Maravillas, Dominican Republic

Figure 15. Shamanic Healing Ceremony

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Appendix

Figure 16. Shaman with Drum

Figure 17. Shaman, Papua New Guines

Figure 18. Shaman in Trance State



Figure 19. Woman and Children, Solomon Islands

Figure 20. Malaysian Woman Demonstrating Flute

Figure 21. Man with Flute, Papua New Guines

John Alan Cohan

Appendix

Figure 22. Fishing in Papua New Guinea

Figure 23. Asaro Mudmen, Papua New Guines

Figure 24. Head Hunters' Storage Hut, Solomon Islands



Figure 25. Man in Indian Village

Figure 26. Cows Taken A Rest on the Street, Calcutta, India

Figure 27. Village Ladies Near Jodhpur, India

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Appendix

Figure 28. Village Guru Near Jodhpur, India

Figure 29. Women at Home, Near Jodhpur, India

Figure 30. Village Men, Aurangabad, India



Figure 31. Villager in India

Figure 32. Man on Street, India

Figure 33. Temple Guardians, Tamil Nadu, India

John Alan Cohan

Appendix

Figure 34. Village Boys Near Victoria Falls, Ethiopia

Figure 35. Bali Trance Dancers

Figure 36. Depiction of Dancing Mania, 1518, Europe



Figure 37. St. Vitus Dancing Mania, Middle Ages

Figure 38. Curandero Healing Ceremony

Figure 39. Psychic Surgery, The Philippines

John Alan Cohan

Appendix

Figure 40. Voodoo Priest's Altar

Figure 41. Mongolian Reindeer Hunt

Figure 42. Modern Day Potlatch



Figure 43. Hindu Devotee in Tirual for Festival of Thaipusam at Batu Caves, Malaysia

