Making reference to all the healing systems and healers that you have studied in

the first half of this semester, discuss the proposition that healing maintains or

restores meaning at times when existing systems of meaning may be insufficient.

“Rejoice in our sufferings” ( Romans 5:3) ( from Norris 2008 : 24)

To discuss the idea that a healing process maintains and restores meaning at times

when existing systems of meaning are challenged it is necessary to have clear

distinction between pain, suffering, healing and meaning. Pain describes the physical

sensation while suffering refers to mental, psychological and emotional distress (

Norris 2008 : 22). Healing as experienced by an individual can be understood as “ the

personal experience of the transcendence of suffering” ( Egnew 2009 : 171). Suffering

arises from the meaning ascribed to events, it engenders a crisis of meaning. An

individual’s experience of suffering tends to be expressed through a personal narrative

( Egnew 2009 : 171) and the narrative tends to be constructed within the appropriate

modes of discourse present in the individuals community. The shared meaning used

and created by the narrative is part of its basis for legitimacy . In the process of

healing meaning is maintained or restored for both the individual and the community

as a whole ( Turner 1997/ 1968 : 183).

A number of anthropologists have investigated the role that healing systems and

healers play in situation where traditional systems of meaning are challenged. Joan

Halifax in Into the Nierika ( Halifax 1979) discusses the initiation of practitioners of

shamanism, “ mystical, priestly and political figures” ( Halifax 1979 : 3) that are “

healers, seers and visionaries” ( Halifax 1979 : 3) across “ hunter- gathering societies”

( Halifax 1979 :3) and “where ever the tradition has maintained its shape in spite of

shifting cultural ground” ( Halifax 1979 : 3). The initiation process of a shaman tends

to involve a personal crisis that “ embraces the experience of death, resurrection,

realisation or illumination which is designated as a religious experience” ( Halifax

1979 : 3), according to the discourse associated with shamanism in that community .

From this the shaman, as healer gains a “complete vision of the society” ( Hallifax

1979 : 5) and a knowledge of “ the inner workings of crisis” ( Halifax 1979 : 5) as

the “fruit born of a profound life crisis” ( Halifax 1979 : 5).

In modern western society the normal expected narrative of illness is a “ past leading

to the present and a foreseeable future that was disrupted by the illness” ( Egnew 2009

: 171), thus in a normal social context individuals are concerned about “success” (

Wong 2006 : 210) but a suffering individual is more concerned about meaning (

Wong 2006 : 210) as they are impaired in their ability to engage in the normal social

role they play in their community. The individual is faced with the disintegration of

their personhood and thus healing involves the maintenance or restoration of their

personhood ( Raskin 2006 : 202).

In some shamanic systems dealing with illness the key crisis journey is to enter an

“underground of disease” ( Halifax 1979 : 10) where the shaman has survived and

healed from a struggle with sickness ( Halifax 1979 : 11). This sickness is given

meaning as a “ dramatic and painful” struggle with malign spirits, which are the

personification of the physical and psychological forces of affliction, the experience is

interpreted within the appropriate shamanic discourse and personal narratives that

give the experience meaning. In the western experience pain is seen as a symptom to

be minimised ( Norris 2008 : 26), but, retrospectively and in the moment it can be

assigned different meanings ( Norris 2008 : 31) . The immediate experience of pain is

dependant on the meaning assigned, Michael Foucault would call this process

discursive mediation ( Mills 2003 : 56).

The experience of illness amongst the Washo in Don Handelman’s The Development

of a Washo Shaman ( Handelman 1977) is understood as a neonate shaman coming

into contact with a potential spirit helper, the spirit is causing the illness and this is

shown to the neonate shaman by an involuntary dream or vision ( Handelman 1977 :

435) and it is up to the potential neonate shaman to “ extrude and control the intrusive

spirit power” ( Handelman 1977 : 435). Don Handelman’s protagonist is a Washo

shaman called Henry who’s personal development and career as a healer ( Handelman

1977 : 437) spanned from the age of seven in 1892 to over the age of seventy in 1956

and over this time the cosmology and concepts of healing in his discourse changed to

reflect “ psychological development, experimentation and innovation” ( Handelman

1977 : 437) in the process making a successful adjustment to an “ acculturative

situation” ( Handelman 1967 : 438). The adjustment of healing system concepts is a

feature described by Levi-Strauss in The sorcerer and his magic using an

autobiography obtained by Franz Boaz ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 175) which has its

protagonist “Quesalid” testing his Kwakiutl Indian curing ceremony method against a

