Spirits Reconfigured
Khachülo Zehol Kevekha, Lucy Zehol
June 3, 2026 DOI: 10.4324/9781003754497-3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study |
|---|---|
| Population | Naga communities in Nagaland |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Indigenous Christianity Charisma Spirituality Politics Colonialism Aesthetics Religious studies Prayer Faith healing Narrative Christian church Postmodernity Agency philosophy |
| Key findings | Argues that Christian faith healing in Nagaland reconfigures rather than displaces pre-Christian shamanic cosmologies, with elements such as spirit possession and visionary intermediaries persisting beneath Christian prayer healing rituals. |
Abstract
This chapter explores the cosmological continuities between traditional Naga shamanic practices and Christian faith healing in Nagaland, challenging dominant narratives of rupture and religious transformation in the wake of Christian conversion. While missionary accounts and contemporary church discourses often depict Christianity as a radical break from Indigenous spiritual systems, this chapter argues that Christian faith healing reconfigured rather than wholly displaced pre-Christian cosmologies of spirits, affliction and healing. Through oral histories, ethnographic fieldwork and discourse analysis of healing testimonies, the chapter traces how key elements of Naga shamanism such as spirit possession, affliction by unseen forces and the role of visionary intermediaries, persist beneath the surface of Christian prayer healing rituals. It highlights how the demonisation of shamanic spirits under Christian theology masks deeper forms of syncretic continuity, where older understandings of the spirit world are translated into Christian terms of demonic forces and divine intervention. The chapter further examines how both shamans and faith healers claim spiritual authority through charismatic experiences, dreams and direct encounters with the supernatural. By highlighting these hidden continuities, the chapter complicates binary oppositions between Indigenous religion and Christianity, suggesting that faith healing itself may function as a covert form of Indigenous knowledge survival under the cover of Christian orthodoxy. Ultimately, the chapter situates Naga faith healing within broader debates on religious syncretism, colonial modernity and the contested politics of cultural erasure in Indigenous communities.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Plantas con madre": plants that teach and guide in the shamanic initiation process in the East-Central Peruvian Amazon. Curanderos, apprentices, and herbalists in East-Central Peru, including Mestizo,... | 2011 | Qualitative study | n = 36 |
| Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca Healers and participants in shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and... | 2019 | Ethnography with literature review | n = 227 |
| The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism Western tourists and indigenous peoples in Iquitos, Peru | 2016 | Ethnography | |
| Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America Historic hunter-gatherer cultures of California and the Great Basin | 1992 | Ethnographic review and analysis | |
| Working with “La Medicina”: Elements of Healing in Contemporary Ayahuasca Rituals Ayahuasqueros and Western participants in shamanic tourism in Iquitos, Peru | 2012 | Ethnography |