Taming the Wind of Desire. Psychology, Medicine, and Aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic Performance

Laderman, Carol

ISBN 10: 0520082583 / ISBN 13: 9780520082588

Published by University of California Press, (1993), 1993

About this Item

First Printing indicated, Quality trade softcover in stiff pictorial card wraps, near FINE condition with only light edge rubbing from shelving; this is a NEW book with NO marks, ISBN 0-520-08258-3.

Seller Inventory # 2309

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Taming the Wind of Desire. Psychology, Medicine, and Aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic Performance
• Publisher: University of California Press, (1993)
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520082583
• ISBN 13: 9780520082588
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Ethnology

About this title

Synopsis

Charged 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.

About the Author

Carol Laderman is Professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department at the City College of the City University of New York and the author of Wives and Midwives: Childbirth and Nutrition in Rural Malaysia (California, 1984).