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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Boyd Michailovsky  and
Philippe Sagant
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Extract

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

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

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

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