Medical Anthropology Quarterly
June 1, 1988
Michael Fobes Brown
55 citations
Shamanistic healing is not simply a dyadic transaction between shaman and patient but a polyphonic experience where clients actively compete with the shaman to shape the session's discourse. A textual analysis of a curing session among the Aguaruna Jívaro of Peru shows that the ritual blends political and medical themes, revealing contradictions in a belief system where shamanism and sorcery are intertwined. Although the session may achieve symbolic closure, the shaman's revelations merely transfer disorder from the individual body to the broader political body.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
March 1, 2021
Katherine Hendy
11 citations
Nonprofit efforts to develop MDMA as a prescription pharmaceutical reveal that the drug's identity is not fixed but is shaped by clinical trial practices. Drawing from ethnographic research, the article argues that researchers' distinction between pure MDMA and the street drug Ecstasy rests not on chemical difference but on a difference in safety that must be actively produced through the trial. Safety emerges from managing which bodies can absorb the drug and which bodily events count as effects, accomplished through clinical documents that control these relations. The work examines how pharmaceuticals become fluid objects transformed in new informational and material environments.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
September 1, 1988
Tara L. Avruskin
4 citations
Spirit possession healing in prerevolutionary China illustrates universal features of possession trance. The article examines social-psychological and neurophysiological explanations for how trance is induced and how it heals, using Chinese examples. Questions for future research are proposed.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
December 1, 2025
Aidan Seale-Feldman
Collective afflictions among teenage girls in Nepal, often labeled 'mass hysteria,' are reported in local and national newspapers as strange and mysterious events. Treatments range from shamanic rituals to psychosocial interventions, the latter gaining prominence with the rise of global mental health. The discourse around these cases reveals deep societal anxieties about moral community breakdown, the status of shamanic knowledge, and gender norms around emotional expression. Because the cause is ambiguous, symptoms are dramatically displayed, and the afflicted individuals themselves are absent as experiencing subjects, these cases become a blank screen onto which broader collective anxieties of a changing society are projected and debated.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
June 1, 2002
Beth A. Conklin
This abstract describes three scholarly books on shamanism and traditional medicine in Asian societies. The first, edited by Connor and Samuel, examines the interplay between traditional healing practices, shamanism, and modern science across Asian cultures. The second, by Winkelman, proposes a neural-ecological framework linking shamanism to human consciousness and healing. The third, edited by Schenk and Rätsch, explores Western perspectives on shamans, healers, and medicine men. The works collectively argue that shamanic and traditional medical systems remain relevant and dynamic, challenging simplistic dichotomies between tradition and modernity.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
June 1, 2002
Glenn H. Shepard
Funeral customs and beliefs about the dead among the Matsigenka of Peru are driven by deep anxiety about death's contagion and the dead's power over the living. The article interprets these practices through a native theory of emotion: excessive displays of grief, anger, and aggressive sexuality create a vicious cycle of unhappiness, social disruption, illness, and death. Moving beyond a purely symbolic-interpretive perspective, the author also reflects on personal fieldwork and home experiences to explore the phenomenology of grief across cultures.