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mind, self, and other in demonic illness: the negation and reconstruction of Self
Author(s) -
KAPFERER BRUCE
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1979.6.1.02a00080
Subject(s) - exorcism , negation , extension (predicate logic) , relation (database) , identity (music) , sri lanka , epistemology , self , sociology , psychoanalysis , sociology of health and illness , psychology , philosophy , aesthetics , ethnology , anthropology , south asia , linguistics , political science , computer science , law , health care , database , programming language
Major exorcism rituals in Sri Lanka attempt to transform the identity of a patient from one of illness to one of health. The cultural “logic” of this is described and understood in terms of an analytical approach developed from the work of G. H. Mead and the closely associated work of certain social phenomenologists. The approach adopted in this paper, although argued mainly in relation to Sinhalese healing rituals, is considered as being capable of extension to other forms of transition rites, or rites of passage.