Ritual Retellings Luangan Healing Performances through Practice [Hardcover]

Belianis an exceptionally lively tradition of shamanistic curing rituals performed by the Luangans, a politically marginalized population of Indonesian Borneo. This volume explores the significance of these rituals in practice and asks whatbelianrituals do  socially, politically, and existentially  for particular people in particular circumstances. Departing from the conception that rituals exist as ethereal, liminal or insulated traditional domains, this volume demonstrates the importance of understanding rituals as emergent within their specific historical and social settings. It offers an analysis of a number of concrete ritual performances, exemplifying a diversity of ritual genres, stylistic modalities and sensual ambiences, from low-key, habitual affairs to drawn-out, crowd-seizing community rituals and innovative, montage-like cultural experiments.

Isabell Herrmansis a post-doctoral researcher in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Helsinki. She has done fieldwork in Indonesian Borneo since 1993, and has research interests in shamanistic curing practices, Indonesian politics of religion, animistic ontologies, and sensory experience.

&an elegantly written ethnography& I warmly recommend [it] to the student of oral traditions and heritage, especially to those who have an interest in ethnographical methodologies and collaborative approaches.? Moussons: Recherche en sciences humaines sur lAsie du Sud-Est

Herrmans ethnographically rich analysis is based upon data that were collected during visits that spanned the course of decades&That Herrmans analysis of belian is as deeply immersed in anthropological theory as it is engaged with ethnographic literatures is a strength of this book&The volume is highly recommended for scholars of Southeast Asia, of ritual and religion, medical anthropologists, and social scientists with broad interests lÓP