Abstract: Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this article analyses the nature of spirit communication among the Luangan Dayak of Indonesian Borneo through examples from their shamanic healing rituals ( belian ). It presents two dialogic encounters between humans and spirits — one centered on games played with them, and another on the possession of a shaman by the spirits — and discusses...
ABSTRACT This article uses a myth of the Luangans of Indonesian Borneo to reflect upon the value of sociality and its role in promoting well-being in their healing rituals. In these rituals, sociality with nonhuman beings and between participants is crucial, yet insufficient for, and sometimes at odds with, success. The article describes the multiple modes and valences of this ritual sociality,...