Taming the Wind of Desire: Psychology, Medicine, and Aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic PerformanceCharged with restoring harmony and relieving pain, the Malay shaman places his patients in trance and encourages them to express their talents, drives, personality traits—the "Inner Winds" of Malay medical lore—in a kind of performance. These healing ceremonies, formerly viewed by Western anthropologists as exotic curiosities, actually reveal complex multicultural origins and a unique indigenous medical tradition whose psychological content is remarkably relevant to contemporary Western concerns. Accepted as apprentice to a Malay shaman, Carol Laderman learned and recorded every aspect of the healing seance and found it comparable in many ways to the traditional dramas of Southeast Asia and of other cultures such as ancient Greece, Japan, and India. The Malay seance is a total performance, complete with audience, stage, props, plot, music, and dance. The players include the patient along with the shaman and his troupe. At the center of the drama are pivotal relationships—among people, between humans and spirits, and within the self. The best of the Malay shamans are superb poets, dramatists, and performers as well as effective healers of body and soul. |
Contents
Islamic Humoralism on the Malay Peninsula | 15 |
Unusual Illnesses | 40 |
the Inner Winds | 64 |
The Performance of Healing | 86 |
A Stifled Talent | 115 |
Seance for a Sick Shaman | 181 |
Breaking Contracts with the Spirit World | 216 |
Words and Meaning | 297 |
APPENDIX A A SHAMAN SPEAKS | 307 |
APPENDIX B MUSIC OF THE MAIN PETERI | 323 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accept angin appear audience Awake Awang become beginning believed Black body bomoh brother called cause character cold cool culture dalang dance descend Dewa discussion divination don't earth familiar father feel flower forces four friends give gods Grandsire guard hands hantu head healer healing hear heat human humoral inang Inner Islamic kind king land leave listen live look magical Main Peteri Mak Yong Malay Mat Din means medicine minduk mother offerings original Pak Long palace patient performance person prayers receive recite refers release rice ritual Sang seance seven shadow play shaman sick song speak spirits spoken story sung teacher theory things Tok Daud tok teri trance transition true University verandah village White Wind Yellow young