Figure 44. Parishoner Falling into Trance in Charismatic Religious Congregation

Figure 45. Magical Waters of Witch's Well of Tuhala, Estonia

John Alan Cohan

Appendix

Figure 46. Worshippers Paying Homage to the Idol of Maximon San Simon, Guatemala

Figure 47. Ancestral Shrine, Nigeria

Figure 48. Rewrapping of Deceased Ceremony, Madagascar



Figure 49. Protest Against Ongoing Witch-Hunting in Delhi, India

Figure 50. Witch-Hunting In Kenya

Figure 51. Cowry Shell Currency, Papua New Guinea

John Alan Cohan

Appendix

Figure 52. Bedouin Nomads

Figure 53. Batak Man Working on Blowpipe

Figure 54. Batak Children



e Figure 55. Batak Children Playing

Figure 56. Batak Man in Hut

Figure 57. Batak Woman with Children

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Appendix

Figure 58. Evil Eye Amulet


310


INDEX A Aborigines, 32, 37, 71, 76, 84-86, 91, 100, 103, 111, 123, 179, 199, 209, 239, 251, 264, 274, 285, 286, 288, 292, 302 Acculturation, 2, 17-21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 95, 153, 221, 232, 237, 249, 253, 276, 286; cultural imperialism and, 1819; trend toward, 17-18 Admiralty Islands, 186 Adoption, 258-259 Adultery, 179-180, 248 Aesthetics norms, variation of, 25-26 Afghanistan, 246 Africa, 23, 25, 26, 46, 57, 59, 90, 115, 116, 120, 130, 139, 168, 169, 176, 216, 221, 222, 225, 237, 255 Aguaruna people, 108 Alaska, 7, 182, 204, 248 Alcohol, 130 Altered state of consciousness, 102-103, 112, 127-132. See also Trance and possession states. Amazons, 128 Ambonwari people, 19-20, 66 American Indians, 31, 32-33, 47, 62, 260. See also Native Americans. Amok, running, 214-217; explanation of, 215-217 Amulets and charms, 46-47, 55, 75, 94, 103, 111, 119, 123, 130, 131, 134, 156, 160, 173, 252, 254, 255, 268 292 Anastenarides, 139 Ancestors, ghosts of, 194-197, 263 Ancestral worship, 193-194 Andersen, Hans Christian, 73 Angola, 56 Animal sacrifice, 93-94. See also Hunting. Animals, 4, 12, 16, 22, 23, 29, 31, 32, 34, 40, 41, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53-61, 64, 66, 69, 70-81, 83-100, 107109, 111-112, 115-117, 122, 123, 130, 135, 136, 137, 139, 141, 154-156, 158, 162, 165, 166, 177, 178, 193-194, 197, 199, 201, 210, 218, 231, 238, 248, 252, 263, 264, 272-277, 282, 283, 284, 291, 292 Animism, 49-75, 96-97; animals and, 55-56; artificial intelligence and, 74-75; birds and, 56-57; communication aspects of, 54-55; ceremonial objects and, 68; children and, 72-74; definition of, 49-50; figureheads on ships and, 66-67; fire and, 68; idols and, 67-68; inanimate objects and, 60-68; mana and, 49; modern cultures and, 70-71; natural disasters and, 68-69; natural phenomena and, 55; philosophical, religious and scientific aspects of, 50-54; sacred sites and, 60-64; shaman’s drum and, 68; snakes and, 57-58; stones, shells and, 64-66; trees, plants and, 5859; Anthropomorphism, 54 Apaches, 59 Apollonian cultures, 29, 34-36, comparison with Dionysian cultures, 35-36 Arab cultures, 19, 32, 52, 128, 130, 140, 149, 194, 260, 269, 282, 288, 293 Aranda people, 78 Arctic, 9-10 Arctic hysteria, 218-219 Aristotle, 41 Artificial intelligence, 74-75 Astrology, 52 Ataques de Nervos, 222-224 Atomistic cultures, 8-9 Australia, 61, 63, 76-77, 78, 84, 103, 169, 196, 251 Ayahuasca, 128 John Alan Cohan All rights reserved - © 2010 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Index


B Baffin Land, 7 Bali, 139, 198, 256 Balinese folklore, 256 Bambara people, 115 Batek people, 25, 267-273; attempts to acculturate, 272-273; hunting skills of, 268-272; use of blowpipes by, 269270 Battak people, 255 Bedouins, 9, 109 Barok people, 79 Bear Festival, 88-89 Bebainan, 219 Beer, 130 Benedict, Ruth, 29, 31, 32, 117, 158 Beng people, 257 Berawan people, 258 Bewitching, 153, 154, 167-171. See also Hexing culture of American South. Bible, the, 15, 52, 69, 80-81, 115, 118, 196, 257 Bimin-Kushkusmin people, 60 Birds, 32, 54, 55, 56-57, 58, 59, 61-65, 69, 79, 82, 86, 88, 89, 94, 98, 104, 107, 123, 274, 282, 284, 289 Blood money, 161, 170, 180-181, 185, 290 Blowpipe hunting, 269-270 Boas, Franz, 16 Bohm, David, 50 Bolivia, 164 Borneo, 15, 20, 27, 57, 65, 68, 125, 133, 250, 259, 263, 271, 272, 283 Bororo people, 77 Brain-Fag Syndrome, 225 Brazil, 12, 25, 137, 147, 198, 223 Buddhism, 42, 50, 61, 142, 143, 152

C Canada, 19, 26, 130 Cannibal dancers, 33 Cannibalism, 27, 45, 185-186; mortuary, 198-199 Cargo cults, 260-265, explanation of 261-264, modern counterparts of, 264-265 Carib people, 181 Catholic charismatic movement, 19 Catholic folk healers, 240 Catholicism, Roman, 26, 50, 75, 101, 150-153, 156, 157, 161, 178, 188, 207, 238, 248, 249, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 288, 296, 301 Charms. See Talismans. Cherokees, 30 Children, 72-74; adoption of, 258-259; betrothal of, 256; discipline of, 255-256; reincarnation of, 256; sacrifice of, 257; treatment of, 255-259 Chillihuana people, 64, 67 China, 25, 70, 105, 125, 194, 209-210, 231, 238 Choctaw tribe, 55 Clay eating. See Pica and Geophagia. Clouds, 55 Codrington, R. H., 37, 38 Collective responsibility, 181-185