Koskimo Indian curing ceremony methods, this would be a “professional basis” for

the development and transformations undergone by Henry in a “ acculturative

situation” ( Handelman 1967 : 438). Quesalids narrative describes his curing

ceremony method’s success as due to it provision of a physical manifestation of the

illness as a “bloody foreign object extracted by sucking and manipulation” ( Levi-

Strauss 1967 : 175) ( see figure 1) and also includes a description of the consequences

failure when a shaman is unable to sustain or restore meaning for himself and his

community. The autobiography describes an older Kwakiutl shaman whose concept

featured a head-ring or bird-shaped ritual rattle which incorporated illness as an

invisible entity. The older shaman competes against Quesalid’s visible “bloody

worm” method ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 177) and the patient testifies that Quesalid’s

method is more successful in curing. Because of this the older Kwakiutl shaman

looses his credibility within his community and belief in his method, personal

meaning or what Handelman describes as Henry’s “ego strength/ ego integrity “ (

Handelman 1977 : 438). The older Kwakiutl shaman wants to be taught Quesalids

method but Quesalid remains silent ( Levi-Straus 1967 : 178) and so the older

Kwakiutl shaman with his family leave suddenly and the community is fearful of

revenge from the older shaman.

What is particularly interesting about Handelmans protagonist, is that while it is

traditional for the Washo to “mistrust and fear” ( Handelman 1977 : 437) shamans,

Henry is “trusted and unfeared” ( Handelman 1977 : 437), thus while making a

successful adjustment to the “ acculturative situation” ( Handelman 1967 : 438) Henry

was able to maintain credibility in his community, belief in his method and personal

meaning ( Handelman 1977 : 438). Henry’s narrative does not describe constant

success and quick development but the experience of success and failure,

introspection and learning and slow development spanning decades. These are trials

that would require high “ego strength/ ego integrity” ( Handelman 1977 : 438). To

function as healers the meaning the shaman have derived from their experience of

crisis are conveyed to their clients and the community that they are part of.

The successful synthesis of an acculturated shamanism and its features in a modern

context are approached in Merrill Singer and Roberto Garcia’s Becoming a Puerto

Rican Espiritista ( Singer & Garcia 1989) which describes Espiritismo as practiced by

Marta de Jesus at the Centro de Nuestro Padre Lazaro in Puerto Rican society, which

has many features of the shamanism described by Joan Halifax’s Into the Nierika (

Halifax 1979). Although Espiritismo has its origins in Christianity and an attempt to

understand the supernatural in terms of rational principles ( Singer & Garcia 1989 :

159) it has evolved into a Puerto Rican religion with an integrated folk healing

system, where its ritual is seen to mediate between a “ spirit world and the material

world of the living” ( Singer & Garcia 1989 : 159), its shaman, espiritistas view the

clients symptoms as a gift or quality and the espiritistas facilitate their clients spiritual

development, entering into a relationship with their spirits and potentially becoming

mediums, espiritstas themselves ( Singer & Garcia 1989 : 159). An espiritista can

undergo a spiritual development by “ expanding relationships with spirits, winning

spirits by adhering to the centro’s code of behaviour, serving the spirit realm and

exhibiting proper respect to the leading medium “ ( Singer & Garcia 1989 : 160).

Contempary Espiritismo is incorporating the Santeria spiritual tradition and its ability

to adapt to the changing needs and experiences of particular segments in Puerto Rican

society contributes to its popularity and survival in the face of opposition from other

religions ( Singer & Garcia 1989 : 160).

From Merrill Singer and Roberto Garcia’s ( Singer & Garcia 1989) description of

Marta de Jesus’s life history it becomes evident that her involvement with Espiritismo

intensified at a time when she was experiencing significant financial and relationship

problems and thus “ it appears that Espiritismo offered Marta de Jesus both an escape

from the painful realities of her often turbulent and difficult world and anchor in an

otherwise unwieldy and often unsupportive social environment” ( Singer & Garcia

1989 : 191), by providing “a concrete set of beliefs, a stable setting, an expanding

network of significant others, a mechanism of social support, route of self-expression

and an arena for personal development and recognition.” ( Singer & Garcia 1989 :

191).

These are examples of systems of healing that restore and maintain meaning to the

suffering in times of crisis, and successful integration of the discourses associated

with these systems of healing can potentially have their clients become practitioners

within these systems of healing. That meaning is important is reflected in meaning

centred psychotherapy ( Breitbart et al 2009), medical discussion on the treatment of

chronic patients ( Egnew 2009 : 171) and approaches derived from Victor Frankl’s

experience of the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau, which led to the

observation that people who survived tended to have a “ future orientation” ( Wong

2006 : 196). “So long as suffering has meaning, it will be endured but suffering

without meaning tends to lead to despair “ ( Wong 2006 : 196) and thus it can be

argued that these systems of healing provide meaning to individuals suffering by

categorising the experience as one providing achievement and accomplishment as a

crisis journey and provide the potential for personal and spiritual development and the

perception of engagement with its cause.