John Alan Cohan

Colonialism, 19-20 Communal lifestyle, 6-7 Comoro Islands, 138 Conflicts, dealing with, 175-171; Conflicts, importance of, 175-178 Confucianism, 194 Conversion Disorder, 137, 228-229, 230-231 Cook Islands, 130 Coppers, breaking of, 203-204 Couvade, 259 Cremation ritual of Bali, 198 Crow tribe, 10, 182 Cultural anthropology, i Cultural relativism, ii, 22-28 Culture, defined, 4; modern, 70-72 Culture-Bound Syndromes, 137, 143, 145, 212-229; definition of, 212; explanation of, 228-229 Curanderos, 239-240 Curses, 43-44 Customary law, 10-11 Customs, nature of, 16

D Dance trances, 138-140 Dancing mania, 234 Dayak people, 57, 60 Dead bodies, treatment of, 192-200; respect for, 192-193; opening tombs of, 199-200 Death, explanation of, 13, 14 Death by sorcery, 193 Death by suggestion, 167-171; explanation of, 170-171 de Chardin, Teilhard, 52 Demonic possession. See Trance and Possession states. Dervish, 109-110 de Tocqueville, Alexis, 188 Diderot, Denis, 52 Dionysian cultures, comparison with Apollonian cultures, 35-36; dreams and visions in, 30; intoxication practices of, 32; self-mutilation practices of, 31-32; traits of, 29-30 Dissociative Disorders, 137 Dobu people, 60, 117, 124, 158 Doctrine of limited goods, 116-118 Dogs, treatment of, 93 Dou Donggo people, 179 Dreams, 98 Druze people, 256-257 Dueling, 188-189

E Earthquakes, 69-70 Ecopsychology, 71 Ecuador, 128, 185 Egypt, 139 Einstein, Albert, 176 Eliade, Mircea, 96, 98, 101, 134

Index


Eliot, T. S., 12 England, 143, 157, 164, 187, 209 Envy. See Evil eye. Eskimos. See Inuits. ESP, 39 Estonia, 63 European hegemony, 262 European Union, 24 Evil eye, 41, 114-126; animisn in relation to, 114-115; concealing food and, 120-121; definition of, 115-116; doctrine of limited goods and, 115-118; envy in relation to, 118-119; expression of compliments and, 119; modern society and, 121; paranoia in relation to, 123-124; talismans and charms in relation to, 121-123; xenophobia in relation to, 125-126 Evil possession, 142-149; process of, 146-147; psychological explanations of, 147-149; treatment of, 147 Evil spirits, 100, 142-149 Exorcism, 144

F Familiarization, 145-146 Fighting words, 190-191 Figureheads on ships, 66-67 Fiji, 195, 196-197 Fire, 69 Fire-handling, 142 Fishing, Hawaiian customs of, 90; salmon, 92; tuna, 89-90 Folk cult figures, 241-242 Folk cultures, 236-237 Folk healing. See Folk medicine. Folk medicine, 236-245; American Indians and, 243-244; definition of, 237-239 Food, sharing of, 7 Forest, animism and the, 9 Foundation for Shamanic Studies, 96 France, 12, 54, 164 Frazer, George, 85, 91, 105, 139, 259 Freud, Sigmund, 53, 77, 97, 151, 176, 212 Fulani people, 91-92 Funeral rites, 192-193, 197-200, 202, 204. See also Potlatches.

G Gahuku-Gama tribe, 23 Gandhi, Mohandas, 184 Germany, 191 Ghana, 176, 226 Ghost Dance, 260 Ghosts, 84, 194-197 Ghost sickness, 145 Globalization, 17-18 Glossalalia, 141 Golem, 74-75 Greenland, 46, 87 Greece, 120, 139, 223 Guaja people, 83 Guatemala, 237


John Alan Cohan

H Happiness, 40 Haiti, 138-139, 162-163, 237 Hamsa hand, 122 Hawaiian customs, 55 Head-hunting, 41, 185-186 Healing practices, i, 95, 97-98 Hexing culture of American South, 165-166; 242-243 Heyoka Cult, 187 Himalayas, 266 Hinduism, 67, 90 Hobbes, Thomas, 5, 175 Homicide, 180-181, 216 Hopis, 58; Snake Dance of, 58 Hudson Bay, 7 Huichol Indians, 46 Human nature, i, 4-5 Human values, 24-25 Hungary, 162 Hunting, 11, 83-94; animism and, 83; bear, 88-89; cooperative, 7; reindeer, 92-93; seal, 87-88; whale, 86-87. See also Fishing. Hunting rituals, 7, 83-94 Hwa-Byung, 220 Hysteria, 135, 138, 218-219. See also Conversion Disorder; Culture-Bound Syndromes.

I Idols, 67-68 Illness, explanation of, 14 Incest taboo, 256 India, 25, 64, 115, 211, 233, 238, 248, 249 Indonesia, 60, 63, 68, 100, 124, 125, 139, 179, 224 Infanticide, 25 Inuits, 7, 46, 86-88, 108, 187, 201 Invisible forces, 13 Iraq, 123 Ireland, 21, 63 Irian Jaya, 65 Israel, 139 Italy, 178, 234

J Japan, 21, 63, 162-163, 173, 184, 220, 231 Java, 70, 255 Jewish culture, 48, 52, 82, 83, 120, 126, 129, 130, 139-140, 144, 148, 149, 153, 156, 189, 194, 233, 262, 296, 302 Jivaro people, 128, 185 Jung, Carl, 2, 13, 16, 22-23, 30-31, 33-34, 35, 76, 147-148, 186, 265

K Kaingang Indians, 12 Kant, Immanuel, moral philosophy of, 23

Index


Karok people, 244 Kava, 129 Kenya, 123, 164 Kepler, Johannes, 52 Khanty people, 92-93 Koran, the, 26, 109, 110, 123, 182, 152, 258 Koro, 220-221 Kwakiutl tribe, 33 Kuma people, 154, 219 !Kung people, 116 Kwoma people, 185

L Labrador, 11 Lagging emulation, 210-211 Latah, 224 Law of contagion. See Magic. Leibniz, G. W., 51-52 Levirate, 249 Levy-Bruhl, Lucien, 60-61, 161, 169, 195 Livestock, cattle, treatment of, 90-92 Longlong. See Amok, running. Lourdes, 63, 173 LSD, 131 Lulu, 217-218 Lynching, 189-190

M Macedonia, 54, 139 Madagascar, 30, 199-200, 232-233 Magic, 42, 43, 85, 150-166; distinction between priests and magicians, 152; distinction between white and black, 153-154; imitative, 155-156; just deserts and, 159-160; law of contagion, 156; utility of, 151-153. See also Bewitching; Witches and witchcraft. Magic rituals, 151-152 Magical thinking, 14, 150-151, 158; relation to conventional religion, 152-153 Malaysia, 20, 46, 101, 141, 144, 224, 266-273 Mal de ojo. See Evil eye. Malinowski, Bronislaw, 78, 151-152 Mana, 37-48, 185; definition of, 37-42; music and, 41; head-hunting and, 44-45; magic and, 42; masks and, 46; names and, 44; protective fetishes and, 47-48; thoughts, words and, 42-43; weapons, tools, artifacts and, 45-46 Mantras, 42 Maori people, 57, 78, 186 Masks, 46-47, 187 Mass hysteria, 230-235; contagious aspect of, 232-234; explanation of, 234-235. See also Conversion Disorder. Mayans, 241 Mbuti pgymies, 9 Meaning in life, concern about, 17 Medicine wheels, 243 Melanesia, 7, 46, 117, 124, 129, 261-262, 182, 185-186, 197 Mental disorder, 99, 213 Maratus Dayak people, 125 Mead, 130-131