A potential issue with using the examples of Marta de Jesus, Handelman’s

description of Henry and Levi-Strauss’s Quesalid healers within unique systems of

healing, are that they belong to a “shamanic complex” ( Halifax 1979 : 3) that exists

alongside western medical discourse. Thus their functions and methods for sustaining

and restoring meaning may be specific to the context of their development.

Handelmans description of Henry’s later developed cosmology and the values present

in his later ceremonial practices reflect an acculturation with the dominant western

culture ( Mills 2003 : 56) and Levi-Strauss’s “Quesalid “ presented from an

autobiography obtained by Franz Boaz was an individual called George Hunt who

was familiar with western rational thought and the colonial world view ( Whitehead

2000 : 154) “Quesalid” was part of a indigenous response towards exposure to the

dominant western scientific world view, of representing his people as rational human

actors ( Whitehead 2000 : 163). Other systems of healing that differ from Victor

Frankl’s “ future orientated individuals” ( Wong 2006 : 210) and “social support and

personal development” ( Singer & Garcia 1989 : 191) can be found in Levi-Strauss’s

famous article on a South American Cuna child birth incantation ( Atkinson 1992 :

314) and healing systems that feature the “divination” of malign social relations as

the source of illness and misfortune” ( Turner 1997/ 1968 : 175).

The Cuna child birth incantation discussed by Levi-Straus in his chapter titled The

Effectiveness of Symbols ( Levi-Straus 1967 : 186) is used “ at the request of the

midwife” ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 187) in situations the gravida is having a difficult

child birth. The song describes a quest by the shaman for the gravida’s Purba which

is her spirit double or soul ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 187), the Purba has been captured by

forces that preside over the development of the fetus, called Muu ( Levi-Strauss 1967

: 187). In the song the shaman enlists spirits and ascends to the uterus ( through

Muu’s way), physically opposed by “threads, tendrils and curtains “( Levi-Strauss

1967 : 195), in darkness and covered in blood ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 191). The uterine

world is occupied by “fantastic monsters and dangerous animals” that personify

birthing sensations and pain such as “Uncle Alligator Tiikwalele with glistening body,

who movies his glistening flippers” and “ Nele Ki(k)kirpanalele the Octopus whose

sticky tentacles are alternately opening and closing” ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 195). After

ascending to the uterine world ( Muu’s place) a tournament or combat takes place

where the purba is relinquished and then the shaman descends while making sure that

“ Muu remains in her dwelling place” ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 196), uterus.

Levi-Strauss describes the incantation as making explicit the danger of the birthing

situation that exists on an emotional level, the pain and trauma the gravida

experiences is rendered acceptable because it is integrated within her native world

view. The song provides discursive mediation to a biological situation where the song,

becomes an individual narrative that makes the experience meaningful, pain and

suffering is endured, despair is warded off.

Levi-Strauss goes further to state that “as the experience becomes structured,

regulatory mechanisms beyond the subjects control are spontaneously set into motion

and lead to an orderly functioning” ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 198), the shaman functions,

in Levi-Strauss’s psychoanalytical terms, “as an object of transference that facilitates

abreaction” ( Levi-Strauss 1967 : 198). The issues of the traumatic situation are made

real and communicated symbolically through action and incantation. A similar

symbolic process is described for the process of divination where its practitioners

have a “complete vision of the society” ( Halifax 1979 : 5) compounded with a

understanding of “ the inner workings of a crisis” ( Halifax 1979 : 5).

The divination systems described by Reo Fortune ( Fortune 1977/ 1932 : 198) in

Sorcery and sickness in Dobu, Ronald Reminick ( Reminick 1977 : 249) in The evil

eye belief amongst the Amhara of Ethiopia and Victor Turner ( Turner 1977/ 1968 :

280) in Ndembu divination and its symbolism feature the idea of ill health or

misfortune is caused by malign social relations, the communities within these cultures

tend to feature competition between groups, personal jealousy and ideas of sorcery (

see appendix 1). Within these communities diviners are responsible for uncovering

the causes of illness, “ personal and social misfortune” ( Turner 1977/ 1968 : 175) and

have a redressive function, maintaining social relations ” ( Turner 1977/ 1968 : 175).