John Alan Cohan

Mead, Margaret, 246, 259 Mexican villages, 7, 116, 119, 120, 122; dyadic system of, 7-8 Mexico, 46, 226, 239, 240-241 Micronesia, 21 Millennial movements, 260-265. See also Cargo cults. Modern mind, 2-3 Mohave Indians, 29, 30 Mongolia, 110 Montagnais-Naskapi Indians, 11 Moral progress, 27-28 Moral relativism. See Cultural relativism. Morocco, 144 Moses, 15 Moth craziness, 216 Mount Everest, 61 Mountains, 61 Mudhead Kachina people, 187 Multiple Personality Disorder, 138, 147 Mulu National Park, 258 Music, mana and, 41 Mushroom madness, 188 Mutual assistance, 11 Myths, belief in, 15; function of, 14-15

N Native American Church, 129 Native Americans, 18, 55, 58, 85, 88-89, 92, 98, 128, 155, 182, 197, 201, 202, 208, 213, 243-244, 249, 250 Nativistic movements, 21 Natural disasters, 68-70 Navahoes, 24, 129, 130, 244 Nazi Germany, 126 Nazis, 40 Negrito people, 267 Nepal, 42 Nervos. See Ataques de Nervos. Nietzsche, Frederich, 31, 32, 33-34, 35, 36, 53 Niger, 167 New Zealand, 57, 78, 186 Nivkh people, 56, 57, 58-59, 88, 92-93, 193, 248, 256 Nomads, 9, 266-273 Non-interference, principle of, 26-27 Non-market economies, 8 Northern Algonkian people, 26

O Oceania, 129 Ok Tedi Mine, 61-62 Omens, 54 Ovimbundu people, 56, 66

Index


P Pakistan, 139, 179, 247-248, 252-253 Palestinians, 40 Papua New Guinea, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 45, 46, 59, 61, 64, 66, 79, 85, 89, 108, 116-117, 120, 124, 134, 151, 153, 154, 156, 158, 160-161, 169, 177, 180, 186, 188, 197, 205, 208, 214, 215-216, 217, 225, 232, 238, 247, 249, 250251 Paranoia, 123-124; modern society and, 126 Paranoid Personality Disorder, 123-124, 126, 148 Parrinder, E. G., 59 Patriotism, 79-80 Paviotso Indians, 108 Penobscot people, 54 Pentecostalism, 141-142 Peru, 64, 72, 100, 104, 108, 224 Petty wrangling, 178-179 Peyote, 128-129 Philippines, the, 24, 45, 244 Pibloktoq. See Arctic hysteria. Pica and Geophagia, 226-227 Piegan Native Americans, 250 Piot, 225 Placebo effect, 97, 101, 172-174, 245 Plains Indians, 31 Pointing the bone, 169-170 Polynesia, 206 Possession. See Trance and possession states. Potlatches, 197, 201-206; funerary, 202 Prerogatives, 208-208 Primitive, use of term, i, 3 Primitive cultures, 1-21; acculturation and, 17-21; existential nature of, 17-18; kinship ties, 6-7; study of, 1-2; tradition bound nature of, 15-16 Primitive mind, 2; mystic properties of, 12-14 Primitive people, 1; conservative nature of, 16 Proxemics, 11-12 Psychedelic drugs, 131-132 Psychic surgeons, 244-245 Public opinion law. See Customary law. Pygmies, 9, 25, 93, 267

Q Qat, 131

R Raleigh, Walter, 52 Rituals, role of human agency, 43


John Alan Cohan

Rootwork, 242-243 Russia, 164 Rousseau, 6

S Sadhuism, 32 Saldero, 224-225 Salmon Ceremony, 92 Samurai, 26 San Simon, 241-242 Santeria religion, 93-94 Saudi Arabia, 24 Schizotypal Personality Disorder, 106-107 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 34 Sebei people, 255 Shamanic calling and initiation, 98-99 Shamanic performances, 100-101; accounts of, 107-111 Shamanic trance, 101-102, 134 Shamanism, 95-113; altered state of consciousness, 102; animistic grounding of, 96-97; definition of, 95-96; healing function of, 97-98; magical flight of, 102; music and, 103-104; sorcery and, 107-111; spirit helpers and, 99-100, 108-109; trance ecstasy and, 101-102. Shamans, 38, 66, 92; psychopathic tendencies of, 105-107; witchdoctors and other practitioners distinguished from, 111-113 Shaman’s drum, 68, 104-105 Shame, 184 Shango people, 136 Shell currency, 64-65 Siberia, 19, 25, 68, 84-85, 92-93, 99, 108 Social cooperation, 5-6. See also Mutual assistance. Social approval, need for, 207-211 Solomon Islands, 46, 65, 255 Somalia, 24, 180 Somatization, 186-187, 228 Sorcery. See Witches and Witchcraft. See also Magic. Soul, 41, 102 Soul loss. See Susto. Korea, 110, 220 South Pacific, 1 Snake Dance, 58 Snakes 57-58 Sorcery feuds, 156 South America, 125 Spiritists, Mexican, 240-241 Spiritists, Puerto Rican, 241 Spirits, 104-105, 108-110, 138 Sri Lanka, 140, 143 Stambali dance ritual, 140 State of nature, defined, 5-6 Status, objects of, animals and goods 208-209 St. Bridgit’s Well, 63 Stylites, St. Simon, 32 Sufis, 139 Sumatra, 70

Index


Sun Dance, 31, 33 Superstitions, 15, 55 Suri people, 90-91 Susto, 221-222 Suttee, 249

T Taboo death, 169 Taboos, 56, 77, 250-251, 256 Taijin-Kyofu-Sho, 222 Taiwan, 256 Talismans and charms, 121-123 Tanala tribe, 29 Tanganyika, 181 Tarzania, 159 Teenek people, 119, 120 Thailand, 25, 62, 224 Thales, 50 Tibetans, 61, 108 Tikopia people, 77 Tinneh people, 86 Titles, 209 Tlingit people, 183 Tobacco, 128 Toda people, 196 Tonga Islands, 46 Totemism, 76-82; flags, standards, mascots and, 80-82; modern society and, 79-80; taboos and,77-78 Totems. See Totemism. Trance and possession states, 133-149; distinction between, 134-137; charismatic religious services and, 141-142; explanation of, 140-141; extreme involuntary, 142-145; “familiarization” type of, 145; ghost sickness, 145; possession by spirits, 137-138; prevalence of, 134-135, 230; process of evil possession, 146-147, 219; shamanic, 101-103; trance channeling, 138 Trees and plants, 58-59 Trobrianders, 152 Tuareg people, 248 Tuna rituals, 89-90 Turkey, 254

U Uganda, 232 Ugrian people, 102 United Nations, 26 United States, 24, 138, 164 U’wa people, 62

V Vampires, 161-162 Vikings, the, 66 Vital essence. See Mana. Volcanoes, 70 von Uexkull, Jakob, 52-53


John Alan Cohan

Voodoo, 43, 168

W Wergild. See Blood money. Whewell, W., 51 Wild man behavior. See Amok, running. Windigo psychosis, 225-226 Witches and witchcraft, 115, 142, 148, 150-166, 219, 231, 244; distinction between witchcraft and sorcery, 154-155; persecutions of, 157-158, 160-161; association with Devil-worship, 157; prevalence of in modern cultures, 163-165; retaliation for acts of, 181. See also Bewitching; Magic. Witch’s Well of Tuhala, 63 Wodani tribe, 65 Women, avoidance taboo of, 250-251; high status, 249-250; honor killings of, 251-254; manly-hearted, 250; promiscuity of, 247-248; rape of, 248; treatment and role of, 246-254

X Xenophobia, 125-126

Y

Z Zaire, 9 Zar cult, 138 Zombies, 163 Zulus, 155

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