Thus these are systems of healing that involved with “success” ( Wong 2006 : 210) of

individuals and their communities and consequently are highly charged political

situations. In the example of the Ndembu, the ritual divination process involves

“shaking and tossing up in a basket objects of various shapes, sizes and colours “ (

Turner 1997/ 1968 : 177) and afterwards the examination of where they land in the

basket, “ to winnow truth from falsehood” ( Turner 1997/ 1968 : 177).

During the process of examination the diviners discriminate the divinatory symbols

analytically ( Turner 1997/ 1968 : 180) and incorporating their own experience “

reduce their social system to a few basic principles and factors” ( Turner 1997/ 1968 :

182) to arrive at a situation that accords with the view of the majority, recognised as

valid by Ndembu moral values and norms” ( Turner 1997/ 1968 : 182). Thus the

meaning maintained or restored by systems of healing associated with divination

systems tend to be moral norms and social adjustment. This is in contrast with Levi-

Strauss’s example of a Cuna child birth incantation, which appears to function on at

least one level, by discursive mediation of the experience of the birthing gravida.

In conclusion the systems of healing discussed and their healers appear to be

addressing the needs of suffering individuals, their communities and also the needs of

the healers themselves. Individuals have a need for meaning ( Staub 2003 : 12) and to

provide meaning the healing systems provide narratives that are significant

retrospectively and in the experience as discursive mediation towards the experience

of suffering. Even with the loss of traditional meaning, individuals can still find

meaning in the concrete situations ( Wong 2006 : 210) that the discussed healing

systems provide, as suggested by, but not exclusive to, Marta de Jesus’s experience

of a “stable setting, an expanding network, mechanism of social support, routes of

self-expression, personal development and recognition.” ( Singer & Garcia 1989 :

191).

Matthew Bluck 08596042

Appendix 1

Jealousy and Competition.

For the Papau New Guinean Dobu ill health is the product of a tabu, a spell or

incantation that is the “ugly black hatred “ ( Fortune 1977/ 1932 : 200), there are no

accidents, death is only caused by “witch craft, sorcery, poison, suicide or assault” (

Fortune 1977/ 1932 : 202). The Dobu community is highly competitive, most people

outside of their immediate family and friends are considered as potential threats, food

from strangers is not taken for fear of poisoning ( Fortune 1977/ 1932 : 200) and thus

ill health is seen as an infliction caused by other peoples jealously where the victims

magic was not strong enough to resist. In this community sorcery is wide spread, the

father, mothers brother or older cross cousin is responsible for teaching “ black

magic” to a youth and undergoes ordeals as part of this process. The knowledge is

imparted with a social lie as proof of its efficacy as “I used it on one man” the day

after it took effect, and he died immediately” ( Fortune 1977/ 1932 : 203). Everyone

in Dobuan society practices black magic and part of the healing process in this context

is divining the cause, which is done by water or crystal gazing ( Fortune 1977/ 1932 :

204). Ultimately jealousy is seen as produced by the acquisition of too much success

from illegitimate means and thus the belief system has a levelling effect.

Jealousy is also seen as a cause for misfortune amongst the Amhara of Ethiopia, the

belief system of an “Evil Eye” and it has a levelling effect where the Amhara land

owners, rega class desire to not appear overly “successful” or attract the attention of

people from the landless craftsmen class, the buda ( Reminick 1977 : 218). In this

context there is again competition for resources and status within the rega and

between the rega and buda classes, but here the ability to invoke witch craft, the “evil

eye” ( Reminick 1977 : 220) is specific to the buda class. For the Amhara the

legitimate/ dominant religion is a Monophysite Christianity but there are a number of

“non legitimate” ( Reminick 1977 : 219) systems of belief that play a role in everyday

social and cultural life ( Reminick 1977 : 219). The buda are a different ethnic group

that do not own land but provide skilled craftsman work to the Amhara peasants, the

buda are generally known as tayb which is derived from the noun tebib which means

craftsman ( Reminick 1977 : 219). Tayb and buda are used synonymously but buda

means evil eye ( Reminick 1977 : 219). The evil eye designates the power to curse

and destroy, reincarnate and harness the labour of the dead. The dominant theme in

the evil eye belief for the Amhara is a fear of jealousy from the buda class ( Reminick

1977 : 225) but this has been suggested as reflecting a fear common to individuals of

the rega Amhara, a fear of sibling and kin jealousy over unequal land rights, which is

projected onto the buda class ( Reminick 1977 : 226).

( From Whitehead, Harry. ( 2000). The hunt for Quesalid: tracking Levi-Strauss’

shaman. In Anthropology and Medicine, Volume 7, Number 2. Page 157. )

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